Three's Company, Ten's A Crowd
by the_german_grim_reaper is a Doctor Who fanfiction starring almost all of the Doctors and companions from 2005-2017. A malfunction causes the TARDIS's timelines to become tangled, which teleports characters who were on the TARDIS at other points in time into the Eleventh Doctor's TARDIS. Most of the story is focused on adventures in time and space, like episodes of the show, but there are several interludes with a more domestic/character-driven focus.
The story was started in February 2019 and completed in October 2020. It is currently a stand-alone story, but the author has indicated that there may be sequels in the future. It was inspired by the 3D9C series.
Three's Company, Ten's A Crowd contains examples of:
- Age-Gap Romance: The Doctor is a quasi-immortal alien, and most of his companions are human. Naturally, there is a big age gap in almost any Doctor/companion relationship. This fic includes both Eleven/Clara and a love triangle between Nine, Ten, and Rose.
- Asteroid Miners: The first storyline after the TARDIS recovers from the malfunction takes place on mining ships in space. The ships are caught in the middle of a meteor storm, and the TARDIS crew have to try to keep them from being destroyed.
- Everyone Is Related: Of all the pirate ships Nine could have chosen to land on, he naturally had to choose the one with his future self’s long-lost daughter on board. Of course, they don’t realize that for a few more chapters.
- Ancient Egypt: Clara, Eleven, and Rose spend a few chapters in Ancient Egypt, where they meet one of Clara’s echoes.
- Fourth-Date Marriage: Bill and Heather might not be married, but they’re certainly in a deeply loving and committed relationship (and have adopted a child together!) despite having been dating for less than two weeks.
- Historical Domain Character: As is common in Doctor Who and fanfictions thereof, the TARDIS crew use time travel to meet historical figures fairly often. In this fic, they meet Charlotte Brontë (and her husband) and even help to deliver their baby!
- Locked in a Room: Clara and Eleven are locked in a room (or rather, virtual reality) intentionally, as part of a Ten Minutes in the Closet matchmaking attempt by their friends.
- Mystical Pregnancy: Charlotte Brontë gets pregnant the normal way, but because she keeps being transported to an alien dimension where time works differently during the pregnancy, it appears to be this.
- Running Gag: Bill and Mickey, and to a lesser extent Heather, have a running joke about ''River Monsters'' and/or fish in general. Other characters are less amused.
- Sequel Episode: Chapters 9-11 of ‘’Three’s Company, Ten’s A Crowd’’ follows the ‘A Breath Of Fresh Air’ plotline, in which a few of the main characters end up on the run from the police but have no idea why. They eventually do find out… 22 chapters later, when Jenny ropes them into stealing a diamond. Due to the involvement of time travel, this could technically be considered a prequel, but from the characters’ point of view it’s a sequel.
- Space Pirates: The TARDIS crew finds Jenny, the Doctor's Daughter, on board a space pirate ship in the golden age of space piracy.
- Tangled Family Tree: Hardly any of the TARDIS crew members are actually related, but because the Doctors are all technically versions of one another, and various characters occasionally claim relationships to one another, you end up with complex extended relationships such as Heather being Jenny’s "half-step niece in law." Of course, nobody pays this any mind, especially since no one besides the Time Lords is actually biologically related.
- Ten Minutes in the Closet: While not a closet, Clara and Eleven are trapped in a virtual reality together in an attempt to make them confess their feelings for one another. It works.
- That Thing Is Not My Child!: Charlotte Brontë's husband says this after his wife (who, to the best of his knowledge, had not been pregnant earlier that day) dies giving birth to his son. As a religious man, he believes that his wife's death was the work of the devil and that the baby is demonic in nature. Luckily, the TARDIS crew is there to take the child in.
