Does that change the dynamic? Do the surviving team members become different types of characters with different responsibilities?
Not madly, to be honest. I mean, in the first episode you see the team in need of a doctor and that’s where Dr Rupesh Patanjali, played by Rik Makarem comes in. He’s sort of on their list to recruit because they feel they need someone with knowledge of biology. But y’know, you’ve got Ianto to cover the computer side of things that Tosh used to do, you see Gwen quite happily using the computers too… I’m not saying they’re not missed – there’s a fleeting reference to them. But it’s time to move on. If it had gone out very soon after season two you’d have done a lot more mourning, and there was a Radio Four play that took on the burden of expressing some of the grief. And actually, even if this had been a normal season three starter you don’t spend that long looking back. So no, to be blunt, they work very well as a team of three. That’s part of the story as well – I’m not saying they’re walking around going, ‘We’re very happy with three’, I was talking about that from a writer’s point
