True Companions/Live-Action TV: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

* Most obviously, the senior staff of ''[[The West Wing]]'', which goes so far as to mimic a nuclear family with the President and Leo representing the parents, Toby and CJ the older siblings, and Josh and Sam the younger ones.

** Made explicit in "Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics":

* The Easy Company from ''[[Band of Brothers]]'' are very definitely true companions. Private Kurt Gabel, 513th Parachute Infantry Regiment, quoted in the book ''[[Band of Brothers]]''...

{{quote|''The three of us became an entity. There were many such entities in our close-knit organization. Groups of threes and fours, usually from the same squads or sections, core elements within the families that were the small units, were readily recognised as entities. Often three such entities would make up a squad, with incredible results in combat. They would literally insist on going hungry for one another, freezing for one another, dying for one another.''}}

* ''[[Farscape]]'': The Moya crew sure qualifies. Certainly it's a very screwed-up example, but they're still true companions. In the first season, they were mostly thrown together (three prisoners who happened to be on the same ship, the pilot of that ship, the ship itself, an enemy fighter pilot who was accidentally captured, and a scientist who randomly fell through a wormhole and ended up in the middle of the escape attempt), and John several times had to stop some of the others (particularly D'Argo and Rygel) from abandoning the rest when they got themselves into scrapes. As the series goes on, they get closer and closer until eventually their one rule is "look out for the family, at all costs." As new characters (Chiana, Stark, Jool, Noranti, and Sikozu) join the crew, this bonding process takes a while to set in, but eventually they are integrated into the family as well. However, the initial coldness might have contributed to {{spoiler|Sikozu's eventual [[Heel Face Turn]], as Scorpius welcomed her with open arms, while the others (particularly Chiana) took a while to warm to her}}

** The relationship between Pilot and Aeryn is strange and distinct enough to warrant further elaboration. They, more than the others, change the most in the early episodes: Aeryn from a soldier in a galaxy-spanning military dictatorship, Pilot as essentially a slave to that dictatorship. This is demonstrated in an episode where the science-y members of the crew (John and Zhaan) are unavailable, so Aeryn has to do testing on Rygel on her own, complaining that she is unsuited for this kind of work--only for Pilot to admit he knows very little about science either. Later on they literally share DNA, causing their bond to be made physical. Aeryn is often times the only one who sees Pilot as a distinct being rather than an offshoot of Moya. This makes the episode "The Way We Weren't" all the more painful, as it reveals the dark past of both of them, and puts serious doubts that their relationship will survive the revelation that {{spoiler|Aeryn was part of a firing squad that killed Moya's former Pilot}}. However, {{spoiler|the two manage to re-bond and forgive each other and themselves for their past sins.}}

* ''[[Stargate Universe]]'' starts out far from this, with expedition members distrusting, framing, marooning and betraying each other (okay, so that's mostly two of them), and gradually develops into this. Young finally states this explicitly in the last episode, referring to the crew as a family.

* Every version of ''[[Star Trek]]'' has this, from the original to the latest incarnations. This is apparently also [[Truth in Television]] as the writers are inspired by real life crews and teams who became close through mutual experience. Even more, the cast and crews of the various TV series have been working together for roughly 10-20 years and have come to regard each other as an extended family in [[Real Life]]. The greatest example of this is how Avery Brooks has become like a second father to Cirroc Lofton, mirroring their roles as father and son on TV. Although it took a decade or two, [[William Shatner]] and Leonard Nimoy eventually developed the same friendship Kirk and Spock share, if not to ''quite'' the same intensity.

** ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' had a bit of this going on, particularly during the first season, before the characters had worked each other out. Riker was uneasy about their second officer, Picard had to tell people not to let him "make an ass of himself" around children (and shouted Wesley out in the very first episode, thus enraging Wesley's mother with whom Picard ''already'' had an uneasy relationship), Worf disliked ''everyone'' (but [[Word of God|especially Data]]), and Troi and Riker had Uncomfortable Ex's syndrome. But within a matter of episodes (and fairly ridiculous episodes at that) it became obvious that they'd all pretty much die for each other.

** ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'' and ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'' both feature crews of people who don't even want to be on the same ship/station with each other, but over the courses of each series have wound up going as far as disobeying orders to save one another.

* In ''[[Merlin]]'', the foursome of Merlin, Arthur, Gwen, and Morgana used to be this before {{spoiler|[[Face Heel Turn|Morgana turned evil]].}} In the [[Season Finale]] of Season 3, it appears to be [[Fire-Forged Friends|setting up]] the Knights of the Round Table to become this in Season 4.

* ''[[The Golden Girls]]'' had a lot of this.

* ''[[Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World]]'': Although they seem to be off to a bad start all of the Heroes start to trust each other and slowly grow into a family by Season 2.

* [[Battlestar Galactica (1978 TV series)|The original ''Battlestar Galactica'']] has the trio of Apollo, Starbuck and Boomer who share the closest friendship amongst the rest of the pilots. Sheba was included about half-way through the show.