Doctor Who has seen many different faces over the years, and I’m not talking about his own new countenance after regenerating. I’m talking about the numerous companions and individuals who’ve helped the good Doctor through thick and thin.
It could be debated what constitutes a true companion—especially when considering those who only lasted for one tour of duty, or who had frequently helped the Doctor but for one reason or another weren’t given the esteemed title (like Rose Tyler’s mother, Jackie), or the ones that never even stepped foot into the TARDIS. With all these variables to process, it would take the sonic screwdriver a couple hundred years to calculate an accurate companion tally.
In any event, while most of these helpful souls can be divide among the best (Sarah Jane Smith, Rose Tyler, Amy Pond) and the worst (Adric, K-9, Mel), there’s also the contingent that can be placed in the category of unsung heroes—those who don’t garner the attention of the favorites but have delivered the goods when the chips were down for the Gallifreyan native—or perhaps, as in one case, good riddance.
Wilfred “Wilf” Mott
Companion of the Tenth Doctor—portrayed by Bernard Cribbins
Wilf first appears in the 2007 Christmas special “Voyage of the Damned,” then throughout Series 4,and finally figures into the pivotal “The End of Time” which sees David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor regenerating into Matt Smith’s Eleven. Wilf is the grandfather of popular companion Donna Noble (Catherine Tate), and even after Donna loses all memory of the Doctor, Wilf continues to assist the time traveler quite well until the Doctor sheds his tenth skin. A loyal subject of the Queen and an amateur astronomer, Wilf is a bit off the wall and thoroughly entertaining in every scene. When he meets a green alien with sharp thorns covering her head, he’s mortified: “Oh, my lord… she’s a cactus!” Later, in the same adventure, when he begins defending the salvage spaceship that Ten is piloting into the earth’s atmosphere by manning a gun turret a la Han Solo, he gleefully cheers, “I wish Donna could see me now.” A sharp, compassionate, well-written character. When Ten sacrifices his own life to save the grandfatherly man by saying, “Wilfred it’s my honor,” it all makes perfect sense. My favorite companion of recent memory bar none.
Trivia: Wilf and Donna Noble were the first companions to be related. (Source: Tardis Data Core)
Jackson Lake
Companion of the Tenth Doctor—portrayed by David Morrissey
Jackson Lake appears in only one episode, “The Next Doctor”—one of the most imaginative stories in the show’s fifty-one year history. Ten (David Tennant) arrives in London circa Christmas 1851, commenting that it is a boring period of time. But that’s really what he wants because, deep down, he’s worn out from recent adventures and aware his time is slowly coming to an end. His tranquility is short lived as he soon discovers a 19th century ‘Time Lord’ named Jackson Lake, who has a companion named Rosita (Velile Tshabalala) and has built a “TARDIS” (actually a hot air balloon that is a “Tethered Aerial Release Developed In Style”). Ten assumes the man is a future version of himself with amnesia. He joins Lake and Rosita in their fight against a Cybershade while he attempts to unravel the secrets of this mysterious gentleman. My favorite scene has Ten questioning Lake’s commonplace screwdriver. Lake taps the tool against a doorframe explaining, “It makes a noise. That’s sonic, isn’t it?” In a bit of trivia from Wikipedia, actor David Morrissey’s spot on portrayal was influenced by Doctors William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton and Tom Baker, as he saw “a truth” to their performances, adding they “never saw [Doctor Who] as a genre show or a children’s show.”
An argument can be made that Jackson Lake and Rosita are not Ten’s companions, but rather Ten is a companion to Lake’s doctor. You be the judge. Either way, a helluva lot of fun.
Adam Mitchell
Companion of the Ninth Doctor—portrayed by Bruno Langley
Here’s the scoundrel on the list but before anyone berates him too harshly, how many viewers thought at one time or another that with a time machine I could get bloody wealthy. To the Doctor’s good fortune, he picks truly idealistic companions whose contemplations never seem to stray on the darker side. But as Donna Noble showed us that companions can be more down-to-earth, Adam was proof in “The Long Game” (2005) that a companion can be fueled by basic human emotions like greed. The Ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) is skeptical of Adam (described as a genius for, among other things, hacking into the US Department of Defense when he was eight-years-old), but Rose Tyler takes an instant liking to the boy wonder and convinces Nine to bring Adam along. His journey is short lived, though. When they arrive at a space station in the year 200,000, he scans a computer for the history of the microprocessor and then, using Rose’s special cell phone, he leaves a message on a 21stcentury answering machine that will make him rich. Nine eventually finds out, and Adam is unceremoniously left behind at home on Earth, as the Doctor tells him, “I only take the best. I got Rose.” Adam Mitchell is an essential character in the show’s history, demonstrating the self-serving motivations a companion might exhibit.
Nyssa
Companion of the Fourth and Fifth Doctors—portrayed by Sarah Sutton
I always felt Nyssa was overshadowed by the charismatic Tegan and the know-it-all Adric, plus she came on the heels of the popular Leela and Sarah Jane Smith by a few short years. But Nyssa was a steady, reliable companion whereas Tegan mocks the Doctor for not finding Heathrow and Adric is a continuing pain regarding every little decision the Time Lord makes. Nyssa is a Trakenite, first seen in 1981’s “The Keeper of Traken,” who’s resourceful in many adventures—in “The Visitation” she constructs a sonic booster that enables their survival. Nyssa says her goodbye in the episode “Terminus” (1983) because her scientific skills are needed to turn a leper hospital, where radiation is chaotically used as a cure, into a functioning facility. In a final emotional scene, her fellow companion worries that Nyssa could die. She replies, “Not easily, Tegan. Like you, I’m indestructible.” Then, in a show of genuine love for the Doctor, she affectionately kisses him goodbye.
Note: Sarah Sutton has continued to occasionally voice Nyssa in audio plays alongside Peter Davison that are produced by Big Finish Productions.
Harry Sullivan
Companion of the Fourth Doctor—portrayed by Ian Marter
Harry was a very popular character from 1974-1975, but I don’t hear as much about him these days compared to other companions from the classic era. Harry traveled with The Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) and everyone’s beloved companion, Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen)—poor Harry he continually tried to hit on her, in a courteous way, to no avail. He actually ‘appears’ during the third doctor’s reign when a “Doctor Sullivan” is telephoned but then not needed. Harry’s a gentleman in the oldest English sense of the word and is a nice juxtaposition to the alien and aloof Fourth Doctor, who belittles Harry calling him (in “The Ark in Space”) a “clumsy ham-fisted idiot.” Another classic line from this period is when the Doctor shouts, out of frustration, “Harry Sullivan is an imbecile!” Hardly. Four counted on him to fight Sontarans, Daleks, Zygons, Androids, and Cybermen, and during his brief tenure as a regular, he never faltered in the face of overwhelming odds. He is briefly mentioned in The Sarah Jane Adventures (“Death of the Doctor”) with Sarah stating he had a successful medical career.
A Whovian uploaded a Harry Sullivan tribute video to YouTube with backing music of Bonnie Tyler’s “Holding Out for Hero.” So very appropriate. Actor Ian Marter died much too young, in 1986, from a heart attack. Rest in peace, Harry.
Grace Holloway
Companion of the Eighth Doctor—portrayed by Daphne Ashbrook
The 1996 TV film is slowly coming up in stature and a lot of that has to do with Paul McGann’s excellent turn in 2013’s “The Night of the Doctor” (if only he’d had more time on camera because based on his two filmed performances, he would have ranked quite high among outcasts of Gallifrey) and his outstanding Big Finish Productions radio shows. In the Doctor Who movie, Grace is a cardiologist from 1999 San Francisco. She assists in the attempt to save the seventh doctor’s (Sylvester McCoy) life after he’d been shot in the chest while exiting the TARDIS. Seven dies on the operating table and later regenerates in the morgue. It takes some effort for Grace to get used to the fact that Eight is not from this world, but once she does, she is pivotal in preventing The Master (Eric Roberts) from killing the Doctor and destroying the world (and universe). Her professional skills help her keep her cool while rewiring part of the TARDIS to save the day.
Holloway as a companion has been derided in some fan circles because she became the first to romantically lock lips with the time traveler and, of course, that led much later to Rose Tyler and Martha Jones and their romantic infatuations. And she decided not to go with him at the end of the adventure, choosing to stay on Earth and resume her work. Still, with the chips way, way down and the Doctor’s life on the line, Grace Holloway was a first-rate one-time companion.
Those are my top picks for the underrated and forgotten. Who do you consider an essential companion in the series’ long history that could use a spotlight?
David Cranmer is the publisher of the BEAT to a PULP webzine and books and editor of the recent collections The Lizard’s Ardent Uniform and Other Stories and A Rip Through Time: The Doctor, the Dame, and the Device.
K-9 was awesome. Hmph. (Except in that lousy unofficial Australian spinoff.)
This is the second pro-Nyssa article I’ve seen online in the past three weeks. Here’s the first, by io9’s Charlie Jane Anders.
Thanks for the Anders post link. And, obviously, I 100% agree. She was a top companion and time to rescue Nyssa (if she wants rescuing) while we still can.
I’m now sure how she ranks overall but I always liked Ace from the Seventh Doctor’s time. Strong, independent, and resourceful.
I’ve always liked Ace and in many ways she represented the more modern companion far ahead of Rose Tyler by a good sixteen years.
Ian Marter’s first appearance was in the series in the Third Doctor’s CARNIVAL OF MONSTERS, as one of the crew of SS Berenice, the ship “lost” in 1926 and trapped in a time-loop inside an alien entertainment machine until freed and returned to its proper place and time by the Doctor.
Given the “nautical” nature of the character, I’d like to imagine that he was perhaps an “ancestor” of Harry Sullivan.
Marter later wrote a novel of Sullivan’s post-companion adventures titled HARRY SULLIVAN’S WAR.
Sullivan also got mentioned during the Fifth Doctor’s MAWDRYN UNDEAD, as having left UNIT and the Navy to do something “very hush-hush at Porton Down,” site of a highly secretive British defense laboratory (sort of the equivalent of Area 51).
@5: I’ve read where the producers admitted they made a mistake getting rid of Harry as quick as they did. And I like your thoughts that, perhaps, Ian Marter’s first appearance was as an “ancestor” of Harry Sullivan.
I loved John Barrowman as Captain Jack. More in Doctor Who than Torchwood. He was probably my favorite character in the new series.
“Harry…were you trying to take that [jacket rigged with explosives] off?”
“Well…yes?”
“Did you make the rocks fall, Harry?”
“Well, I suppose I must have done.”
“HARRY SULLIVAN IS AN IMBECILE!!!!!”
K-9 was not one of the worst! I had an awesome K-9 when I was about six years old that scooted around the floor and his “eye” lit up.
My favorite companions would have to be Leela, Ace and Donna, but I wouldn’t call any of them underappreciated or unremembered.
I thought the 5th Doctor had the most interesting cross-section of companions. Some unlikable, some outright evil (at first), some compassionate. You never hear about them much, but I thought it was really the first time they showed how interesting a Doctor with multiple companions could be — they didn’t always get along with him, and they didn’t always get along with each other. It’s a dynamic they don’t often explore anymore.
@7: Yeah, Captain Jack left a big impression and was another pivotal companion in the show’s history.
@8: K-9 finally kicked ass in “School Reunion” but I could do without most of his classic era appearances. And, yes, the 5th Doctor had quite the crew.
K-9 was pretty awesome when he fought the Captain’s robot parrot in “The Pirate Planet.” Then again, anyone’s pretty great when Douglas Adams is writing them.
I think K-9 had the same problem as Kamelion – they just didn’t have the budget to make the most of a potentially interesting robot companion. It sort of makes me wonder if they’ll try it again now that they do.
@10: Kamelion, if he had stayed around, could have been something pretty special. That was a shame.
@6 Regarding Harry Sullivan’s abrupt departure from the series, I seem to remember reading that his character had been developed before Tom Baker had been cast as the Fourth Doctor and there’d been serious discussion of having an “elderly” actor as the Doctor, who’d need a “strong” male companion to handle the more “physical” challenges (as Ian, Stephen and Ben did for the First Doctor, and Ben and Jamie did for the Second Doctor).
Once Baker had been cast and was of course capable of that kind of activity, Harry wasn’t as “necessary” in that role.
Jackson Lake agreed a wonderful performance. This talk makes me hope that the Doctor’s next companion isn’t some girl who looks like a magicians assistant. Rather because the new Doctor is older Doctor it would be nice to see either and Odd couple or a young man the Doctor decides to guide. Or even bolder what if the Doctor choose to companion with a character during a season at different stages in that companions life as an experiment if you will to see what effect the Doctor has on the whole life of a companion.
@12: Based on my research that is correct. Ian was brought in for the physical challenges and then not needed. But he added so much more in the way of comic relief, warmth, and intelligence.
@13: Jaimie from the Second Doctor, Jackson Lake, Wilf, Captain Jack, etc were all great companions. After Clara (who I like a great deal) it would be nice to have some male bonding again. And I like your idea for stages in the life a companion. Of course, they could bring Susan or Nyssa back now and find out how their lives turned out.
There are a couple of recent Big Finish audios featuring the Fifth Doctor with Adric, Nyssa, and Tegan, and all three companions come off much better than they did on TV. Adric is still clearly a teen, but more sympathetic. Tegan is still shrill, but it’s clear she cares about her friends, and most of her bluster is a front to help her cope.
I think Martha gets a pretty bad rap from the fans as being “Rose lite.” Myself, I think she’s much better companion material. In her very first episode, the Doctor trusts her with critical tasks three times (operating the x-ray, stalling the Judoon with his DNA, and reviving him at the end) even though he just met her. To say nothing of her watching over him in “Human Nature,” in circumstances that must have been personally humiliating for her. Walking the devastated Earth, alone, for a year, to set up the Doctor’s long game? Martha’s got it covered. When the Daleks steal the planet, she uses an experimental teleporter and takes charge of the Osterhagen key. Rose? Whines about being left out of the conference call. Plus she can rock a leather jacket. Donna had the better emotional journey, but give me Martha any day for sheer awesomeness.
Birigadier Lethbridge-Stweart. He appeared with more Doctors than any other companion.
I’ve never understood why what Adam did is suppossed to be so terrible. Who exactly would it have hurt?
I can’t help but feel that his real crime was to act on his own, rather than just following the Doctor along.
For the record, Rose was… decent. Martha was boring. Donna–Oh Donna. I pretty much wanted to throw her off a bridge the first time I met her and that never changed. Ever. I will never, ever rewatch an episode with Donna in it, no matter how good it was otherwise. Amy Pond and Rory both rocked my world, though. They’re awesome. But I didn’t really like Matt Smith’s cutesy Doc very much, so… oh well.
Do we count Riversong as a companion? She was the most interesting, other than Jack, in the new series.
I didn’t think that Adam was that bad really, I could have watched a season with him in it. I think he got a raw deal by getting the wrong Doctor. 11 would not have been as harsh as 9, and I could easily see any of the classic Doctors taking him on as a companion, although they would have been less judgemental and more determined to try to straighten him out and knock him into shape (or just as a challenge to see if they could get him to buckle under).
Other unsung companions, oh Frobisher how do I love thee…let me coun’t the way:
1: Frobisher was awesome.
2: refer to 1!
I wet as Nyssa for Halloween when I was 9 or so. Thanks for including her, always one of my favorites!
@15: Well, I need to start listening to these radio productions again. I’ve enjoyed a few in the past and liked them quite a bit. Martha is o.k. but I prefer the Rose years. Different strokes and all.
@16: BIG fan of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
and now his daughter.
@17: I believe that the Doctor said it would have changed history. You can’t argue with a time lord.
@18: I hear you. I originally skipped a lot of Donna episodes but have forced myself to go back because there’s some top shows in there. And I can’t see how we couldn’t include Riversong as a companion though quite often she’s leading events.
@19: Frobisher! Now you are a true Doctor Who fan!
@20: That same Halloween I’m betting I had a very long Fourth Doctor scarf around my neck.
Don’t know if you’re allowing Big Finnish companions, but Lucie Miller was SPECTACULAR.
Doesn’t he do that every time he turns up somewhen? So why should he expect Adam to think there is something wrong with that?
Always since I read a novelization of The Krotons as a kid, I have really liked Zoe.
Because she defended the Doctors’ intelligence by saying: “He is almost as clever as I am!”
If we’re going to talk audio companions, I think I’ve listened to maybe about 10% of them so far, but I love Evelyn Smythe, especially in her first adventure. She’s exactly what the Sixth Doctor needs — somebody who refuses to be impressed by him, and calls him out on his nonsense when he needs it.
I find most of the audio-only companions to be really well matched to their Doctors — Erimem and Hex have make the right contrasts with their respective TARDIS crews. I haven’t listened to much with Lucie just yet, but I love Molly O’Sullivan for similar reasons as Evelyn.
@22: I haven’t listened to them enough but will soon. Lucie Miller is with the Eighth Doctor, right? I’ve heard his radio shows are some of the best.
@23: Well Adam wouldn’t know The Doctor’s history and if someone takes you 200,000 years into the future it seems like you would walk lightly until you’ve made more than one trip. Still, I like Adam.
@24: Zoe Heriot is definitely an underrated companion.
@25: Ok. You have convinced me. I’m heading over to the Big Finish site…
@26: Is Zoe really underrated? I think it’s pretty universally agreed that she’s awesome. I think it’s more that she’s underexposed, since some of her stories are missing.
Jo Grant was rather underrated for a time, but she seems to be more popular nowadays. I’ve always thought she was pretty terrific. She had a really close relationship with the Doctor, and she saved his life as often as he saved hers. In “The Daemons,” she single-handedly saved the whole world while the Doctor and UNIT were wasting their time with heat barriers and gargoyles, and nobody ever gave her so much as a thank you. So she was underrated in-universe. It’s too bad we had to wait so long to see her comeback in The Sarah Jane Adventures‘ “Death of the Doctor,” but it was great to see anyway.
@27: It was nice seeing Jo Grant again and The Doctor’s reaction to her. And I’ll give you underexposed vs. underrated in Zoe’s case. What about Victoria Waterfield? How would you rate her?
Count me as a big Donna Noble fan. I thought her chemistry with the Doctor was great, and Partners in Crime, where Donna moved into the Tardis with a great deal of luggage, is one of my favorite episodes. And as pointed out above, her grandpa was no slouch as a companion.
@28: “What about Victoria Waterfield? How would you rate her?”
Disappointing. She started out with promise, and was really cute, but she ended up just being frightened and screaming all the time, and clearly did not want to be there. By the last surviving stories she’s in, it’s evident that she’s sick of the constant peril and just wants to stop, so it’s kind of a relief when she leaves, for her sake as well as ours.
Wilf Mott has been my favorite “companion” for a long time now, and I sure wish we could see him again. I adored his warning when he first met the Doctor that London was no place to be at Christmas.
As much as Adam is maligned as a ‘soundrel’, the original version of the script would have him want to use the information from the future to save his mother from a terminal illness.
This was actually used in the IDW anniversary comic series Prisoners of Time, which has Adam becoming even more bitter towards the Doctor for taking away the infromation which could have saved her.
@13 I’d ay we have already seen the effect the Doctor has had on a companion when they met them at different stages of their life – Amy Pond. Due to the way the Doctor didn’t come back when she was 8, it damaged her and it took most of her first season and most of the second to repair that damage I’d argue.
@17: In The Unicorn And The Wasp, Donna gives Agatha Christie her future ideas and asks for copyright. This doesn’t seem to trouble the Doctor.
@24: I always thought Zoe was a great companion (especially when she defeated a superhero in single combat), but then came The Invasion, and I realised that with her, The War Machines would have lasted one scene. She was the best.
@32: Saving his mom would have tipped the sympathy scale but the opportunist they presented lacks any such motive. I would like to see a vengeful return for a showdown of sorts in the TV series.
@34: The Doctor must have checked to see those books have no significant impact in the future. (Yes, I just wrote that.)
Regarding the long-term effects of the Doctor on a companion’s life: The Expanded Universe is rather prone to works in which the fact of a companion having travelled with the Doctor renders their whole subsequent life a parade of misery. Zoe seems particularly prone to getting it in the neck, for some reason, but it also applies to Jamie, Victoria, Dodo, Tegan…
As far as Big Finish companions go, yes, I love Erimem and Hex. Erimem was adorable — especially when she’d go threatening enemies with THE CHAMBER OF PAIN and whatnot. And Hex was a great pacifist/medic companion to balance out Ace, who was sort of the “big guy” of the team when it came to blowing open doors, beating up bad guys and so on. Plus, “Oh my God!” Seven, Ace and Hex might be my favorite Doctor Who team ever.
Romana 1? It was an interesting dynamic when there was another Gallifreyan aboard (not including Susan here, as at that point the whole Time Lord thing wasn’t really canon) – that too someone who graduated from the Academy with a Triple Alpha and never really lets the Doctor forget it.
~lakesidey
@38: Romana 1 almost made my list. She’s faded a bit in popularity but nonetheless is an important companion.
randal120 (@16): The Brigadier is clearly in the Companion Hall of Fame, I agree, but for underrated (demi?) Companion, I would nominate Sgt. Benton. He would have been a perfect TARDIS crew member.
Perhaps he isn’t as underrated as some of these characters, but I still believe that Rory Williams-Pond is one of the best companions ever. While the dynamic between Amy and the Doctor was repeatedly played up, Amy herself didn’t change a huge deal throughout the show. But Rory was all heart, compassion, determination and a huge well of grace and understanding when the Doctor wasn’t interested, Amy was too busy running around looking after the Doctor, and Moffat’s scripts were too full of himself to let the characters speak.
But Rory waiting, the Lone Centurion, showing compassion to anyone and everyone, Rory the nurse, Rory calling the Doctor on his behaviour repeatedly, Rory growing into someone even the Doctor’s worst enemies were afraid of — that was, to me, the story of a true companion, and I love Rory more than any other companion. In my opinion he deserved a better writer than Moffat, and it’s mostly down to Arthur Darvill’s brilliant work that he shines so much.
I stopped watching Doctor Who after the trainwreck of a final episode where River and the Doctor got married, however many seasons ago that was, but if someone could edit the entire series into the Nurse Williams show, I would be very happy.
Never had any problem whatsoever with Adric.
I wouldn’t consider K-9 one of the worst companions, either. For me, the worst was Donna. Everything she did, just her voice in fact, set my teeth on edge. I almost stopped watching because of her. Only my love for David Tennant’s portrayal of The Doctor kept me loyal. Adric was pretty annoying, too.
@41: I’m a fan of Rory and wouldn’t mind seeing how they are doing in their past life.
@42: I will say I liked Adric’s last moments and felt a great deal of sympathy for how it ended. They handled that episode well.
@43: I’m slowly coming around to watching Donna’s episodes but, originally, stopped watching because of the character. Similar problem I had with Adric. The character is too abrasive.
Loved them (almost) all.
I do think they could have turned Adam around, he was just too impulsive, I mean a visible brain probe port? Sheesh. I take care of a person with a feeding tube in her side, and keeping that clean and infection free is enough trouble. Can’t imagine having something like that with access to your brain. What about meningitis?
I thought if they’d wanted to keep him, they might have done something similiar to what happened to Mickey. He’s a dip when we first meet him, and I cheered Rose for leaving him. But later he comes back, and even helps out, and you see how he’s more than that, and does his own bit of world-saving.
I really wish Martha had been given a bit better role. She got the Doctor when he was still grieving Rose, and (I thought) struggling to form ANY relationship, companion or other, much less what Martha was aiming for! Delighted that we get to see her life later, but sorry that it was so much off screen.
And WILF! My absolute favorite “minor” companion. He tracks down the Doctor with his squad of senior citizens! Perfect! And, honestly, after what happened to Donna (I was so mad, and even said to my friend, that I was watching with, “They should have just killed her off”) I wouldn’t have been a bit surprised if he got defensive and bitter, the way Jackie was at first. But he wasn’t, he just kept slogging on, and did his best. A hero in his own way.
I loved having Jackson Lake as a would-be Doctor, thought he was great. But I was very disappointed with the portrayal of Rosita. Someone mentioned Martha as a “Rose-lite” and I felt Rosita was a pale shadow of either of them. And the cotume choice was just weird. Odd enough that they gave someone of that appearant time period a minority assistant, but then to give her clothes (mainly the top and sleeves) that would have said “STREETWALKER!” in the same day? Just odd.
I could just go on, ……….
I really liked so many of the “minor” characters. Can we count Craig and his baby Alfie, AKA Stormageddon, (From Closing Time) please?
@45: I can see, at some point, adding Craig from “The Lodger” and “Closing Time” though he is very popular in the now and I’m spotlighting more unsung companions. And I agree Martha, unfortunately, came way too close on the heels of Rose Tyler. In time, I believe, her companion time will rise in stature.
Since McCoy was ‘my’ Doctor (the first I saw in my chronological existence), I always had a soft spot for Ace.
But I thought Nyssa was marvellous too
I divided the Companions into two ‘tiers’ (in backwards chronological order):
First Tier – Clara, Amy, Martha, Ace, Sarah-Jane
Second Tier – River, Donna, Rose, Second-Romana, Nyssa
@44. Thanks for answering! It was mostly because of the baby, I actually saw them out of order, “Closing Time” first and then “The Lodger” only a couple of days ago. I was not impressed by “The Lodger”, but thought “Closing Time” very funny. “Baby Stormy” was enough to set me off the rest of that day.
@41 Sorry, I kind of skipped Rory. I’m going through the seasons, and am just now getting to see a bit more of him. Yesterday I saw “The Padorica Opens/The Big Bang”
A favorite scene, after Rory accidentally shoots Amy:
Doctor: “Your girlfriend is not more important than the universe”
Rory: “She is to me!” POW!
Go, Rory! Really a fine character. Looking forward to the rest of the season.
I generally like more those companions, who are from other planets/different time. When they come to Earth/present day, they can be all “wow, this place is so weird!” – don’t know why, but I just love that. Logically, it should be the Doctor, who gives the story different perspective, being an alien, but he is so at home here he becomes more familiar with Earth that most of “earthlings”. The question “How would someone from totally different culture look at us?” hasn’t been asked in the show for many years now. (Who was the last “alien” companion? Turlough?) So among my favorite are:
1) Nyssa (still waiting for Doctor to return to Terminus, finding her just a bit older, saying: OK, I fixed it here, all working, where we’re going next?)
2) Leela
3) Jamie and Zoe (they were so great together! One from the past, one from the future)
But I also like Brigadier and Ace and… well, I started thinking about it and almost ended up writing the list of all companions, so I’d better stop now:)
These are good choices, but I’d have to add Captain Jack and Canton Delaware Everett III as favs.
I would add Billy Shipton, who dedicated his entire life and career to helping Sally Sparrow save the Doctor and Martha. He did this knowing he would never find out what was going on, and did it cheerfully and with style.
What about the Tardis herself, as Idris?
I watched “the Doctor’s Wife” a few days ago, and loved that she got to “come out and play” and I think she made a lovely and interesting “companion” :)