Companion (Doctor Who)

In the long-running BBC television science fiction programme Doctor Who and related works, a companion refers to a character who travels with, and shares the adventures of the Doctor. The term is primarily used in Doctor Who fandom; these characters are often referred to in the press as "assistants". The term was rarely used in the classic series (1963–1989), while the revived series (2005–) makes more frequent use of the term. More often, however, the Doctor merely introduces his fellow leads as his "friends". In the 2005 series, the Ninth Doctor states that he "employed Rose Tyler as [his] companion".

The Doctor usually travels with one to three companions. In most Doctor Who stories, the companion provides a surrogate with whom the audience can identify, and furthers the story by asking questions and getting into trouble, or by helping or rescuing the Doctor. Most of the Doctor's companions are human, with some exceptions such as Kamelion, Nyssa, Adric, Turlough, Astrid and Romana. Of the non-human companions, all apart from K-9 are members of humanoid races. To date, Romana and Susan are the only members of the Doctor's own race to travel with him.

Before the advent of the Ninth Doctor, the lives of the companions after their travels with the Doctor are rarely explored within the series. Three companions have memories of their adventures erased: Jamie and Zoe, by the Time Lords, and Donna, by the Doctor himself. Jamie and Zoe's only remaining memories are their first encounters with the Doctor whilst Donna has all memory of the Doctor erased, being re-introduced to him later as only "John Smith" who is visiting her grandfather Wilfred Mott. Some characters, specifically Susan, Jamie, Harry, Sarah Jane and K-9, guest-star in later stories. Zoe, Liz, Adric, Tegan, Nyssa, Turlough and Kamelion reappear in cameo roles, played by the original actors rather than in stock footage or still photos (e.g. Romana's later appearance in The Five Doctors).

On occasion, characters function as companions to series villain the Master, among them Chang Lee and the Master's wife, Lucy Saxon, whom he calls his "faithful companion".

History

When Doctor Who was created, the dramatic structure of the programme's cast was rather different from the hero-and-sidekick pattern that emerged later. Initially, the character of the Doctor was unclear, with uncertain motives and abilities. The protagonists were schoolteachers Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright, who provided the audience's point-of-view in stories set in Earth's history and on alien worlds. Ian in particular served the role of the action hero. The fourth character was the Doctor's granddaughter Susan, who (though initially presented as an "unearthly child") was intended as an identification figure for younger viewers.

Carole Ann Ford, who played Susan Foreman, became unhappy with the lack of development for her character, and chose to leave in its second series. The character of Susan was married off to a freedom fighter and left behind to rebuild a Dalek-ravaged Earth. Doctor Who's producers replaced Susan with another young female character, Vicki. Similarly, when Ian and Barbara left, the "action hero" position was filled by astronaut Steven Taylor. This grouping of the Doctor, a young heroic male and an attractive young female became the programme's pattern throughout the 1960s.

When the programme changed to colour in 1970, its format changed: the Doctor was now Earth-bound, and acquired a supporting cast by his affiliation with the paramilitary organisation United Nations Intelligence Taskforce (UNIT). The Third Doctor, more active and physical than his predecessors, made the role of the "action hero" male companion redundant. In the 1970 season the Doctor was assisted by scientist Liz Shaw and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, along with other UNIT personnel (such as Sergeant Benton). The intellectual Shaw was replaced by Jo Grant in the 1971 season, and as the programme returned to occasional adventures in outer space, the format shifted once more: while UNIT continued to provide a regular "home base" for Earth-bound stories, in stories on other planets the Doctor and Jo became a two-person team with a close, personal bond. This pattern, the Doctor with a single female companion, became a template from which subsequent episodes of Doctor Who rarely diverged. The "heroic male" type occasionally returned (for example, Harry Sullivan, Adric, Turlough, Mickey Smith, Jack Harkness and Rory Williams), but the single female companion was Doctor Who's staple.

The character of Harry Sullivan was created by the production team when it was expected that the Fourth Doctor would be played by an older actor who would have trouble with the activity expressed by his predecessor. In the event, the Fourth Doctor part went to 40-year-old Tom Baker and the part of Harry, no longer required for the action role, was reduced.

In the final season for the Fourth Doctor, he acquired three companions (Adric, Tegan and Nyssa) and this situation continued under the Fifth Doctor for a while. Adric was written out by the unusual method within the series of being "killed off". By the Sixth Doctor, the Doctor was down to a single companion again.

Definition

There is no formal definition of what makes a companion. Stephen Brook in The Guardian newspaper's Organgrinder blog discounted Michelle Ryan as a likely next companion but said "that what consitutes a Doctor Who companion is no longer clear" The definition of who is and is not a companion becomes less clear in the newer series. During the Doctor's three latest incarnations, his primary companions (Rose Tyler, Martha Jones, Donna Noble, and currently Amy Pond) have fulfilled a distinct dramatic role, more significant than other, less-prominent TARDIS travellers such as Adam, Jack, and Mickey. The British press referred to Martha as the "first ethnic minority companion in the 43-year television history of Doctor Who" and the "first black assistant", despite the presence of Mickey Smith in the previous season—including several episodes in which he traveled in the TARDIS with the Doctor.

The Brigadier was included as a companion in the Making of Doctor Who, published in the 1970s.

The opening credits do little to clarify the situation. In the first two series of the renewed programme, the only supporting actor to receive a title credit is Billie Piper. In subsequent series, Freema Agyeman and Catherine Tate are credited in all episodes in which they appear. In the third series John Barrowman receives a title credit for his return to the show. Series Four gave Agyeman, Piper, Barrowman, and Elisabeth Sladen title billing for each of their reappearances. Noel Clarke reprised his role in the Series Four finale; although listed as a companion alongside the other actors on the BBC Doctor Who website, Clarke is not credited in this way. In The End of Time John Simm receives title billing for his antagonist role as the Master, ahead of Bernard Cribbins as companion Wilfred Mott.

Companions in the new series also have a more flexible tenure than their classical predecessors. Several companion characters have returned to the series after leaving the Doctor's company, most notably in the Series Four finale "The Stolen Earth" / "Journey's End", which features the return of Rose, Martha, Jack, Sarah Jane and Mickey. This tendency, plus the increase in "one-off" companions like Astrid Peth and Jackson Lake, has further obscured the matter of who is and is not a companion, and when.

Role

Companions have assumed a variety of roles in Doctor Who, as involuntary passengers, as assistants (particularly Liz Shaw), as friends, and as fellow adventurers.

The Doctor regularly gains new companions and loses old ones; sometimes they return home, or find new causes—or loves—on worlds they have visited. A few companions (most notably Katarina, Sara Kingdom and Adric) have died during the course of the series.

Most companions travel in the TARDIS with the Doctor for more than one adventure, although there are exceptions. Sometimes a guest character will take a role in the story similar to that of a companion, such as photographer Isobel Watkins who plays a significant role in "The Invasion" in the classic series, or Lynda in "Bad Wolf" and "The Parting of the Ways" in the revived series.

Despite the fact that the majority of the Doctor's companions are young, attractive females, the production team for the 1963–1989 series maintained a long-standing taboo against any overt romantic involvement in the TARDIS: for example, Peter Davison, as the Fifth Doctor, was not allowed to put his arm around either Sarah Sutton (Nyssa) or Janet Fielding (Tegan). However, that has not prevented fans from speculating about possible romantic involvements, most notably between the Fourth Doctor and the Time Lady Romana (whose actors, Tom Baker and Lalla Ward, shared a romance and brief marriage). The taboo was controversially broken in the 1996 television movie when the Eighth Doctor was shown kissing companion Grace Holloway. The 2005 series played with this idea by having various characters think that the Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler were a couple, which they vehemently denied. Since the series revival, the Doctor has kissed companions Rose, Jack, Mickey (on the forehead), Martha, Astrid, Donna and Amy, although each instance was not necesarily in a romantic context (see also "The Doctor and romance"). Donna Noble vehemently denied a sexual interest in the Doctor when he invited her to join him and explained "I just want a mate," which she misheard as "I just want to mate."

Previous companions have reappeared in the series, usually for anniversary specials. One former companion, Sarah Jane Smith (played by Elisabeth Sladen), together with the robotic dog K-9, appeared in one episode of the 2006 series more than twenty years after their last appearances in the 20th anniversary story The Five Doctors (1983). The character of Sarah Jane also heads up a Doctor Who spin-off, The Sarah Jane Adventures with K-9. Another companion, Captain Jack Harkness, is the lead character in the spin-off BBC science fiction programme Torchwood. Not only have these former companions continued to make appearances on Doctor Who, they have sometimes been accompanied by some of their own companions from the spin-offs when doing so, including Jack's colleagues Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones, and Sarah Jane's 'family' Mr Smith, Luke Smith and K-9 Mark IV. Other former companions from both the classic era and revived series have also returned as guest stars in the spin-offs, including Martha Jones on Torchwood, and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and Jo Grant on The Sarah Jane Adventures. K-9 Mark I has also been spun off into its own series with an independent continuity.

When Doctor Who returned to television in 2005, the companion characters played a slightly different role, partly due to a strong focus on the character of Rose Tyler and characters connected to her. For example, although Adam Mitchell was a companion by the standard definition, he appeared in only two episodes and was arguably a less significant part of the 2005 series than Rose's sometime boyfriend Mickey Smith, who was not technically a companion but appeared in five episodes (or six, including a brief appearance as a child in "Father's Day"). Mickey later gained full-fledged companion status when he travelled in the TARDIS in the 2006 episode "School Reunion". In that episode, Sarah Jane Smith referred to Rose as the Doctor's "assistant", a term to which the latter took offence. This exchange might be regarded as indicating the new series' shift in approach to the companion role.

As of May 2010, Sarah Jane Smith is the only classic era companion to have been asked to travel again by the Doctor in the revived series. She declined his invitation in "School Reunion", but subsequently met up with the Doctor aboard a Dalek ship in "Journey's End" and travelled with him and several other companions in the TARDIS as they towed the Earth back to the solar system.

List of television companions

First Doctor

Companion	Actor/Actress	Seasons	First serial	Last serial	Appearances with the First Doctor
Susan Foreman	Carole Ann Ford	1–2	An Unearthly Child	The Dalek Invasion of Earth	10
Barbara Wright	Jacqueline Hill	1–2	An Unearthly Child	The Chase	16
Ian Chesterton	William Russell	1–2	An Unearthly Child	The Chase	16
Vicki	Maureen O'Brien	2–3	The Rescue	The Myth Makers	9
Steven Taylor	Peter Purves	2–3	The Chase	The Savages	10
Katarina	Adrienne Hill	3	The Myth Makers	The Daleks' Master Plan	2
Sara Kingdom	Jean Marsh	3	The Daleks' Master Plan	The Daleks' Master Plan	1
Dodo Chaplet	Jackie Lane	3	The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve	The War Machines	6
Polly	Anneke Wills	3–4	The War Machines	The Tenth Planet	3
Ben Jackson	Michael Craze	3–4	The War Machines	The Tenth Planet	3

Second Doctor

Companion	Actor/Actress	Seasons	First serial	Last serial	Appearances with the Second Doctor
Polly	Anneke Wills	4	The Power of the Daleks	The Faceless Ones	6
Ben Jackson	Michael Craze	4	The Power of the Daleks	The Faceless Ones	6
Jamie McCrimmon	Frazer Hines Hamish Wilson	4–6	The Highlanders	The War Games	20
Victoria Waterfield	Deborah Watling	4–5	The Evil of the Daleks	Fury from the Deep	7
Zoe Heriot	Wendy Padbury	5–6	The Wheel in Space	The War Games	8

Third Doctor

Companion	Actor/Actress	Seasons	First serial	Last serial	Appearances with the Third Doctor
Liz Shaw	Caroline John	7	Spearhead from Space	Inferno	4
Jo Grant	Katy Manning	8–10	Terror of the Autons	The Green Death	15
Sarah Jane Smith	Elisabeth Sladen	11	The Time Warrior	Planet of the Spiders	5
Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart	Nicholas Courtney	7–11	Spearhead from Space	Planet of the Spiders	16 (1 as companion)
Sergeant Benton	John Levene	7–11	The Ambassadors of Death	Planet of the Spiders	12 (1 as companion)

Fourth Doctor

Companion	Actor/Actress	Seasons	First serial	Last serial	Appearances with the Fourth Doctor
Sarah Jane Smith	Elisabeth Sladen	12–14	Robot	The Hand of Fear	13
Harry Sullivan	Ian Marter	12–13	Robot	Terror of the Zygons	7 (6 as companion)
Leela	Louise Jameson	14–15	The Face of Evil	The Invasion of Time	9
K-9 Mark I	John Leeson (voice)	15	The Invisible Enemy	The Invasion of Time	5
K-9 Mark II	John Leeson David Brierley (voices)	16–18	The Ribos Operation	Warriors' Gate	14
Romana	Mary Tamm Lalla Ward	16–18	The Ribos Operation	Warriors' Gate	17
Adric	Matthew Waterhouse	18	Full Circle	Logopolis	5
Nyssa	Sarah Sutton	18	The Keeper of Traken	Logopolis	2
Tegan Jovanka	Janet Fielding	18	Logopolis	Logopolis	1

Fifth Doctor

Companion	Actor/Actress	Seasons	First serial	Last serial	Appearances with the Fifth Doctor
Adric	Matthew Waterhouse	19	Castrovalva	Earthshock	8 (6 as companion)
Nyssa	Sarah Sutton	19–20	Castrovalva	Terminus	12 (11 as companion)
Tegan Jovanka	Janet Fielding	19–21	Castrovalva	Resurrection of the Daleks	19 (18 as companion)
Vislor Turlough	Mark Strickson	20–21	Mawdryn Undead	Planet of Fire	11 (10 as companion)
Kamelion	Gerald Flood (voice)	20–21	The King's Demons	Planet of Fire	3 (2 as companion)
Peri Brown	Nicola Bryant	21	Planet of Fire	The Caves of Androzani	2

Sixth Doctor

Companion	Actress	Seasons	First serial	Last serial	Appearances with the Sixth Doctor
Peri Brown	Nicola Bryant	21–23	The Twin Dilemma	The Trial of a Time Lord: Mindwarp	9
Melanie Bush	Bonnie Langford	23	The Trial of a Time Lord: Terror of the Vervoids	The Trial of a Timelord: The Ultimate Foe	2

Seventh Doctor

Companion	Actress	Seasons	First serial	Last serial	Appearances with the Seventh Doctor
Melanie Bush	Bonnie Langford	24	Time and the Rani	Dragonfire	4
Ace	Sophie Aldred	24–26	Dragonfire	Survival	9

Eighth Doctor

Companion	Actress	Story	Appearances with the Eighth Doctor
Grace Holloway	Daphne Ashbrook	Television movie	1

Ninth Doctor

Companion	Actor/Actress	Series	First episode	Last episode	Appearances with the Ninth Doctor
Rose Tyler	Billie Piper	1	"Rose"	"The Parting of the Ways"	13
Adam Mitchell	Bruno Langley	1	"Dalek"	"The Long Game"	2
Jack Harkness	John Barrowman	1	"The Empty Child"	"The Parting of the Ways"	5

Tenth Doctor

Companion	Actor/Actress	Series	First episode	Last episode	Appearances with the Tenth Doctor
Rose Tyler	Billie Piper	2005 Specials–2, 4	"Doctor Who: Children in Need"	"Journey's End"	22 (18 as companion)
Jackie Tyler	Camille Coduri	2005 Specials–2, 4	"The Christmas Invasion	"Journey's End"	"Journey's End"	10 (5 as companion)
Donna Noble	Catherine Tate	2006 Special, 4	"The Runaway Bride"	"Journey's End"	16 (14 as companion)
Martha Jones	Freema Agyeman	3, 4	"Smith and Jones"	"Journey's End"	19 (18 as companion)
Jack Harkness	John Barrowman	3, 4	"Utopia"	"Journey's End"	6 (5 as companion)
Astrid Peth	Kylie Minogue	2007 Specials	"Voyage of the Damned"	"Voyage of the Damned"	1
Sarah Jane Smith	Elisabeth Sladen	4	"The Stolen Earth"	"Journey's End"	4 (2 as companion)
Jackson Lake	David Morrissey	2008–10 Specials	"The Next Doctor"	"The Next Doctor"	1
Rosita Farisi	Velile Tshabalala	2008–10 Specials	"The Next Doctor"	"The Next Doctor"	1
Lady Christina de Souza	Michelle Ryan	2008–10 Specials	"Planet of the Dead"	"Planet of the Dead"	1
Adelaide Brooke	Lindsay Duncan	2008–10 Specials	"The Waters of Mars"	"The Waters of Mars"	1
Wilfred Mott	Bernard Cribbins	2008–10 Specials	The End of Time	The End of Time	8 (1 as companion)

Eleventh Doctor

Companion	Actor/Actress	Series	First episode	Last episode	Appearances with the Eleventh Doctor
Amy Pond	Karen Gillan	5–	"The Eleventh Hour"	N/A	14+
Rory Williams	Arthur Darvill	5–	"The Vampires of Venice"	N/A	8+ (7 as companion)

Future Companion

River Song, played by Alex Kingston, from the Tenth Doctor episodes "Silence in the Library" / "Forest of the Dead" is an archaeologist who states that she has travelled with the Doctor in his relative future. Doctor Who Confidential referred to her as a "companion-to-come". River Song reappears in the series 5 episodes "Time of Angels", "Flesh and Stone", "The Pandorica Opens" and "The Big Bang", in which her status as a contemporary companion or significant other for the Doctor is left ambiguous.

Death of a companion

During the course of the show's history, there have been rare occasions when companions have died while on adventures with the Doctor.

• Two companions are killed in the The Daleks' Master Plan. Katarina, who had been introduced at the end of the preceding story, was deemed unsuitable for a long-term companion and so is killed when she opens the airlock of a spaceship. Sara Kingdom, who takes over Katarina's companion role for the remainder of the story, is also killed when she undergoes extreme aging as a side-effect of the First Doctor's activation of a "Time Destructor" device.
• Adric dies at the end of Episode 4 of Earthshock in the explosion of a bomb-laden space freighter in Earth's atmosphere.
• Kamelion, an android companion, is destroyed by the Fifth Doctor in Episode 4 of Planet of Fire as an act of mercy after Kamelion is taken over by the Master.
• K-9 Mark III sacrifices himself in "School Reunion" in order to save the Doctor and his friends from a group of aliens. The subsequent K-9 Mark IV that the Doctor leaves with Sarah Jane tells her that the Mark III's files have been transferred to the new machine.
• Astrid Peth sacrifices herself in order to kill Max Capricorn by driving him into a reactor core at the end of "Voyage of the Damned". The Tenth Doctor partially resurrects her and sends her atoms flying into space.
• At the end of "The Waters of Mars", Adelaide Brooke kills herself to preserve a fixed point in time.

In the various spin-off media; there have been other companion deaths. These include Jamie McCrimmon and Ace, both of whom were killed off in the Doctor Who comic strip published in Doctor Who Magazine. McCrimmon was killed in a Grant Morrison-written strip entitled The World Shapers, and Ace in Ground Zero.

Additional spin-off works have also postulated the fates of some former companions in the years following their travels with the Doctor, such as Dodo Chaplet, whose death is indicated in the novel Who Killed Kennedy, and Liz Shaw in the novel Eternity Weeps.

Mitigated

• In The Trial of a Time Lord, Peri Brown is killed by King Yrcanos in Mindwarp, after her brain has been replaced by that of Kiv, a member of the Mentor race. However, in The Ultimate Foe it is revealed that Peri had not been killed and had instead become Yrcanos' consort.
• Grace Holloway is killed by the Master but revived by the TARDIS' link to the Eye of Harmony during the 1996 television movie.
• Jack Harkness is killed by Daleks but is brought back to life and given immortality by Rose Tyler in "The Parting of the Ways".
• The alternative timeline from "Turn Left" sees the off-screen deaths of Sarah Jane Smith and Martha Jones, but these events are undone by Donna Noble's own self-sacrifice at the episode's climax.
• Rory Williams is killed by the Eknodine in one of the dream worlds of "Amy's Choice". Realising it is her only chance of seeing Rory again, Amy Pond subsequently kills both herself and the Doctor in the same reality.
• Rory is also killed by the Silurian Restac at the conclusion of "Cold Blood", sacrificing himself to protect the Doctor. He is subsequently consumed by a crack in time, wiping him from existence. He reappears in "The Pandorica Opens" as an Auton duplicate, created from Amy Pond's memories, and is restored to his old life along with the rest of the universe in "The Big Bang".
• Amy Pond is killed by Auton Rory in "The Pandorica Opens", but is restored by the Pandorica in "The Big Bang".
• Harry Sullivan is implied to be dead by Sarah Jane in the Sarah Jane Adventures episode "Death of the Doctor," as he is the only companion listed at the end who is referred to entirely in past-tense.

See also

• List of Doctor Who supporting characters
• List of companions in Doctor Who spin-offs

References

Bibliography

• David J. Howe, Mark Stammers Doctor Who: Companions 1995 Virgin Publishing 1852275820

External links

• Guide to classic series companions on the BBC's Doctor Who site