Well we’re looking at a new season of Doctor Who on the horizon and I’m getting around to a project I’ve waned to do for a while. Look at the Companions in Doctor Who since it’s relaunch in 2005 and try and put them into some sort of perspective.
A lot of my opinions have actually evolved and changed over the 13 years since this restart began. Characters I saw as fairly inconsequential, or irritating, in retrospect either aren’t really, or are for a completely different reason. I want to look at those reasons.
Before start there’s two things I have to address, first of all there’s going to be some vitriol. I’m not going to be nice on occasion here. The gloves are most defiantly off and because of that I need to make sure the blows are going to land in the right places. I’m only looking at the characters, not the actors themselves. I don’t know them. Do know the characters and I have to be fair to them and those that came before.
Now here’s the tricky one, what do I class as a companion? I could make up some arbitrary rules, but to be honest that would be me looking for excuses to include or not include certain characters. A companion is a Companion if I say so. It’s my list so that’s my reasoning!
Rose
6/10
Rose Tyler is… Okay! When she first started I thought she was fine. That we’d seen better, certainly seen worse and meh. She had problems. For example, just leaving Micky there, traumatised after being kidnapped by Autons in her first episode. Being a little too easily distracted by a pretty face, but on reflection there’s nothing too bad going on there.
My biggest problem is the fan and character worship that exists to this day. We see the Doctor still thinking of her, moping around for pretty much the entire third series. She’s alive, safe and secure but that doesn’t matter. Because she’s not there with him it’s a heart breaking tragedy. We’ve seen Companions leave before and since. Some have even died. Rose Just happens to be there.
Don’t get me wrong, she was a good friend for the Doctor, but as he points out to her Time Lords out live humans by quite a significant amount. Rose isn’t the first or the last Companion he has to step away from so why is everyone so obsessed with her being with ten so much?
In the end Rose is very much middle of the ground fora Companion. She was perfect as an introduction to the concept to new generation of fans, but nothing special or out of the ordinary when compared to others, both on this list and from the Classic series.
Others that join the TARDIS team during Rose’s run include:- Adam Mitchell who was pretty much a one shot plot device and can be ignored easily. He’s more or less pointless in the long run. Rose’s mother, Jackie Tyler, who had a rough time of it really. She was an idiot through and through, but she was a good mother in the end. That’s all that should matter. Micky is another one, he eventually came aboard and actually saw some fantastic character growth during his travels. Going from the callus scared man-child to a freelance alien hunter in a series of fairly believable steps. If anything he should be a Companion in his own right, but he just wasn’t. There wasn’t enough to him to warrant that honour. And then there was Captain Jack Harkness, who perhaps does deserve his own entry.
Captain Jack
7/10
Captain Jack Harkness had spinoff character written all over him from the moment we were introduced. Sexually prolific, flirtatious and an action hero with a mysterious background that not even he knew the fun extent of. Jack had just too much potential for a supporting role. When we first meet him he’s a rogue Time Agent, who’s turned from his organisation and instead cons them in an effort to embarrass and extort those he believes betrayed him.
Jack fulfilled the position of an action hero, always ready with a blaster or laser cannon and willing to get his hands dirty. He also brought something relatively new to Doctor Who. He was bi sexual (we had homosexual characters before, but they were never “officially” gay). Well to be honest he was more omni-sexual. Not important in the long run, but it does show how progressive New Who was trying to be. Wether or not it succeeded is another question for another time.
Still, as he says at the end of the First series, he was happy being a coward before strapping on his gear and marching to war. So again we had a nice little character arc where he developed from the con artist to a guardian.
We next see him in the inevitable spinoff, Torchwood, which was a disaster pretty much from start to finish. There were the odd flashes of a good idea trying to break out of the mountain of bad lumped on top of it, but not enough. Though Jack did return a couple times to Who and was welcome each time. Bringing his own unique attitude, humour and outrageousness to a situation that often too serious
I would like to see more of him, but even if we don’t he was a good choice to shake up the usual dynamic of the Doctor and a single Companion.
Martha Jones
5/10
Poor Martha, in the shadow of Saint Rose of Tyler she never had much chance. For the third series the most we got of the woman was her making moon eyes at the Doctor while he was oblivious to the whole thing. The idea that she had medical training was quickly dropped to the side for this one way attraction.
She did come into her own in her last couple of episodes and then she left. Coming back for a handful of episodes in the Fourth series, which really showed how much wasted potential Martha had. In her second stint on the TARDIS Martha had come into her own. Brave and smart she did at last prove to be a solid Companion. It’s just a shame that even after that Martha didn’t really have the longevity needed. There wasn’t quite enough to her character to go much further. Her final Cameo, during Ten’s goodbye montage, had her married to Micky. A twist that originally didn’t sit right with me but looking at it now was probably he best for both of them.
Not the same with the next companion.
Donna Noble
9/10
Donna, Donna, Donna. We actually first met Donna for what was meant to be a one off christmas adventure. Just after saying goodbye to Rose, but she was just so different and Catherine Tate’s chemistry with Tennent worked so well that she came back for a whole series. I know I said I wasn’t going to comment on the actors but here I feel it does a disservice not to. I had my doubts about Tate, thinking she was a form of stunt casting. It’s not unheard off in Doctor Who history to get a big name in for a guest role. Instead she proved to be one of the best Companions in New Who and certainly one of the best characters. Funny, street smart she provided an insight into people for the Doctor, being a link to others. Not just to humanity but for every race they came across.
Rose was often attributed to be compassionate but with Donna you saw it, she cried she laughed, she hurt and in the end she grew. We watched her go from this loudmouthed struggling temp worker to the Doctor’s equal, and not in a bad way. She complimented our favourite Time Lord by in many ways being his complete opposite. Ten describes Donna as his best friend and for this regeneration she really was. I really liked Donna, and her ending is exactly the sort of heartbreaking moment that was needed. She was like Icarus and flew too close and knowing she she can never fly again is the price of traveling with the Doctor.
Now there is a gap here. The Specials, where the Doctor had a number of one off Companions that because of the unwritten rules I’m trying to stick to can’t actually be included. Still I have to look at them and I might as well do it now. Lady Christina de Souza was the first and second best of them. As a thief she often went for the more extreme risks and she was good fun. It really was a lost opportunity that we didn’t see more of her, but we got a good adventure with her and if she had suck around we might not have gotten Wilf.
There was also Adelaide Brooke of Bowie Base-One she was interesting, in a way. I liked her, most of time, but at the end she missed the point and I can’t support her actions. She was supposed to be a tragic example of the Doctor’s power if he misused it, but I don’t think he did. He made a choice and she didn’t have the reference points he did. It’s a touch trite but I’d trust the Doctor’s experience and superior intelligence over my ‘It feels wrong’ any day.
But that’s an argument for another day and there is one more Companion I have to get to…
Wilf Mott
8/10
Wilfred Mott, Donna’s grandfather, like Donna herself, first appeared in a christmas special before officially being introduced and he was just fantastic. Every time he appeared he was a joy. You could help but like the old rascal, forever getting into mischief but at the same time not childish. You got the feeling from him that he was just enjoying life. Be it down the estate with his family or firing a mining laser from a spaceship Wilf lived and lives every moment. Not as if it’s his last, but just because he can. I would have loved to see more, but what we got was more than enough! That he was the man the Tenth Doctor sacrificed himself for was fitting, poignant and very much right.
Annnnnd stop! After this Russel T Davis stepped back and Steven Moffat became the show runner. We got a new production team and even a new Doctor. That meant another new era for the series and another set of companions, but if we were going to go into all that this thing would be far far too long.
I did miss couple out that I really shouldn’t have, but even stretching things the way I have I couldn’t justify calling them Companions. Those two were Astrid, the waitress from Voyage of the Damned and Jenny, the Doctor’s daughter. I don’t classify them as Companions because they don’t set foot in the TARDIS, which is the only real qualification I’m listing. Which is a shame. Not so much for Astrid, who was fairly bland, but for Jenny. There’s a reason that even ten years later (yes it was that long ago) a one off character, that was originally supposed to die, has been given a Big Finish special. Jenny was just a joy and it’s a crime we haven’t seen her on screen since. Watching her come into her own, from a new born solider to a young confused Gallifreyan. There was so much potential there just untapped.
But rules, no mater how arbitrary are rules. So come back next time for the second half of this retrospective.
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