Favorite Companions?

[TomH1138]

OK, time for another silly list to keep us entertained until DW comes back in the fall.   And it's a little more simple than my last couple of challenges.

So, who are your favorite Companions? Here are mine, ranked in order:

1) Sarah Jane - I know, it's too obvious, but I can't help myself. I was actually resistant to David Tennant until "School Reunion." I loved her immediately, and his treatment of her made me love him! (Did that sentence make sense?) No one else could have pulled off a successful spinoff so many years after her original run. She is now, and will always be, the best in my heart and mind.

(I also have to tip my hat to the Brigadier, but since I haven't actually seen him yet, I can't put him on the list!)

2) Amy Pond - More heroic than her critics give her credit for, and - unlike Rose - she's actually learning that she really is in love with the guy from back home. It's just taking her a while to learn.

3) Martha Jones - The underrated Companion who actually was a doctor herself, and therefore more useful to our Doctor than many other Companions!

4) Donna Noble - "Doctor, Time Lord, yeah!" "Donna, human, no!" She didn't even miss a beat. Fierce and fiery. I adore her.

5) Rose Tyler - She drew me into the show in the first place, so I have to love her despite her faults.

6) Rory Williams - What a terrific guy. He should probably rank higher on this list, but unlike the others, I don't have a massive crush on him.

7) River Song - A fascinating character, though I've never liked her as much as I did in her first appearance, for some reason.

8 ) Wilfred Mott - Need I say more?

9) Mickey Smith - Fans complained that he whined too much that he was leasing his girlfriend to the Doctor. Well . . . he was!

10) Capt. Jack Harkness - Surprisingly, I like him much better on DW than I do when this same character is the star of his own show.

11) K9 - In the 1970s, I might have found him corny, but by the time of "School Reunion," he was charmingly old-school, a fond reminder of times gone by. Plus, how can one not love this exchange - Mr. Finch: "Bad dog!" K9: "Affirmative!"

12) Ian Chesterton - He was pretty much the hero of the show in the early days, when the Doctor was often still a mean, selfish old man (as I think he was intended to be, through the writing and through Hartnell's excellent performance), and when unfortunately the women weren't written to be very helpful.

13) Gwen Cooper - What? You mean she was never a Companion to the Doctor? Well, this isn't just some cheap excuse for me to put another pretty lady on this list . . . maybe not, anyway.

Of course there's still a lot of the classic series I haven't seen (I'm only up to 1965), so there may be more great Companions out there. I'm just ranking the ones I know (and leaving a few names off deliberately, but we won't get into that).  

So, what are other people's choices?

[Sheer Matt]

1st- Ian and Barbara: In the same way that Rose, rather than the Doctor, was the protagonist in the first series of new Who, Ian and Barbara were the protagonists for the first series of the classics. The Doctor was an unsympathetic character for much of the first year, and in many ways Ian and Barbara taught him to be more of a hero. As well as inspiring the use of Rose Tyler in the RTD area, also IMO influenced SM to include the married couple in the Tardis (don’t tell me that, in The Romans, Ian and Barbara aren’t at it like rabbits while Vicki and the Doctor are in the city!).

2nd- Can only be Jamie, after all he’s the companion for most of the era. He and Troughton make a fantastic male double-act, Jamie doing the “grunt” work while the Doctor acts the fool, and Jamie’s feelings towards Victoria are played beautifully by Frazer Hines. Works well with Zoe as well. The fact that he is not allowed to remember most of his adventures is probably more tragic than the same thing happening to Donna.

3rd- Has to be Jo Grant, she’s the real “UNIT family” companion, more so than Liz Shaw (and she gets to travel in the TARDIS). Probably the companion that people think of when they discuss the “stereotypical Who assistant”, but Katy Manning pulls off “what’s that Doctor” and screaming while running down corridors with charm. Any future writers had to write tougher, or more intelligent, companions as KM cornered the market in playing the dizzy but plucky assistant (when Who tried it again- Peri or Mel for example- it failed.). Her leaving scene is matched only by Sarah’s in either classic or new Who.

4th- The toughest call, as (from Sarah & Harry to Romana II) a tremendous run of companions, helped to make the 4th Doctor’s era the golden age of Who. In terms of the whole Who story, it has to be Sarah, but I prefer her in New Who or SJA than in the classic series. My favourite from the actual era itself has to be Leela, and not just because of the cleavage! I don’t think a character had as much of a development story before, or until possibly Ace, a Pygmalion story spread over a number of stories.

5th- Nyssa, because she was one of my first schoolboy crushes. OK, looking back she was slightly insipid, but she doesn’t have a lot of competition. Matthew Waterhouse can’t act, Tegan grates and I never warmed to Turlough (although I’m about the give the Black Guardian trilogy another viewing, so this may change), and Peri falls into….

6th- Not a lot of competition…it’s Peri or Mel, so it has to be Peri. If we’re including Big Finish, Evelyn!

7th- Unfortunately, Mel (and then, probably only on the strength of her performance in Delta & The Bannermen). Ace is just such a middle-class boy’s take on a “street” girl, her story “arc” just isn’t engaging, and her continued use of “professor” still stirs up violent tendencies in me. Even Big Finish doesn’t have a companion to redeem 7’s era.

8th- Can only be Grace, haven’t listened to the Lucie Miller era on BF yet so if we’re including audios, Charlie Pollard.

9th- Well, er…Rose.

10th- Donna, hands down. Pitch-perfect (even if she did grate in the Runaway Bride, this is how she is written, CT’s performance is still strong). Rose

11th- Rory. Just find Amy too unsympathetic, where Rory just makes me smile. Think we might be seeing the end of him soon, though (“The best man I ever knew…”)

[TomH1138]

Nice list, Sheer Matt! I like the idea of breaking it up by Doctors.

[TomH1138]

Hmm, this thread hasn't inspired as many posts as I thought it would. Perhaps people have been over this territory too many times?

So let's try a different angle. TPO has a thread all about what monsters to bring back. So what Companions would you like to see return?

Since '05, we've seen the return of Sarah Jane (sigh - I miss her) and K9. Jo Grant and the Brigadier have both appeared on SJA. And that's not counting the multiple return appearances of RTD companions within the RTD era.

You know who I think would be interesting to see? Bernice Summerfield. She's never appeared in TV canon, but she's so popular that she rated her own spin-off series of books! And there's already an actress who plays her both in posing for photos and in voice for the audio adventures. Why not have the Doctor run into her in Series 7? He can just explain to whoever he's traveling with at the time that she once frequently traveled with him too.

Who else would people like to see?

[Ian]

Ace. Not necessarily because she's my favorite companion, although she's not bad. But rather because I think her character deserves a better closure than just walking off to find some cold tea, especially given how much Sophie puts into fandom. Sylv at least got to regenerate, I'd like to see that Ace ended up somewhere good as well and I think her feisty attitude to the Doctor would work well with the modern series (better than most classic era companions who were a bit two dimensional).

[Mr Lister]

I'd like to know what happened to Romana.
Not that I expect it possible to bring her back as a regular, but I think it would be nice to work into the canon what actually happened to her after we last heard of her.
Did she actually become president at one time? Is she still alive, and if so, where? That kind of thing. Closure.

[TomH1138]

I think those are both excellent choices!

For that matter, I think Susan should make a return appearance, because she's actually family. But I think that should be saved for the 50th anniversary.

Ironically, I often found Susan annoying on the show, but Carol Ann Ford had exactly the same problem with the character. That's why she left! I think it would be interesting to see how Susan has matured as a person over the years.

After all, "School Reunion" was plenty heartbreaking in that the Doctor left Sarah Jane in "Hand of Fear" without even saying goodbye. The Doctor did say goodbye to Susan, but he didn't really give her a choice about leaving, and he should have come back to see her more than he has. (I'm not sure about the comics and novels, but as far as filmed adventures, I think "The Five Doctors" is the extent of it. It's his own flesh and blood (at least as far as we know) - and he "daren't look back" at who he's left behind, as the Dream Lord would say!

I think there's some great emotional drama to be mined there.

[Rory Pond]

A significant part of what makes the Big Finish audios so valuable to DW fans is they way they've filled in gaps and provided reunions with past companions (some of whom might not fare so well in the televisual medium owing to the passage of time, as is true of certain Doctors as well). Carole Ann Ford has reprised the role of Susan in several recent Eighth Doctor stories. I would think any potential appearance she were to make in the TV series would, in all likelihood, invalidate or openly contradict the circumstances of those stories; the TV series cannot treat them as canonical, so any exchange between the Eleventh Doctor and Susan would probably indicate that he hasn't seen her since the events of "The Five Doctors".  A skilled writer like Moffat could probably skirt the issue and leave it open for the fans, but there's no guarantee of that.

I realize that this is hardly a big deal, and for the vast majority of the audience (who may be aware that there are DW audio adventures available, but don't care to listen) this is a non-issue entirely. But even for someone like me who only occasionally listens to Big Finish, it makes a difference.

There, I've finished turning that molehill into a mountain. 

[TomH1138]

No worries! That's all fascinating to learn. I didn't know Susan had traveled so extensively with the Eighth Doctor.

So, outside of the TV shows, had Sarah Jane ever interacted with the Doctor in between "Hand of Fear" and "School Reunion"?

[Henry Gordon Jago]

Provided William Russell is still alive in two years' time, I want Ian Chesterton back for the 50th anniversary, as was originally planned during the 20th anniversary season.  He remains a firm fan favourite, hasn't featured in any previous anniversary specials, and doesn't have the Big Finish baggage that Rory alluded to above with Susan.  That great character deserves another look-in all these years later.

And Sarah met the 7th Doctor in the novel Bullet Time.

[Rory Pond]

Wasn't there mention of Ian and Barbara not having aged since they traveled with the Doctor back in the companion recap of SJA's "Death of the Doctor"? That's the only thing that could prevent Ian's return for the 50th Anniversary series IMHO.

[TomH1138]

You're correct, RP. Due to RTD throwing that line in, he made it impossible for Russell to return--at least as Ian, anyway. Maybe he could have a cameo as a different character.

[Mr Lister]

That's only if we take SJA as canon. Is it? (Speaking of which, what about Torchwood, is that canon?)
And why would only Ian and Barbara be affected? It didn't happen to any other as far as I know, not Sarah Jane and Jo Grant certainly. Or do you have to travel in the TARDIS for a longer time before the effect kicks in? How about Jamie?

[Henry Gordon Jago]

I think Moffat could quite easily ignore a more or less throwaway line from SJA, or at least explain it away with a throwaway line of his own.  I believe events in SJA and Torchwood are canon, but are unlikely to ever be referenced within the main show, and can be contradicted within Who if it becomes dramatically necessary.

[Rory Pond]

For what it's worth, Sarah Jane said it was a rumor that Ian and Barbara hadn't aged since the '60s.

Moffat could handwave that in his sleep.

We eagerly await your return in 2013, Mr. Chesterton.