Companion (Doctor Who) - Role

Role

The Doctor's companions have assumed a variety of roles—involuntary passengers, assistants (particularly Liz Shaw), friends, and fellow adventurers; and, of course, he regularly gains new companions and loses old ones. Sometimes they return home, and sometimes they find new causes—or loves—on worlds they have visited. A few companions—most notably Katarina, Sara Kingdom, and Adric—have died during their travels with the Doctor.

Most companions travel in the TARDIS with the Doctor for more than one adventure. 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 (1968), or Lynda in "Bad Wolf" and "The Parting of the Ways" (2005). In the revived era, some guest characters have gained companion status such as Mickey Smith, River Song, Wilfred Mott, and Craig Owens.

Despite the fact that the majority of the Doctor's companions are young, attractive females, the production team for the 1963–89 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, Amy, Rory, and River Song although each instance was not necessarily 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." Rose and Martha each developed romantic feelings toward the Doctor. On the opposite side of the same coin, Amy reacted to the stress of her adventures by aggressively trying to seduce the Doctor despite being in love with her fiancé Rory; the Doctor forcibly pushed her off of himself. The Eleventh Doctor romantically kissed Amy and Rory's daughter, sporadic companion River Song, in "Day of the Moon" and married her in "The Wedding of River Song."

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 four and two episodes, respectively, of the revived series more than twenty years after their last appearances in the 20th anniversary story The Five Doctors (1983). The character of Sarah Jane also headed up a Doctor Who spin-off, The Sarah Jane Adventures, with K-9 until Sladen's death. 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, albeit 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 the end of the sixth series, Sarah Jane Smith is the only classic era companion to have travelled again with the Doctor in the revived series, and one of two to have done so in the revived era. 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, several other companions, and Rose's mother Jackie Tyler in the TARDIS as they towed the Earth back to the solar system. Sarah Jane, her predecessor Jo Jones (née Grant), and their own respective companions subsequently momentarily travelled in the TARDIS with the Eleventh Doctor in The Sarah Jane Adventures serial, Death of the Doctor. The Eleventh Doctor attempted to have Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart travel with him again in "The Wedding of River Song" only to learn of the Brigadier's death months earlier.

In the classic era, companions' friends and families were rarely depicted and almost all were kept unaware of the true nature of the Doctor and the TARDIS. Exceptions include the very brief portrayals of Susan's future husband David Campbell; Dodo Chaplet's ancestor Anne Chaplet; Victoria Waterfield's father Edward; Jo Grant's future husband Prof. Clifford Jones; the companions' various co-workers at UNIT; Leela's father Sole & future husband or lover Andred; Tegan Jovanka's aunt Vanessa, maternal grandfather Andrew Verney, & cousin Colin Frazer; Nyssa's father Tremas & step-mother Kassia; Vislor Turlough's maths teacher retired Brig. Lethbridge-Stewart; Peri Brown's step-father Prof. Howard Foster, & future husband King Yrcanos; Ace McShane's ex-lover Sabalom Glitz, maternal grandmother Kathleen Dudman, infant mother Audrey Dudman, & a photograph of her maternal grandfather Frank Dudman); and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart's second wife Doris. Classic era spin-off media additionally introduced Sarah Jane Smith's aunt Lavina Smith (who had been an unseen character in the original series) & foster brother Brendan Richards, and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart's daughter Kate (who would later guest appear in the revived series) and grandson Gordon.

Conversely, families and friends of most companions in the revived era are extensively and continually depicted, and their adventures with the Doctor are generally not kept secret. The revived era has also featured a number of companions related to other companions by blood or marriage (Donna Noble's grandfather Wilfred Mott, Amy Pond's fiancé-cum-husband Rory Williams, and the couple's daughter River Song, and former companions Mickey Smith and Martha Jones who married subsequent to their companionship). No such relationships occurred among companions in the classic era (although original companions Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright are reported in the revived era to have married subsequent to their companionship). The families of some classic-era companions too have been depicted in the revived era, such as Jo Grant (n/k/a Jo Jones)'s grandson Santiago Jones; and Sarah Jane Smith's parents, adopted son Luke Smith, adopted daughter Sky Smith, and alternate timeline fiancé Peter Dalton; and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart's daughter Kate Stewart.

Another change in the revived era is the depiction of many companions' pre-doctor lives, particularly their childhoods; no companion was so depicted in the classic era. Companions Rose Tyler, Mickey Smith, Adelaide Brooke, Amy Pond, Rory Williams, and River Song have all been portrayed in their youths by juvenile actors on Doctor Who; the pre-companionship lives of the Pond-Williams-Song family being particularly well-documented. Companions Jack Harkness and Sarah Jane Smith have also been depicted in their youths on their respective spin-off series.