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Over the centuries, the Doctor has acquired numerous companions in his travels through space and time. Some appear to have travelled with him for years, others for just a few days. While these companions have included members of various species from different planets, most have been humans from the planet Earth, especially the 20th and 21st centuries. Most of these, in turn, have been young females. The earliest known companion of the Doctor was Susan Foreman, who was his granddaughter and a fellow native of Gallifrey. He has also had at least one fellow Time Lord as a companion (Romana - it is not known whether Susan was considered a Time Lord during her travels with the Doctor).]]
Not all of the Doctor's companions have been humanoid, as he has also travelled with a robot dog (K-9), a shape-changing android (Kamelion) and a shape-shifting alien who preferred to maintain the form of an earth penguin (Frobisher), among others. In an alternate timeline, the Doctor also travelled with a android recreation of The Master (DW: Scream of the Shalka).
Nor do companions necessarily need to travel with the Doctor, though almost all do. Some friends of the Doctor generally accorded companion status are Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, Sally Sparrow, and Grace Holloway.
Most evidence indicates the Doctor's relationships with his companions have been generally platonic in nature. There have been some instances where a relationship between the Doctor and a companion may have developed beyond simple friendship, but the only confirmed case of this (to date) has been the relationship between the Doctor and Rose Tyler (DW: Doomsday, Journey's End). At least three companions have indicated they had fallen in love with the Doctor, although the Doctor did not appear to reciprocate: Sarah Jane Smith (DW: School Reunion), Jack Harkness (DW: Utopia, et al) and Martha Jones (Last of the Time Lords, et al). The Doctor, in his tenth incarnation, also encountered River Song, a woman from his personal future who claimed to have been not only a companion, but to also share a relationship with the Doctor intimate enough for him to tell her his real name (DW: Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead). The Doctor, for his part, once told Rose that he couldn't allow himself to develop such feelings, due to the reality that, as a Time Lord, he can expect to live for centuries, while a human companion would age and die. (DW: School Reunion) However, by the time Rose became trapped on Pete's World, the Doctor had changed this attitude, at least in terms of Rose; her subsequent loss to a parallel world sent the Doctor into an emotional tailspin halted by his later companionships with Donna Noble and Martha Jones. Despite the close friendships that developed, he remained emotionally distant from Martha in particular, despite (perhaps due to) her own direct professions of love for the Doctor; she eventually left him due to this (DW: Last of the Time Lords).
The exact term used to describe these various friends of the Doctor has varied over the years, ranging from "friend" to "assistant" to "companion". Among the few uses of the term in an official sense were via former Prime Minister Harriet Jones when she activated the SubWave Network and identified Martha Jones as "former companion of the Doctor" (DW: The Stolen Earth) and by Yvonne Hartman of Torchwood 1 who said "the Doctor and his companion" was the general pattern of the TARDIS crew. Jones also referred to the former companions of the Tenth Doctor as "The Doctor's Secret Army" (DW: The Stolen Earth), while Dalek Caan referred to them and "The Children of Time" (DW: Journey's End).
Joining the Doctor
Companions have come and gone in many different ways. Some, such as Rose Tyler, have been explicitly invited (DW: Rose); some have been unwilling adventurers, such as Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright (DW: An Unearthly Child); while some have joined the TARDIS crew by accident, such as Dodo Chaplet (DW: The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve). A few individuals have been invited to join the Doctor in his travels, only to decline, such as Grace Holloway (DW: Doctor Who: The TV Movie) and (initially) Donna Noble (DW: The Runaway Bride); others, having been invited, were ultimately prevented from joining the Doctor due to their deaths, such as Lynda Moss (DW: The Parting of the Ways), Madame de Pompadour (DW: The Girl in the Fireplace), Astrid Peth (DW: Voyage of the Damned) and Jenny (DW: The Doctor's Daughter) - although in Jenny's case her "death" was only temporary.
Leaving the Doctor
Companions have departed the Doctor for various reasons. Some have left after becoming disillusioned with the life of a time-traveller, such as Tegan Jovanka (DW: Resurrection of the Daleks), while a number of companions have departed in order to forge a new life in a new time or world, such as Vicki (DW: The Myth Makers), Mickey Smith (DW: The Age of Steel) and Susan Foreman (DW: The Dalek Invasion of Earth), although in the case of Susan the decision for her to stay was made by her grandfather. A few companions have left the Doctor due to Time Lord actions, such as Sarah Jane Smith (DW: The Hand of Fear) and Jamie McCrimmon (DW: The War Games). Only one companion has lost the privilege of travelling in the TARDIS: Adam Mitchell was evicted (DW: The Long Game) for bad behaviour. On a few rare occasions, companions have been killed while travelling with the Doctor, the first known fatality being Katarina (DW: The Daleks' Master Plan).
Life afterwards
After departing from a companion, the Doctor is rarely known to reunite with them, though there have been some notable exceptions, such as Sarah Jane Smith (DW: The Five Doctors, School Reunion, The Stolen Earth/Journey's End), Martha Jones (DW: The Sontaran Strategem through The Doctor's Daughter and The Stolen Earth/Journey's End), Jamie McCrimmon (The Two Doctors), Jack Harkness (DW: Utopia through Last of the Time Lords and The Stolen Earth/Journey's End]], Mickey Smith (Doomsday) and Donna Noble, who received a rare second chance to travel with the Doctor after her initial refusal (DW: The Runaway Bride and Partners in Crime). Others who have reunited with the Doctor have included Romana (BFA: The Apocalypse Element, et al), Tegan Jovanka (BFA: The Gathering) and Harry Sullivan (DW: The Android Invasion).
Although not companions in the traditional sense, the Doctor has, from time to time, shared one-off adventures with notable figures in history, in which they function as companions. Examples include H.G. Wells (DW: Timelash), Charles Dickens (DW: The Unquiet Dead), William Shakespeare (DW: The Shakespeare Code), and Agatha Christie (DW: The Unicorn and the Wasp). In the case of Christie, the Eighth Doctor once claimed she actually travelled with him at one point (BFA: Terror Firma).
- (For a full roster of the Doctor's companions see: List of companions).
Other Time Lords have been known to have companions in their travels. Before his final corruption into the renegade known as the Master, the Time Lord Koschei was accompanied in his hunt for the Doctor by Ailla. Koschei believed Ailla to be a young woman from a 28th century Earth colony, but she was in fact a Time Lady agent sent by the High Council to spy on the increasingly erratic Koschei's actions (MA: The Dark Path). In his battle with the newly regenerated Eighth Doctor, the Master was assisted by Chang Lee, a young man in 1999 San Francisco. Lee had been convinced by the Master that the Doctor was evil. Only too late did he learn the truth as the Master killed the boy, although the Doctor subsequently restored him to life (DW: Doctor Who: The TV Movie).
The Master took the Time Lord-companion relationship one step further by marrying his human companion Lucy Saxon, with every indication that a passionate relationship initially existed between them (DW: The Sound of Drums), only for it to turn physically abusive later, culminating in Lucy shooting and apparently killing her husband. (DW: Last of the Time Lords)
Noel Coward was a close friend and may even have been a travelling companion of the Time Lady known to the Doctor as Iris Wildthyme (EDA: Mad Dogs and Englishmen).
When she left the Fourth Doctor in E-Space, Romana was accompanied by K-9 Mark II, and K-9 continued to be her companion after she returned to normal space (DW: Shada (webcast), et al). After returning to Gallifrey, Romana has shared numerous adventures alongside one of the Doctor's former companions, Leela (BFA: Gallifrey).
Behind the scenes
The exact criteria for a character becoming a companion has been a matter of debate in Doctor Who fan circles for many years, with some choosing not to consider "one-off" characters such as Sara Kingdom or Grace Holloway to be companions. Also debated is whether recurring characters who share adventures with the Doctor but don't necessarily travel with him should be considered companions, such as The Brigadier, Mike Yates and, more recently, Jackie Tyler.
The role of companions in the narrative vary. Usually, they play the role of stand-in for the audience by giving the Doctor a reason to explain what is happening in the story and what he is doing. In the case of the First Doctor who was more frail and older than his successors, male companions were included for the purpose of action scenes and to add a heroic element. Companions also often get into trouble requiring the Doctor to rescue them and, female companions in particular, have been noted for screaming in fear. A number of actors have expressed frustration at the limited nature of the companion role in the original series and this has been a factor in the decision of many female actors in particular not to extend their periods on the program. In the original series the companions who remained longest with the Doctor were Jamie McCrimmon, Sarah Jane Smith, Jo Grant and Tegan Jovanka. While the first three are generally viewed as the most popular companions of the original series, Tegan Jovanka's character was not particularly popular and was disliked by large sections of the audience perhaps rivalled only by fellow John Nathan-Turner era companions Adric and Melanie Bush in terms of unpopularity.
The degree to which companions are developed varies. Under producer John Nathan-Turner in particular, companions tended to be one dimensional though they tended to argue with the Doctor more than in other eras which perhaps resulted in many of the companions in the Nathan-Turner era being less popular with audiences than before or since, with the possible exception of Ace. Russell T. Davies is noted for giving companions more depth and making them into more important features of the program. In the new series, there has been extended exposition on both the impact the Doctor has on the lives of their companions and their emotional development while travelling with him as well as the lasting impact he has on their lives once they leave. A companion's reasons for joining the Doctor have also been given more attention. As well, the Doctor's need for companions, both in order to alleviate his loneliness and to help him keep his bearings and avoid going too far in his conflicts with aliens has also been explored. Under Davies tenure, ongoing attention has been paid, for the first time, to a companion's family and the effect their travels with the Doctor have on them. In previous eras - if a companion's family was seen at all - it would be in the series that introduced the companion.
In the original series, some attempts were made to depart from sterotypical depictions of female companions. Zoe Heriot was a mathematician and a genius whose technical knowledge was, in some instances, greater than the Doctor's. Liz Shaw was UNIT's scientific advisor who was on leave from Cambridge University and Romana was a fellow Time Lord whose academic record was superior to the Doctor's. Romana II, in particular, was depicted as very much the Doctor's equal and even shared the Fourth Doctor's sense of humour and whimsical nature, in contrast to the more austere Romana I. Finally, Nyssa was gifted in bioelectronics and had other advanced scientific knowledge and was one of the few companions capable of operating the Tardis.