I actually loved Rose as much as the Doctor did. Sure, she had those traits, but she’s supposed to be every young girl, I guess, and I certainly did have some of those traits when I was 19 or 20.
True, maybe she was acting like a typical 19-year-old. I guess I never understood why the Doctor, someone of great experience and wisdom, would go for a “typical 19-year-old.” Obviously he would be way older than any human that he fell in love with, but to me, the maturity level here seemed way too different.
Donna’s grandfather, not her father. Wilf was a fantastic character who got his big break when the actor who played Donna’s father, Howard Attfield, got sick (and later died). Wilf was only supposed to be in the “Voyage of the Damned” episode as a newspaper seller but Davies tied him to Donna’s character after Attfield’s illness. I’d say he would have made a great companion but I’m not sure he would be up for all the running they seem to do.
Apparently Cribbins was also considered for the role as the Fourth Doctor, and appeared in an Eighth Doctor radio play. The man keeps coming back!
I should probably back out of this thread because I haven’t actually seen this yet, but while Rose is a bit annoying at times, this just sounds like another variant on “you can’t go home again,” like the hobbits’ return to the Shire in LotR. Once you’ve tasted the freedom of travel on a whim, staying locked into one time and (relatively speaking) one place would certainly seem confining.
Mickey eventually left his old life behind, too. He had adventures in a whole other reality for a while, then returned to a more exciting life in our world. (He’d been a mechanic.)
He’s that good - thanks for the correction - Doh!
Ok, since it’s a slow work day, here’s my assessment on all the companions:
Ian Chesterton - Not so much a companion as the original hero of the show. The Doctor was a mysterious background figure and too old for fight scenes. Ian was the man who stepped up, took charge of their little group and came up with most of their plans for battles, escapes, solving problems. Very well acted by William Russell, but nowadays with a more youthful, active Doctor there would simply be no need of this character.
Barbara Wright - One of the absolute best ever IMO. Smart, resourceful, dignified but a force to be reckoned with. She could stand up to the Doctor, talk back to the Daleks, hold her own against murderous thugs in the Crusade era Holy Land. And again, she was brilliantly acted by Jacqueline Hill. I absolutely believe that Ian & Barbara were what really hooked the original viewers on this show.
Susan Foreman - The polar opposite of Barbara. We’re told in the first episode that she’s supposed to be brilliant - but she always behaves as dumb as a rock. Susan is never less than annoying - useless, cringing, shrieking in fear, always being used as a hostage. The few times that she did have some active role in a story, actress Carole Ann Ford showed that she was not up to the challenge, giving bad performances uniformly. It’s no wonder she was the first major character to go. DW fandom tends to have a special reverence for this character (being the “original” companion, and the only known blood relative of the Doctor), but her actual appearances don’t justify the fond memories.
Vicki - slightly better acted than Susan, but given the same basic role to fill in stories - as the kid who tags along with the adults, stands in the background behind them, and occasionally gets kidnapped & used as a hostage.
Steven Taylor - Ian’s replacement as the young hero doing the “heavy lifting” so to speak (fight scenes, getting into dangerous situations that an elderly man like William Hartnell ought to avoid.) While he is capable of functioning on his own, he definitely defers to the Doctor when they are together; indicating a subtle but important shift in the dynamics of the main characters.
Katarina - There’s not enough evidence left to truly judge the character. In the one surviving episode of “the Dalek Master Plan” that she’s in, she barely appears onscreen. However the series producers themselves admitted they quickly ditched the character because she didn’t work. When the characters’ creators admit she isn’t working, that says a lot. (Did JNT or anyone in mid-80s DW ever admit that Peri or Mel didn’t work as sympathetic characters?)
Sara Kingdom - the first one-off companion (meaning, she was only ever meant to appear in a single story), Sara was a great character: tough, ruthless, willing to shoot down her own brother in cold blood if she thought it was the right thing to do. She lived by a moral code that clashes fiercely with the Doctor’s, but nevertheless earning his respect with her bravery. Played with great conviction by Jean Marsh, this character is definitely ahead of her time, and would have fit in well the new series. But it’s easy to see why she couldn’t become a continuing character in the mid-60s DW. She was too dark and complex for what was still thought of as a “children’s show.”
Dodo Chaplet - The first attempt to give a companion character a more “modern” outlook. Dodo starts out well in “the Ark”, excited at the prospect of time travelling and eager to explore new things, but then dissolves into tears quickly. I haven’t seen enough of her to judge her better, but her abrupt departure midway through “the War Machines” is jarring. She simply disappears in the middle of the story! Worst. exit. ever.
Polly & Ben Jackson - Much like Ian & Barbara, they were very much a team. But from what I’ve seen of them, they were good but forgettable. Polly was definitely a “screamer” companion - cowering from the bad guys, perpetual hostage, generally useless eye candy. Ben was just along for the ride to rescue Polly whenever she got held hostage. Not horrible, just not very memorable.
Jamie McCrimmon - Like Steven & Ben before him, he pretty much was there to do the heavy lifting that the more mature Patrick Troughton Doctor could not handle. But unlike them, the character has a genuine point-of-view, was adept at comic relief, and had great chemistry with the Doctor (one can easily imagine actors Troughton & Hines after shooting an episode knocking back pints at a local pub and laughing at the dialogue they’d just performed.) Unlike Susan, he really does merit his reputation as one of the greatest companions.
Victoria Waterfield - Not too much from her era remains to be seen nowadays. The only full story I’ve seen her in was “Tomb of the Cybermen”, but she isn’t too useful in that. By now, the mold had been set for the “screamer girl” companion.
the Brigadier - What can I say? Not just one of the best “companions”, but one of the best characters on the series ever. No nonsense, by the books, and a great foil for any Doctor (one of the few traits common to every Doctor is that they are decidedly unconventional & nonconformist.) Unfortunately, by the end of the UNIT era, he devolved into a bit of a joke. The writers had distinct lefty, anti-authoritarian tendencies, and the Doctor was written more like a quasi-hippie, while the Brigadier (who represented both the military & the Victorian “stiff-upper lip” old school British) was presented as ineffectual, short-sighted and even simple minded clod.
Zoe Heriot - I liked her. The combination of her being intensely book-smart, but sheltered & naive worked, as did the idea that a character so youthful could talk to the Doctor on his intellectual level. She also seemed to have better chemistry with Jamie than Victoria did.
Sgt. Benton - When I was a wee young, almost pubescent lad who didn’t yet know I was gay, Sgt. Benton stirred some rather odd feelings in me. I loved his cleft chin and his smile. But in retrospect, there’s not much to say about him. It seems he was introduced to take over for Jamie - as the guy young enough to throw punches. But Pertwee’s Doctor was very capable of subduing bad guys on his own, so Benton faded into the background. Like Dodo, he never got an actual “farewell” scene. Unlike Dodo, by the time he left he was so neglible, his disappearance wasn’t even noticeable.
Liz Shaw - A wasted opportunity. Liz actually anticipated the X-Files character Agent Scully by two decades. A modern-day scientist scoffing at UNIT’s mission and disbelieving the Doctor’s claim to being an alien. Liz starts out strong, and is well played by Caroline John, but before the story ends, she is meekly “holding the Doctor’s test tubes and telling him how brilliant he is.” One scene says it all about her - her first scene in [the Silurians* (at about 2:15.) As she enters, the Doctor is lying prone on the floor fixing Bessie, and check out the nerdy, knocked-kneed position Caroline has to assume in order to keep Pertwee from looking straight up her mini-dress! I don’t care if it was the height of fashion in 1970! Would a brilliant, Cambridge research scientist be wearing that baby doll outfit?? Also, another character who doesn’t get a farewell scene - which indicates how much the series’ producers regarded her.
Jo Grant - By now, the “girl screamer” had become an archetype of the series. It’s hard to resist actress Katy Manning’s charm, and even the character herself had a likeable vivacious nature, despite her scatterbrained, flighty clumsiness. Still, it’s impossible not to see a distinctly reactionary move in swapping out Liz for Jo. In real life, women were becoming more assertive & independant. In other adventure series, women like Emma Peel on the Avengers were far more strong-willed & capable. On DW, the female characters became shriller and more helpless. Jo was a far cry from Barbara Wright.
Captain Mike Yates - The square-jawed, macho tough guy who (from what I’ve read) was supposed to be a love interest for Jo. Like Benton, he was around to do the fight scenes, but since Pertwee’s Doctor was more than capable of punching out bad guys, he was pretty much a fifth wheel. At least he got an interesting departure - actually betraying UNIT, being dishonorably discharged, but redeeming himself in the end. That’s perhaps the first real character development story-arc the series ever had.
Sarah-Jane Smith - Again, a companion who starts out strong-willed and self-reliant, but eventually devolves into a screamer. By the time she debuted, the series was getting flack for its’ depiction of female characters, and S-J was clearly intended to off-set charges of misogyny. Her “women’s lib” speech in “the Monster of Peladon” seems awkwardly earnest now. But if the character’s rep as “the ultimate companion” seems over-rated, she IS being played by Liz Sladen. And who doesn’t love Liz Sladen? Actually, the more mature Sarah-Jane in the new millenium series (and in the Sarah-Jane Adventures) is a much more well-rounded, three-dimensional and interesting character than she was in her original run.
Harry Sullivan - a blithering idiot! Not useful, unmemorable, and quickly scrapped. Not an awful, hateful character mind you, he just didn’t add anything to the show and was simply a third wheel. Forgettable.
Leela - one of my personal favorites! Leela was a testiment to actress Louise Jameson’s determination. The character as outlined (a skimpily dressed, backward “savage” whom the Doctor educates) does seem to be the high-watermark of misogynist attitudes (Tom Baker famously detested the whole idea of Leela), but Jameson imbued her with a lot of dignity. She also demanded that the character be written as more assertive and tougher than the early scripts alllowed her to be. Leela was marred however by her stupid departure - falling in love with that simpering dolt? Nope, I never bought that ridiculous twist.
K-9 - As a kid, I loved K-9. But looking back, he seems altogether too gimmicky. The prop itself moved slowly, awkwardly and had a grating voice. Also too often used as a Deus Ex Machina device.
Romana #1 - Once more, a companion starting out strong, with a no-nonsense point-of-view that served as a nice counterpoint for the bumbling Doctor. Like Zoe, Romana was book-smart but naive. By the end of her one year with the Doctor, she was reduced to standing around saying “What is it, Doctor?” or waiting to be rescued by him. Also, actress Mary Tamm reputedly didn’t like working alongside Tom Baker (who was by this time becoming an increasingly difficult person to be around) which explains her sudden departure.
Romana #2 - Another great one. Lalla’s offscreen relationship with Baker certainly allowed her a little more clout into how her character was written (she’s admitted that she & Baker often re-wrote their dialogue to thier own liking.) Romana #2 worked well the Doctor #4, sharing his bohemian outlook and sense of adventure, but also able to reprimand him when he got too full of himself. She also never completely devolved into a screamer. Ok, every companion was obliged to do a little screaming now and then, but up to the very end she was fully capable of functioning on her own, and never relied on the Doctor to get her out of scapes.
Adric - I will make an embarrassing confession: I had a crush on Adric. And years later, when I found out that Matthew Waterhouse was gay, I was actually glad to hear it. Of course, Waterhouse couldn’t act, and Adric was an annoying “Wesley Crusher” type boy genius. Only whereas Wesley would at least save the day, Adric’s attempts to save the day always failed miserably - to the point of getting himself killed. And what can you say about a character that makes Wesley Crusher look good in comparison?
Nyssa - A great character, wonderfully acted, but unfortunately the chief victim of the “overcrowded TARDIS” era. Nyssa had an interesting tie to the Master that was never explored. She also seemed a little too complacent over the fact that her father, her civilization & home planet were destroyed in the blink of an eye! You’d think she would have shown a little bit of trauma over it. She was just one too many regular character, and the writers obviously didn’t know what to do with her. In fact, she actually detracted from the other companions. Since screentime had to be diverted from them to show Nyssa doing something, there was less opportunity to properly develop Tegan’s character. And in an effort to differentiate them, many of the character traits that Tegan should have embodied got shuffled off to Nyssa instead. That said, the friendship between Nyssa & Tegan was something unique - apart from the very early days, there was always one and ONLY one female companion character at a time. It was interesting to see two female characters get to bond, and share adventures & trials together. Tegan’s genuine upset when Nyssa announces she’s leaving the TARDIS is a rare moment in the original series’ history when two female characters are allowed to “have a moment.”
Tegan Jovanka - The victim of John Nathan-Turner’s awful costume design sense. Tegan’s bad attitude could be fully explained by the fact that she had nothing else to wear except that horrible purple stewardess uniform! Wouldn’t you be cranky if you were forced to wear something that ugly day-in, day-out? She’s best remembered as being a screechy harpy, but as I said above - she wasn’t allowed to develop any more sympathetic traits. Nyssa was established as “the nice” companion, Tegan had to be “the bitchy” companion. She was allowed to mellow out a tiny bit after Nyssa left (but still retained a certain amount of fiesty in-your-face attitude.) Actress Janet Fielding has earned the wrath of overzealous DW fans by being publically critical of the series. But to be fair, many of her criticisms were [URL=- YouTube]justified](http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8r1fs_doctor-who-and-the-silurians-part-1_shortfilms) .
Turlough - A great idea for a companion, a spy working for a bad guy against the Doctor. It’s too bad that his story-arc quickly fell apart. It would have been interesting to see him become genuinely evil, and do something actively menacing toward an unsuspecting Doctor, but the writers wimped out. Also, Turlough just always seemed cowardly and simpering. Plus, he’s [cartman voice]ginger!!![/cartman voice]
Kameleon - All I can say, is what did they intend to do with the character even IF they could ever get the robot prop to work right? There were already two companions - had they not learned their lesson from the previous season about too many regular characters?
Peri Braun - The beginning of the end. This role was literally Nicola Bryant’s first paying acting gig - and boy does it show. But to be fair, the writing during this era tended to be abysmal and she never had much of a chance. Everything about Peri was a misfire and there’s not much to redeem her (unless you’re a straight male and into big boobs.) Her “American” accent sucked, but it didn’t help that the writers gave her lines with distinctly British slants - “What is it, Doctor? It looks horrid!” (No mid-80s American girl would ever describe anything as “horrid.” Perhaps, “it’s disgusting!” or “Oh, gross!”, but “horrid”? No.)
Melanie - One of the reasons that made me give up on the show. Ughh. I simply could not stand her.
Ace - I’ve only seen two of her stories (watched them on DVD years after they originally ran in the States), so I haven’t seen her complete story arc - from “chip on her shoulder” to “older & wiser.” The “tough girl” companion was done much better by Leela IMO though.
Dr. Grace Holloway - Evidence that we are extremely lucky that the American adaptation did not take off. Grace was designed from the get-go to make the series more like then-popular “X-Files.” She also behaves very much like a latter-day era Bond Girl - we are told she’s a brilliant, capable, respected surgeon, but throughout the story she is shown behaving like a slack-jawed bimbo. Unlike most “Who” fans, I was not instinctively enraged at the idea that the Doctor might fall in love with a companion. I just couldn’t help wondering why this woman - of all the women he’d met over his many hundred years - was “the one”? I didn’t see any reason why he’d be so enamored of her in particular. There was no chemistry there.
Any way, that’s enough for me. I have wasted too much time on this, and will save my assessment of the “Nu Who” companions for a future post
Ok, since it’s a slow work day, here’s my assessment on all the companions:
Ian Chesterton - Not so much a companion as the original hero of the show. The Doctor was a mysterious background figure and too old for fight scenes. Ian was the man who stepped up, took charge of their little group and came up with most of their plans for battles, escapes, solving problems. Very well acted by William Russell, but nowadays with a more youthful, active Doctor there would simply be no need of this character.
Barbara Wright - One of the absolute best ever IMO. Smart, resourceful, dignified but a force to be reckoned with. She could stand up to the Doctor, talk back to the Daleks, hold her own against murderous thugs in the Crusade era Holy Land. And again, she was brilliantly acted by Jacqueline Hill. I absolutely believe that Ian & Barbara were what really hooked the original viewers on this show.
Susan Foreman - The polar opposite of Barbara. We’re told in the first episode that she’s supposed to be brilliant - but she always behaves as dumb as a rock. Susan is never less than annoying - useless, cringing, shrieking in fear, always being used as a hostage. The few times that she did have some active role in a story, actress Carole Ann Ford showed that she was not up to the challenge, giving bad performances uniformly. It’s no wonder she was the first major character to go. DW fandom tends to have a special reverence for this character (being the “original” companion, and the only known blood relative of the Doctor), but her actual appearances don’t justify the fond memories.
Vicki - slightly better acted than Susan, but given the same basic role to fill in stories - as the kid who tags along with the adults, stands in the background behind them, and occasionally gets kidnapped & used as a hostage.
Steven Taylor - Ian’s replacement as the young hero doing the “heavy lifting” so to speak (fight scenes, getting into dangerous situations that an elderly man like William Hartnell ought to avoid.) While he is capable of functioning on his own, he definitely defers to the Doctor when they are together; indicating a subtle but important shift in the dynamics of the main characters.
Katarina - There’s not enough evidence left to truly judge the character. In the one surviving episode of “the Dalek Master Plan” that she’s in, she barely appears onscreen. However the series producers themselves admitted they quickly ditched the character because she didn’t work. When the characters’ creators admit she isn’t working, that says a lot. (Did JNT or anyone in mid-80s DW ever admit that Peri or Mel didn’t work as sympathetic characters?)
Sara Kingdom - the first one-off companion (meaning, she was only ever meant to appear in a single story), Sara was a great character: tough, ruthless, willing to shoot down her own brother in cold blood if she thought it was the right thing to do. She lived by a moral code that clashes fiercely with the Doctor’s, but nevertheless earning his respect with her bravery. Played with great conviction by Jean Marsh, this character is definitely ahead of her time, and would have fit in well the new series. But it’s easy to see why she couldn’t become a continuing character in the mid-60s DW. She was too dark and complex for what was still thought of as a “children’s show.”
Dodo Chaplet - The first attempt to give a companion character a more “modern” outlook. Dodo starts out well in “the Ark”, excited at the prospect of time travelling and eager to explore new things, but then dissolves into tears quickly. I haven’t seen enough of her to judge her better, but her abrupt departure midway through “the War Machines” is jarring. She simply disappears in the middle of the story! Worst. exit. ever.
Polly & Ben Jackson - Much like Ian & Barbara, they were very much a team. But from what I’ve seen of them, they were good but forgettable. Polly was definitely a “screamer” companion - cowering from the bad guys, perpetual hostage, generally useless eye candy. Ben was just along for the ride to rescue Polly whenever she got held hostage. Not horrible, just not very memorable.
Jamie McCrimmon - Like Steven & Ben before him, he pretty much was there to do the heavy lifting that the more mature Patrick Troughton Doctor could not handle. But unlike them, the character has a genuine point-of-view, was adept at comic relief, and had great chemistry with the Doctor (one can easily imagine actors Troughton & Hines after shooting an episode knocking back pints at a local pub and laughing at the dialogue they’d just performed.) Unlike Susan, he really does merit his reputation as one of the greatest companions.
Victoria Waterfield - Not too much from her era remains to be seen nowadays. The only full story I’ve seen her in was “Tomb of the Cybermen”, but she isn’t too useful in that. By now, the mold had been set for the “screamer girl” companion.
the Brigadier - What can I say? Not just one of the best “companions”, but one of the best characters on the series ever. No nonsense, by the books, and a great foil for any Doctor (one of the few traits common to every Doctor is that they are decidedly unconventional & nonconformist.) Unfortunately, by the end of the UNIT era, he devolved into a bit of a joke. The writers had distinct lefty, anti-authoritarian tendencies, and the Doctor was written more like a quasi-hippie, while the Brigadier (who represented both the military & the Victorian “stiff-upper lip” old school British) was presented as ineffectual, short-sighted and even simple minded clod.
Zoe Heriot - I liked her. The combination of her being intensely book-smart, but sheltered & naive worked, as did the idea that a character so youthful could talk to the Doctor on his intellectual level. She also seemed to have better chemistry with Jamie than Victoria did.
Sgt. Benton - When I was a wee young, almost pubescent lad who didn’t yet know I was gay, Sgt. Benton stirred some rather odd feelings in me. I loved his cleft chin and his smile. But in retrospect, there’s not much to say about him. It seems he was introduced to take over for Jamie - as the guy young enough to throw punches. But Pertwee’s Doctor was very capable of subduing bad guys on his own, so Benton faded into the background. Like Dodo, he never got an actual “farewell” scene. Unlike Dodo, by the time he left he was so neglible, his disappearance wasn’t even noticeable.
Liz Shaw - A wasted opportunity. Liz actually anticipated the X-Files character Agent Scully by two decades. A modern-day scientist scoffing at UNIT’s mission and disbelieving the Doctor’s claim to being an alien. Liz starts out strong, and is well played by Caroline John, but before the story ends, she is meekly “holding the Doctor’s test tubes and telling him how brilliant he is.” One scene says it all about her - her first scene in the Silurians (at about 2:15.) As she enters, the Doctor is lying prone on the floor fixing Bessie, and check out the nerdy, knocked-kneed position Caroline has to assume in order to keep Pertwee from looking straight up her mini-dress! I don’t care if it was the height of fashion in 1970! Would a brilliant, Cambridge research scientist be wearing that baby doll outfit?? Also, another character who doesn’t get a farewell scene - which indicates how much the series’ producers regarded her.
Jo Grant - By now, the “girl screamer” had become an archetype of the series. It’s hard to resist actress Katy Manning’s charm, and even the character herself had a likeable vivacious nature, despite her scatterbrained, flighty clumsiness. Still, it’s impossible not to see a distinctly reactionary move in swapping out Liz for Jo. In real life, women were becoming more assertive & independant. In other adventure series, women like Emma Peel on the Avengers were far more strong-willed & capable. On DW, the female characters became shriller and more helpless. Jo was a far cry from Barbara Wright.
Captain Mike Yates - The square-jawed, macho tough guy who (from what I’ve read) was supposed to be a love interest for Jo. Like Benton, he was around to do the fight scenes, but since Pertwee’s Doctor was more than capable of punching out bad guys, he was pretty much a fifth wheel. At least he got an interesting departure - actually betraying UNIT, being dishonorably discharged, but redeeming himself in the end. That’s perhaps the first real character development story-arc the series ever had.
Sarah-Jane Smith - Again, a companion who starts out strong-willed and self-reliant, but eventually devolves into a screamer. By the time she debuted, the series was getting flack for its’ depiction of female characters, and S-J was clearly intended to off-set charges of misogyny. Her “women’s lib” speech in “the Monster of Peladon” seems awkwardly earnest now. But if the character’s rep as “the ultimate companion” seems over-rated, she IS being played by Liz Sladen. And who doesn’t love Liz Sladen? Actually, the more mature Sarah-Jane in the new millenium series (and in the Sarah-Jane Adventures) is a much more well-rounded, three-dimensional and interesting character than she was in her original run.
Harry Sullivan - a blithering idiot! Not useful, unmemorable, and quickly scrapped. Not an awful, hateful character mind you, he just didn’t add anything to the show and was simply a third wheel. Forgettable.
Leela - one of my personal favorites! Leela was a testiment to actress Louise Jameson’s determination. The character as outlined (a skimpily dressed, backward “savage” whom the Doctor educates) does seem to be the high-watermark of misogynist attitudes (Tom Baker famously detested the whole idea of Leela), but Jameson imbued her with a lot of dignity. She also demanded that the character be written as more assertive and tougher than the early scripts alllowed her to be. Leela was marred however by her stupid departure - falling in love with that simpering dolt? Nope, I never bought that ridiculous twist.
K-9 - As a kid, I loved K-9. But looking back, he seems altogether too gimmicky. The prop itself moved slowly, awkwardly and had a grating voice. Also too often used as a Deus Ex Machina device.
Romana #1 - Once more, a companion starting out strong, with a no-nonsense point-of-view that served as a nice counterpoint for the bumbling Doctor. Like Zoe, Romana was book-smart but naive. By the end of her one year with the Doctor, she was reduced to standing around saying “What is it, Doctor?” or waiting to be rescued by him. Also, actress Mary Tamm reputedly didn’t like working alongside Tom Baker (who was by this time becoming an increasingly difficult person to be around) which explains her sudden departure.
Romana #2 - Another great one. Lalla’s offscreen relationship with Baker certainly allowed her a little more clout into how her character was written (she’s admitted that she & Baker often re-wrote their dialogue to thier own liking.) Romana #2 worked well the Doctor #4, sharing his bohemian outlook and sense of adventure, but also able to reprimand him when he got too full of himself. She also never completely devolved into a screamer. Ok, every companion was obliged to do a little screaming now and then, but up to the very end she was fully capable of functioning on her own, and never relied on the Doctor to get her out of scapes.
Adric - I will make an embarrassing confession: I had a crush on Adric. And years later, when I found out that Matthew Waterhouse was gay, I was actually glad to hear it. Of course, Waterhouse couldn’t act, and Adric was an annoying “Wesley Crusher” type boy genius. Only whereas Wesley would at least save the day, Adric’s attempts to save the day always failed miserably - to the point of getting himself killed. And what can you say about a character that makes Wesley Crusher look good in comparison?
Nyssa - A great character, wonderfully acted, but unfortunately the chief victim of the “overcrowded TARDIS” era. Nyssa had an interesting tie to the Master that was never explored. She also seemed a little too complacent over the fact that her father, her civilization & home planet were destroyed in the blink of an eye! You’d think she would have shown a little bit of trauma over it. She was just one too many regular character, and the writers obviously didn’t know what to do with her. In fact, she actually detracted from the other companions. Since screentime had to be diverted from them to show Nyssa doing something, there was less opportunity to properly develop Tegan’s character. And in an effort to differentiate them, many of the character traits that Tegan should have embodied got shuffled off to Nyssa instead. That said, the friendship between Nyssa & Tegan was something unique - apart from the very early days, there was always one and ONLY one female companion character at a time. It was interesting to see two female characters get to bond, and share adventures & trials together. Tegan’s genuine upset when Nyssa announces she’s leaving the TARDIS is a rare moment in the original series’ history when two female characters are allowed to “have a moment.”
Tegan Jovanka - The victim of John Nathan-Turner’s awful costume design sense. Tegan’s bad attitude could be fully explained by the fact that she had nothing else to wear except that horrible purple stewardess uniform! Wouldn’t you be cranky if you were forced to wear something that ugly day-in, day-out? She’s best remembered as being a screechy harpy, but as I said above - she wasn’t allowed to develop any more sympathetic traits. Nyssa was established as “the nice” companion, Tegan had to be “the bitchy” companion. She was allowed to mellow out a tiny bit after Nyssa left (but still retained a certain amount of fiesty in-your-face attitude.) Actress Janet Fielding has earned the wrath of overzealous DW fans by being publically critical of the series. But to be fair, many of her criticisms were justified .
Turlough - A great idea for a companion, a spy working for a bad guy against the Doctor. It’s too bad that his story-arc quickly fell apart. It would have been interesting to see him become genuinely evil, and do something actively menacing toward an unsuspecting Doctor, but the writers wimped out. Also, Turlough just always seemed cowardly and simpering. Plus, he’s [cartman voice]ginger!!![/cartman voice]
Kameleon - All I can say, is what did they intend to do with the character even IF they could ever get the robot prop to work right? There were already two companions - had they not learned their lesson from the previous season about too many regular characters?
Peri Braun - The beginning of the end. This role was literally Nicola Bryant’s first paying acting gig - and boy does it show. But to be fair, the writing during this era tended to be abysmal and she never had much of a chance. Everything about Peri was a misfire and there’s not much to redeem her (unless you’re a straight male and into big boobs.) Her “American” accent sucked, but it didn’t help that the writers gave her lines with distinctly British slants - “What is it, Doctor? It looks horrid!” (No mid-80s American girl would ever describe anything as “horrid.” Perhaps, “it’s disgusting!” or “Oh, gross!”, but “horrid”? No.)
Melanie - One of the reasons that made me give up on the show. Ughh. I simply could not stand her.
Ace - I’ve only seen two of her stories (watched them on DVD years after they originally ran in the States), so I haven’t seen her complete story arc - from “chip on her shoulder” to “older & wiser.” The “tough girl” companion was done much better by Leela IMO though.
Dr. Grace Holloway - Evidence that we are extremely lucky that the American adaptation did not take off. Grace was designed from the get-go to make the series more like then-popular “X-Files.” She also behaves very much like a latter-day era Bond Girl - we are told she’s a brilliant, capable, respected surgeon, but throughout the story she is shown behaving like a slack-jawed bimbo. Unlike most “Who” fans, I was not instinctively enraged at the idea that the Doctor might fall in love with a companion. I just couldn’t help wondering why this woman - of all the women he’d met over his many hundred years - was “the one”? I didn’t see any reason why he’d be so enamored of her in particular. There was no chemistry there.
Any way, that’s enough for me. I have wasted too much time on this, and will save my assessment of the “Nu Who” companions for a future post
This is easy to me - she totally believed everything the Doctor did was right and fabulous. She didn’t argue with him, just accepted him and loved him. I can see anyone kind of wanting that now and them, someone who just thinks you’re brilliant all the time.
Next came Martha, who did argue with him, plenty, and still loved him, and Donna, who also argued, but also respected him and was mates with him, and emphatically did not love him.
To account for Grace and a couple of others, as a kid I had the theory that he’d sort of ‘imprint’ on whoever was around and looked after him when he was recovering from a regeneration.
Wow. 
Very nice breakdown Don.
I really enjoyed the interactions between Ace and Sylvester McCoy’s by-turns somewhat foolish and curmudgeonly Doctor. Who can’t love a companion the Doctor can turn to and say (paraphrased from memory): “That high explosive that I expressly forbade you to carry around… how much of it do you have on you?” 
Ah Ace, the girl who liked things to go bang.
All the people who disliked Peri and Mel should give the Big Finish audio dramas a try. It’s amazing how much better the two of them can act if the script they’re given is good.
From the old show Liz Shaw was the one I liked the least. She was just sort of there… I like the concept of the character just fine, but it seems the stories never had her doing anything interesting and she appeared to be bored for lots of the time. I thought that Jo was a great improvement and I disagree she’s as useless as many people seem to think. Later Leela and Romana played the more active, more equal companion much better, IMO. (I particularly love Leela, whom I believe is the only companion who ever reassured the Doctor he shouldn’t be scared: “Do not be afraid, Doctor. If what you say is true we must arm ourselves and post guards!” And from the same story, just because it’s so cool: “Empty threats, Rutan. Enjoy your death as I enjoyed killing you!”)
From the new series both Rose and Martha started well enough but quickly started getting on my nerves and I just can’t stand smug Amy Pond with her terrible acting. I liked Mickey and Rory and adored Donna.
Huh? I think she is one of the most talented actresses as a companion. This scene always brings me to tears.
It’s a good scene but I don’t see anything particularly noteworthy in the actress’ performance of it. Also, it’s more of a cumulative effect with me. I liked Amy’s first couple of appearances before I started getting annoyed. It’s like she has this self-satisfied expression in her face most of the time and when it’s not that it’s a kind of confused fear. I really hate the character, so maybe that’s bleeding through to my perception of the actress, who knows? Anyways, that’s just my opinion and YMMV.
I just want to know why the video was flipped. Everything was backwards.
Personally while Amy is not my favorite I think she is a fine actress. I never have any problems believing her character. I loved her in her first appearance as a police women.
It helps keep videos from being deleted by the copyright owner.
You’re probably a secret ginger-hater. I like her but I like Scots and gingers. I think we’ve seen her character grow from a confused girl who didn’t know what she wanted to a stronger woman who knows what she wants.
I’ve been trying to watch some of the older episodes to get a feel for the other companions. I saw one episode* with Ace and I liked her, I just don’t understand why she had to run tell the bad guy (Fenris) the solution to a puzzle when she figured it out. Fine you’re brilliant but you’re not supposed to help the bag guy just to prove it. Actually, the ending of that one confused me a bit.
I saw an episode with Nyssa, Tegan and Adric and Adric was so whiny I was hoping that was the episode where he dies. No such luck. Tegan was kind of whiny but I’d probably be whiny too, if I had to wear that outfit all the time (didn’t the doctor have a whole bunch of spare clothes?) and I’m not sure what was up with Nyssa. I was kind of hoping the 17th century guy was going to end up joining them, he was the most interesting one of the group.
*I say episodes but they were 3 or 4 episodes in one storyline, were those called series or just 3 or 4 part episodes?
In BBC parlance, each production cycle is a series - in the US model, each season/year is a season. In BBC parlance, each cycle is a series.
And in the U.S., a “series” is the show or program itself, including all of the individual seasons.