# From the CHARACTER'S point of view: which companion travelled with the Doctor for the longest time? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 20, 2014, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-the-characters-point-of-view-which-companion-travelled-with-the-doctor-for-the-longest-time/705190 "2014-11-20T19:41:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2014, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-the-characters-point-of-view-which-companion-travelled-with-the-doctor-for-the-longest-time/705190/21 "2014-11-20T22:05:43Z")
K-9 StG ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2014, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-the-characters-point-of-view-which-companion-travelled-with-the-doctor-for-the-longest-time/705190/22 "2014-11-20T22:47:44Z")
> [@StGermain](#): > > K-9 > > StG How do you figure K-9? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2014, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-the-characters-point-of-view-which-companion-travelled-with-the-doctor-for-the-longest-time/705190/23 "2014-11-20T23:11:55Z")
**Jamie McCrimmon** joined the Doctor a few days after the beginning of his second regeneration and traveled with him non-stop until the Time Lords finally caught up with them both and forced the Doctor into his third regeneration. So Jamie’s time in the Tardis is equivalent to the duration of the doctor’s second regeneration, whatever that is. Years at least, maybe decades. Which makes sense. Jamie was the closest friend the Doctor ever had. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2014, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-the-characters-point-of-view-which-companion-travelled-with-the-doctor-for-the-longest-time/705190/24 "2014-11-20T23:19:47Z")
It’s part of the back story. But didn’t Captain Jack Harkness travel with the Doctor for a long, long, long time? The guy is immortal. He may not count since his adventures with the Doctor are mostly off camera. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2014, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-the-characters-point-of-view-which-companion-travelled-with-the-doctor-for-the-longest-time/705190/25 "2014-11-20T23:22:53Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > It’s part of the back story. But didn’t Captain Jack Harkness travel with the Doctor for a long, long, long time? The guy is immortal. > > He may not count since it mostly off camera. No, I’d say it counts for this thread, but I still need a cite that Jack’s tenure was all that long. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2014, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-the-characters-point-of-view-which-companion-travelled-with-the-doctor-for-the-longest-time/705190/26 "2014-11-20T23:38:52Z")
Every year K-9 was with him counts for seven. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2014, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-the-characters-point-of-view-which-companion-travelled-with-the-doctor-for-the-longest-time/705190/27 "2014-11-20T23:39:07Z")
Idris was with him from the beginning. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-the-characters-point-of-view-which-companion-travelled-with-the-doctor-for-the-longest-time/705190/28 "2014-11-21T02:30:25Z")
> [@Suburban\_Plankton](#): > > Well, she appeared in several stories with the 10th Doctor, and she did in fact “set foot in the Tardis” at the end of [School Reunion](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School_Reunion_(Doctor_Who))…though she does decline the Doctor’s offer to travel with him again. > So…do we have a winner here, or not? Not only at the end of School Reunion. At the end of “Journey’s End,” she helps the Tenth Doctor pilot the TARDIS, towing Earth, back to its correct location in the cosmos, the planet having been stolen by Davros et al (along with twenty-six other planetoids including Adipose III, Pyrovillia, the Lost Moon of Poosh, and Clom.) At the end of “The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith (Part 2),” Sarah Jane, Rani, Clyde, and Luke are all in the TARDIS, and the Tenth Doctor and Sarah spent time together during this story. Finally, the Eleventh Doctor and Sarah Jane spend time together during the events of “Death of the Doctor,” which also reunites the Doctor with Jo Grant (now Jo Jones, having married Professor Clifford Jones following the end of “The Green Death.” I don’t see any way the answer is NOT Sarah Jane Smith. It was always the Doctor and Sarah. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-the-characters-point-of-view-which-companion-travelled-with-the-doctor-for-the-longest-time/705190/29 "2014-11-21T02:32:43Z")
> [@Suburban\_Plankton](#): > > He was never technically a ‘Companion’, but I don’t think we can let this thread go without at least mentioning Brigadier Sir Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart. He first appeared with the Second Doctor (when he was himself only a mere Lieutenant Colonel), then they they had doings off and on through to the run of the Seventh Doctor, 21 years later. Since the Brigadier, to the best of my recollection, never left Earth, we can consider his tenure to be in ‘real time’. And he even steps in after death. But he’s not a companion, in the sense that Rose, Martha, Donna, etc. were. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-the-characters-point-of-view-which-companion-travelled-with-the-doctor-for-the-longest-time/705190/30 "2014-11-21T02:54:53Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Idris was with him from the beginning. Yes, although she doesn’t count as a companion. She can’t talk, unless she’s been replaced by a house. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-the-characters-point-of-view-which-companion-travelled-with-the-doctor-for-the-longest-time/705190/31 "2014-11-21T03:47:31Z")
In a manner of speaking, the Doctor’s longest companion is the Tardis. It’s alive, after all. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-the-characters-point-of-view-which-companion-travelled-with-the-doctor-for-the-longest-time/705190/32 "2014-11-21T03:58:05Z")
> [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](#): > > In a manner of speaking, the Doctor’s longest companion is the Tardis. It’s alive, after all. That’s the Idris people keep mentioning, from the episode where she was briefly incarnated in a human(ish) body. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-the-characters-point-of-view-which-companion-travelled-with-the-doctor-for-the-longest-time/705190/33 "2014-11-21T04:14:46Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Yes, although she doesn’t count as a companion. She can’t talk, unless she’s been replaced by a house. Equal rights for [del]Tardises[/del][del]Tardissess[/del][del]Tardi[/del]Police Call Boxes! ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2014, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-the-characters-point-of-view-which-companion-travelled-with-the-doctor-for-the-longest-time/705190/34 "2014-11-21T16:05:04Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > No, I’d say it counts for this thread, but I still need a cite that Jack’s tenure was all that long. If we are counting Torchwood as canon, a little over 2000 years pass for him between the time Rose makes him immortal and he rides on the Tardis in _Journey’s End._ ---
**Author:** ![Slade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5ac83/32.png) [@Slade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slade)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2014, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-the-characters-point-of-view-which-companion-travelled-with-the-doctor-for-the-longest-time/705190/35 "2014-11-22T09:25:04Z")
[deleted] ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2014, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-the-characters-point-of-view-which-companion-travelled-with-the-doctor-for-the-longest-time/705190/36 "2014-11-22T10:42:17Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > (now Jo Jones, having married Professor Clifford Jones following the end of “The Green Death.”) Russell T Davies has a strange fixation on the surname Jones. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2014, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-the-characters-point-of-view-which-companion-travelled-with-the-doctor-for-the-longest-time/705190/37 "2014-11-22T11:58:57Z")
It has to be Fear, whoever he is. If we know anything, it’s that Fear is a constant companion. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2014, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-the-characters-point-of-view-which-companion-travelled-with-the-doctor-for-the-longest-time/705190/38 "2014-11-22T17:50:09Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Russell T Davies has a strange fixation on the surname Jones. Jo Jones (née Grant) predates Russel Davies tenure as a Who writer by about 32 years. Davies as a human being only predates Jo Grant by about eight years. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2014, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-the-characters-point-of-view-which-companion-travelled-with-the-doctor-for-the-longest-time/705190/39 "2014-11-22T17:50:55Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > If we are counting Torchwood as canon, a little over 2000 years pass for him between the time Rose makes him immortal and he rides on the Tardis in _Journey’s End._ But not “in the company of the Doctor.” Most of that time was spent under Wales. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2014, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-the-characters-point-of-view-which-companion-travelled-with-the-doctor-for-the-longest-time/705190/40 "2014-11-22T17:59:18Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Russell T Davies has a strange fixation on the surname Jones. Yes, although Jo isn’t an example of it. Clifford Jones was created by Robert Sloman and Barry Letts, the writer and showrunner of “The Green Death,” in 1973 – when Davies was ten. But it’s true that Davies has used both “Smith,” and “Jones,” on different characters, which I actually find kind of refreshing. They are, after all, the first and second most common English surnames. Fiction usually spares us duplicate names[sup]\*[/sup] in an effort to avoid audience confusion. I like the multiple Smiths and Jonses. - See “Silence in the Library,” a Moffat episode, with Proper Dave and Other Dave. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-the-characters-point-of-view-which-companion-travelled-with-the-doctor-for-the-longest-time/705190.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-the-characters-point-of-view-which-companion-travelled-with-the-doctor-for-the-longest-time/705190.md?page=3)