assistants

One of my earliest memories was of Ace running from the cybermen, so obviously Sophie Aldred's one of my favourites.

I hope Romana ends up coming back at some point.

When I was a child the BBC often repeated Dr Who (mostly Third and Fourth Doctors), and I quite liked Sarah Jane.
 
My earliest TV memories were of McCoy's Doctor and Ace also :)

Martha and Rose were both great. It was a shame how they suddenly forgot most of the characters from the series' that Tennant did as soon as he regenerated. I liked the continuity between the Eccleston and Tennant 'eras'.
 
Harpo said:
Which assistants were the best in your opinion? Will Susan return for the 50th anniversary of DW? Does K9 count as an assistant?

Discuss
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As an avid fan of Doctor Who since the days that I could only find the show on PBS pledge drives, I can't say that I have disliked any of the Doctor's companions (with the possible exception of Turlough); but I don't think the best companion can be picked without considering how she or he interacted with the Doctor.

To me, the most dynamic team to travel in the TARDIS was Tom Baker and Lalla Ward. Baker is, in my mind, the definitive Doctor, much as Sean Connery is the James Bond by which all other 007s are (or should be) measured. The Doctor's predecessors – William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton and John Pertwee – tended to be somewhat on the stodgy side. Baker brought a whimsical, mildly insane element to role that continues, through the Doctor's most recent regenerations, to make the series great.

As Romana II and a Timelord on equal footing with the doctor, Ward was more than a companion. The fact that she was Baker's real-world wife during 16 months of her time on the series lent, in my perception, something to their give-and-take banter.

I must add, however, that Jenna Louise-Coleman well may be the companion to unseat Ward. Aside from the fact that she's the cutest companion yet, the Impossible Girl has spunk way beyond her diminutive stature. Like the TARDIS, she's “bigger on the inside,” or, as she would put it, “smaller on the outside.”
 
REBerg: did you ever see Adric?
 
thaddeus6th said:
REBerg: did you ever see Adric?
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Funny, when you mentioned Adric, I immediately flashed on Nyssa and Tegan. The windows to my memories are not exactly crystal clear, but the I don't feel any residual ill-will toward Adric. I see that the Whoniverse regards his character with the same disdain that Star Trek fans harbor for Wesley Crusher. My guess is that I tended to focus on Sarah Sutton and Janet Fielding, leaving insufficient room on my mental hard drive to store Adric data.
 
Oh for me it has to be

Ace (Sylvester McCoy). She was the first one that felt intelligent, tough and she had something about her I could relate to.

From the new series Martha stood out for me.
 
Donna!

I loved Donna. I loved the genuine friendship that she and the Doctor had. I loved how she kept thinking she wasn't anything special, but did so many awesome things.

Which is why her ending was AWFUL and I don't speak of it!
 
Donna for me too - I've just watched "Turn Left", "The Stolen Earth", and "Journey's End" on daytime TV (oh, the joy of holidays!), and if there's a more poignant end to an assistant's time with the Doctor than Donna's, I haven't seen it.

Going further back, I've fond memories of the Fourth Doctor's Leela (Louise Jameson), and even further back, the Second Doctor's Jamie (Frazer Hines)
 
I hated Donna's ending. Yes, in a later season she married a man who actually seemed to be in love with her, and there was the lottery ticket ... but I wanted to see the occasional newspaper story in passing, or something on TV as the Doctor walked past, all about amazing things Donna was doing to end world hunger or something. Yes, she forgot her time with the Doctor, but that wonderful, compassionate, adventurous woman was still there inside of her.
 
Taking the Doctor out of the equation, Sarah Jane Smith (the late Elisabeth Sladen) is the superlative stand-alone companion from the entire Doctor Who timeline.

It always saddens me when a companion leaves the series, regardless of the circumstances, but the departure of Sarah Jane Smith broke my heart. I was overjoyed when, 30 years later, her path again crossed the Doctor's David Tenant incarnation. When she told him “I waited for you,” I was a bit watery-eyed. (Think I invest a little too much in favorite television characters?)

Anyway, my perception of Sarah Jane's top spot on the pantheon of Doctor Who companions is validated by the record number of times she has reappeared in the storylines, as well as the fact that she got her own spin-off series (and K-9!), The Sarah Jane Adventures. Fans throughout the world cried when she passed on.

Try googling "The Final Moments of the Sarah Jane Adventures".
 
I always thought Adric was much maligned. Most of criticism comes from Four to Doomsday, which I have to say he was acting most out of character in. He wasn't usually sexist, he just didn't get on with Tegan. He also might have joined forces with the Doctor's enemies on a number of occasions, but that was usually him trying to work against them from within rather than the abject stupidity shown in Doomsday. The biggest problem with his character was the general unlikeability of Mathew Waterhouse's acting.
 
My first ever love (not only of DW assistants) was for Zoe, but I suppose that was just age and hormones, even though she was even more a helpless girl who screamed than even her predecessors.
I found Sarah Jane a bit stuffy, although I loved when she came back in Reunion which I think was a terrific episode both for the girls and for what it said about the Doctor. Romanna (Lalla Ward, not Mary Tamm) was lots of fun.
But my favourite assistant to date has to be Donna. Coming after all the love interest of Rose and Martha, she was just great. Someone who both was and wasn't a match for DW, was in awe of him and told him off, and made it all great fun, and the doctor/Donna thing was terrific. It was so sad when she had to be "wiped".
 
I felt Donna was the best companion of the present series. Classic, Ace, love Sophie Aldred of course when she posed in that skin tight leather outfit many years ago, clouds not my Judgement!!!! :p Donna was fiesty and helped bring a touch of humanity to the show. Notable mention for Micky, just because he was the robot dog!!!:D
 
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