Your Favorite and least Favorite Dr Who Companions and why ?

[BAYLOR]

Which companions do you like the most and which do you like the least and why?

 

[thaddeus6th]

Ace.

One of my earliest memories is of her, actually. Might be a bit muddled, but I'm fairly sure she was running down hills and then across a catwalk to try and escape cybermen (so, probably from Silver Nemesis, the book of which I read a while back).

I liked Martha the least. Not because the actress was bad but because the character was effectively Not-Rose. The overblown sentimentality of New Who is not a good thing. (Cybermen should be killed with gold in the chest grille, not hugs).

 

[Ray Pullar]

Most: Romana Why: beautiful, intelligent, witty
Least: Adric Why: smugly self-satisfied precocious teenaged lad, makes Wesley Crusher look good

 

[Anushka Mokosh]

I did not watch the old series so this is strictly new series.

The one I like the most is Donna Noble. I liked her dynamic with the Doctor. I think Doctor needed her most of all and I loved how their respective stories enhanced one another. IMO, out of all the companions, it was a relationship that brought out the best in both the most because they complimented each other and compensated for each others flaws and supported one another. She was the most equal of companions without taking away from the Doctor. And her ending is by far my favourite. It makes me cry no matter how many times I watch it.

The one I like the least is Clara. While I own up that Martha rarely being allowed to be a character in her own right makes her a pretty lame companion and that Clara was a pretty great companion early on, I think that in later arcs of her presence, Clara was the character who took away the most from the Doctor. We were too busy dealing with her drama to let Capaldi properly explore the new Doctor, his own identity and how those extra regenerations and their implications reflect on him as a person. What should have been the centrepiece of a great series and a great performance was sidelined in favour of petty drama and thus, I dislike Clara the most because she was an obstacle to that potential.

 

[Vince W]

Favourites: It's very hard to choose a favourite among the classic Who series. They all seem to have a special place in my heart. Except for...

... Adric. A little prat. And almost all the Nu-companions irritate me in some fashion. They range from cloying to grating.

 

[thaddeus6th]

Romana was very nice. And I agree (bearing in mind I saw practically none of Capaldi's stint) that Donna Noble was the best New Who companion.

 

[BAYLOR]

Favorites Sarah Jane Smith, Romana 1 and 2 , very likable character. Nyssa was cool and beautiful . And yes I liked Adric , I liked Rose and Donna and Clara and Rory wasn't that bad

Least Favorite , Victoria , Tegan , Turlogh , Peri all grated on me.

 

[Ray Pullar]

Sarah, while likeable, was not much more than Jo Grant II. Her popularity stems from appearing in many classic middle-period Tom Baker stories. Nyssa was a negligible drip.

 

[Anthoney]

Going against the grain my least favorite (of the new companions) was Donna Noble (for the life of me I just don't understand how she's anyone's favorite). She was rude and disrespectful. I wasn't fond of Clara either but I like the way she was introduced as 3 different characters.

Rose has a special place in my heart because she was the first new companion and she was a good companion to both the 9th and the 10th (my favorite). That being said Amy might edge her out. She had a fantastic introduction in Smith's first episode. A episode I find to be the best first episode. She had the best and most cohesive storyline (for her first 2 seasons). While Rory often annoyed me, I liked Rory the Roman. Finally there's her gorgeous long red hair and I've always preferred red heads to blondes.

 

[AlexH]

I've only seen the new series and probably haven't seen any episodes more than once, and I don't have a great memory for these kind of things.

I agree with the words of @Anushka Mokosh though - Donna Noble is my favourite. I wasn't a fan of anything I'd seen Catherine Tate in before, so I wasn't looking forward to her 'ruining' Dr Who. How wrong I was! I ended up liking Catherine Tate too - she had an amusing appearance on Never Mind the Buzzcocks.

I don't have a least favourite. Martha is the most forgettable and I wasn't a massive fan of Rose. I liked the dynamic on occasions when there were two 'companions' for long periods, like Rose and Mickey, and Amy and Rory. Amy was a bit of a moaner if I remember rightly, but she was in some of the best episodes.

I would have loved to have seen more episodes with Sally Sparrow. I guess Carey Mulligan is too famous/busy to be a Dr Who companion now!

I'll wait and see what the roles are in the new series. I like Bradley Walsh, but for some reason I've never been able to take him seriously as an actor (though I've only seen him in trailers, which isn't a good barometer).

 

[Vince W]

I wasn't a fan of anything I'd seen Catherine Tate in before,

How very dare you!

 

[AlexH]

How very dare you!

Am I bovvered?

 

[Anushka Mokosh]

Going against the grain my least favorite (of the new companions) was Donna Noble (for the life of me I just don't understand how she's anyone's favorite). She was rude and disrespectful.

I think I might shine some light to it, at least from my perspective. After Rose and Martha, we were used to Doctor having companions who were in awe of him. He came there, waltzed into their lives and just took them on adventures. And they were always in awe of him. Martha was positively moon-eyed. Even on the occasions where they thought the Doctor was doing something wrong, it was always pointed out with the highest amount of respect for the Doctor and usually presented as something very emotional often without truly understanding the Doctor and implications of what was going on.

After them, we got Donna who upon being offered to travel with the Doctor actually refused because she thought Doctor had too much power. She regretted it later simply because she could not go back to her comparatively boring life, but the motif returns over their travels. Donna isn't in awe of him and has no romantic interest in him. We have this established as the basis of their relationship which, in my opinion, allows it to develop into a more equal relationship despite the massive difference between them. Her irreverence allows this to happen.

In the Pompeii, Donna understands the burden Doctor has to take by choosing between the world and the Pompeii. And she takes active part in it with him and comes up with a way to at least make it bittersweet. Save at least someone. She doesn't have this infallible faith in the Doctor. She is aware that he can fail, that he is powerful, but that he is not always right and that his power is frightening. However, he is her friend and she treats him as such.

Also, Donna is the companion that learns the most and grows the most which makes it all the more heartbreaking that she has to forget it all. She is the most important woman in the universe and she can never know the lessons she learnt which transformed her from an ignorant woman stuck in a boring routine to a compassionate and courageous woman who saved the universe.

 

[Bagpuss]

Donna isn't in awe of him and has no romantic interest in him.

I agree with you on those points entirely, but to some extent Donna is afraid of him and is afraid of how far he could go and what damage he could do if she isn't around to stop him. She sees that in the Runaway Bride, where the Doctor effectively genocides the Racnoss and Donna watches him do it and tries and fails to stop him. Ironically, of course, Donna becomes the Doctor in the end and genocides the Daleks (or the faction that exists in Journey's End) apparently without any self-awareness that what she's doing is what she abhorred in the earlier episode.

As a character Donna suffers from the thing that all the female characters from the Nu-Who re-boot suffer from. They are women who dream about a better life, try to get it and are systematically punished for their desire. Donna's disposal in Journey's End is unbelievably cruel. In part I think it's motivated by a show runner (Davies) who believes that there's no way that you could possibly, reasonably give Donna a believable decision where her character would choose not to travel with the Doctor any more - and so he deletes Donna's character development and her entire experience with the Doctor.

The other thing is that Donna (who is, according to the show at the time, the most important woman in the universe) seems an eery template for Moffat's subsequent creation of Amy (the most important woman in the universe and the girl who waited) and Clara (the most important woman in the universe and the impossible girl) and River (the most important woman in the universe and the time traveller's wife) and Bill (the most important woman in the universe and - Ok, I haven't got a conveniently similar end-tag for her because I haven't quite worked that one out yet.). Can we have a new template for a companion please!

So, I loved Donna but I hated her ending.

 

[thaddeus6th]

Bagpuss, yeah. I dislike the New Who model of making practically every companion important to the universe rather than just an ordinary person. It's a little similar to the rising arrogance and 'specialness' of the Doctor.

 

[Anushka Mokosh]

I agree with you on those points entirely, but to some extent Donna is afraid of him and is afraid of how far he could go and what damage he could do if she isn't around to stop him. She sees that in the Runaway Bride, where the Doctor effectively genocides the Racnoss and Donna watches him do it and tries and fails to stop him. Ironically, of course, Donna becomes the Doctor in the end and genocides the Daleks (or the faction that exists in Journey's End) apparently without any self-awareness that what she's doing is what she abhorred in the earlier episode.

I agree with the points made in the first two sentences, but would like to point out that unless I'm mis-remembering it, was it not mostly the Doctor human clone who killed the Daleks? Donna just stopped the reality bomb and helped return the Earth where it should be. IIRC, she even asked him not to do it.

As a character Donna suffers from the thing that all the female characters from the Nu-Who re-boot suffer from. They are women who dream about a better life, try to get it and are systematically punished for their desire. Donna's disposal in Journey's End is unbelievably cruel. In part I think it's motivated by a show runner (Davies) who believes that there's no way that you could possibly, reasonably give Donna a believable decision where her character would choose not to travel with the Doctor any more - and so he deletes Donna's character development and her entire experience with the Doctor.

I am not sure how much of that is Davies writing himself into a corner and how much it is Davies just loving a good tragedy. I think the case can be made that it was only Donna who got "the punishment" though I would more consider it a sacrifice for what needed to be done. Most of others got some kind of happy end where they get to cherish the adventures they had with the Doctor and live out their lives surrounded by friends and/or loved ones. In a way, I think that Donna even through that ending got closest to the Doctor, especially to the Tenth Doctor. Because, Doctor too is often in a way "punished" for his efforts. Even Tenth's ending echoes that. He has to die to save someone. He did not want to go and neither did Donna, but they had to.

The other thing is that Donna (who is, according to the show at the time, the most important woman in the universe) seems an eery template for Moffat's subsequent creation of Amy (the most important woman in the universe and the girl who waited) and Clara (the most important woman in the universe and the impossible girl) and River (the most important woman in the universe and the time traveller's wife) and Bill (the most important woman in the universe and - Ok, I haven't got a conveniently similar end-tag for her because I haven't quite worked that one out yet.). Can we have a new template for a companion please!

This I think is mostly because Moffat has trouble writing compelling characters so he is just reapplying what he thinks worked. Donna worked. Let's base their role on that and be done with it. His strengths as a writer are clearly on the plot end of things while characters tend to be all over the place and take a backseat most of the time.

I have different beef with every companion tbh. Mostly because many of them brought a drama that was just distracting.

So, I loved Donna but I hated her ending.

I loved Donna and I loved the ending because I think it too mirrors her relationship with the Tenth through their respective endings. They are DoctorDonna after all.

 

[Bagpuss]

unless I'm mis-remembering it, was it not mostly the Doctor human clone who killed the Daleks

Yeah, you're right. Memory-fail on my part. Been a while since I've watched that episode.

 

[Matteo]

As a kid I grew up with Tom Baker and Peter Davison but didn't much like Colin Baker so only saw a few of the early episodes and didn't bother with McCoy. That meant I was spared Bonnie Langford. On that basis, I have fond memories of Sarah (and found Lalla Ward rather cute and Romana II a good counter for the Doctor). Even as a kid I found Adric and Tegan irritating.

As an adult, I have re-watched the Baker and Davison run and also all of Pertwee (a great Doctor) plus a few of Hartnell and Troughton. I've also seen all of the new Doctor. Adric and Tegan are even more irritating to me now than they were back in the day and I would throw in Turlough and Peri as well (Davison really got the short straw). I'm in two minds about Clara (a bit too much focus on the character?) and Donna (too irreverent?). Katy Manning was gorgeous [am I allowed to say that?] but Jo Grant was nothing special.

I see what some say about certain companions taking away the importance of the Doctor but I really liked how Amy Pond fitted in the "Who Universe" and the importance she played - particularly with one of the best characters (River Song) - and the character was quite complex; tough, no nonsense but also sometimes vulnerable (and Karen Gillan is even more gorgeous than Katy).

Oh, and I still have a soft spot for Sarah...

 

[Anthoney]

Sarah was a companion the first time I saw Doctor Who. It made me watch all of the Sarah Jane adventures even if they were skewed towards a younger crowd.

 

[Heather Myst]

I like Amy Pond but Clara is my favorite. I think it has something to do with the fact that she could set off the smoke alarm in my house if she stood near it.