Doctor Who has had an amazing cast and brilliant characters throughout its 5-decade run. Unfortunately for its audience, too many characters have been doomed to leave from their arrival, and we’re left mourning their unacknowledged genius.
What elements do we look for in a companion? Why are many characters left behind when they have the potential to create amazing storylines? And how many companions are too many for any Doctor to have at one time? Here is a list of 10 characters the Doctor has met throughout time and space that should have been his long-term companions.
Astrid
Astrid simultaneously captured and broke viewers’ hearts when she appeared in the 2007 Doctor Who Christmas Special “Voyage Of The Damned.” She was a waitress on the Max Capricorn Titanic cruise liner who longed to feel a different ground beneath her feet and get away from her home planet, Sto. She met the Tenth Doctor after his T.A.R.D.I.S. crashed into the ship and discovered he was a stowaway. The two strangers took an immediate liking to each other and had fantastic chemistry. But unfortunately for viewers, Astrid’s potential as a companion was stopped just as it began when she sacrificed her life to save the Doctor and prevent the entire ship from colliding with Earth.
Frank
Frank and his Tenessee accent graced viewers’ screens in season 3 two-part episodes “Dalek’s In Manhatten” and “Evolution Of The Daleks.” After the Doctor and Martha land in 1930’s New York to discover that people have been vanishing in mysterious circumstances, the two begin to investigate. Frank joined them demonstrating the bravery the Doctor admires in his companions, using his brains and knowledge to guide them when the three volunteer to go down into the tunnels for some work. Even the Cult of Skaro considered him intelligent. At the end of the arc’s events, Frank became the leader of Hooverville and said goodbye to the Doctor and Martha.
Sally Sparrow
Arguably one of the most loved episodes of the modern Doctor Who era, “Blink” has a rating of 9.8/10 on IMDb. The episode was a Doctor-lite episode and was carried by the brilliant character that was Sally Sparrow. Sally showed the audience that she wasn’t one to be played with and a genius when it came to investigating the circumstances surrounding Wester Drumlins.
Guided by the Doctor and Martha, who are trapped in the past after being touched by a Weeping Angel, Sally is tasked with sending them the T.A.R.D.I.S. from her point in time. With hardly 2 minutes of interaction with the Doctor in person, the audience was left wanting more.
Jenny (The Doctor’s Daughter)
The ending of season 4 episode “The Doctor’s Daughter,” was irritating, to say the least. After the Doctor goes through an emotional rollercoaster with the possibility of having a daughter again after the events of the Time War, he finally comes to love her. In the final moments of the episode, Jenny gets shot and killed when she jumps in the way of a bullet aimed for the Doctor. The Doctor voiced the possibility of her regenerating because of her two hearts but ultimately understands she’s gone. Jenny was declared dead when she failed to regenerate but awoke after the Doctor and Donna had already left. The last time the audience saw her, she was in a spaceship headed for the open sky.
Perkins
Perkins was one of the only characters who appeared to have any common sense in the season 8 episode “Mummy On The Orient Express.” The Chief Engineer on the space-train Orient Express was the Twelfth Doctor’s main source of support, providing a passenger manifest, plans of the train, and its’ travel history. He determinedly held the stopwatch for the Mummy sighting countdown and discovered why it took sixty seconds for the victims of the Mummy to die.
When the job was done and the passengers safe and sound, the Doctor asked Perkins indirectly if he would like to travel with him, but Perkins declined, saying a job like maintaining the T.A.R.D.I.S. could change a man, depriving the audience of their interesting dynamic.
Lynda Moss
Unfortunately for Lynda with a “Y,” her timing in meeting the Doctor wasn’t the best. She met him in the midst of a battle against the Daleks in the two-part final of season 1. A frantic Doctor who was trying to save Rose and Jack from the Game Station became careless and brought her along.
Lynda got swept into the eye of the storm. She was sweet and gentle. A contestant on Big Brother who followed the Doctor after he left the game. The Doctor even asked her to come with him, to see time and space. But Lynda was killed by the Daleks, trapped in a room where the glass was shattered, leading into open space.
Craig Owens
Craig appeared in two episodes with the Eleventh Doctor and experienced an amazing amount of character development. In the season 5 episode, “The Lodger,” the Doctor saved Craig and Sophie from an automated system of an alien ship that was hiding on their second floor. The Doctor helped Craig see he was in love with Sophie and left his roommate to the great adventure of life.
In the season 6 episode “Closing Time,” the Doctor returns and battles the Cybermen with Craig and his baby boy, Alfie. Craig doesn’t think he is father material, but his views change after his encounter with the Doctor. Could an adult Alfie be a potential future companion?
Madame De Pompadour
Madame De Pompadour never understood why she was stalked through time by the Clockwork Droids, why it was her mind they wanted to complete their spaceship. But when her lonely angel came to her and became her protector, she understood that the Doctor is worth the monsters that come with him. Madame De Pompadour was able to enter the mind of the Doctor, to see the lonely past and present that he lived. She was intelligent and brave, ready at a moment’s notice to face the monsters who had been appearing her whole life. At the end of “The Girl In The Fireplace” when the Doctor told her to pack her bags, a glimmer of possibility came to the audience that this woman might become a companion. But her dreams to see the stars were lost when she died from an illness and the Doctor was too late to save her.
Shona McCullough
Shona was entertaining, funny and relatable, and she was very nearly the next companion had Jenna Coleman decided to leave her role as Clara Oswald in Doctor Who. Shona made her appearance in the 2014 Christmas Special “Last Christmas,” as a scientist in the North Pole. Shona and her crew were visited by the Doctor after an alien race called the Dream Crab attacked them. Shona had a to-do list for Christmas Day and got along well with the Doctor. Unfortunately for Shona, the Dream Crab had placed her in a dream state to imagine she was a scientist, and after they defeated them, she awoke alone in her apartment with no knowledge of the events.
Timothy Latimer
Timothy Latimer appeared in the season 3 two-part episodes, “Human Nature” and “The Family Of Blood.” His low-level telepathic abilities enabled him to form a connection to the Doctor’s Chameleon Arch which was disguised as a pocket watch. His personality and demeanor quickly made him a character the audience loved. With the Doctor as a clueless John Smith and Martha busy protecting him, Tim was someone they could turn to. The pocket watch showed him a vision that would help him escape his death in World War 1 and the Doctor let him keep it. It was to the viewer’s dismay that Timothy was given a hug by Martha and watched the T.A.R.D.I.S. disappear. Any hope of him returning was dashed when an elderly Tim was later shown as a survivor of war.
