It’s heavily rumored that Millie Gibson is leaving Doctor Who in Ncuti Gatwa’s second season, but she’s not the first of the Doctor’s companions to only last one year. Reports in the UK tabloid press suggest that Millie Gibson has been “dropped” from the role, which feels needlessly harsh. This unfair wording ignores the most likely scenario; that Ruby Sunday was always planned as a one-season companion. After all, Millie Gibson wouldn’t be the first Doctor Who companion to leave after a single season of the show.
The reports suggest that Millie Gibson’s Doctor Who replacement will be Andor‘s Varada Sethu, who will join Ncuti Gatwa in season 15. However, there’s some confusion over whether Millie Gibson’s Doctor Who departure will happen in the season 14 finale or if she’ll depart in the opening episodes of the following season. In the absence of an official statement from the BBC, Doctor Who fans will have to wait for season 14 to play out to see if the Millie Gibson rumors are true, and if so, how Ruby Sunday will join the list of companions who only lasted one season.
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14 Katarina (Adrienne Hill)
Classic Doctor Who Season 3 (Just 5 episodes)
William Hartnell’s third full Doctor Who season was a turbulent time for the show, evidenced by the revolving door of First Doctor companions following the departure of Maureen O’Brien as Vicki. Vicki’s replacement, the Ancient Greek handmaiden Katarina (Adrienne Hill) was swiftly written out, as it became too difficult to write for a character to whom even 1960s London would seem impossibly futuristic. And so it was that, in the opening of the fourth episode of The Daleks’ Masterplan, Adrienne Hill’s Katarina became the first Doctor Who companion the show killed off.
13 Sara Kingdom (Jean Marsh)
Classic Doctor Who Season 3 (9 episodes)
Katarina was replaced by Space Security Service agent Sara Kingdom (Jean Marsh) who became involved with the Doctor and Steven Taylor (Peter Purves) as they tried to foil the Daleks’ master plan. While Jean Marsh has disputed that Sara Kingdom was a fully-fledged Doctor Who companion, fans have come to regard her as one. Her gruesome death from the effects of the Daleks’ time destructor meant that she was the second Doctor Who companion to be killed off in a matter of months. Thankfully, Sara Kingdom’s replacement fared a little better.
12 Dodo Chaplet (Jackie Lane)
Classic Doctor Who Season 3 (1966)
Dodo Chaplet (Jackie Lane) joined the Doctor and Steven for the second half of Doctor Who season 3. Dodo faced off against such threats as the Monoids, and the Toymaker (Michael Gough), and was also present at the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Dodo only appeared in four and a half stories from Doctor Who season 3, and was unceremoniously written out of the show during its penultimate serial, “The War Machines”. After her mind was taken over by the sinister WOTAN, Dodo was sent to the countryside, and she never returned, merely sending the Doctor a brief goodbye message.
11 Victoria Waterfield (Deborah Watling)
Classic Doctor Who Season 5 (1967 – 1968)
Victoria Waterfield (Deborah Watling) joined the TARDIS in the closing moments of “The Evil of the Daleks”, and traveled with the Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton) and Jamie McCrimmon (Frazer Hines) for the majority of Doctor Who season 5. She fought Ice Warriors, Yeti, and Cybermen, before she finally decided to leave the TARDIS after an exhausting encounter with sentient evil seaweed. Staying on present-day Earth, she broke the heart of Jamie, who was left bereft by her Doctor Who departure.
10 Zoe Heriot (Wendy Padbury)
Classic Doctor Who Season 6 (1968 – 1969)
Zoe Heriot (Wendy Padbury) was the Second Doctor’s companion in Doctor Who season 6, traveling alongside long-serving companion Jamie McCrimmon. Zoe’s Doctor Who departure was enforced by the Time Lords who separated the TARDIS team across time as a punishment for the Doctor’s crimes. Jamie and Zoe did get a happy ending decades later, in Tales of the TARDIS, which saw them reminisce about their adventures together, recollecting their trip to the Land of Fiction in “The Mind Robber.”
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9 Dr. Liz Shaw (Caroline John)
Classic Doctor Who Season 7 (1970)
The Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee) met his match in Dr. Elizabeth Shaw (Caroline Shaw), UNIT’s first scientific advisor. However, the Doctor soon overshadowed Liz’s evident skills as a scientist, but they made a winning partnership. Doctor Who executive producer Barry Letts believed that Liz was too overqualified to become the Doctor’s mere “assistant”, and so decided to write the character out. Sadly, Liz never got a proper send-off, and departed the Doctor and UNIT off-screen at some point before Doctor Who season 8.
8 Dr. Harry Sullivan (Ian Marter)
Classic Doctor Who Season 12 (1975)
Ian Marter’s Harry Sullivan was originally conceived as a throwback to First Doctor companion Ian Chesterton (William Russell) when the Doctor Who production team was considering an older actor to replace Jon Pertwee. When they cast Tom Baker as the Doctor, it became clear that the Fourth Doctor wouldn’t need a male companion to do all the action sequences. Harry Sullivan therefore, became a slightly more bumbling figure but was utterly charming. Sadly, however, Ian Marter was felt to be surplus to requirements by the time of Doctor Who season 13, and so stepped aside for the all-time iconic TARDIS team of the Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen).
7 Romana 1 (Mary Tamm)
Classic Doctor Who Season 16
If Liz Shaw was too overqualified to be the Doctor’s companion, then the arrival of Romana (Mary Tamm) in Doctor Who season 16 was truly when the Time Lord met his match. The female Time Lord joined the Fourth Doctor and K-9 (John Leeson) to assemble the Key to Time at the behest of the White Guardian (Cyril Luckham). Mary Tamm opted to leave the role after only one season because, unfortunately, Romana was too often being written as a damsel-in-distress archetype, despite her superior Time Lord intelligence. This was later fixed after Mary Tamm regenerated into Lalla Ward’s second Romana.
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6 Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman)
Doctor Who Season 1 (2005)
After an unsuccessful audition, Adam Mitchell (Bruno Langley) was ejected from the TARDIS in Doctor Who season 1, but his successor lasted a little bit longer. Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) joined the TARDIS team after a scam to sell a Chula hospital ship almost caused the end of life on Earth. Jack’s redemption convinced the Ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) to let him travel in the TARDIS with him and Rose Tyler (Billie Piper). When the Daleks laid waste to the Game Station in Doctor Who‘s season 1 finale, “The Parting of the Ways”, Jack was left behind.
5 Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman)
Doctor Who Season 3 (2007)
Doctor Who companion Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman) only starred in season 3, as dictated by the arc of her character and the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant). As the Tenth Doctor was still grieving the loss of Rose, he could never fully see how brilliant Martha was. By single-handedly saving the Earth from the Master (John Simm) Martha proved to herself that she didn’t need the Doctor’s love or approval. The more confident Martha made guest appearances in season 4, and the Torchwood spinoff. It’s possible that Ruby could have a similar Doctor Who spinoff future to Martha, having been seen filming with UNIT’s Kate Lethbridge Stewart (Jemma Redgrave).
4 Donna Noble (Catherine Tate)
Doctor Who Season 4 (2008)
When Catherine Tate was cast as Donna Noble in Doctor Who‘s 2006 Christmas special, nobody believed that she would be back. However, the in-demand comedy actress returned for a full season of adventures with David Tennant’s Doctor in 2008. As Tennant was due to depart in 2009, and Tate was incredibly busy, their time together was brief but memorable. It was no wonder that Russell T Davies brought back Catherine Tate and David Tennant for Doctor Who‘s 60th anniversary specials in 2023.
3 Nardole (Matt Lucas)
Doctor Who Season 10 (2017)
Another hugely popular name from UK comedy was Little Britain‘s Matt Lucas, who appeared as Nardole in two Doctor Who Christmas specials before becoming a regular in season 10. The TARDIS team of the Twelfth Doctor (Peter Capaldi), Bill Potts (Pearl Mackie), Nardole (Matt Lucas) and Missy (Michelle Gomez) was one of Steven Moffat’s biggest and wildest swings, and it largely paid off. As Matt Lucas is a popular stage and screen actor, and because Steven Moffat was handing Doctor Who over to Chris Chibnall, Nardole didn’t stay for season 11, making his final appearance in 2017’s Christmas special, “Twice Upon a Time.”
2 Bill Potts (Pearl Mackie)
Doctor Who Season 10 (2017)
Bill Potts was Doctor Who‘s first LGBTQ+ companion, representing a huge progressive step forward for the show. Bill was a breath of fresh air after Clara Oswald (Jenna Coleman), who had become too comfortable in the TARDIS. Bill had a completely new perspective on the TARDIS and even the societal structures and gender norms of the Time Lords. Pearl Mackie played the character with bags of charm and humor, and it was a huge disappointment that the big Doctor Who changeover between Moffat and Chibnall meant she was only ever going to do one season as a companion.
1 Dan Lewis (John Bishop)
Doctor Who Season 13 (2021 – 2022)
Like Catherine Tate, and Matt Lucas before him, John Bishop was another UK light entertainment figure who had a short stint as a Doctor Who companion. When COVID-19 halted live comedy, stand-up comic John Bishop accepted the role of Dan Lewis in season 13 and the subsequent specials. Bishop’s comic timing freshened up the tone of the Jodie Whittaker era, and contributed to one of Chris Chibnall’s funniest episodes; “Eve of the Daleks”. When COVID restrictions were lifted and Bishop was able to tour again, he made an abrupt departure at the start of Doctor Who‘s centenary special in 2022.
Doctor Who
Originally premiered in 1963, Doctor Who is a sci-fi series that follows a powerful being known as a Time Lord, referred to as the Doctor. Using an interdimensional time-traveling ship known as the TARDIS, the Doctor travels time and space with various companions as they solve multiple problems and help avert catastrophe as much as they almost cause it. Though the Doctor is always the same character, they experience regenerations, allowing them to be recast every few seasons as a unique immortal being with new personality traits.
