Doctor Who/Characters/Classic Series Companions

"Susan Foreman"

Oh, grandfather!

Played by: Carole Ann Ford (1963-64, 1983, 1993, 2019, 2020) Voiced by: Claudia Grant (2017-) —Travelled with the First Doctor

The Doctor's granddaughter. When the series began, she attended Coal Hill School in London as a student for a few months in 1963, posing as a human.

• A Day in the Limelight: "Susan's War" chronicles her actions during the Last Great Time War.
• Beware the Silly Ones: According to some EU works, she's the reason that the Master is so charred in "The Deadly Assassin", along with having stolen his TARDIS.
• Broken Pedestal: By "Susan's War", the Doctor is well on his way to becoming this to her, Susan not thinking very highly of his conscientious objection to the Time War.
  • The alternate version of her in "Tick-Tock World" clearly has a very low opinion of her grandfather for always treating her like a child.
• The Bus Came Back: While Susan has certainly been on a Long Bus Trip, she did return for one adventure in 1983. She's also starred in several audio dramas.
• Character Development: Goes through quite a bit in The First Doctor Adventures, maturing into her characterization at the end of "The Dalek Invasion of Earth", becoming more independent and wanted to be treated as an adult.
• Children Are Innocent: How the First Doctor treated her. It's even stated that she was too young to fully understand why he fled Gallifrey in the first place.
• Constantly Curious
• Depending on the Writer:
  • Is the Doctor's biological granddaughter?
  • Is she a Time Lord? As in, did she pass the initiation at the Untempered Schism? And did she complete her training at the Academy?
  • Did she fight in the Time War?
  • How old was she when she and the Doctor landed in 1963?
• Defector From Decadence: Like the Doctor. She might even have been the daughter of the Lord President of Gallifrey.
• Friend to All Living Things
• Friendless Background: Thanks to her Fish Out of Water status, she was not popular at Coal Hill.
• Fish Out of Water: Painfully obvious just how much she did not fit into twentieth century Earth.
• Human Aliens: From the same race as the Doctor. Never seen regenerating, though.
• I Choose to Stay: Inverted. The Doctor left her on 22nd century Earth, knowing that she would never put her happiness ahead of his and deciding it was for the best.
• It Runs in The Family: Daredevil? Check. Sense of adventure? Check. Mocking the funny hats worn by the Time Lords? Check. Stole a TARDIS? Check.
• Line-of-Sight Name: "Foreman" comes from the proprietor of the junkyard that the TARDIS was parked in.
• Long Bus Trip: Returns briefly in the 20th anniversary special The Five Doctors and the Big Finish audio An Earthly Child.
• Morality Pet: Until about halfway through the first season, she was the only person whom the Doctor treated with any kindness on a consistent basis. In "Return to Skaro", the Dalek Supreme orders her captured as a hostage so they can blackmail the Doctor for the TARDIS.
• Mysterious Past: An odd example. Originally, Susan was just Exactly What It Says on the Tin, the Doctor's granddaughter. Then when Jon Nathan Turner tried to push the idea of the Doctor being asexual, EU writers jumped through some big hoops to fit Susan into that idea. The simplest answer is that no one really knows where Susan comes from or whether or not she's actually the Doctor's granddaughter. Some EU works suggest that the Doctor deliberately destroyed all records of her so as to protect her from being complicit in his crime of stealing a TARDIS.
• Noodle Incident: Eleven mentions that he took Susan to the Rings of Akhaten once.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: There's no way that a Time Lady's real name is "Susan." Her birth name is either "Arkytior" or "Larn."
• Put on a Bus: Done at the end of the serial "The Dalek Invasion of Earth" where the Doctor leaves her behind so she can marry a nice young resistance fighter and have some stability in her life. She would have stayed with her grandfather out of a sense of obligation if he hadn't.
  • Bus Crash: The Doctor stated he was the Last of His Kind as early as "The End of the World". Even after Gallifrey is revealed to be safe, Clara mentions that all of the Doctor's family is presumed deceased. Several moments in the Twelfth Doctor's run, both on screen and in the EU, heavily suggest that Susan is no more.
• Screaming Woman: The original screamer. That was why the actress left the show after only one season - she got tired of this role.
• Shipper on Deck: The Big Finish Companion Chronicle "Here There Be Monsters" opens with her talking about how she thinks that Ian and Barbara truly belong together.
• Small Role, Big Impact: She was the one who introduced the Doctor to the human race, sparking his love for Earth.
• Telepathy: Even by Gallifreyan standards, she had highly developed powers.
• Thicker Than Water: She feels strongly about her duty to her grandfather.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Even before the Time War, her fate was never touched on. This lack of follow-up is addressed in the A Brief History of Time Lords where the author suspects that no Time Lord ever asked the Doctor about Susan because that would mean highlighting that they knew nothing about her.
• Younger Than They Look: Thanks to Time Lady genetics, she still looks like a teenager after thirty years. EU works have her applying make-up to look older.

Barbara Wright and Ian Chesterton

Ian: We'd better keep an eye on [the Doctor]. He seems to have a knack of getting himself into trouble.

Played by: Jacqueline Hill and William Russell (1963-65) Voiced by: Jemma Powell and Jamie Glover (2017-) —Travelled with the First Doctor

Two teachers at Susan's school (history and science, respectively); together with Susan, the first three companions.

• Abhorrent Admirer: Barbara caught the eyes of many of history and the galaxy's biggest scumbags.
• The Ageless: Sarah Jane, after doing research to find other old companions of the Doctor, comments that Ian & Barbara, now married and professors at Cambridge, are rumored not to have aged since the 1960s.
• Badass Normal: Barbara ran over Daleks with a lorry. The series' Moment of Awesome page put it best: "The first two seasons could have been renamed The Why Barbara Is Awesome Show, and no one would have noticed."
  • As for Ian, he had his moments of awesome as well, which include beating the crap out of some soldiers and outsmarting Daleks left and right.
• Badass Teacher: Both of them, with Barbara being the bigger Bad Ass of the two.
• Brainy Brunette: Barbara.
• The Bus Came Back: Both returned in the 50th tie-in comic Hunters of the Burning Stone.
• The Cameo: Ian's name is visible on the Board of Coal Hill Directors in "The Day of the Doctor".
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Ian just can't resist a cry for help.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Don't be flirting with Ian when Barbara is around.
• Depending on the Writer: Are they The Ageless? And if they aren't, is Barbara still alive?
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: As revealed in "The Day of the Doctor", Ian is now on the board of governors at Coal Hill.
• The Lancer: Ian. Oddly, the original intention of the show was to make him the hero with the Doctor being in this role.
• Hot Librarian: Barbara.
• Hot Scientist: Ian.
• Mama Bear/Papa Wolf: Don't push Ian and Barbara when it comes to Susan's safety. They followed her to a junkyard and waited for hours out of Adult Fear that the she was the victim of abuse.
• Marshmallow Hell: Susan seems to like burying her head in Barbara's bosom.
• Mistaken for Gods: Barbara, in "The Aztecs".
• Morality Chain: In Hunters of the Burning Stone, the Eleventh Doctor confesses to Ian that the two humans made him a better person.
• Official Couple: Finally get hitched in Hunters of the Burning Stone. The Eleventh Doctor is the best man.
• Opt Out: When presented with the chance to return to their time in a Dalek time machine, they take it.

Vicki

Oh, something else I forgot to tell you. I think I've poisoned Nero.

Played by: Maureen O'Brien (1965) —Travelled with the First Doctor

Survivor of a spaceship crash on the planet Dido (so she did go down with the ship...), she was a teenage girl who then traveled with the Doctor. She decided to stay in ancient Troy and married Trolius, becoming Cressida (yep, the one from Greek Mythology).

• Girlish Pigtails
• Hands Off My Fluffy: In her first episode, Barbara mistook her pet Sand Beast for a monster. Ocular gushing ensued.
• Heartwarming Orphan: Lost her parents to a spaceship crash but is one of the most Adorkable companions that there ever was.
• I Choose to Stay: Settled down in Troy during Ancient Greece and became Cressida.
• The Knights Who Say Squee: One of the rare companions with literal Squee moments, notably when she realizes that she's about to meet Nero.
• Only One Name: Her last name is never revealed on screen. The Expanded Universe has established her full name is Vicki Pallister.
• Replacement Goldfish: As said under Suspiciously Similar Substitute, it seems that the Doctor was so taken by her on account of how much she reminded him of Susan. It's implied on a few occasions that the Doctor is also this to a family member that she lost.
• Plucky Girl: In "The Chase" she stows away aboard a Dalek time machine and when confronted by armed Saxon villagers, tells them to hurry up and make up their minds whether she and Steven are spies or not.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: For Susan.
• Teen Genius: She can talk to the Doctor at close to his own level about time travel theory. It's down to 25th century education.
• Too Much Alike: She and the Doctor would alternatively bring out the worst and the best in the other.

Steven Taylor

This is quite a ship you've got here, Doc.

Played by: Peter Purves (1965-66) —Travelled with the First Doctor

A marooned pilot from Earth's future, he eventually leaves the TARDIS to mediate between two opposing factions of humans (or Human Aliens).

• Arbitrary Skepticism: He's a dashing space cowboy. Time Travel? Don't be absurd.
• Companion Cube: His stuffed panda, Hi-Fi. The only thing that kept him sane-ish while stuck on the planet Mechanus for two years.
• Depending on the Writer:
  • He's from the future. His native time is very unclear.
  • As a result of a number of factors, namely a new production team and William Hartnell's declining health, Steven often took on whatever role and skillset was needed to keep the show going.
• I Choose to Stay: Stays to lead the Elders and the Savages.
• The Lancer
• What the Hell, Hero?: He berates the Doctor and storms out of the TARDIS after they flee the Massacre of St. Bartholomew and leave a young Protestant girl behind.
• You Are in Command Now: How he leaves the show. Two factions choose him as their new ruler during their peace negotiations.
• You Look Familiar: Purves plays a different character in an earlier episode of the same story in which Steven is introduced.

Katarina

First Doctor: She wanted to save our lives, and perhaps the lives of all other beings of the solar system. I hope she found perfection.

Played by: Adrienne Hill (1965) —Travelled with the First Doctor

Came from ancient Troy and thought the Doctor was a god. Her character was considered too limiting and she only appeared in two stories.

• Extreme Doormat: Thought the TARDIS crew to be gods and did anything they said.
• Heroic Sacrifice: First companion to leave the show by dying.
  • Shoo Out the New Guy: And she died in only her second adventure and fifth episode (in part 4 of a 12 part epic no less).
• Mistaken for Gods: Inverted. She's the one doing the mistaking.
• Only One Name
• Thrown Out the Airlock

Sara Kingdom (First Doctor)

Played by: Jean Marsh (1965) —Travelled with the First Doctor

Outside of the Expanded Universe, she appeared in only one, twelve episode long, story, for seven of its episodes. She was intentionally written to serve in a companion role (taking over from Katarina) but was never intended to be a permanent character. Sara broke the normal companion mold (then and now) and worked as an agent for a sinister solar system-wide governmental security agency run by the human Big Bad. Once she realized her error, she joined the crew of the TARDIS.

• The Atoner: After she kills her own brother and realizes she has worked for the Big Bad all along, leads to her transitioning into a more normal Action Girl.
• Dark Action Girl: at least, the story wants to give his impression when she first appears.
• Expanded Universe: When her one and only (very long) story was novelised, it was split into parts. The second began by saying six months had passed since the first. Various Doctor Who Expanded Universe works have been set in this gap. (The novelizations, incidentally, do not occur in the same continuity as other branches of the EU, or with each other.)
  • Several Big Finish audio dramas featuring her are set after her death. Somehow.
• Heroic Sacrifice
• No Body Left Behind: She leaves one but the Time Destructor makes short work of it.
• The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: Dressed as a badass with a zap gun, but doesn't really do much of anything after her introductory episode.
• Putting on the Reich: She belongs to the SSS, too.
• Rapid Aging: Caught in the effect of the Time Destructor, she quickly ages to dust.
• You Look Familiar: Jean Marsh had already played a different character, and returned in 1989 to play a third.

Dorothea "Dodo" Chaplet

Steven: If it isn't allowed, Dodo would be first in the queue!

Played by: Jackie Lane (1966) —Travelled with the First Doctor

Rather a forgotten companion, she waltzed off in "The War Machines" and left a note saying she was staying on her native Earth.

• Break the Cutie: The Expanded Universe thrives on this trope anyway, but Dodo comes in for more than her share. She comes away from her travels with a venereal disease and a nervous breakdown. And that's just the start of it...
• Oop North: Famously invoked (Manchester accent) and then revoked after BBC fiat.
• Plucky Girl
• Put on a Bus: Didn't even get a leaving scene.
• Totally Radical: A 1960s variant of this trope. There's probably a good reason she was forgotten.

Ben Jackson and Polly

Ben: The Doctor always wore this. If you are him it should fit... That settles it! Second Doctor: I'd like to see a butterfly fit into a chrysalis case after it spreads its wings. Polly: Then you did change.

Played by: Michael Craze and Anneke Wills (1966-1967) —Travelled with the First and Second Doctors

From 1966. The pair - he was a sailor, she was a secretary - helped the Doctor through his first regeneration. They joined and left the TARDIS crew at the same time as each other.

• The Dulcinea Effect: Ben comes to Polly's assistance when another man at the nightclub won't leave her alone.
• Good Looking Privates: Ben in his Able Seaman's uniform.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Polly.
• In Harm's Way: When he first appears, Ben's moping every night in the nightclub because he's been given a shore posting.
• Make Up or Break Up: Their relationship in the Doctor Who Expanded Universe.
• No Name Given: Polly's surname is never mentioned on screen. It's probably "Wright". (In "The Faceless Ones", an alien duplicate of her gave her name as "Michelle Leuppi", but given that she was using a different forename there's no reason to suppose she kept Polly's original surname).
• Only One Name: Polly's last name was never revealed on screen, but the scripts indicated it to be Wright, which has been adopted by the Doctor Who Expanded Universe. A few reference books in the 1980s gave her last name as Lopez, a mishearing of "Leuppi" as mentioned above.
• Stay in the Kitchen: Polly gets told to "Go make some coffee" a lot when she asks how she can help. Worse, when they leave the TARDIS crew Ben gets told to find his ship and become an admiral, while Polly should take care of Ben.
• Totally Radical: Intended by the production team to show the new face of Doctor Who in the swinging mid-sixties.

Jamie McCrimmon

Me? Foreign? You're the one that's foreign - I'm Scottish.

Played by: Frazer Hines (1966-69, 1983, 1985); Hamish Wilson (1968) —Travelled with the Second Doctor

The longest running male companion. Or the longest running of all if you count by episode instead of by years active. A piper of the Clan McLaren, who came from 18th century Scotland.

• Ascended Extra: His character wasn't intended to be a companion.
• Badass: One of the few action oriented companions, and quite keen to get stuck into the action.
• Battle Cry: "Creag an Tuire!" ("The Boar's Rock", the motto of the McLaren Clan).
• Brave Scot
• Fish Out of Temporal Water: To an extent; he was a quick learner.
• Hot-Blooded: "Creag an Tuire!"
• Heroic Sacrifice: One of Jamie's ultimate fates in an Expanded Universe tale penned by Grant Morrison. Many fans were not happy... but most seem to agree that it was a pretty damned badass way to go.
• Heterosexual Life Partners: He appears in all but the first of Troughton's serials, and this pairing is remembered as one of the best ever. In Doctor Who (Titan), the Tenth Doctor explicitly says that Jaime was his best friend.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Had all but his first adventure mind-wiped by the Time Lords.
• Long Bus Trip: Appeared as a companion to the Sixth Doctor's Big Finish adventures 25 years since his last appearance in the series; 41 years since his last appearance as a Companion proper. This must be some kind of record.
• Man in a Kilt: He's Scottish, what'd you expect?
• No Sense of Personal Space: Mostly with the Doctor, but sometimes with the female companions as well.
• The Nth Doctor: "The Mind Robber" replaced Frazer Hines, for an episode or two, for Hamish Wilson, who looked nothing like him. The story explained this by having him run afoul of a trap in the Land of Fiction that required the Doctor to try to reconstruct his face from a bunch of options (facial features hung on a blackboard), kind of like a Mr. Potato Head. He got it wrong the first time, and fixed it the second time — bringing back Frazer Hines.
• Security Cling: All the time, especially with the Doctor.
• Ship Tease: Was clearly crushing on Victoria.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With the Doctor.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Half his dialogue in "Evil of the Daleks" is him saying this to the Doctor.

Victoria Waterfield

Second Doctor: You look very nice in that dress, Victoria. Victoria: Thank you. Don't you think it's a bit... Second Doctor: A bit short? Oh, I shouldn't worry about that. Look at Jamie's.

Played by: Deborah Watling (1967-68, 1993) —Travelled with the Second Doctor

A well-brought-up young lady from 1866. Taken in by the Second Doctor after the Daleks blew up her home and exterminated her father.

• Break the Cutie: In her first couple of stories she's plucky, adventurous, and a dead shot with a pistol. By her last, she's been reduced to a nervous wreck who can't sleep for fear of the Monster of the Week. According to Deborah Watling, this gradual shift in character was deliberate.
• Damsel in Distress
• The Dulcinea Effect: In her first story, she has this effect on Jamie.
• Fish Out of Temporal Water: Everywhere and everywhen she went.
• I Choose to Stay: Left the TARDIS because she didn't want any more adventures. She didn't want any in the first place, she just came along with them because she had nowhere else to go.
• Identical Daughter: She "looks just like" her late mother, and there's a portrait to prove it.
• Letting Her Hair Down: She's a proper Victorian woman at the beginning with all the baggage that entails. She loosens up quickly around the other two. She doesn't even seem to have any religious hang-ups, unusually for her time and background - in "The Web of Fear", she even wears a mini-skirt.
• Proper Lady
• Punny First Name: Even if it wasn't intentional.
• Screaming Woman: And how! Her screams are even used to resolve the plot of one serial.

Brigadier Sir Alastair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart

Just once, I'd like to face an alien menace that wasn't Immune to Bullets.

Played by: Nicholas Courtney (1968-75, 1983, 1989, 1993) —Travelled with the Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Seventh Doctors. And all the rest in the EU.

Some people consider him a companion, others don't. All acknowledge his significance as a character. The head of UNIT in the 70s (or was it the 80s?), the Brig worked alongside the Doctor and many of his companions in that era and beyond - often defending the Earth from various threats. Retired from UNIT in 1976, though still met up with the Doctor and Sarah Jane (in The Sarah Jane Adventures) on occasion.

• Agent Scully: Has a tendency to keep this up even when up to his eyeballs in aliens. First time in the TARDIS, he dismissed the inside view as "some kind of optical illusion".
• Anti-Hero: Type IV. Normally he's clearly on the good team but he dives headlong into this in Doctor Who and the Silurians where he orders the total genocide of a hibernating race, and showed no hesitation about gunning down an unarmed prisoner in Battlefield.
• Ascended Extra: Appeared as simply Colonel Lethbridge-Stewart in "The Web of Fear". Brought back the next season and given a bonus promotion.
• Badass Beard: In old age.
• Badass Mustache: Ironically, a fake one in almost all of his appearances outside "The Five Doctors". This allowed the actor to turn The Brigadier into the "Brigade Leader" in the Mirror Universe tale "Inferno". There, the character sported an Evil Scar-and-Eyepatch combo. Quite jarring.)
• Badass Normal
• Beware the Nice Ones: Despite his constant politeness, stiff upper lip and occasional goofy moments he's probably the most ruthless regular character in televised Who canon.
• The Brigadier: Trope Namer!
• Came Back Strong: As a Cyberman. His fate after shooting Missy has yet to be revealed.
• The Character Died with Him: He is stated to have passed away offscreen in "The Wedding of River Song", Nick Courtney having died a couple of months before Series 6 began.
• Colonel Badass: Before his promotion to The Brigadier.
• Cool Old Guy: After he retired.
• Deadpan Snarker
• The Eeyore: He can snark and be irritated by the Doctor and whatever catastrophe he now has to deal with, but it's clear that beneath it all, he's secretly having the time of his life.
• Eyepatch of Power: His scary alternate-universe self in "Inferno".
• Five Rounds Rapid: Also the Trope Namer.
• Good Looking Privates
• Immune to Bullets: Once again, the Trope Namer. Though he himself is in fact, not immune to bullets.
• Mundane Wish: Just once, he wanted the Doctor to salute him.
• Porn Stache: Interestingly, his fascist Mirror Universe counterpart is clean-shaven.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: In The Sarah Jane Adventures, he gives modern day UNIT one after a Bane disguised as a UNIT major has the cheek to insinuate that his era had it easier.

Brigadier: In my day, we took on Daleks, Cybermen, Autons, Zygons, and all manner of space thuggery! And it doesn't come more hostile than that!

• Retired Badass: In SJA, just because he retired doesn't mean he won't remind you of just why he is the Brig.
• Running Gag: In both Doctor Who and The Sarah Jane Adventures, the Brig has a disturbing tendency to be "stranded in Peru" when all the important, UNIT-related alien stuff is going on.
• Shoot the Dog: Very much so in Doctor Who and the Silurians.
• The Snark Knight
• Stiff Upper Lip: No matter whatever weird menace the Universe throws against him, the Brig takes it completely in stride.
• You Look Familiar: Nicholas Courtney played Bret Vyon in "The Daleks' Master Plan" before he got the role of the Brigadier, making him the only actor to act alongside all seven (eight if you count the audio drama "Minuet in Hell") of the original Doctors at some point in his career.

Zoe Heriot

My head has been pumped full of facts and figures which I reel out automatically when needed, but I want to feel things as well.

Played by: Wendy Padbury (1968-69, 1983) —Travelled with the Second Doctor

A teenaged astrophysicist from the 21st century (as seen from 1968). Stowed away on board the TARDIS.

• Badass Adorable: As seen in The Mind Robber, she's very capable of taking care of herself, when facing off and winning a fight against her favorite fictional character, The Karkus. And the smile on her face when she got Karkus to submit? Priceless.
• Brainy Brunette: She was pretty much Two's co-pilot.
• Emotionless Girl: In her first serial.
  • Though she did seem a little hurt when Leo called her 'all brain and no heart'.
• Foil: About as far a character from Victoria as you could get.
• Future Spandex: Her uniform in "The Wheel in Space", and her sparkly catsuit in "The Mind Robber" and "The Invasion".
• Genius Ditz: She doesn't know much history.
• Good with Numbers
• Hair Decorations: She always wears an Alice band.
• Hot Scientist
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Same as with Jamie, thanks to those Time Lords. Temporarily removed for the odd Big Finish adventure; usually returns.
  • Yank the Dog's Chain: In just about any Expanded Universe work where this is undone, she's amnesiac again (and stands a good chance of being worse off in other respects) by the end.
• Little Stowaway
• Long Bus Trip: Much like Jamie above, Zoe is returning to the franchise for a Big Finish story 27 years after her last appearance in the franchise and about 41 years after the actual character left the TARDIS. Like Jamie, this has to be some sort of a record.
• Ms. Fanservice: Her sparkly catsuit is particularly fondly remembered, especially that bit in "The Mind Robber".
• Photographic Memory
• Real Women Don't Wear Dresses: In "The Dominators" (and the novelisation of "The Mind Robber"), she thinks dresses are impractical and doesn't wear them by choice. In "The Invasion", Isobel introduces her to miniskirts, which she seems to like better.
• Spell My Name with an "S": Heriot or Herriot? The original script used the single-R version.
• Straw Vulcan
• Teen Genius
• Vague Age: Depending what source you consult, she's anything from 12 to 21, though Word of God tends towards 15 or 16. The only onscreen mention of her age is in "The Invasion", where the Brigadier estimates it as 19.
• Waif Fu

Sergeant John Benton

Played by: John Levene (1968-75) —Travelled with the Second, Third, and Fourth Doctors

One of two recurring characters during the UNIT years who were subordinate to the Brigadier, Benton was down-to-Earth and often had common sense that others around him seemed to lack. Apparently killed in action by an android duplicate, it turns out that he retired from UNIT in 1979 and has since become a used car salesman.

• The Fettered: He even lets the Doctor knock him out in Invasion of the Dinosaurs so he doesn't have to break the law to help him.
• Good Looking Privates
• Number Two: The Brigadier often confers to Benton when he needs something done, even though Mike Yates outranks him.
• Only One Name: John Benton was only "Sergeant Benton" until the 1987 spin-off video Wartime, though his first name was decided upon back in the 1970s. The name was simply not used until then, but has subsequently appeared in the Expanded Universe as his name.
• Rank Up: Happens twice.
• Sergeant Rock: Eventually became UNIT's Regimental Sergeant Major, and often served as the Brig's senior enlisted man in the field.
• Those Two Guys: With Yates.

Dr. Elizabeth "Liz" Shaw

Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart: Nonsense. What you need, Doctor, as Miss Shaw herself so often remarked, is someone to pass you your test tubes, and to tell you how brilliant you are.

Played by: Caroline John (1970, 1983, 1993) —Travelled with the Third Doctor

The Third Doctor's first assistant when he was exiled to Earth. Scientific advisor to UNIT, before the Doctor showed up and casually took her job. Eventually got her own debatably canon direct-to-video spinoff, P.R.O.B.E., in 1994.

• Agent Scully: Initially.
• Deadpan Snarker
• Fiery Redhead: She could even out-stubborn the Third Doctor.
• Hot Scientist
• Ms. Fanservice: If her penchant for mini-skirts is any indication.
• Omnidisciplinary Scientist: She holds degrees in medicine, physics, and "a dozen other subjects".
• Overshadowed by Awesome: Why she left. As clever as she was, she couldn't match the Doctor.
• Put on a Bus: Left for Cambridge offscreen in Terror of the Autons, apparently dissatisfied with her job of "passing the Doctor test tubes". Returned to UNIT and was stuck in the moonbase as of the The Sarah Jane Adventures story Death of the Doctor. Barry Letts apparently didn't like the character, but she was already under contract, which he didn't renew.

Jo Grant-Jones

Third Doctor: I thought you said you took science at A-Level. Jo: I didn't say I passed.

Played by: Katy Manning (1971-1973) —Travelled with the Third Doctor

Assistant to the Third Doctor during his exile on Earth. Ostensibly a scientist, but it's later revealed that a high-placed uncle got her the job.

• Badass Damsel: By virtue of swinging between Distressed Damsel and Action Girl.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Incredibly charming, equally disarming.
• Bunny Ears Lawyer
• The Bus Came Back: In The Sarah Jane Adventures.
• Combat Stilettos: Combat Platforms, really; she spends most of her serials tackling mountains, quarries, and open fields in three-to-four-inch platform boots.
• Cool Old Lady: In The Sarah Jane Adventures.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: In "The Mind of Evil" most prominently.
• Cute Clumsy Girl

"I've really got off to a terrific start haven't I? I find the man everybody's looking for, I forget where he is, and I end up by trying to blow you all sky-high."

• The Ditz
• Escape Artist: She's a trained escapologist, and can often wriggle her way out of trouble. Thus, while she was hardly immune to being captured, this rarely did the bad guy any good.
• Exact Words: Quoted above. She took science. She didn't pass it.
• Faux Action Girl: Was originally meant to be an Emma Peel-Expy — traces of this can be seen in her karate-chopping Sgt Benton in "Terror of the Autons", brandishing a gun in "The Mind of Evil" and her talents as an Escape Artist. Eventually though it became easier for the writers to portray Jo as The Ditz and Damsel in Distress. In fairness Jo was a rookie — she'd been trained as a secret agent, but had no experience.
• Friendly Enemy: The Master was very cordial to her.
• Grandma, What Massive Hotness You Have!: Even Rani points it out! (In The Sarah Jane Adventures)
• Hair of Gold: She sports the classic 70's "lion-cut" shaggy hairdo.
• Happily Married: She stayed with Dr. Jones and had seven kids with him. They went on to have thirteen grandchildren.
• Hidden Depths: Thoroughly averted. She really is a bouncing ball of Incorruptible Pure Pureness.
• Manic Pixie Dream Girl: A platonic version. Her friendship with the Third Doctor makes him a more open and softer person, and he's noticeably hurt when she leaves him.
• Ms. Fanservice: Arguably one of the Doctor's hottest companions - her wardrobe of mini-skirts, majorette boots and occasional panty-shots help out....a lot. That and the time Manning posed naked with a Dalek.....
• Nice Girl
• Obfuscating Stupidity
• Platonic Life Partners: With the Third Doctor. It's hinted, on more than one occasion, that Three didn't want the "Platonic" part.
• Plucky Girl: Not many people can politely tell the Master that they aren't going to let themselves be hypnotized again.
• The Power of Love: Gigantic invincible intergalactic demon about to wipe out mankind? No problem.
• Undying Loyalty: To the Doctor.
• Walking the Earth: It's what she's been doing since she got married. She travels everywhere and stages protests with her huge family.
• The Watson
• Wide-Eyed Idealist
• Will They or Won't They?: She enjoys a mild flirtation with Mike Yates and in "The Curse of Peladon", she's all ready to go out on a date with him, until the Doctor whisks her away.

Captain Mike Yates

Played by: Richard Franklin (1971-74, 1983) —Travelled with the Third and Fourth Doctors

A recurring character during the UNIT years, Mike Yates was one of several subordinates to the Brigadier over the years. He left UNIT in shame, however, after being brainwashed and forced to assist with the destruction of the modern era with dinosaurs of all things. Yates returned once more for the final Third Doctor tale, but it is currently unknown if he rejoined UNIT after or simply faded into obscurity.

• Aborted Arc: Franklin currently believes that the original intention of the serial "Invasion of the Dinosaurs" was to kill off Mike Yates. This is indeed quite possible, though his appearance in a subsequent story might suggest otherwise.
• Ambiguously Gay: Whether or not he's straight, gay, or bi depends both on how you interpret his behavior and on which spinoff material you think is canon.
• Brainwashed
• Did Not Get the Girl: Flirted on and off with Jo Grant for his time on the show, and looks utterly crestfallen when she announces her marriage...according to an interview with Richard Franklin, the stage directions actually called for this.
• Good Looking Privates
• Those Two Guys: With Benton.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist/Heel Realization: In Invasion of the Dinosaurs

Sarah Jane Smith

Sarah Jane: So, providing we don't burn up on re-entry and aren't suffocated on the way down, we'll probably be smashed to a pulp when we land. Fourth Doctor: Exactly. Sarah, you've put your finger on the one tiny flaw in our plan. Sarah Jane: Our plan? It's your plan! Fourth Doctor: Well I'm open to suggestions.

Played by: Elisabeth Sladen (1973-76, 1983, 1993, 2006, 2008, 2010) —Travelled with the Third, Fourth, Fifth, Seventh, Tenth, and Eleventh Doctors

A journalist from South Croydon, who met the Doctor while posing as her virologist aunt Lavinia. Perhaps the most archetypal companion (many older fans grew up with her as their companion), and the longest-serving if you count by number of serials. So popular that she got two spinoffs: the didn't-go-anywhere K-9 and Company (1981), and the much more successful The Sarah Jane Adventures (2007-2011).

• Brainwashed and Crazy: Holds the companion record for most times hypnotized. It seemed like she was hypnotized in every episode. Lampshaded in "The Hand of Fear" and The Sarah Jane Adventures.
• Breakout Character: Had two spin-offs.
• Brick Joke: One that took around 30 years to land. When we last saw her in Tom Baker's day, he'd dropped her off in a place he assured her was Croydon. We find out in David Tennant's time that it was actually Aberdeen, Scotland.
• The Bus Came Back
• Cannot Spit It Out: As confirmed in Doctor Who (Titan), Sarah was in love with the Fourth Doctor but could never put it into words.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Averted. Though she shows this attitude in "School Reunion", it's absent all the other times that she meets another companion, suggesting that she was simply reacting to Rose (who embodies this trope).
• Chickification: Held her own well enough with Three but when Harry joined the TARDIS in Four's first season, Sarah was usually the Distressed Damsel that needed rescuing.
• Cool Old Lady: After "School Reunion".
• Distaff Counterpart: By the time of The Sarah Jane Adventures, she's essentially a female Third Doctor.
• Famed in Story: She's the journalist of the Whoniverse.
• Going for the Big Scoop: She typically runs into danger in order to get the story, especially early on.
• Grandma, What Massive Hotness You Have!
• Hot Scoop: Sarah Jane features highly in the sexy companion polls on a regular basis.
• Intrepid Reporter
• Killed Off for Real: Passed on the ninth anniversary of Elisabeth Sladen's own death.
• Lady of Adventure
• Older and Wiser: She's become increasingly Doctor-like.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse
• Plucky Girl
• Rummage Sale Reject: The Andy Pandy outfit from "The Hand of Fear".
• Straw Feminist: In her early appearances; this got toned down later.
• The Watson

Harry Sullivan

Fourth Doctor: Harry Sullivan is an imbecile!!!

Played by: Ian Marter (1974-75) —Travelled with the Fourth Doctor

A brief companion of the Fourth Doctor, the character was brought in just in case the Doctor cast was an elderly Doctor rather than… well… Tom Baker. As such, Harry was fairly redundant in some ways, but the bumbling naval officer is still fondly remembered for his chemistry with Tom Baker and Lis Sladen, making up one of the most memorable TARDIS teams.

• Badass Normal
• The Character Died with Him: Implied in The Sarah Jane Adventures.
• Distressed Dude
• Informed Ability: He's a doctor, but always seems out of his element. Then again…
• The Medic: He certainly does a fair bit of harm for someone who's medically trained, though.
• Mildly Military: He's a Royal Navy Surgeon-Lieutenant, but he rarely ever acts like it.
• The Nicknamer: Continually referred to Sarah Jane as "Old Thing" and had similar nicknames for other characters.
• Quintessential British Gentleman: "I say!"
• Straw Misogynist: Can be pretty sexist and condescending towards Sarah Jane. Although this was deliberate by the production team in order to contrast with Sarah Jane's Straw Feminist traits.
• You Look Familiar: Ian Marter had a minor part in the Third Doctor serial "Carnival of Monsters" before being cast as Harry.

Leela of the Sevateem

Don't worry, Doctor. I found the answer: knife them in the neck!

Played by: Louise Jameson (1977-78, 1993) —Travelled with the Fourth Doctor

A human Noble Savage, descendant of an ill-fated colonization expedition. Primarily remembered for her Fan Service leotard and trying to kill anything that looked hostile - however, though she was (initially) quite ignorant, she was not stupid and made up for her inferior intellect with her own insights and Simpleminded Wisdom.

• Action Girl
• Anti-Hero: Type III. Unlike the Doctor, Leela doesn't have any qualms about hurting or killing others.
• Badass: With one of her most notable moments beign when she killed a Sontaran by stabbing its probic vent with a throwing knife.
• Badass Normal
• The Bus Came Back: Though Leela gets name-dropped by the Doctor in a couple episodes (and in an "I wonder how Leela's doing" context), she doesn't return for real until the audio plays, notably Zagreus where she teams up with Time Lady President Romana and later go on to star in their own spin-off.
• Detect Evil
• Fur Bikini: More precisely, a leather leotard and knee-high boots. Actress Louise Jameson once showed off a letter she received from a young girl viewer asking if Leela would "please wear more clothes". In a scene filmed for the Series 5 DVD release, Amy Pond comes close to uttering the trope name when she asks if Leela (seen in a photograph) is wearing a "leather bikini".
• I Choose to Stay: She remains on Gallifrey and marries a Time Lord named Andred after the events of "The Invasion of Time."
• Noble Savage
• Nubile Savage
• Only One Name
• Parent Service: Conceived as such.
• Psycho Sidekick: She kills or inflicts potentially-lethal violence on quite a number of mooks, and the Doctor's protests often seem only token.
• Pygmalion Plot: The original idea (without the "falling in love with her" bit).
• Screaming Woman: Subverted. Hard. She screams exactly once, and that was when a giant mutant rat started chewing on her leg. This does not count war cries.
• Weapon of Choice: Her knife.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Her fate following the Last Great Time War is unknown.

K-9

I am not a dog. I dislike the terms "heel", "sit", and "boy".

Voiced by: John Leeson (1977-79, 1980-81, 1983, 1993, 2006, 2008); David Brierley (1979-80) —Travelled with the Fourth and Tenth Doctors

The first robot-buddy of the franchise, hailing from the 51st century. Shared a spinoff with Sarah Jane Smith and is a recurring character on The Sarah Jane Adventures, being a regular for series 3. Also got his own Australian-made spinoff, K 9.

• The Cat Came Back: The first K-9 (Mark I) was left with Leela on Gallifrey, the second K-9 (Mark II) was left with Romana II, a third and fourth K-9 (Mark III and IV) were given to Sarah Jane Smith...
• Badass Automaton; With a dash of Badass Adorable.
• Catch Phrase: "Affirmative." "Negative." "Master/Mistress?"
• Do-Anything Robot: Laser beam, hacking computers, defensive protocols, beating the Doctor at Chess, being a Deus Ex Machina...
• Family Friendly Firearm: K-9's ever-convenient laser beam has a kill option, but is always set on stun.
• The Nth Doctor: Largely subverted in that each K-9 unit is essentially the exact same thing as the previous model (except the version in the K-9 spinoff, which looks drastically different).
• The Other Darrin: Leeson wound up replaced by Brierly in Season 17 for one reason or another, but came back for the other appearances.
• Punny Name: Get it? K-9? Because it looks like a dog! K-9! As in CA-NINE.
• Robot Dog Buddy
• Think Nothing of It
• Zeerust: Lampshaded in "School Reunion".

Rose: It looks so... disco. Tenth Doctor: Oi! In the year 5000 this was cutting-edge!

Romana (1978-81, 1983, 1993)

Fourth Doctor: Well, here we are. We've tracked him to his lair. Romana I: Yes, we've got him exactly where he wants us. —Travelled with the Fourth and Eight Doctors

A Time Lord, or more properly a Time Lady, like the Doctor, and therefore has multiple regenerations. (Two were seen onscreen, dubbed Romana I and Romana II by fans; the Expanded Universe added a third.) Sent to assist the Doctor in the search for the Key To Time, she was initially what one would call "book-smart": extremely well-educated (her academic record trounced the Doctor's), but quite young and with little practical experience.

Tropes common to both incarnations

• Deadpan Snarker
• Distaff Counterpart: To the Doctor. Or at least, she evolves into one.
• The Fashionista
• Hot Scientist
• Only One Name
• Overly Long Name: "Romana" is actually short for "Romanadvoratrelundar".
• What Happened to the Mouse?: She lived to become Lady President of Gallifrey, but what happened to her in the Time War is not stated.

Romana I

Romana I: You have absolutely no sense of responsibility whatsoever! The Doctor: What? Romana I: You're capricious, arrogant, self-opinionated, irrational, and you don't even know where we're going! The Doctor: Exactly!

Played by: Mary Tamm (1978-79)

A tall, leggy, dark-haired woman; the initial concept of her was a "Grace Kelly" sort of character. Could be called "the skirt Romana", preferring these.

• Action Girl: occurs unexpectedly in "The Pirate Planet" when she gets into a laser gun fight and wins.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: She relaxes a lot over the course of her tenure.
• Love Redeems: The whole thing with the Shadow.
• Pimped-Out Cape: Made of white feathers.
• Put on a Bus: Without actually getting rid of the character. Since she's the same race as the Doctor, she could regenerate and stay on as a character. However, the regeneration comes with basically no explanation and is a lot like a standard Put on a Bus.
• Rich Bitch
• She's Got Legs
• Tall, Dark and Bishoujo

Romana II

The Doctor: Psst, you are wonderful. Romana II: Suppose I am. I've never really thought about it.

Played by: Lalla Ward (1979-81, 1983, 1993)

Shorter, with strawberry blonde hair. Preference for trousers rather than skirts.

• Bifauxnen: At times.
• Catholic School Girls Rule: Wears a very St Trinian's style uniform in the "City of Death" serial. Lalla Ward, judging by interviews and the production notes, came up with the idea and had no concept it was a fetish.
• Distaff Counterpart: Began evolvling into the Doctor's.
• Expanded Universe: Several novels and audio dramas have attempted to explain why Romana regenerated into the Lalla Ward version. These range from the short story "The Lying Old Witch in the Wardrobe" suggesting the TARDIS forced her to in a fit of jealousy (after impersonating Romana during the events of Destiny of the Daleks), to other ideas.
• Gendered Outfit: Wore a pink version of The Doctor's outfit.
• I Choose to Stay: After three serials of trying to get out of E-Space, she decides to stay at the end of "Warriors' Gate" to help a race of enslaved time-traveling lion people.
• Lady of Adventure: More keen on adventuring than her first incarnation.
• Nerves of Steel: An adventurous Time Lady like her picked them up really quickly after jousting against the Daleks.
• Romance on the Set: With Tom Baker.
• Sorting Algorithm of Deadness: She gets a 1.833333.
• Stranger in a Familiar Land: The reason she doesn't want to return to Gallifrey is that she knows she'll be this.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: Although she just likes men's clothes rather than actually being a transvestite. Described in one DVD extra as the only woman who could pull off wearing a fruit salad on her head.
• You Look Familiar: The actress was a guest star as Princess Astra of Atrios in the story immediately preceding her debut. This was referenced in-story as Romana choosing that form to regenerate into.

Adric

Could anyone pass the sodium chloride, please?

Played by: Matthew Waterhouse (1980-82) —Travelled with the Fourth and Fifth Doctors

A snotty teenage maths geek from E-Space, annoying in the way that snotty teenage geek-boys usually are, but a well-meaning kid all the same. He is most notable for being the longest serving companion to be killed off.

• Anti-Hero: Type II.
• The Artful Dodger: It's even part of his character concept.
• Berserk Button: Adric puts a girl in a stranglehold for trying to take his math badge. In his first scene.
• BFG: Used for a very weakly executed but surprisingly effective one-man Big Damn Heroes moment near the end of "Warriors' Gate."
• Bizarre Alien Biology: In addition to his Healing Factor, the Companion Chronicles reveal that Alzarians' hearts are on the right side of their chest cavity.
• Dead Older Brother: Varsh. He keeps his belt as a memento.
• Dying Alone: On a crashing spaceship, thinking he just failed to save the world.
• Fake Defector: And HOW. Considering he does this three times over the course of his time in the TARDIS ("State of Decay", "Castrovalva," and "Kinda"), it's not surprising that a lot of fans accuse him of "always siding with the villain."
• Famous Last Words: "Now I'll never know if I was right..."
• A God Am I: In Big Finish's The Boy That Time Forgot. Courtesy of applied mathematics, timey-wimey stuff, and alien technology that helps Adric bend an alternate reality to his will.
• Good with Numbers
• Guile Hero
• Heroic Sacrifice: Or it would have been, had it actually achieved anything.
  • Senseless Sacrifice
  • The Expanded Universe audio adventures by Big Finish did wind up giving him one, though.
• Healing Factor: You'd think it'd be a massively useful trait for a companion to have, given the scrapes they get into, but Adric's Healing Factor is only mentioned twice - in "Full Circle" (his introductory story) and again in "The Visitation".
• Horrible Judge of Character: Towards Monarch in "Four to Doomsday." Turning the entire population of Earth into androids to rid them of disease sound like a good idea to you?
• Human Aliens: Adric's species has three forms, only one of which is humanoid.
• Iconic Item: His mathematical excellence badge. Seeing it shattered on the floor of the TARDIS at the end of "Earthshock" makes the Silent Credits all the more powerful.
• Informed Ability: For a supposed genius, Adric doesn't come off as being particularly intelligent.
• Insufferable Genius: Most fans place the emphasis firmly on 'insufferable'.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: To an extent. The "jerk" part doesn't really emerge until season 19, but ultimately he still cares.
• Little Stowaway: How he got on the TARDIS in the first place.
• Love Makes You Crazy: In The Boy That Time Forgot, he tells Nyssa that he had the entire City of Excellence built so that he could bring her back to him and make her his bride.
• Mr. Vice Guy: Driven by a desire for approval and acceptance.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: Ability-wise, Adric is a surprisingly well-equipped companion, demonstrating proficiency in lock-picking, sleight-of-hand, and knife-throwing, amongst other things. The catch? Most of them only get used in one story, two if it's really lucky.
• The Other Darrin: Adric was played by Andrew Sachs in The Boy That Time Forgot because Matthew Waterhouse didn't want to work for Big Finish.
  • This will apparently be the case for any subsequent appearances of Adric as Waterhouse has stated that him returning to the role would be "ridiculous" by this point, even for audios, seeing as he was 18 when he played him and is pushing 50 now.
• Promoted Fanboy: Matthew Waterhouse had a letter published in Doctor Who Magazine mere weeks before he was cast as Adric.
• Reality Subtext: Adric's older brother Varsh dies in "Full Circle," just two years after Matthew Waterhouse's own older brother Nicholas had committed suicide.
• Teen Genius
• Took a Level In Badass: His TARDIS-induced cameo in the comic The Forgotten: Saves the Doctor from one of the clockwork robots from "The Girl in the Fireplace." By throwing himself at it and blowing it up. With a can of Ace's Nitro-9. And he goes out smiling.

Nyssa of Traken

Do you have any books on telebiogenesis?

Played by: Sarah Sutton (1981-83) —Travelled with the Fourth and Fifth Doctors

Daughter of Tremas, who got his body possessed by the Master at the end of Fourth Doctor serial The Keeper of Traken. Famous for the skirt removal bit in Terminus, which the actor herself has described as "a gift to the fans". One of the more accomplished TARDIS pilots among the companions; she was even able to fly it solo (with assists from Tegan in Castrovalva and Adric in The Visitation).

• Eighties Hair
• Angst? What Angst?: The implications of her tragic backstory are barely mentioned in the show, but the Expanded Universe would make use of all her emotional baggage.
• Ascended Extra: Was never intended to be a companion, until producer John Nathan-Turner decided otherwise.
• Beware the Nice Ones: "Arc of Infinity". She pulls a gun on the Time Lord President, amongst many others. Sarah Sutton notes in the DVD commentary how unusually trigger-happy Nyssa was in this story.
• Brainy Brunette
• The Bus Came Back: She rejoins Five, Tegan, and Turlough for a few audio adventures 50 years later (for her) and immediately after the events of "Enlightenment" (for them).
• Women Are Wiser
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: In her Companion Chronicle The Darkening Eye. With Tegan.
• Expanded Universe: In the Big Finish audio series, teenaged Nyssa travels for a long time with the Doctor (presumably between the TV stories "Time-Flight" and "Arc of Infinity", during which interval Tegan as been kicked to the curb). Later, she rejoins the Doctor at a period after "Terminus", but while it has been only a few weeks or months for the Doctor and his companions, it has been decades for Nyssa. This plot twist allows actress Sarah Sutton to play the character closer to her real age.
• Giant Poofy Sleeves
• Hot Scientist
• Human Aliens
• I Choose to Stay: She leaves the TARDIS crew to stay on Terminus and try to restructure it into a proper hospital.
• Innocent Aliens
• Last Of Her Kind: The rest of Traken died in "Logopolis".
• Nice Girl
• Odd Friendship: With Tegan, who is almost her polar opposite.
• Official Couple: "Farewell, Sarah Jane" reveals that she and Teagan are now a couple.
• Plucky Girl
• Pretty in Mink: One of her outfits had a fur-trimmed jacket
• The Quiet One: In comparison to Adric and Tegan.
• Teen Genius

Tegan Jovanka

Fifth Doctor: How do you feel now? Tegan: Groggy, sore, and bad-tempered. Fifth Doctor: Almost your old self, then!

Played by: Janet Fielding (1981-84) —Travelled with the Fourth and Fifth Doctors

A brash Australian, inadvertently kidnapped from 1981 just as she was about to start a new job as a flight attendant. Created to help sell the show to Australia. Once described herself as "just a mouth on legs". One of a very few companions seen to pilot the TARDIS, albeit not very well. Longest-serving companion if you count by consecutive years active.

• Eighties Hair: The short, Sheena Easton variety.
• Beam Me Up, Scotty: Tegan's supposed fondness for using "Rabbits!" as a swear word. She actually only uses it twice.
• The Cat Came Back: The Doctor eventually got her back to where she wanted to be (Heathrow, about to start her new job), but several months too late. She returns in the next season, having lost her job before she even arrived and managed to find the TARDIS again (by accident).
• Demonic Possession: Guess who becomes the Mara's host both times it shows up?
• Department of Redundancy Department: "How do we find the index file? Of course, if we had an index file, we could look it up in the index file under 'index file'! What am I saying?!"
• Line-of-Sight Name: How the character was named. Nathan-Turner was either going to choose Tegan, for an Australian friend's niece, or Jovanka, after the wife of Yugoslavian president Josip Broz Tito. Script-editor Christopher H. Bidmead read Tegan as the first name and Jovanka as the last name. The rest, as they say, is history.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: The Masculine Girl to Five's Feminine Boy.
• Odd Friendship: With Nyssa.
• Official Couple: "Farewell, Sarah Jane" reveals that she and Nyssa are now a couple.
• Plucky Girl
• Sexy Stewardess
• Tsundere: Heavily Type A, the deredere being nearly vestigial.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: Type 2 with Adric. They seem to care as much as they bicker, especially when one of them gets captured (or killed).

Vislor Turlough

What is it about Earth people that makes them think a futile gesture is a noble one?

Played by: Mark Strickson (1983-84) —Travelled with the Fifth Doctor

An alien noble exiled to Earth after a revolution on his planet, Turlough is posing as an English schoolboy when the Doctor meets him. While the Doctor and Turlough have had their differences, Turlough eventually grew to consider the Doctor his closest friend. Just don't expect him to admit it.

• Anti-Hero: Type IV
• Awesome McCoolname
• Chivalrous Pervert: He even gets some in various Expanded Universe tales. Lord knows it'd never happen on camera.
• Deadpan Snarker: Particularly towards Tegan, who's just as capable of snarking right back.
• Deal with the Devil
• Distressed Dude: Done often because the writers couldn't figure out what to do with Turlough.
• Fan Service: He sure took a lot of clothes off in "Planet of Fire"...
• Heel Face Turn: He starts out plotting to kill the Doctor for the Black Guardian, but eventually becomes the Doctor's loyal friend.
• Human Aliens
• Last-Name Basis
• Long Lost Sibling
• Mark of Shame
• The Mole: Initially.
• Mysterious Past: And we learn what it is in his final episode.
• Redheaded Hero: John Nathan-Turner insisted that the naturally blond Mark Strickson dye his hair ginger so as not to be confused with Peter Davison in long shots.
• Shirtless Scene: Actually, more like a male Wet Sari Scene - with speedos.
• The So-Called Coward
• Thicker Than Water
• Token Evil Teammate: Even after he becomes a trusted companion and friend of the Doctor, he's just as liable to abandon or betray the Doctor as he is to rescue him and his companions. Turlough's morality remains slightly dubious, even up to his last episode, but he always seems to redeem himself in the end.

Kamelion

Unexpected as it may be, I do have a mind of my own.

Voiced by: Gerald Flood (1983-84) —Travelled with the Fifth Doctor

A shape-changing robot that the Master acquired as a sort of souvenir from the planet Xeriphas, this character quite literally vanished into the TARDIS rather than becoming a Companion, and is almost always forgotten. This, in itself, is not necessarily a bad thing. Showed up in "The King's Demons" as a villain and puppet of the Master, got cut from an appearance in "The Awakening" and made a final appearance in "Planet of Fire".

• Dropped a Bridge on Him
• Expanded Universe: Actually fleshed-out in several novels.
• Forgotten Fallen Friend: Never mentioned again, whatsoever.
• Mercy Kill: The less said about this one, the better.
• Punny Name
• Robot Buddy: Literally.
• Shapeshifting
• Shoo Out the New Guy: Technically he was a companion for nearly a full year. In practice, he only showed up in 2 stories, the one where he joined and the one where the writers Dropped a Bridge on Him.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Was conceived as a successor to K-9, just not looking like a dog.
• Weak-Willed: Very easily manipulated by the willpower of others.

Perpugilliam "Peri" Brown

The Master: I am the Master! Peri: So what? I'm Perpugilliam Brown, and I can shout just as loud as you can!

Played by: Nicola Bryant: (1984-86) —Travelled with the Fifth and Sixth Doctors

The series' only regular American companion (supposedly), Peri was a botany student who stumbled into the TARDIS while she was on holiday. Has developed a lot of attention from male fans due to her tendency to wear tight clothes.

• Eighties Hair
• Abhorrent Admirer: Peri has an unfortunate knack for attracting lustful weirdos, such as Sharaz Jek and the Borad.
• Abusive Parents: She has a nightmare about her step-father in her first appearance: fans were left to draw their own (generally unpleasant) conclusions.
  • In at least one bit of the Expanded Universe, it's canon that she was molested as a child. Break the Cutie indeed.
• Absolute Cleavage: Just ask Peter Davison. Some of her wardrobe is actually modest though.
• Break the Cutie: The Doctor Who Expanded Universe seems to delight in doing this to poor Peri. One tale winds up killing off her entire family. And not just that, but it was an utter afterthought in a story's epilogue where Peri had already lost some people who were like family to her.
  • Another "perfect" example deals with the alternate possibilities coming from her final appearances. Resurrected from her death on Thoros Beta by the Time Lords and accidentally copied from her ending with King Yrcanos. Now, Peri was returned to her life on Earth with only the memories of her first trip with the Doctor. This Peri wound up marrying her high school sweetheart... and is abused repeatedly by her 'perfect husband.' Unable to have children, Peri slowly gets used to the idea of having a messed-up life... only to have it dragged out by a run-in with her old self. It's a real mood-switcher. For those who care, there are four others out there - including the Peri who wound up with King Yrcanos. Not only does the EU like screwing with Peri, but Big Finish likes messing with continuity.
• The Ditz: Season 22, mostly. Luckily, she improved drastically in her last season, not to mention her audio adventures.
• Form-Fitting Wardrobe
• Know Your Vines: Peri is a botanist, but rarely gets the opportunity to show it.
• Male Gaze: Her introduction.
• Ms. Fanservice: Her aforementioned tight wardrobe. Which was a bit unfair on poor Ms. Bryant, as both she and Colin have pointed out in more than one commentary that England can be really cold.
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: A lot. Really hard. To the point that some American viewers have had to Google her to figure out where she was meant to be from.
  • The accent was also problematic because the production team had Nicola Bryant present herself as being an American just like Peri.
• Parent Service: Another blatant example like Leela before her.
• Plucky Girl
• Silent Snarker: With Six.
• Shouldn't Peri Be Back In School Right Now?: Depending on what her fate really is. See the alternate possibilities above.
• Tsundere: A Type B with the Sixth Doctor. Also an example of Vitriolic Best Buds (Type 2).

Melanie "Mel" Bush

AAAIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

Played by: Bonnie Langford (1986-87) —Travelled with the Sixth and Seventh Doctors

A computer programmer from Brighton, Mel was well known both for having a particularly piercing scream and being obsessive about her health (and the Doctor's, for that matter).

• Eighties Hair
• Characterization Marches On: Her obsession with the Doctor's health. Possibly justified as he did end up changing physically, just not in a way she expected.
• Fiery Redhead: Without the typical fighting capability.
• Giant Poofy Sleeves
• I Choose to Stay: With Sabalom Glitz, for some reason.
• Informed Ability: Mel supposedly had a Photographic Memory, but this never came up.
• Love Freak: In the audio play The Juggernauts she tries to redeem Davros. Of course, she doesn't exactly have the long history with him the Doctor has, but still...
  • Beware the Nice Ones: However, once it turns out Davros is a lying sack of crap and reverts to form, Melanie decides to leave him at the so-called mercy of his own creations: the Juggernauts. Whom are basically anti-Dalek Daleks made from human remains. Just don't piss her off, really.
• Make Me Wanna Shout: Possible real-world example; it has been mentioned that she was hired because she had a scream "that could tear the paint off walls". It's not far from the truth.
• Nice Girl
• No Indoor Voice
• No Name Given: Mel's last name is never mentioned on screen. It was established as Bush in studio documents and a book written by the series' producer at the time, and made "official" in the Expanded Universe.
• Screaming Woman: And how! The actress was hired for her scream which could "tear the paint off walls".
  

Dorothy, aka "Ace"

Seventh Doctor: I don't believe you've met my young friend Ace, an expert in calorification (setting things on fire), incineration (setting things on fire), carbonization (setting things on fire), and inflammation (setting things on fire). —Travelled with the Seventh Doctor

Played by: Sophie Aldred (1987-89)

A "typical" late-eighties teenager rescued from an ice planet where she was working as a waitress (long story). Notable as one of the relatively few classic series girls who actively attempted to beat up the monsters rather than scream at them. She also liked to deploy her favourite weapon, a homemade explosive she called Nitro-9. Always called the Doctor "Professor", even after he asked her not to. This started out as an example of her anti-authority bent, then turned into an affectionate nickname between them.

• Eighties Hair
• Aborted Arc: According to Word of God, had the show not been placed on hiatus, the Doctor would have enrolled Ace in the Time Lord Academy so she could undergo training to become a Time Lord. Oh yes.
  • Her eventual fate is finally alluded to in The Sarah Jane Adventures. When listing what her research has revealed about various companions, Sarah Jane mentions a woman named Dorothy who runs a charity called A Charitable Earth which has raised billions.
• Anti-Hero: Type II
• Badass: She once beat up a Dalek. With a baseball bat. Inspired the Crowning Moment of Awesome trope.
  • Action Girl
  • Badbutt
• Broken Bird: The girl had "issues".
• Butch Lesbian: According to writer Rona Munro, anyway. Ace occasionally has chemistry with male guest stars (notably Captain Soren in "The Curse of Fenric"), but it's much more common with the ladies.
• Catch Phrase: Enjoyed shouting "Ace!" (meaning "cool"). Since this is also her nickname, it almost seems like she is engaging in Pokémon-Speak.
  • She said "Wicked!" so often that the Doctor himself was inspired to say it once.
• Dark and Troubled Past: The epitome of this trope, to the point where the type of Doctor Ace really needs is a therapist.
• Girl of the Week: The children's TV Word of Gay version. Ace appeared in nine stories, and rapidly established a close friendship with an attractive young female character in at least five of them.
• Gosh Dang It to Heck: Much of the Totally Radical comes from the writers' attempts to have her insult people or express emotion without swearing.
• Mad Bomber: She's very quick to whip out those homemade explosives of hers. The Doctor is more than aware of this.

Seventh Doctor: "ACE! Hand me some of that Nitro-9 you're not carrying."

• Meaningful Name: Her name's Dorothy, and she ends up in the future by a "time storm". Does this remind you of anything?
  • Taken further via Word of God: her middle name is "Gale".
• The Nicknamer: She's best known for calling the Doctor "Professor", but she invented names for other characters as well. Mel ended up as "Doughnut".
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Her full name is Dorothy Gale McShane.
• Psycho Sidekick: Subverted, in that a vague description of the dynamic between them would make Ace seem like a Psycho Sidekick, but the Seventh Doctor is much more ruthless than she is, in a less personally violent way.
  • Especially in "The Curse of Fenric" where the Doctor cruelly calls her an "emotional cripple". It's in order to save her life by forcing her to lose faith in him so the big bad can't destroy the world. But it's still a pretty nasty thing to do to a character established as carrying a lot of emotional baggage.
• Really Gets Around: Not on television, but in the Expanded Universe books, Ace seems to shag someone in every novel.
• Stable Time Loop: She meets her grandmother, causing her own existence.
• Supporting Protagonist: When Andrew Cartmel tried to re-instil some mystery into The Doctor and made him a conniving Chessmaster, Ace ended up getting the most Character Development of any companion from the classic series.
• Take Up My Sword: Inherits K-9 following Sarah Jane's passing.
• Tomboy
• Totally Radical: Try and listen to some of the dialogue and the slang she uses without cringing. Go on. We dare you.
• Weapon of Choice: Explosives!
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Her ultimate fate is unclear. Some say that she went to study at the Time Lord Academy, others that she became a Cyberman, or that she died in battle. The Sarah Jane Adventures opines that she runs a charity.
• Wholesome Crossdresser: In Ghost Light.

Dr. Grace Holloway

Doctor, I only have one life. Can you try to keep that in mind?

Played by: Daphne Ashbrook (1996) —Travelled with the Eighth Doctor

Only on-screen companion of the Eighth Doctor, Grace also has the dubious distinction of having killed the Doctor. She's a cardiologist from 1999 with a fondness for opera.

• All Love Is Unrequited

"I finally meet the right guy... and he's from another planet!"

• At the Opera Tonight: She's attending the opera when she's called to operate on the Doctor.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Due to being hit by the Master's poison/acidic saliva.
  • Black Eyes of Evil: When she's possessed by the Master's influence.
  • People Puppets
• The Doctor Wants Redheads: And likes snogging them.
• Hospital Hottie
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Her attempt to save the Seventh Doctor was the cause of his death, forcing him to regenerate into Eight.
• No Hugging, No Kissing: Forever averted. She and the Doctor happily make out.
• Redheaded Hero
• Refusal of the Call: Ultimately, she decides not to go with the Doctor, and the Doctor refuses to stay on Earth with her.