List: My Five Favourite Companions

The Companion. Ever-changing, the role of The Doctor's friend has offered up a wide variety of characters. Here I'll discuss my top five companions (of the Who I've seen). Written 17/3/12.

Hi, Jack. Or do you prefer Captain?

5 - Jack Harkness - John Barrowman, 2005-10

You know, however much I take issue with in Nu Who, there are elements which I can't help but enjoy. In The Empty Child, RTD and Moffat co-created Captain Jack Harkness, the swarthy time-travelling omnisexual conman who fell under The Doctor's spell and decided to reform. He became something of a series-poster boy, an embodiment of RTD's style and taste that never quite went away, especially when he was granted his own spin-off show. Because of this passage, Jack is perhaps one of the most interesting characters in all of Nu Who.
     On his own, he was great fun, but at the end of his Season 27 appearances Jack was made immortal. This is the key to his character, but it's also his biggest flaw. His immortality added dramatically to his "cool factor," the catalyst of his rise to fame, but in later appearances it didn't gel with his characterisation. For someone eventually older than The Doctor himself, it's weird that Jack is still as irresponsible and slightly stupid as he is. He has none of the sincerity, none of the perspective that a man who has lived over two millenia should have.
     So why, then, is he on this list? It's simple. Jack is an awesome character; he emanates cool and always brightens the screen. He may not be the best-written character, but you always know that you'll be getting a mix of charm, wit and sci-fi goodness whenever he's around.

Mary Tamm has a plan.

4 - Romana I - Mary Tamm, 1978

The essence of style and sophistication, Romana I is here simply because her second incarnation irritates me. As a concept, Romana was brilliant - two Timelords, travelling the cosmos together with their societal differences allowing both characters great potential for development. Mary Tamm's take on the character embodies this and executes it in a brilliant way.
      There was a habit with some earlier companions for them just to become weak-willed girls who always needed The Doctor's help to rescue them or to explain to them what was going on. Baker's companions really began to challenge this. Arguably this started with Liz Shaw in 1970 and later Leela, but the next season in 1978 blew this out of the water with Romana, who was just as smart (if not more) than The Doctor and was in a constant battle to outshine him. Mary brought her wit and charm to the role, and her character is one of the best things about the already brilliant Key To Time arc.

She's smiling here, but really she's dying inside.

3 - Peri - Nicola Bryant, 1984-6

So most fans of the series are asking, why is Peri on this list, when she's mostly whiney and is one of the most obvious examples of the "Something for the Dads" phenomenon. Well... Peri is just my companion.
     Context. Two of the earliest Classic Whos that I ever had were given to me by my Aunt, who probably attained them by means that we won't discuss here. They were Revelation of the Daleks and The Two Doctors, and along with the 1999 release of The Five Doctors, they made sure that from childhood, I adored Eighties Who over all else. There isn't a logical reason to why I like her, but really it's probably her love-hate relationship with Six, which always struck her into the more positive light.
     Her story was ultimately a tragic one; a girl who fell in with an attractive man, and forced to accept it as he changed into an unsavoury character. In the end she was either possessed and killed, or forced to live out the rest of her life with Brian Blessed (I don't know which is worst.) However, Peri's constant optimism and good attitude helped her to become the first companion whom I connected with.
     And she was pretty hot, too. But that's irrelevant.

Red Dwarf did start at roughly this time...

2 - Ace - Sophie Aldred, 1987-9

Ace, the nickname of Dorothy McShane, is a controvertial character. Some in the community see her as a desperate attempt to make Doctor Who "for the kids," with her already-outdated slang and Dave-Lister-esque costume. Ace was a girl from the Eighties who by some magical occurance found herself in the future, on a human colony called Iceworld. Just as Seven ditched Mel, he picked her up and they spent the rest of the Classic Series together.
     Andrew Cartmel had some weird ideas for the future of Who, and ultimately some like me are glad that his storyline was cut off at Season 26, but his vision produced some very, very good writing. Ace is a direct result of this, and her character is arguably the best written in the Eighties. Her entire life has been a ploy by The Doctor to fight a variety of evil enemies, and in turn he helps her to overcome her poor beginnings and eventually mature into an intelligent young woman.
      If she's so good, then, why is she only Number Two? Ace is good in the Classic sense of the word, like most Pertwee and T.Baker stories, but she doesn't capture my heart in the way that maybe Peri or Nyssa do. She was a fitting companion to end the series on, and showed how much the companion role could do with a modern attitude.

From Princess to Doctor.

1 - Nyssa - Sarah Sutton, 1981-3

Whenever I talk about the Eighties, I spend a lot of time talking about how bad things are and then making up excuses as to why on earth I love them as I do. Nothing embodies this more than my love for Nyssa, a character who in Season 19 was relegated to the third wheel as the two obnoxious whiners took precedent. Her potential as a character was overshadowed by the problems of her era, to the extent where I love her mainly on the fact that she managed to shine through at all.
     Nyssa is everything a companion should be. She's new enough to this world to be an audience identification figure and yet alien enough to be useful. She's naive enough to need guidance and smart enough to not get into trouble easily and to actually find The Doctor fascinating. Nyssa's leaving scene in Terminus always makes me tear up, because Nyssa isn't leaving because she feels like it, or because she's met a man. She's leaving out of a philanthropic princple, the desire to use her skills to help people and redeem herself after escaping a home-planet destroyed by the man who possessed her father, having learnt to grow up and take responsibility for her own actions.
     Ace is classically good. Peri is part of my childhood. Romana is what a companion should be, and Jack embodies everything a companion can be. Nyssa? She was a companion whom I grew to love even when she fell into the background. And that, in my eyes, makes her my favourite companion of all.

Thanks.