Top (Ten) Companions: Doctor Who

If we’re combining both classic and new Who, it’s gotta be ten – a Top Five won’t cut it.  This is true with every Top Five/Other Number post I do, but especially here:  in no particular order.  Yes, there are a few that rise closer to the top than any other, but when it comes to companions, there’s just too much goodness to get that specific about the ranking.

Leela

Goodness gracious, I love this “savage.”  Brave, resourceful, and endlessly loyal, Leela rightfully deserves a lot of credit for her fierceness and fighting prowess.  However, she also deserves a lot of credit for her inquisitive mind and ability to learn on her feet – being a companion naturally exposes you to all sorts of things you’ve never seen before, but Leela’s learning curve is steeper than most, and she keeps up admirably well.

Martha Jones

Let it be said:  Martha Jones can get crap done.  A lot is asked of her during her time with the Doctor, and she steps up to the plate every time.  Particularly, there’s a lot she needs to do on her own, without the Doctor to back her up or swoop in if she needs saving.  But Martha rolls up her sleeves, bears down, and gets it done.  Her medical knowledge comes in handy multiple times, and she’s superb at keeping her head in a crisis – the doctor is in.

Jamie McCrimmon

Ah, Jamie!  One of the most fun companions, completely giving off the air of one who just tools around time and space with the Doctor and co.  Like Leela, he’s a companion who’s massively out of his depth in terms of knowledge and experience, but he learns fast.  And despite being a wee bit of a scaredy-cat, he’s tremendously loyal to his friends and will gladly throw himself into danger in order to protect them.

Rose Tyler

She was my first companion, and your first is always special, isn’t it?  I love to watch Rose discover how much she’s capable of, everything she can do.  She’s bright and curious, she has huge compassion for others, and there’s absolutely nothing she won’t do for the Doctor.  I still remember the chills I got the first time I watched the “Bad Wolf moment” at the end of series 1.

Barbara Wright

Very clever, with a good head for reasoning and a knack for coming up with a plan on a time-crunch.  I enjoy her genuine relish for history, of actually walking through the past and seeing what it was like herself.  And she still remains one of the best for giving the Doctor what for when he needs it – you don’t wanna get on Barbara’s bad side!

Liz Shaw

I have a lot of affection for Liz.  Wonderfully intelligent, of course, but not just scientifically – she’s quick, too.  Whether it’s picking up on an important detail or slapping together an immediate escape plan, she puts her brains to good use, and her intellectual skepticism doesn’t prevent her from accepting the evidence of her experiences.

Romana

I go back and forth as to which regeneration I like better, so I won’t try to pick here.  I love cool Romana I, and I love sly Romana II – book smarts up to here and she knows it!  It’s fun to watch the has-an-answer-for-everything Romana try to navigate actually applying her knowledge to real-world situation, and she gives some of the best withering replies around.

Donna Noble

Oh, Donna.  I love her so much.  So smart and so capable, but unlike Romana, she doesn’t fully know it.  That said, she doesn’t let her own opinion of herself hold her back, and she does so much she never realized she could do.  She also knows the Doctor remarkably well and is good at seeing what he needs, whether that’s someone to talk some sense into him or just a friend to stand by him.

Ian Chesterton

Like Barbara, of course, another part of the original dream team.  Ian’s another smart cookie, cool under pressure, and he turns out to be surprisingly good at various types of armed and unarmed combat – no science teacher I ever had could do that!

Sarah Jane Smith

Come on, you’ve gotta have Sarah Jane, right?  With a talent for poking her nose in where it doesn’t belong, Sarah Jane spends a lot of time asking the right questions and digging for the right answers.  It’s great to watch her and the Doctor explore time and space, and she gets even more awesome later in life, setting up her own one-stop-alien-fighting-shop in her attic with the help of her young friends.  She has a sonic lipstick, and that’s awesome.