I hope this isn't region locked...
Timey Wimey Business- a thread for Doctor Who
- Thread starter AgentOrange
- Start date
Personally them "fixing/addressing" Donna is the biggest reason I am interested in this. She became such a different and better person thanks to her time with the Doctor; and then she got a literal fate worse then death by being condemned to living out her life as the spoiled and vapid person she used to be. I really would have preferred Death over that. So hopefully she either goes out a hero or they give her a better ending; don't just keep her in that hell.
Right there with you. I just stopped watching the last season.
To be fair to Donna, she got married and won the lottery. The Doctor gave her the best ending that he could. Certainly better than any of the other companions, except maybe for Rose, who got to live with a human Doctor, got her father back, and has a new baby sibling.
It's kind of true, Good Endings for companions of the Doctor are few and far between. If you don't come out dead, often the best you can hope for is the dubious honor of having visited all the best gravel quarries and corridors in the universe...
Been out of the Doctor Who loop for a bit, but the 10 / Donna Noble setup was always my favorite by far. I'll have to check this out.
Here is the ones that I know of since the 2005 return:
Put in spoilers just in case.
Rose - covered that.
Capt Jack - still active.
Martha Jones - Left to comfort her family when she realized 10 would never love her, later joined Unit.
Astrid - Died on the ship.
Donna - Covered that.
Amy and Rory- Sucked back in time by the weeping angels to die in the past.
River - dies in the library, gets uploaded to a computer.
Clara - Gets killed and then snatched out of time for her to roam around the universe in her own tardis until she decides to go back to Galifrey in order to die.
Bill Potts - Gets turned into a Cyberman, then dies and has her conscious taken by a space alien for a tour of the galaxy.
Missy - is killed by her previous incarnation when she wants to help the Doctor.
Capt Jack - still active.
Martha Jones - Left to comfort her family when she realized 10 would never love her, later joined Unit.
Astrid - Died on the ship.
Donna - Covered that.
Amy and Rory- Sucked back in time by the weeping angels to die in the past.
River - dies in the library, gets uploaded to a computer.
Clara - Gets killed and then snatched out of time for her to roam around the universe in her own tardis until she decides to go back to Galifrey in order to die.
Bill Potts - Gets turned into a Cyberman, then dies and has her conscious taken by a space alien for a tour of the galaxy.
Missy - is killed by her previous incarnation when she wants to help the Doctor.
It's definitely a lot worse for modern companions than for most companions back in the day. But, then, with the exception of Martha, they've pretty much started saying that no companion would ever leave the Doctor of their own free will, which never used to be the case.
For those who need a little something to tide themselves over while they wait, and are non-British/haven't seen this already:
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That is the least annoying Donna Noble has ever been.
I mean, maybe modern Who has lingered on the subject more, but classic Who was not exactly kind to its companions. Susan gets left behind on a post-Dalek-apocolypse earth, Ian and Barbera have to fend for themselves in a Dalek time machine, Sarah-Jane gets left behind (the Doctor did bring her a K-9 later), Romana is left in e-space, Adric dies crashing a ship, Nyssa is left behind on Frontios, Peri may or may not have had her body taken over by an alien slug, and those are just the ones I can recall from pure memory. Who has never been a "Happily Ever After" story, even from the beginning. As you say, though, there are plenty of companions who, in story, have had enough of the death and running through endless hallways and call it quits of their own volition.
The point I was making remains. All of those people, unless they actually DIED (which happened all of twice in 26 years), made a choice to leave the Doctor (with the definite exception of Peri, although her status is... as you put it... more than a little ambiguous... and even more so if you follow Big Finish. And Susan... well, she probably WOULD have chosen to stay and marry David if the Doctor didn't make the decision for her). You can argue that what they left to wasn't always great. That's fine (although most of the cases you cite were nowhere near as negative-sounding to the companions actively choosing to leave as you're making the situations sound here).
Let's see...
Susan - Left behind, started a family with David, briefly reunited with the Doctor but could someday return.
Ian and Barbara - Left the Doctor of their own volition, found their way back to Earth about two years after they left. Got married, and Ian's still alive, though it's possible that Barbara has passed away from old age.
Vicki - Parted company with the Doctor, remembered by history as Cressida.
Steven Taylor - Parted company with the Doctor to lead a society on an alien planet.
Katerina - Killed by getting blown out an airlock.
Sara Kingdom - Killed by the Daleks' Time Destructor.
Dodo - Got mind-controlled, parted company from the Doctor whilst under that influence.
Ben and Polly - Parted company with the Doctor of their own volition. Got married, appear to be doing okay.
Jamie - Was forced to part company with the Doctor and had his memories wiped of all but his first adventure with him.
Victoria - Chose to part company with the Doctor, was taken in by a family in then-modern Earth.
Zoe - Was forced to part company with the Doctor and had her memories wiped of all but her first adventure with him.
Liz - Left UNIT, though apparently returned much later.
Jo - Left UNIT, now globetrotting and helping out where she can.
Sarah Jane - Left the Doctor when he was forced to part company with her, missed him, but eventually reunited on several occasions. Lived a good life, adopted a couple kids, passed away from old age.
Harry - Left the Doctor, continued to work with UNIT and the military. May or may not be dead, but that's unlikely to be connected to the Doctor's actions.
Leela - Left the Doctor because she fell in love. May or may not have died in the Last Great Time War.
K-9 Mark 1 - Left the Doctor with Leela. Was separated from her, got a makeover and amnesia, and had his own adventures.
Romana - Left the Doctor, but supplementary materials suggest that she eventually returned to N-Space. May or may not have died in the Last Great Time War.
K-9 Mark 2 - Left the Doctor with Romana, may or may not have returned with her. May or may not have been destroyed in the Last Great Time War.
K-9 Mark 3 - Destroyed while aiding the Doctor and Sarah Jane.
Adric - Killed due to the actions of the Cybermen, took the dinosaurs with him.
Nyssa - Chose to leave to improve conditions on Terminus.
Tegan - Chose to leave. Still active.
Turlough - Chose to leave and return to his homeworld.
Peri - Depending on the source, either dead or married to King Yrcarnos. Televised material leans towards the latter.
Mel - Left the Doctor of her own volition. Eventually found her way back to Earth and will be seen again in the future.
Ace - Left the Doctor under unknown circumstances. Still active.
And that's not including UNIT military personnel. Honestly, classic companions have fared pretty well overall compared to the modern era ones.
Don't forget Kamelion, the animatronic android who was left to rot forgotten in some room of the TARDIS until the writers remembered he existed and brought him back under the sway of the Master.
But, yeah, after reading over this list, the classic companions did fare somewhat better than memory serves.
But, yeah, after reading over this list, the classic companions did fare somewhat better than memory serves.
Oh yes, the cursed robot. Only appeared twice, and got a mercy kill on his second appearance.
If Kamelion counts, what abour Craig in the modern series?
It was such a shock in the UK, that a famous British songwriter released an impromptu song about it.
Kamelion got to travel in the TARDIS. Craig never even set foot in it, poor soul.
No, but he did set foot into an Alien cockpit and battled Cybermen. His two episodes are kinda the most fun of each of their seasons.
I'd count Adam before counting Craig (and I don't count Adam).
(FWIW, I don't count Sara Kingdom, either... the "third" of the "two" classic series deaths I was referencing earlier... but I readily agree that she occupies an area that one could interpret differently.)
(FWIW, I don't count Sara Kingdom, either... the "third" of the "two" classic series deaths I was referencing earlier... but I readily agree that she occupies an area that one could interpret differently.)