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In the long-running BBC television science fiction programme Doctor Who and related works, a companion refers to a character who travels with, and shares the adventures of the Doctor. The term is primarily used in Doctor Who fandom; these characters are often referred to in the press as "assistants". The term was rarely used in the classic series (1963–1989), while the revived series (2005–) makes more frequent use of the term. More often, however, the Doctor merely introduces his fellow leads as his "friends". In the 2005 series, the Ninth Doctor states that he "employed Rose Tyler as companion".

The Doctor usually travels with one to three companions. In most Doctor Who stories, the companion provides a surrogate with whom the audience can identify, and furthers the story by asking questions and getting into trouble, or by helping or rescuing the Doctor. Most of the Doctor's companions are human, with some exceptions such as Kamelion, Nyssa, Adric, Turlough, Astrid and Romana. Of the non-human companions, all apart from K-9 are members of humanoid races. To date, Romana and Susan are the only members of the Doctor's own race to travel with him.

Before the advent of the Ninth Doctor, the lives of the companions after their travels with the Doctor are rarely explored within the series. Three companions have memories of their adventures erased: Jamie and Zoe, by the Time Lords, and Donna, by the Doctor himself. Jamie and Zoe's only remaining memories are their first encounters with the Doctor whilst Donna has all memory of the Doctor erased, being re-introduced to him later as only "John Smith" who is visiting her grandfather Wilfred Mott. Some characters, specifically Susan, Jamie, Harry, Sarah Jane and K-9, guest-star in later stories. Zoe, Liz, Adric, Tegan, Nyssa, Turlough and Kamelion reappear in cameo roles, played by the original actors rather than in stock footage or still photos (e.g. Romana's later appearance in The Five Doctors).

On occasion, characters function as companions to series villain the Master, among them Chang Lee and the Master's wife, Lucy Saxon, whom he calls his "faithful companion".

History

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When Doctor Who was created, the dramatic structure of the programme's cast was rather different from the hero-and-sidekick pattern that emerged later. Initially, the character of the Doctor was unclear, with uncertain motives and abilities. The protagonists were schoolteachers Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright, who provided the audience's point-of-view in stories set in Earth's history and on alien worlds. Ian in particular served the role of the action hero. The fourth character was the Doctor's granddaughter Susan, who (though initially presented as an "unearthly child") was intended as an identification figure for younger viewers.

Carole Ann Ford, who played Susan Foreman, became unhappy with the lack of development for her character, and chose to leave in its second series. The character of Susan was married off to a freedom fighter and left behind to rebuild a Dalek-ravaged Earth. Doctor Who's producers replaced Susan with another young female character, Vicki. Similarly, when Ian and Barbara left, the "action hero" position was filled by astronaut Steven Taylor. This grouping of the Doctor, a young heroic male and an attractive young female became the programme's pattern throughout the 1960s.

When the programme changed to colour in 1970, its format changed: the Doctor was now Earth-bound, and acquired a supporting cast by his affiliation with the paramilitary organization United Nations Intelligence Taskforce (UNIT). The Third Doctor, more active and physical than his predecessors, made the role of the "action hero" male companion redundant. In the 1970 season the Doctor was assisted by scientist Liz Shaw and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, along with other UNIT personnel. The intellectual Shaw was replaced by Jo Grant in the 1971 season, and as the programme returned to occasional adventures in outer space, the format shifted once more: while UNIT continued to provide a regular "home base" for Earth-bound stories, in stories on other planets the Doctor and Jo became a two-person team with a close, personal bond. This pattern, the Doctor with a single female companion, became a template from which subsequent episodes of Doctor Who rarely diverged. The "heroic male" type occasionally returned (for example, Harry Sullivan, Adric, Turlough and Jack Harkness), but the single female companion was Doctor Who's staple.

Definition

There is no formal definition of what makes a companion. The Guardian muses in its OrganGrinder blog, "How do you qualify? Name in the opening credits, regular trips in the Tardis?" The definition of who is and is not a companion becomes less clear in the newer series. During the Doctor's three latest incarnations, his primary companions (Rose Tyler, Martha Jones, Donna Noble, and currently Amy Pond) have fulfilled a distinct dramatic role, more significant than other, less-prominent TARDIS travellers such as Adam, Jack, and Mickey. The British press referred to Martha as the "first ethnic minority companion in the 43-year television history of Doctor Who" and the "first black assistant", despite the presence of Mickey Smith in the previous season—including several episodes in which he was invited to travel in the TARDIS with the Doctor.

The opening credits do little to clarify the situation. In the first two series of the renewed programme, the only supporting actor to receive a title credit is Billie Piper. In subsequent series, Freema Agyeman and Catherine Tate are credited in all episodes in which they appear. Furthermore, in the third series John Barrowman receives a title credit for his return to the show. Series four gives Agyeman, Piper, Barrowman, and Elisabeth Sladen title billing for each of their reappearances. Noel Clarke also reprises his role in the series four finale; although listed as a companion alongside the other actors on the BBC Doctor Who website, Clarke is not credited in this way. In The End of Time John Simm receives title billing for his antagonist role as the Master, ahead of Bernard Cribbins as companion Wilfred Mott.

Companions in the new series also have a more flexible tenure than their classical predecessors. Several companion characters have returned to the series after leaving the Doctor's company, most notably in the series four finale "The Stolen Earth" / "Journey's End", which features the return of Rose, Martha, Jack, Sarah Jane and Mickey. This tendency, plus the increase in "one-off" companions like Astrid Peth and Jackson Lake, has further obscured the matter of who is and is not a companion, and when.

Role

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Companions have assumed a variety of roles in Doctor Who, as involuntary passengers, as assistants per se (particularly Liz Shaw), as friends, and as fellow adventurers.

The Doctor regularly gains new companions and loses old ones; sometimes they return home, or find new causes—or loves—on worlds they have visited. Some companions (notably Katarina, Sara Kingdom, Adric and Kamelion) have died during the course of the series.

Most companions travel in the TARDIS with the Doctor for more than one adventure, although there are exceptions. Sometimes a guest character will take a role in the story similar to that of a companion, such as photographer Isobel Watkins who plays a significant role in "The Invasion" in the classic series, or Lynda in "Bad Wolf" and "The Parting of the Ways" in the revived series.

Despite the fact that the majority of the Doctor's companions are young, attractive females, the production team for the 1963–1989 series maintained a long-standing taboo against any overt romantic involvement in the TARDIS: for example, Peter Davison, as the Fifth Doctor, was not allowed to put his arm around either Sarah Sutton (Nyssa) or Janet Fielding (Tegan). However, that has not prevented fans from speculating about possible romantic involvements, most notably between the Fourth Doctor and the Time Lady Romana (whose actors, Tom Baker and Lalla Ward, shared a romance and brief marriage). The taboo was controversially broken in the 1996 television movie when the Eighth Doctor was shown kissing companion Grace Holloway. The 2005 series played with this idea by having various characters think that the Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler were a couple, which they vehemently denied. Since the series revival, the Doctor has kissed companions Rose, Jack, Mickey (on the forehead), Martha, Astrid, Donna and Amy, although each instance not in a romantic context (see also "The Doctor and romance"). Donna Noble vehemently denied a sexual interest in the Doctor when he invited her to join him and explained "I just want a mate," which she misheard as "I just want to mate."

Previous companions have reappeared in the series, usually for anniversary specials. One former companion, Sarah Jane Smith (played by Elisabeth Sladen), together with the robotic dog K-9, appeared in one episode of the 2006 series more than twenty years after their last appearances in the 20th anniversary story The Five Doctors (1983). The character of Sarah Jane also heads up a Doctor Who spin-off, The Sarah Jane Adventures with K-9. Another companion, Captain Jack Harkness, is the lead character in the spin-off BBC science fiction programme Torchwood. Not only have these former companions continued to make appearances on Doctor Who, they have sometimes been accompanied by some of their own companions from the spin-offs when doing so, including Jack's collegues Gwen Cooper and Ianto Jones, and Sarah Jane's 'family' Mr Smith, Luke Smith and K-9 Mark IV. Other former companions from both the classic era and revived series have also returned as guest stars in the spin-offs, including Martha Jones on Torchwood, and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart on The Sarah Jane Adventures (which will also host the return of Jo Grant in 2010). K-9 Mark I has also been spun off into its own series with an independent continuity.

When Doctor Who returned to television in 2005, the companion characters played a slightly different role, partly due to a strong focus on the character of Rose Tyler and characters connected to her. For example, although Adam Mitchell was a companion by the standard definition, he appeared in only two episodes and was arguably a less significant part of the 2005 series than Rose's sometime boyfriend Mickey Smith, who was not technically a companion but appeared in five episodes (or six, including a brief appearance as a child in "Father's Day"). Mickey later gained full-fledged companion status when he travelled in the TARDIS in the 2006 episode "School Reunion". In that episode, Sarah Jane Smith referred to Rose as the Doctor's "assistant", a term to which the latter took offence. This exchange might be regarded as indicating the new series' shift in approach to the companion role.

As of May 2010, Sarah Jane Smith is the only classic era companion to have been asked to travel again by the Doctor in the revived series. She declined his invitation in "School Reunion", but subsequently met up with the Doctor aboard a Dalek ship in "Journey's End" and travelled with him and several other companions in the TARDIS as they towed the Earth back to the solar system.

List of television companions

First Doctor

1. Susan travelled with the Doctor prior to the events of "An Unearthly Child".
2. ^ The Doctor takes Barbara and Ian from their time against their will in "An Unearthly Child".
3. Vicki joins the TARDIS crew at the end of her first story, The Rescue.
4. Unbeknown to the Doctor and Vicki, Steven took refuge in the TARDIS during the events of "The Planet of Decision" and is not discovered by them until "The Watcher".
5. Steven left the Doctor in "Bell of Doom", episode four of The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve, but returned to him shortly afterwards in the same episode.
6. Sara Kingdom is not included in all lists of companions — the BBC's list of companions at http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/episodeguide/companions/ excludes her.

Second Doctor

1. Jamie was played by Hamish Wilson in The Mind Robber episodes 2 and 3.
2. Jamie later appears in the Sixth Doctor-era story The Two Doctors, once more alongside the Second Doctor.

Third Doctor

1. Sarah Jane Smith has had three subsequent appearances with the Tenth Doctor, as well as her own spin-off series K-9 and Company and The Sarah Jane Adventures.

Fourth Doctor

1. Harry also appears in The Android Invasion.
2. K-9 was voiced by Brierley in season 17, explained away as laryngitis within the programme.
3. Subsequent models of K-9 have made appearances with Sarah Jane Smith in various episodes, due to the Doctor's giving Sarah Jane a version of K-9 in the aborted spin-off K-9 and Company. He has also appeared in The Sarah Jane Adventures. K-9 is subsequently the subject of his own spin-off, produced separate from the BBC, entitled simply K-9.

Fifth Doctor

1. also appears in Time-Flight
2. ^ also appears inThe Caves of Androzani
3. Without explanation in the stories, Kamelion is not featured in the five serials between his first and last stories (although he does appear in deleted scenes from The Awakening).

Sixth Doctor

1. The series never establishes how the Doctor first meets Mel; she just appears mid-way through The Trial of a Time Lord. The Doctor's first meeting with Mel is recounted in the Past Doctor Adventures novel Business Unusual.

Seventh Doctor

1. Ace's fate is unknown past Survival as she does not appear in the following story, the 1996 film.

Eighth Doctor

Ninth Doctor

1. Jack Harkness was the first openly LGBT (in this case pansexual) companion.

Tenth Doctor

1. Lead-in to "The Christmas Invasion"
2. Rose departs in "Doomsday" and makes brief cameo appearances in "Partners in Crime", "The Poison Sky" and "Midnight" before returning as a companion in "Turn Left". She also appears in The End of Time.
3. Including the 2005 Children in Need scene and the three cameo appearances in series 4.
4. Also appears in "School Reunion" and The End of Time.
5. Mickey is introduced in "Rose" as Rose's boyfriend and recurs regularly before becoming a companion.
6. Mickey departs in "The Age of Steel" before returning as a companion in "Journey's End", and also re-appears in "Army of Ghosts" / "Doomsday" and The End of Time.
7. Introduced in "Doomsday"
8. After initially refusing to join the Doctor on his travels in "The Runaway Bride", Donna returns as a regular companion from "Partners in Crime". She also appears in The End of Time.
9. Martha departs in "Last of the Time Lords", but returns from "The Sontaran Stratagem" to "The Doctor's Daughter" and again for "The Stolen Earth" / "Journey's End". She also appears in a cameo role in The End of Time.
10. Jack rejoins the Doctor in "Utopia" before departing in "Last of the Time Lords", but returns again for "The Stolen Earth" / "Journey's End". He also makes a cameo appearance in The End of Time.
11. Wilf is introduced in "Voyage of the Damned", and recurs throughout series 4 as Donna's grandfather.

Animated serials

Eleventh Doctor

1. Rory first appears in "The Eleventh Hour", and joins the TARDIS as a companion in "The Vampires of Venice".

Future Companion

River Song from the Tenth Doctor episodes "Silence in the Library" / "Forest of the Dead" is an archaeologist who states that she has travelled with the Doctor in his relative future. Doctor Who Confidential referred to her as a "companion-to-come". River Song reappears in the Series 5 episodes "Time of Angels" and "Flesh and Stone".

Deaths

During the course of the show's history, companions have, on rare occasion, been killed while serving with the Doctor.

• Katarina dies in "The Traitors", the fourth episode of The Daleks' Master Plan, when she opens the airlock of a spaceship and is blown out into space while trying to protect her friends from the insane Kirkson.

• Sara Kingdom dies in "Destruction of Time", the twelfth and final episode of The Daleks' Master Plan, when she undergoes extreme aging as an unfortunate side-effect of the First Doctor's activation of a "Time Destructor" device in order to defeat the Daleks.

• Adric dies at the end of Episode 4 of Earthshock in the explosion of a bomb-laden space freighter in Earth's atmosphere.

• Kamelion, an android companion, is destroyed by the Fifth Doctor in Episode 4 of Planet of Fire as an act of mercy after Kamelion is taken over by the Master.

• K-9 Mark III sacrifices himself in "School Reunion" in order to save the Doctor and his friends from a group of aliens. The subsequent K-9 Mark IV that the Doctor leaves with Sarah Jane tells her that the Mark III's files have been transferred to the new machine.

• Astrid Peth sacrifices herself in order to kill Max Capricorn by driving him into a reactor core at the end of "Voyage of the Damned". The Tenth Doctor partially resurrects her and sends her atoms flying into space.

• In an alternative timeline in "Turn Left", Sarah Jane Smith dies from oxygen starvation when the Royal Hope hospital is transported to the moon. (Martha Jones also dies of asphyxiation on the moon, and Donna Noble is hit by a truck later in the episode, but neither had met the Doctor in the alternative timeline.)

• At the end of "The Waters of Mars", Adelaide Brooke kills herself to preserve a fixed point in time.

• In "Cold Blood", Rory Williams jumps in the way of a Silurian's ray gun to save the Doctor, dies, and is subsequently swallowed up by a crack in the universe, apparently removing him from history.

Additional companions have died while serving with the Doctor in the various spin-off media (the canonicity of which is unclear); this has included Jamie McCrimmon and Ace, both of whom were killed off in the Doctor Who comic strip published in Doctor Who Magazine. McCrimmon is killed in a Grant Morrison-written strip entitled The World Shapers, and Ace in Ground Zero.

Additional spin-off works have also postulated the final fates of some former companions in the years following their travels with the Doctor, such as Dodo Chaplet, whose death is indicated in the novel Who Killed Kennedy and Liz Shaw in the novel Eternity Weeps.

Presumed

• Peri Brown is depicted in episode 8 of The Trial of a Time Lord as having been killed by King Yrcanos, upon his discovery that her brain has been replaced by that of Kiv, a member of the Mentor race. However, episode 14 of The Trial of a Time Lord revealed that Peri had not been killed and had instead become Yrcanos' consort, although it is not explained how the brain transplant was undone or whether it had actually occurred, as several incidents depicted in the arc are revealed to have been fabricated by the Valeyard.

• Susan Foreman and Romana are implied to have died by the events of "Rose" in the Doctor's personal chronology as the Doctor is said to be the last of the Time Lords following the events of the Time War. Susan had been left on a 22nd century Earth by the First Doctor in The Dalek Invasion of Earth after she fell in love with David Campbell, whilst Romana remained in E-space to help the Tharils at the end of Warrior's Gate.

• Rose Tyler is declared dead in her original universe, though she is trapped in a parallel universe in "Doomsday" while trying to save the world from a war between Daleks, Cybermen and humans. The Doctor later tells Donna Noble that Rose is "so alive".

In the Big Finish audio production The Gathering, Tegan Jovanka is described as having a terminal illness, though her actual death is not depicted.

Mitigated

• Grace Holloway and Chang Lee are killed by the Master in the 1996 television movie, however they are revived by the TARDIS' link to the Eye of Harmony.

• Jack Harkness is killed by Daleks in "The Parting of the Ways" but is brought back to life, and inadvertently given immortality, by Rose Tyler during her "Bad Wolf" manifestation.

Miscellaneous notes

This article contains a list of miscellaneous information. Please relocate any relevant information into other sections or articles. (July 2008)

Vicki, Polly, Mel and Ace are never given surnames on-screen. Mel Bush is fully named in production notes and promotional material, while Vicki Pallister and Dorothy McShane (Ace) gained surnames in spinoff novels. Polly's intended surname of Wright was rejected for fear of confusion with previous companion Barbara Wright. The production team had intended that, if revealed in the course of a story, Ace would either have the last name Gale (an allusion to the movie version of The Wizard of Oz) or whatever would suit the story.

Sarah Jane Smith and K-9 Mark III returned in the 2006 series episode "School Reunion". She later reappears and acts as a companion in The Stolen Earth and Journey's End.

Sarah Jane has appeared in three television series, namely Doctor Who, K-9 and Company and The Sarah Jane Adventures. K-9 Mark III has appeared in two, (K-9 and Company and Doctor Who), as have K-9 Mark IV (Doctor Who and The Sarah Jane Adventures), and Captain Jack and Martha (Doctor Who and Torchwood).

Nine companions have been with the Doctor during his regeneration:

• Ben and Polly - First Doctor to Second Doctor (The Tenth Planet)
• Sarah Jane (Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart also present) - Third Doctor to Fourth Doctor (Planet of the Spiders)
• Adric, Nyssa and Tegan - Fourth Doctor to Fifth Doctor (Logopolis)
• Peri - Fifth Doctor to Sixth Doctor (The Caves of Androzani)
• Mel - Sixth Doctor to Seventh Doctor (Time and the Rani)
• Rose - Ninth Doctor to Tenth Doctor ("The Parting of the Ways")

During the Tenth Doctor's aborted regeneration in "The Stolen Earth", Rose, Jack and Donna were present. However, The Doctor managed to avoid his regeneration using his spare hand. He forced the regeneration energy into the hand. Donna then touched it and became The 'DoctorDonna'.

See also

• List of Doctor Who supporting characters
• List of companions in Doctor Who spin-offs

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36. "You took me to Derillium, to see the Singing Towers. Oh, what a night that was." - River Song (Silence in the Library / Forest of the Dead)
37. "The future is already written for both the Doctor and his adventurous companion-to-come" - Narration: Doctor Who Confidential, Series 4, Episode 9
38. Writer Terry Nation, Director Douglas Camfield (4 December 1965). "The Traitors". Doctor Who. BBC. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
39. Writer Dennis Spooner, Director Douglas Camfield (29 January 1966). "Destruction of Time". Doctor Who. BBC. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
40. Writer Eric Saward, Director Peter Grimwade. Earthshock. Doctor Who. BBC. BBC One. {{cite serial}}: Unknown parameter |began= ignored (|date= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |ended= ignored (|date= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |seriallink= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
41. Writer Peter Grimwade, Director Fiona Cumming. Planet of Fire. Doctor Who. BBC. BBC 1. {{cite serial}}: Unknown parameter |began= ignored (|date= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |ended= ignored (|date= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |seriallink= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
42. Writer Toby Whithouse, Director James Hawes (29 April 2006). "School Reunion". Doctor Who. BBC. BBC One. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
43. Writer Russell T Davies, Director Graeme Harper (21 June 2008). "Turn Left". Doctor Who. BBC. BBC One. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
44. Writer Russell T Davies, Director Graeme Harper (15 November 2009). "The Waters of Mars". Doctor Who. BBC. BBC One. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
45. Writer Chris Chibnall, Director Ashley Way (29 May 2010). "Cold Blood". Doctor Who. BBC. BBC One. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
46. Morrison, Grant (w), Ridgway, John (p), Perkins, Tim (i). "The World Shapers" Doctor Who Magazine, no. 127–129 (August–October 1987). Marvel UK.
47. Gray, Scott (w), Geraghty, Martin (p), Georgiou, Bambos (i). "Ground Zero" Doctor Who Magazine, no. 238–242 (May 8, 1996 – July 31, 1996). Marvel UK.
48. Bishop, David (1997). Who Killed Kennedy. London: Virgin Books. ISBN 0-426-20497-2. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
49. Mortimore, Jim (1996). Eternity Weeps. London: Virgin Books. ISBN 0-426-20467-0.
50. Writer Philip Martin, Director Ron Jones (25 October 1986). The Trial of a Time Lord. Doctor Who. BBC. BBC One. {{cite serial}}: Unknown parameter |seriallink= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
51. Writer Pip and Jane Baker, Director Chris Clough (6 December 1986). The Trial of a Time Lord. Doctor Who. BBC. BBC One. {{cite serial}}: Unknown parameter |seriallink= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
52. Writer Russell T Davies, Director Graeme Harper (7 August 2006). "Doomsday". Doctor Who. BBC. BBC One. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
53. Writer Russell T Davies, Director Euros Lyn (25 December 2006). "The Runaway Bride". Doctor Who. BBC. BBC One. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
54. The Gathering. Writer Joseph Lidster. Director Gary Russell. Big Finish Productions, 2006. ISBN 1 84435 195 5.
55. Writer Matthew Jacobs, Director Geoffrey Sax (14 May 1996). Doctor Who. FOX. {{cite serial}}: Unknown parameter |seriallink= ignored (help)
56. Writer Russell T Davies, Director Joe Ahearne (18 June 2005). "The Parting of the Ways". Doctor Who. BBC. BBC One. {{cite episode}}: Unknown parameter |episodelink= ignored (|episode-link= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)

External links

• Guide to classic series companions on the BBC's Doctor Who site

• Articles with trivia sections from July 2008
• Doctor Who companions
• Television sidekicks
• Lists of Doctor Who characters
• Lists of fictional sidekicks