During the Doctor's latest incarnations, his primary companions, such as Rose Tyler and Martha Jones, have fulfilled a distinct dramatic role, more significant than other, less-prominent TARDIS travellers such as Adam, Jack, and Mickey. For instance, Stephen Brook in the Guardian newspaper's Organgrinder blog discounted Michelle Ryan as a likely next companion but said that "what constitutes a Doctor Who companion is no longer clear". The definition of who is and is not a companion becomes less clear in the newer series. In conjunction with the introduction of the first female Doctor, the Thirteenth Doctor's era features multiple companions (both male and female) throughout.Īlthough the term "companion" is designated to specific characters by the show's producers and appears in the BBC's promotional material and off-screen fictional terminology, there is no formal definition that constitutes such a designation.
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More consistent exceptions occurred between series 5 and 7, when the Eleventh Doctor travelled with Amy Pond and Rory Williams, and series 10, where the Twelfth Doctor appeared alongside Bill Potts and Nardole. When the series returned in 2005 a single female companion remained the standard format, though intermittent and short-term companions also featured. By the time of the Sixth Doctor, a single companion had become standard again.
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Adric was written out by the unusual method within the series of being "killed off" in the serial Earthshock. In the Fourth Doctor's final season, he acquired three companions ( Adric, Tegan, and Nyssa), and this situation continued under the Fifth Doctor for much of his first season. The role went to 40-year-old Tom Baker, and the part of Harry, no longer required for the action role, was dropped after one season. The character of Harry Sullivan was created by the production team when it was expected that the Fourth Doctor would be played by an older actor who would have trouble with the activity expressed by his predecessor. This pattern, the Doctor with a single female companion, became a template from which subsequent episodes of Doctor Who rarely diverged. The intellectual Shaw was replaced by Jo Grant in the following 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. In the 1970 season, the Doctor was assisted by scientist Liz Shaw and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, along with other UNIT personnel (such as Sergeant Benton). The Third Doctor, more active and physical than his predecessors, made the role of the "action hero" male companion redundant. 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 organisation United Nations Intelligence Taskforce (UNIT). This grouping of the Doctor, a young heroic male, and an attractive young female became the programme's pattern throughout the 1960s. Similarly, when Ian and Barbara left, the "action hero" position was filled by astronaut Steven Taylor. Doctor Who's producers replaced Susan with another young female character, Vicki. The character of Susan was married off to a freedom fighter and left behind to rebuild a Dalek-ravaged Earth. 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.Ĭarole Ann Ford, who played Susan Foreman, became unhappy with the lack of development for her character and chose to leave in its second series.
Ian in particular served the role of the action hero. 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. Initially, the character of the Doctor was unclear, with uncertain motives and abilities. In the earliest episodes of Doctor Who, the dramatic structure of the programme's cast was rather different from the hero-and-sidekick pattern that emerged later.