Companions: Fifty Years of Doctor Who Assistants Read online

  Susan, it would appear, is out of her depth a lot of the time. Taken out of the comfort of her home... Or did she choose to go with her grandfather? One can assume she did; after all, when talking to Ping-Cho in Marco Polo, she expresses her frustration at being stuck on Earth, when she should be out among the stars. Like almost everything else about Susan, we never know. Much has been revealed about her in other media (see The First Doctor Expanded Universe), but on TV all we ever get are intriguing hints of a character that could have been so much more.

  The Doctor himself forces Susan to leave in The Dalek Invasion of Earth after seeing her grow closer to freedom fighter David Campbell. It is a subtle romance, although it is never quite believable, and it almost comes as a surprise to the viewer when Susan considers remaining on Earth. But she is fearful of leaving her grandfather, thinking he needs her, when in truth it is perfectly obvious that she is dependent on him. That she should end up settling on Earth makes a certain sense, however, considering how much she enjoyed her time in 1963, and considering the five months living in the twentieth century as the happiest of her life.

  We only ever see Susan once more, almost twenty years later when she is taken to Gallifrey and reunited with her grandfather. And, although she is clearly older, it does not appear she has changed at all. As ever with Susan we are given nothing new with which to work; she is simply the Doctor’s granddaughter, although as soon as she spots the Dark Tower she realises that she is on Gallifrey thus confirming that she is definitely from there.

  Susan’s fate remains unknown. In The Empty Child the Doctor tells Rose, ‘My entire planet died. My whole family.’ Later, after Doctor Constantine mentions he used to be ‘a father and a grandfather. Now I’m neither, but I’m still a doctor,’ the Doctor points out, ‘Yeah, I know the feeling’.

  Compared to Susan, the rest of the Doctor’s companions were pretty straightforward – at least during the initial twenty-six year run of the series, although some were more fleshed out than others. Some with well defined back-stories, some with less so...

  Ian Chesterton & Barbara Wright – William Russell & Jacqueline Hill (An Unearthly Child to The Chase)

  Along with Susan, we are introduced to two of the most defined companions; Ian Chesterton & Barbara Wright. Unusually for Doctor Who, indeed it has only happened twice (arguably three times if we include Rose and Mickey), Ian & Barbara become synonymous with each other. It almost becomes impossible to separate them. They start together, they finish together, and even when mentioned in the 2010 episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures episode, Death of the Doctor, they are still together. They are as much defined by their relationship to each other as they are as individuals. Both were teachers at Coal Hill School, Ian teaching Science and Barbara teaching History, and both had their curiosity piqued by the mystery that was Susan. It is worth noting that these two are, in some respect, more important than either the Doctor or Susan during the first year of Doctor Who. While Susan was the child who would always get in trouble, it was Barbara who often proved to be the voice of reason, always ready to challenge the more alien aspects of the Doctor’s reasoning. Ian is the man of action, displaying a broad range of skills one might not expect from a comprehensive school teacher. Barbara is also the very first person in Doctor Who to meet a Dalek. Make no mistake; these two ordinary teachers are the key players in a series of extraordinary adventures.

  It is through their eyes that we see the initial adventures. They take us into the Doctor’s strange world; forcing their way into the TARDIS, all the way to Skaro and the historical first encounter with the Daleks. Neither expected what was to follow, but both had to assuage their curiosity and followed Susan home, to a junkyard in London. Worried for Susan’s safety they both force their way into the old Police Box, and immediately find themselves challenging their own perceptions of everything they have ever known. Both are equally incredulous and unbelieving, but while Ian tries to reason things with science, Barbara attempts a more common sense approach, certain that it is just an elaborate illusion created by Susan’s grandfather.

  Although an unwilling adventurer, Barbara’s compassion often overrides her own fear, as seen in the very first journey in An Unearthly Child when Za, a caveman on pre-historic Earth, is attacked by a tiger. Even though Za was willing to sacrifice them a short while earlier, Barbara cannot leave the wounded man unattended. This is a trait that continues; even after being sold as a slave in ancient Rome (The Romans), Barbara still helps her fellow prisoner rather than worrying about her own safety. Such is her compassion that Ian remarks that she probably has stray cats in her flat in London.

  Barbara is not only compassionate, but also full of passion, which comes out in anger and frustration. Note that when the travellers are all trapped in the TARDIS (The Edge of Destruction) and the Doctor accuses Ian & Barbara of sabotaging the ship, it is Barbara who confronts him with a verbal slap that would’ve had the most callous of men reeling in shock, ‘How dare you! Do you realise, you stupid old man, that you’d have died in the Cave of Skulls if Ian hadn’t made fire for you? And what about what we went through with the Daleks? Not just for us, but for you and Susan, too, and all because you tricked us into going down to the city. Accuse us? You ought to get down on your hands and knees and thank us. But gratitude’s the last thing you’ll ever have, or any sort of common sense, either.’

  Such is the power behind her words that the Doctor does ultimately apologise to her. Her passion for history is also a driving force during their travels, most notably when she is mistaken for the reincarnation of the Aztec High Priest Yetaxa (The Aztecs). She is convinced that she can prevent the human sacrifices, and brings the Aztecs out of their superstitious ways so their society can flourish. She fails, of course, but she learns a valuable lesson. Although they are travellers in time, they cannot affect history on a big scale. This lesson stands Barbara in good stead when they later visit such periods as the French Revolution (The Reign of Terror) and the fall of Rome (The Romans). Not to say that Barbara doesn’t get involved; an unwilling adventurer she may be, but she was never going to be a quiet one too.

  On the other hand, Ian adapts to adventuring relatively quickly. His National Service prepares him for the challenges ahead, and he displays a remarkable set of useful skills, including horse riding, sword fighting, and how to disable an opponent with pressure points. On Earth he is a man of reason, but he soon learns that reason alone is simply not enough when travelling to dangerous times and places. Such is his level of bravery and courage that he is even knighted by King Richard the Lionheart as Sir Ian of Jaffa in The Crusades.

  An interesting, and not often explored, trait of Ian’s is his familiarity with popular youth culture, in particular the music, and his ease with children. National Service may have prepared him for adventuring, but his understanding of young people prepared him for the varied people he was to meet on his travels.

  Ian & Barbara were always close, at least close enough initially that it was in Ian that Barbara confided her doubts about Susan in the very first episode. This obvious closeness develops through their travels, as Ian becomes something of a protector for Barbara. The most obvious hint at the level of intimacy between the two comes when they are alone at the villa on the outskirts of Rome (The Romans). The familiarity they display with each other, both physically and verbally, hints at much more. It is never expressly stated, but to consider some kind of romantic interest between them isn’t much of a stretch.

  Always throughout their travels is the thought of returning home, although they become less vocal about it over time, when presented with the first opportunity, Barbara takes hold of it without question. Ian is a little more cautious, but he soon comes around. The Doctor, clearly upset by their departure, responds obstinately, almost point blank refusing to help them. But once again they win him over – because of them this grumpy old alien softens, becoming almost kindly in his dealings with others. Through Ian & Barbara the Doctor learns compass
ion.

  It is unfortunate that we never hear of Ian & Barbara again – they were such a huge part in establishing Doctor Who as a success, and defining the future relationships the Doctor has with his travelling companions and, ultimately, his friends and extended family. Ian almost returns in the 1983 adventure Mawdryn Undead, but due to William Russell being unavailable, it never came to pass. However, in 2010, we did finally get a clue about what happened to them. Sarah Jane Smith had taken to looking up the Doctor’s old companions, and she learned that there were two professors in Cambridge, Ian & Barbara Chesterton, who, according to rumour, had not aged since the 1960s. It is an intriguing rumour, but regardless, it is great to know that Ian & Barbara remain, as they began, together.

  With the departure of Susan, there was a void in the Doctor’s life. He had grown very close to his granddaughter, so it was unsurprising, although convenient (at least so it seems, but in The Doctor’s Wife the TARDIS explained that she always took the Doctor to where he needed to be, and this may well be a case in point), that the next destination brought the Doctor, Ian & Barbara to the planet Dido, and the young orphan, Vicki.

  Vicki – Maureen O’Brien (The Rescue to The Myth Makers)

  Almost immediately Vicki forms a close bond with the Doctor, both having lost the most important people in their lives. When the Doctor asks her to join them on their adventures, Vicki jumps at the chance. It is very interesting to note that Vicki is the first person the Doctor asks to go with him. The next being Victoria (also an orphan).

  Vicki’s mother and father died following the crash of the UK-201 on Dido. Her only companion on the desolate world is a man called Bennett who, it transpires, is quite insane and has murdered all the survivors of the crash.

  Vicki comes from an Earth where the children are taught advanced academic subjects at a young age; she herself claims to have studied medicine, physics, chemistry and various other subjects when she was only ten. A fact that she shares when Barbara explains that she taught using the three Rs – at which point Vicki exclaims that she didn’t realise Barbara taught at a nursery. This shows that either Vicki liked to tease Barbara, or was simply being naive at her own rudeness.

  This yearning for adventure grows during the month they all spend at the villa on the outskirts of Rome. This isn’t the life Vicki had been expecting, and she convinces the Doctor to take her to Rome. As their travels continue we see much of this spirit of adventure; an outlook that brings Vicki and the Doctor closer together, developing a very gentle relationship. In fact it is this closeness that allows her to convince the Doctor to do things he might otherwise resist. A good example in The Chase is when Ian & Barbara realise they could use the Daleks’ time ship to return home; the Doctor refuses to show them how it works. But Vicki gets through his anger and convinces him to let them go – even though she doesn’t want to see them leave. After all, along with the Doctor, Ian & Barbara became something of a foster family for her.

  Vicki’s sharp and deductive brain comes into good use on Xeros in The Space Museum when she enables the subjugated Xerons to override the Moroks’ computer, and later on in Galaxy Four when she works out that the Chumblies only respond to movement directly in front of them. She also fixes the meaning of the name TARDIS when she tells Steven that the D stands for ‘Dimensions’, possibly recognising the equational and grammatical inaccuracy in the acronym when it was told to her as ‘Dimension’.

  Vicki has a habit of giving the aliens they meet strange names, for example the beast on Dido she calls Sandy because it lives in the sand and the little robot servants of the Rills she calls Chumblies due to the way they move. This inclination of hers could well be an indication of the loneliness she feels as she seeks to find a place to call home once again. Her loneliness is evident in the way she quickly draws close to the Doctor, and later with Steven with whom she develops an almost sibling-like relationship.

  It is when the TARDIS brings them to Asia Minor just before the Fall of Troy (The Myth Makers) that Vicki’s desire for a family again becomes most obvious. She finds her way into Troy on her own and is immediately taken in by King Priam who is equally impressed by her. She even accepts the new name of Cressida from Priam. During the course of the siege, she finds herself responding to the affections of Priam’s son, Troilus, and realises she will be quite happy settling there with him, even though he is only seventeen and she sixteen (when Troilus tells Vicki his age she says, ‘That’s barely older than me,’ the first time her age is inferred). We never get to see exactly how the Doctor reacts to Vicki’s news, as this happens off-screen, but he does not appear to oppose. He appears to be more concerned with Steven’s wound suffered during the battle between the Greeks and the Trojans. The last we ever see of Vicki is shortly after the TARDIS departs and she finds Troilus watching the destruction of his people – he thinks she has betrayed them, but she convinces him otherwise. And from there they pass into history, through tales by Chaucer (‘Troilus and Criseyde’) and Shakespeare (‘Troilus and Cressida’), from which we can, at least, infer something of Vicki’s later life...

  As with Susan and Vicki, a replacement was waiting in the wings once Ian & Barbara returned to their own time. This new companion joined the Doctor’s travels by what would become the most popular method of all; stowing away in the TARDIS.

  Steven Taylor – Peter Purves (The Chase to The Savages)

  When the Doctor, with Ian & Barbara and Vicki, first meet him he introduces himself as Steven Taylor, Flight Red Fifty. He has already spent two years as a prisoner of the robotic Mechanoids on the planet Mechanus, in an undisclosed period of Earth’s future. Steven is an astronaut, his ship having crashed on that planet; his only companion his stuffed panda, Hi-Fi. Despite two years of captivity he is a man of good humour, grateful of some human company at last. He happily assists the Doctor and company in escaping the Mechanoids’ city, but at the last minute returns for Hi-Fi. He manages to escape the burning city himself, and stumbles through the jungle, disorientated, and into what he describes as a door.

  ‘I went through it,’ he says. ‘I must have flaked out. I remember registering that, well, it didn’t look like a ship – it was very small. I must have been delirious.’

  After his initial incredulity, and mocking of Vicki’s explanations, he soon adapts to time travel. Granted, his scepticism is supported when he discovers a wristwatch in a small woods in Northumbria in 1066 (The Time Meddler) but events reveal the truth. Steven is a man prone to natural sarcasm and bouts of frustrated anger, but to counter these less positive attributes, he is also a man of great courage and resourcefulness.

  He becomes very close to Vicki, and develops a strong sibling-like bond with her, displaying the typical bickering one would expect to find in an older brother/younger sister relationship, most notable when they are both imprisoned in Troy and Vicki becomes the object of Troilus’ affections. Both are determined in their mind sets, and often conflict over the simplest of things, but ultimately they stand by each other. His relationship with Dodo is, in contrast, merely that of two friends. Steven’s natural cynicism is often contrasted by Dodo’s enthusiasm for everything they encounter, and she tends to bring out the child in him, as shown during the games of the Celestial Toymaker and Steven’s joy at being in the ‘Wild West’ of American legend (The Gunfighters).

  By the time they arrive on the ‘Ark’, a space craft taking the survivors of Earth to the world of Rufusis, Steven’s good humour has already been sorely tried by his experiences in Paris and the Massacre of St Bartholomew’s Eve. He spends most of the time without the Doctor’s company, getting embroiled in the political and religious strife that is plaguing Paris, despite the Doctor warning him not to, and becomes angered greatly by the Doctor’s refusal to involve himself in events – an act that, in Steven’s eyes, means the death of a young woman he has befriended, Anne Chaplet. This anger is compounded by all the other deaths he had witnessed recently, including that of Katarina and Sara Kingdo
m, both of whom died during the Doctor’s effort to prevent the Daleks from gaining control of the Time Destructor. Such is his anger that as soon as the TARDIS arrives on Wimbledon Common in the 1960s he storms out of the ship, intent on leaving the Doctor for good. It is only the presence of police officers that change his mind, and he returns forthwith to warn the Doctor to move the TARDIS. He is immediately concerned about Dodo, who has just happened upon the TARDIS, wondering what her parents will think of her disappearing, but that concern soon fades when he realises that Dodo is a likely descendant of Anne Chaplet, suggesting that the young French girl has survived the massacre after all. Even with this positive news, Steven still contains some anger in his belly, which erupts when he is put on trial by the humans on the Ark and he expresses his distaste for humanity and the fear that always seems to drive them.

  Nonetheless, despite his growing dislike for his own race, Steven is still the compassionate man he has always been and is willing to sacrifice his freedom for both the Doctor and Dodo when faced with the dilemma of how to escape the Toymaker’s celestial domain.

  He learns much during his journeys, and when he is asked to help the Elders and the Savages find a way to live together in peace, he resists, not wanting to walk out on the Doctor and Dodo. But the Doctor insists he take up the offer, a position he is now ready for. Steven agrees, but only if both sides wish him to, which they do. He takes his leave of the Doctor and Dodo, and we never hear of him again.

  Katarina, the handmaiden of Cassandra of Troy, was one of the shortest-lived companions of the Doctor, and the first to die.