Highlights
- Doctor Who‘s companions play a crucial role in the show, providing exposition and challenging the Doctor’s actions with both positive and negative consequences.
- Missy’s inability to calm a spaceship’s crew leads to Bill being shot and converted into a cyberman, showcasing the unpredictable nature of the Doctor’s companions.
- Rose Tyler’s decision to save her father from dying causes a disruption in time, resulting in the Doctor’s death and the threat of temporal predators. Her actions ultimately force her to make a heartbreaking choice to set things right.
Doctor Who may have a lead protagonist who can change their face when a new actor is brought in, but that isn’t the only thing that changes throughout the show. Ever since the beginning, The Doctor has traveled with one or more companions in the TARDIS, and these character’s roles usually entail providing exposition for the audience. That doesn’t always mean that the best companions are devoid of any sort of personality.
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The Doctor only picks the best and brightest people as his companions in Doctor Who, and fans are often shown other characters who would be poor companions to demonstrate how unique these individuals are. The Doctor’s companions haven’t always acted how he wishes, though. Sometimes they challenge his actions in a good way, and other times they act foolishly or irrationally with devastating consequences.
6 Missy Getting Bill Killed
World Enough and Time (Series 10, Episode 11)
Missy is revealed to be a new incarnation of one of The Doctor’s oldest foes, The Master, at the end of Series 8. However, the character does go through somewhat of a redemption arc in Series 10. In an attempt to make Missy an ally, The 12th Doctor trials her as a companion alongside other TARDIS members, Bill and Nardole. The crew land on a spaceship that is being sucked into a black hole, and The Doctor watches on as Missy and the others are supposed to handle the situation.
Sadly, the ship’s crew appears and mistakes the companions as a threat. It is only due to Missy’s inability to calm the crew that leads to one of them hastily shooting Bill Potts through the chest. Bill is able to survive the attack, but it means she is converted into a cyberman as a result.
5 Martha Jones’ Osterhagen Plan
The Stolen Earth (Series 4, Episode 12)
When Martha Jones leaves the TARDIS, fans later find out that she has joined the military organization UNIT. Fortunately, this role brings Martha back into play during the Series 4 finale, which sees the Daleks steal a specific number of planets to power a weapon that could destroy the universe. Martha leaps into action with a plan to stop the Daleks’ plan. UNIT has access to a weapon called The Osterhagen Key which detonates ten strategically placed nukes under the earth’s surface. As a result, the Daleks’ weapons will fail, but everyone on earth will die.
The Doctor is horrified to learn that this type of weapon exists but is even more horrified to learn that one of his companions is willing to use it. The Doctor and his companions are able to stop the Daleks without Martha’s plan, but her use of The Osterhagen Key doesn’t paint the former doctor in a good light.
4 Dodo Chaplet Introducing The Common Cold
The Ark (Season 3, Serial 6)
The first Doctor introduced fans to the concept of having companions. This means that any new faces in the TARDIS would be met with a lot of criticism. That is exactly what happened when Dodo Chaplet joined the show in 1966. The character wasn’t popular out of the gate, but things were made worse for the character in the serial ‘The Ark’.
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In this episode, the TARDIS lands in a future where all germs have been wiped out. As such, the population in this era had no immune system. When Dodo accidentally releases the common cold among the population, it starts a deadly plague that sees The Doctor and the rest of the team put on trial as war criminals. Dodo’s act may have been an accident, but the cost was huge for the future population.
3 Rose Tyler Saves Her Dad
Father’s Day (Series 1, Episode 4)
Rose Tyler is a beloved companion who many want to see return. Yet, she was one who was never able to get to know her dad, as he died in a car accident when she was a baby. As such, she asks the Ninth Doctor to take her back to the day he died so that she can be with him and say goodbye. However, Rose is taken over by a need to protect her father and stops him from being hit by the car that should have killed him. This act breaks time, and Reapers starts feasting on people in an effort to fix the timeline, due to the fact that they are temporal predators that search for paradoxes that disrupt time. Even The Doctor is killed by them.
In a heartbreaking ending, Rose realizes that the only way to set things right is by allowing her dad to be hit by a car again. The two do make a heartfelt goodbye, but Rose’s actions could have had much larger consequences if the Reapers were not stopped.
2 Dan And Yaz Murder Sea Devils
Legend of the Sea Devils (Easter Special 2022)
‘Legend of the Sea Devils’ was one of the last episodes to feature the thirteenth Doctor. In the show, the sea devils appear in 19th-century China to find an ancient gem and are not shy about using a Kraken to achieve their goals. The Doctor, Yaz, and Dan enlist the help of two historical pirates from the era, Ji-Hun and Ying Ki, to stop the sea devils. However, in a fight for the gem that could see the sea devils ruling this era in time, Ji-Hun kills one of the sea devils. Since killing is strictly against The Doctor’s moral code, she lectures the ancient pirate on the sanctity of life.
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The next scene then has the ship overrun with more sea devils, and Yaz and Dan gleefully cut a path through them for no real reason. This act is more an issue with the script than the characters themselves, but that doesn’t change the fact that two of The Doctors’ companions have cheery blood on their hands.
1 River Song Kills The Doctor
The Wedding of River Song (Season 6, Episode 13)
When fans first meet River Song in series four, she is very much a mystery. However, in series six, it is revealed that she is the person who kills The Doctor. It may not be her fault, and she is brainwashed from a young age by The Silence to murder the eleventh incarnation of the hero, but River Song still pulls the trigger and is sent to prison for killing The Doctor.
Fortunately, the Time Lord is able to escape his death by arranging for a robot duplicate to be shot instead, but the day in Utah is forever seen as the day The Doctor died. River Song may be a trusted companion of The Doctor, but she still remains one of the most feared people in the galaxy due to her role in his supposed death.
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