The Companions

SUSAN "FOREMAN"
Carole Ann Ford
First Appearance : "An Unearthly Child" (1963)
Departed: "The Dalek Invasion of Earth" (1964)
51 episodes (11 stories)
First Doctor

Later Appearances: "The Five Doctors" (1983), "Dimensions in Time" (1993)

Susan is the granddaughter and traveling companion of the First Doctor. Her surname of Foreman is an alias taken from the junkyard, owned by an "I.M. Foreman", at 76 Totter's Lane where she and the Doctor lived during their time in London in October 1963.

Susan was fiercely protective of her grandfather, whom she adored. Ian and Barbara once surmised that she was "15," but in "Marco Polo" Susan confided in her new friend Ping-Cho that they were the same age (16). Strangely, for a seasoned time traveler from an alien world Susan was prone to fits of hysterics at the drop of a hat. She also displayed some degrees of telepathy in "The Sensorites".

Susan continued to travel with the Doctor and her two former teachers until the 1964 serial “The Dalek Invasion of Earth”. During the events of that story, Susan fell in love with David Campbell, a freedom fighter in the 22nd century. However, Susan felt that she had to stay with and take care of her grandfather. The Doctor, realizing that Susan was now a grown woman and deserved a future away from him, locked her out of the TARDIS and left after a tearful farewell. Carole Ann Ford reprised the role of Susan in the 20th anniversary special “The Five Doctors” (1983).

IAN CHESTERTON
William Russell
First Appearance : "An Unearthly Child" (1963)
Departed: "The Chase" (1965)
77 episodes (16 stories)
First Doctor

Ian was a science teacher at the Coal Hill School and worked with Barbara Wright, a history teacher. He provided the series with an action-oriented figure, able to do the physical tasks that the elderly Doctor was not up to; he is in some ways the protagonist, the hero of the early stories. His concern, above all, was for the safety of the TARDIS crew, and he often took issue with the Doctor's habit of placing them in harm's way just to satisfy his own curiosity.

Ian showed a surprising breadth of skills through his tenure with the Doctor. He managed to create fire in "An Unearthly Child", rode a horse, knew how to sword fight ("The Romans") and was knowledgeable about pressure points that could paralyze an opponent ("The Aztecs"). He was also fiercely protective of Barbara, going on a lone mission to rescue her from Saracens in "The Crusade". In that story, he was also knighted by King Richard I of England. After many travels, he and Barbara eventually used a Dalek time machine to get home, albeit two years after their disappearance and presumably with much explaining to do to their friends and families.

BARBARA WRIGHT
Jacqueline Hill
First Appearance : "An Unearthly Child" (1963)
Departed: "The Chase" (1965)
77 episodes (16 stories)
First Doctor

Barbara was a history teacher at the Coal Hill School in 1963 Shoreditch, working with science teacher Ian Chesterton. One of their students was Susan Foreman, the granddaughter of the First Doctor, who showed unusually advanced knowledge of science and history. Attempting to solve the mystery of the "unearthly child", Chesterton and Wright followed Susan back to the junkyard, where they heard her voice coming from what appeared to be a police box. When they investigated further, they discovered that the police box exterior hid the much larger interior of a time machine known as the TARDIS, and were whisked away on an adventure in time and space with the Doctor and Susan.

Barbara was a strong-willed woman and provided a maternal figure to Susan, and later Vicki. She was frequently the only person who could stand up to the Doctor's cantankerous personality. The chemistry between Ian and Barbara was also evident, although it was a very "English" relationship.

In "The Daleks", Barbara had a brief flirtation with a Thal. In "The Aztecs", she was hailed as a goddess by the Aztec civilization. Despite the Doctor's protests that she could not change history, she attempted to turn the Aztecs away from their practice of human sacrifice. In "The Reign of Terror", she established a romantic friendship with Leon Colbert and was distraught when he was killed. In "The Romans", she became the object of desire for a womanizing Nero. After many travels, Ian and Barbara eventually used a Dalek time machine to get home, albeit two years after their disappearance and presumably with much explaining to do to their friends and families.

VICKI
Maureen O'Brien
First Appearance: "The Rescue" (1964)
Departed: "The Myth Makers" (1965)
38 episodes (9 stories)
First Doctor

An orphan from the 25th century, Vicki first appeared in "The Rescue", a survivor of a spaceship crash on the planet Dido and menaced by the monstrous Koquillion when she met the Doctor and his companions Ian and Barbara. Still coping with his recent parting from his granddaughter Susan at the end of "The Dalek Invasion of Earth", the Doctor invited the teenaged girl to join the TARDIS crew.

Vicki was in many respects an ordinary teenaged girl, greeting each new adventure with enthusiasm. She was a surrogate granddaughter to the Doctor and took care of
him like her own grandfather; considering the TARDIS her "only home." She got on well with fellow companions Ian and Barbara and then Steven Taylor, whom she treated like an older brother. She was intelligent, well-educated, yet remained slightly insecure for some time after her initial rescue. In "The Crusade", she asks the Doctor "You wouldn't go off and leave me, would you?" Like many, however, her travels with the Doctor changed and matured her. In "The Chase" she proved herself to be quite resourceful when she sneaked aboard a Dalek time machine so that she had a chance of joining the Doctor after they had been separated; and in that same story, Vicki was the one who persuaded the Doctor to let Ian and Barbara return to their own time.

Vicki eventually fell in love with Prince Troilus when the TARDIS landed during the siege of Troy ("The Myth Makers"). After making sure that Steven and the Doctor would be all right without her, she decided to remain with Troilus, eventually passing into legend as Cressida, the name given to her by King Priam

STEVEN TAYLOR
Peter Purves
First Appearance: "The Chase" (1965)
Departed: "The Savages" (1966)
45 episodes (10 stories)
First Doctor

An astronaut from future Earth, Steven first appeared in the last episode of "The Chase", when the Doctor and his companions met him on the planet Mechanus where he had crash-landed two years earlier. He stumbled inside the TARDIS and continued to travel with the Doctor and Vicki after the conclusion of the story. Steven was a strong-willed individual, who was more capable when there was something physical to do than when there was thinking to be done. Steven had a finely developed sense of right and wrong, and placed a high value on human life.

Steven followed the Doctor through "The Daleks' Master Plan", a dark and dangerous adventure that took the lives of Sara Kingdom and Katarina. He argued with the Doctor when he refused to prevent the events of "The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve". Steven was ready to part company with the Doctor over the deaths that happened, in particular that of a woman named Anne Chaplet. He rejoined the Doctor, however, at the same time that they acquired a new traveling companion, a young woman by the name of Dodo Chaplet, who was apparently a descendant of Anne's.

Steven's journey eventually ended during "The Savages", when he decided to accept the responsibility of leading the combined society of Savages and Elders that was attempting a lasting peace.

KATARINA
Adrienne Hill
First Appearance: "The Myth Makers" (1965)
Deceased: "The Dalek's Master Plan" (1965)
5 episodes (2 partial stories)
First Doctor

A handmaiden to the prophetess Cassandra in ancient Troy, Katarina was introduced at the end of "The Myth Makers", and helped the Doctor and Steven survive the events of the siege. When Steven was wounded, she helped him into the TARDIS as Vicki decided to stay behind in Troy with Troilus.

A sweet, simple young woman who could not really cope with the concept that the universe was suddenly opened up to her, Katarina believed that she was dead, and that the Doctor was a god that was transporting her to the underworld. She referred to the TARDIS as a "temple", and literally worshipped the Doctor, referring to him as "Lord" (much to his annoyance) and having absolute faith in him.

During "The Daleks' Master Plan", Katarina was taken hostage by an escaped prisoner called Kirksen, who demanded that the Doctor take him to Kembel, a planet taken over by the Daleks. To prevent the Doctor from giving in to Kirksen's demands, she chose to trigger the controls to the airlock she was being held in, propelling both her and her captor into the vacuum of space.

SARA KINGDOM
Jean Marsh
First Appearance: "The Daleks' Master Plan" (1965)
Deceased: "The Daleks' Master Plan" (1965)
9 episodes (1 partial story)
First Doctor

A Space Security Service agent from the 41st century, Sara Kingdom was the sister of Bret Vyon, another agent who was aiding the Doctor in trying to defeat "The Daleks' Master Plan". Told that Vyon was a traitor by Mavic Chen, the Guardian of the Solar System (who was in league with the Daleks) and ordered to kill whoever was working with him, she shot her brother and was about to do the same to the Doctor and Steven when they were all transported across space to the planet Mira. There she learned, to her horror and grief, that her unquestioning obedience had not only led her to unjustly kill her brother, but also that by doing so she had prevented Vyon from warning Earth of the Dalek plot. She then joined the Doctor in his
fight.

Sara was by turns aggressive, independent and ruthless in her pursuit of what was right, a single-mindedness that blinded her to the larger implications of her orders. Meeting the Doctor changed that, and she turned her formidable skill and intellect to the defeat of the Daleks.

When the Doctor activated a time destructor—a device that could accelerate time—as part of his plan to stop the Daleks, he ordered his companions back to the TARDIS for their protection. However, Sara followed him, not knowing the nature of his plan but concerned it might fail. As a result, she was caught in the field of the time destructor as it rapidly aged everything around it. While the Doctor, being a Time Lord, could withstand the effects better, Sara, being human, could not. As Steven and the Doctor watched helplessly, Sara died, her remains aging to dust.

DOROTHEA "DODO" CHAPLET
Jackie Lane
First Appearance: "The Massacre" (1966)
Departed: "The War Machines" pt 2 (1966)
18 episodes (4.5 stories)
First Doctor

Dodo was a typical teenage girl of the 1960s, bright and happy and yet not very sophisticated. Dodo was introduced at the end of the serial "The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve". In that story, the Doctor and Steven travelled to 1572 Paris, where they witnessed the persecution of the city's Huguenot population. Despite befriending a young woman named Anne Chaplet, the Doctor knew he could not prevent the coming massacre of 10,000 Huguenots, including Anne, by the Catholic French authorities. He therefore left in the TARDIS, taking Steven with him. When Steven found out, he was furious and considered leaving the Doctor while the TARDIS was in 1966 London. He returned at the same time that a teenage girl wandered into the TARDIS thinking it was a real police box. The Doctor and Steven were taken aback when she introduced herself as Dodo Chaplet, and revealed that her grandfather was French. The Doctor speculated that Dodo might be Anne's descendant.

During her adventures with the Doctor she traveled to the far future, unfortunately bringing the common cold with her to infect humanity's descendants; faced the mad games of the Celestial Toymaker; witnessed the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral; said good-bye to Steven in "The Savages"; and was hypnotised by the rogue artificial intelligence WOTAN in "The War Machines".

Halfway through that last adventure, she abruptly disappeared for a rest in the country after being hypnotised, and never reappeared. At the story's conclusion Polly (who, with Ben Jackson, took Dodo's place as a companion) explained to the departing Doctor that Dodo had decided to remain in 1966.

POLLY
Anneke Wills
First Appearance: "The War Machines" (1966)
Departed: "The Faceless Ones" (1967)
40 episodes (9 stories)
First / Second Doctor

Polly first appeared in "The War Machines", where she was working as a secretary to Professor Brett. Brett developed the artificial intelligence known as WOTAN, and Polly met the Doctor and Dodo when they came to investigate it. Polly befriended Dodo and took her to a London nightclub called the Inferno, where they met Ben Jackson and tried to cheer up the merchant seaman. When Polly was accosted by another patron in the Inferno, Ben came to her rescue. Eventually, Ben and Polly aided the Doctor in his fight against WOTAN when the computer tried to take over the world. They were bearers of Dodo's decision to stay in 1966 to the Doctor, and accidentally got carried away in the TARDIS when they tried to return Dodo's key to the time machine.

Polly, in contrast to Dodo, was a more sophisticated and hip young woman of the 1960s—vivacious, attractive, and alternately shy and aggressive. Her employer described her as a "cracking typist", but also a cheeky one. Polly was fond of pulling kooky faces behind people's backs. Although easily scared by monsters, Polly would be prepared to argue and ask questions once she plucked up courage. She had an inquiring, sharp mind and a humane view of life. Much of the time the people she met treated her as an attractive coffee-maker, however she never protested at being assigned such a role.

She and Ben were an odd couple, but she was receptive to Ben's protective urges, and he in turn found her elegant and posh, giving her the nickname "Duchess". Polly was present with Ben when the First Doctor regenerated into the Second, and continued to travel with the Second Doctor.

Eventually, the TARDIS found its way back to 1966 London (in "The Faceless Ones") on the very day Ben and Polly had left (although about a year had passed for them). They decided to remain behind to resume their lives without disruption as the Doctor and Jamie traveled on. The Doctor seemed to think that Ben would become an Admiral and that Polly would look after Ben, but it is unclear if it was a prediction or simply wishing them well.

[Though Polly was never given a last name in the televsion series, the much later original novel series named her Polly Wright]

BEN JACKSON
Michael Craze
First Appearance: "The War Machines" (1966)
Departed: "The Faceless Ones" (1967)
40 episodes (9 stories)
First / Second Doctor

A seaman in the merchant marine from 1966, Ben first appeared in "The War Machines", when he met Polly and Dodo in a London nightclub called the Inferno. Ben was feeling depressed and angry because he had a six-month shore posting while his ship was going to the West Indies, but Polly and Dodo tried to cheer him up. When Polly was accosted by another patron in the Inferno, Ben came to her rescue. Eventually, Ben and Polly aided the Doctor in his fight against the rogue artificial intelligence known as WOTAN. They were bearers of Dodo's decision to stay in 1966 to the Doctor, and accidentally got carried away in the TARDIS when they tried to return Dodo's key to the time machine.

Ben was a salt-of-the-Earth kind of fellow, dependable, faithful, and prone to be suspicious when kept in the dark or not understanding what was going on. He was very attached to Polly, considering her posh, giving her the nickname of "Duchess" and appointing himself as both her protector and that of the Doctor's. He was present with Polly when the First Doctor regenerated into the Second, and continued to travel with the Second Doctor.

Eventually, the TARDIS found its way back to 1966 London (in "The Faceless Ones") on the very day Ben and Polly had left (although about a year had passed for them). They decided to remain behind to resume their lives without disruption as the Doctor and Jamie traveled on. The Doctor seemed to think that Ben would become an Admiral and that Polly would look after Ben, but it is unclear if it was a prediction or simply wishing them well.

JAMIE McCRIMMON
Frazer Hines
First Appearance: "The Highlanders" (1966)
Departed: "The War Games" (1969)
113 episodes (20 stories)
Second Doctor

Later Appearances: "The Five Doctors" (1983), "The Two Doctors" (1986)

James Robert McCrimmon, or simply Jamie, was a piper of the Clan McLaren who lived in 18th Century Scotland. He first appeared in "The Highlanders", encountering the Doctor, Ben and Polly in the aftermath of the Battle of Culloden in 1746. At the end of the story, Polly suggested that the Doctor take Jamie along with them. Jamie continued to travel with the Doctor even after Ben and Polly left the TARDIS at the end of "The Faceless Ones", and was arguably the Doctor's most loyal companion.

Jamie shared a lively, bantering relationship with the Doctor, and saw the arrival and leaving of first Victoria Waterfield and finally Zoe Heriot. Jamie, being a product of his time, was always solicitous and gentlemanly towards the women who traveled with him. Jamie did not have the background to always understand the situations his adventures with the Doctor took him into, but was quick enough to translate high technology and concepts into equivalents he could understand and deal with.

Together with the Doctor, Jamie encountered Cybermen and Daleks, the Yeti in the London Underground, the Ice Warriors, and many other dangers. Jamie was particularly fond and protective of Victoria, due in part to her being an elegant Victorian lady. He was heartbroken when she decided to stay with the Harris family at the end of "Fury from the Deep", to the point of even being angry with the Doctor for allowing her to leave.

Jamie's travels with the Doctor came to an end on the battlefields of "The War Games", when the Time Lords finally put the Doctor on trial for interfering with the affairs of the Universe. For his offences, the Doctor was forced to regenerate and exiled to Earth. Jamie and Zoe were then returned to their own time, their memories of the Doctor wiped, save for their first encounters with him. When last seen, Jamie was fighting with an English redcoat back on the fields of Scotland.

VICTORIA WATERFIELD
Deborah Watling
First Appearance: "The Evil of the Daleks" (1967)
Departed: "Fury From the Deep" (1968)
41 episodes (7 stories)
Second Doctor

Later Appearance: "Dimensions in Time" (1993)

The daughter of a Victorian scientist, Victoria first appeared in "The Evil of the Daleks". Her father, Edward, was experimenting with time travel and attracted the attention of the Daleks. At the conclusion of that adventure, he was killed saving the Doctor's life, and asked him to take care of Victoria. The Doctor and his then-current companion Jamie took her in as part of the TARDIS crew.

On the outside, Victoria was a typically fragile lady of her era, frequently screaming when faced with the creatures the Doctor and his companions encountered in their travels, like the Cybermen and the Yeti, the latter which were automatons of the disembodied Great Intelligence. However, this exterior hid an inner strength that cropped up when it was needed. Victoria may have been young, but she had an instinct for when she was being lied to, and her sensibility was a contrast to the recklessness of Jamie and the curiosity of the Doctor. Jamie, in particular, was very protective and fond of Victoria, and was heartbroken when she chose to leave.

Despite being a good match to her two companions, Victoria eventually found herself unsuited to extended travel with the Doctor. At the conclusion of "Fury from the Deep", she decided to leave the TARDIS, settling with the Harris family in the 20th Century.

ZOE HERIOT
Wendy Padbury
First Appeared: "The Wheel in Space" (1968)
Departed: "The War Games" (1969)
50 episodes (8 stories)
Second Doctor

Later appearances: "The Five Doctors" (1983)

Zoe is a young astrophysicist and librarian ("around nineteen") who lived and worked on Space Station W3 (also known as the Wheel) in the 21st Century. She stowed away aboard the TARDIS, and yearning to broaden her horizons, joined the Doctor and Jamie on their travels.

Zoe held a degree in "pure mathematics" and was a genius, with intelligence scores comparable to the Doctor's. Those, coupled with her photographic memory and the advanced learning techniques of her era, made her somewhat like a human calculator, able to perform complicated mathemathics in her head. Part of the reason for her wanting to travel with the Doctor was her chafing at the restrictions and sterile surroundings of her station-bound existence. Having been on the Wheel all her life, however, meant that her real world experience was severely limited, and that gave her an ability to frequently get herself in trouble.

Together with the Doctor and Jamie, she met the Cybermen again when they invaded 20th Century London, entered the surreal Land of Fiction, fought the Ice Warriors and survived the battlefields of the War Chief's war games. Her journeys with the Doctor came to an end in that last serial, when the Time Lords finally caught up with the Doctor. Forcing a regeneration on him and exiling him to Earth, the Time Lords returned Jamie and Zoe to their own times, wiping the memory of their experiences with the Doctor (save for their first encounters with him) in the process.

ELIZABETH "LIZ" SHAW
Caroline John
First Appeared: "Spearhead From Space" (1970)
Departed: "Inferno" (1970)
25 episodes (4 stories)
Third Doctor

Later appearances: "The Five Doctors" (1983), "Dimensions in Time" (1993)

A civilian member of UNIT (United Nations Intelligence Taskforce), an international organisation that defends the Earth from alien threats, Liz Shaw—full name Dr. Elizabeth Shaw—first appeared in "Spearhead from Space", where she was drafted from the University of Cambridge by Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart as a scientific advisor to UNIT. Skeptical at first of UNIT's ambit to defend against alien invasion, she changed her mind when she encountered the newly-regenerated Third Doctor and became involved in defeating the plans of the Nestene Consciousness and its animated plastic Autons. 

Liz was an accomplished scientist, an expert on meteorites with degrees in physics and medicine. Her extensive training, however, still paled in comparison to the Doctor's own knowledge of the universe and scientific principles far beyond that of Earth's. Uniquely of all the companions, she is never seen to actually travel in the TARDIS, as her time with the Doctor coincided with his exile to Earth imposed by the Time Lords and the removal of his knowledge of time travel.  

Liz continued to work with the Doctor and UNIT through encounters with the Silurians, the so-called Ambassadors of Death and the Inferno project. She eventually resigned from UNIT and returned to Cambridge, but there was no "farewell scene" on screen for Liz, her departure simply being announced by the Brigadier at the beginning of "Terror of the Autons". She reportedly told the Brigadier that all the Doctor really needed was someone to pass him his test tubes and tell him how wonderful he was, this feeling probably contributing to her decision to return to her own research.  

JO GRANT
Katy Manning
First Appeared: "Terror of the Autons " (1971)
Departed: "The Green Death " (1973)
77 episodes (15 stories)
Third Doctor

A junior civilian operative for UNIT (United Nations Intelligence Taskforce), an international organisation that defends the Earth from alien threats, Jo Grant—full name Josephine Grant—first appeared in "Terror of the Autons", having been assigned to the Doctor as a replacement for Liz Shaw. Apparently, she had gotten the assignment to UNIT because her uncle, a high ranking civil servant, had pulled some strings. Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart then assigned her to the Doctor, who was initially dismayed when he found out that she was not a scientist, but accepted her because he did not have the heart to tell her otherwise. 

An enthusiastic, bubbly and sometimes scatter-brained blonde, Jo soon endeared herself to the other members of UNIT, especially Captain Mike Yates and Sergeant Benton. The Third Doctor was also particularly attached to her, and she was devoted to him, refusing to leave his side even where mortal danger was involved. 

There was plenty of danger to go around as well, especially after the Time Lords restored the Third Doctor's ability to travel through time and space. Jo faced the hazards and wonders of travel with the Doctor with courage and plucky determination. Together with the Doctor and UNIT, she encountered such perils as killer daffodils, time-eating monsters, renegade Time Lords, was miniaturised, hypnotised, flung through time and menaced by giant maggots and ancient dæmons. 

Over time, Jo also grew more confident and mature, until she was independent enough to stand up to the Doctor, which she did in her last serial, The Green Death. During the events of that story, Jo fell in love with Professor Clifford Jones, a young, Nobel Prize-winning scientist leading an environmentalist group. At the end, she agreed to marry Jones and go with him to the Amazon to study its vegetation, the news of which the Doctor greeted with a mixture of pride and sadness. 

SARAH JANE SMITH
Elisabeth Sladen
First Appeared: "The Time Warrior " (1973)
Departed: "The Hand of Fear " (1976)
80 episodes (17 stories)
Third / Fourth Doctor

Later appearances: K9 and Company (1981), "The Five Doctors" (1983), "Dimensions in Time" (1993), "School Reunion" (2006), Sarah Jane Investigates (2007?)

Sarah Jane, a freelance journalist for Metropolitan magazine, first appeared in the Third Doctor serial "The Time Warrior", where she had managed to infiltrate a top secret research facility by posing as her aunt, Lavinia Smith, a famous virologist. She sneaked into the TARDIS while the Doctor was preparing to follow the trail of a kidnapped scientist through time, and became embroiled in the subsequent adventure. 

Sarah then found herself working with the Third Doctor and UNIT on a number of occasions. She was present when he regenerated into the Fourth Doctor at the end of "Planet of the Spiders", and continued to accompany him on his journeys through time and space. 

During her time with the Doctor, she encountered Daleks, Cybermen, antimatter creatures at the end of time, android mummies in 1911 England, ancient evils in 15th century Italy and other dangers, until the Doctor received a summons to his home planet Gallifrey and could not take her along. 

Sarah had a flat in South Croydon, where the Doctor tried to drop her off at the end of "The Hand of Fear" (but, typically, did not get the coordinates quite right). 

As a companion, she was confident, inquisitive and possessed a sharp mind as well as a sharp tongue. She was also a feminist—in her first appearance she was infuriated when the Doctor asked her to make coffee, and she often verbally sparred with fellow companion Harry Sullivan, who had an old-fashioned, chauvinistic and unintentionally patronising attitude towards her. Her feminism did not get in the way of forming close friendships with Harry and the Doctor, however. These feminist views became less prominent as the series went on, but Sarah never gave the impression that she was ever less than capable. She shared a good rapport with the Fourth Doctor, and is consistently one of, if not the most popular of the companions among fans. 

Sarah was gifted with a K9 model of her very own (seen in the spin-off K9 and Company). Her last encounter with the Doctor (to date) was in 2006 while she was investigating strange happenings at a school in London ("School Reunion"). This gave her the opportunity to express to the Doctor what its like for companions after being left behind—being returned to mundane life after having traveled the universe saving planets. Nothing can compare. She'd secretly hoped that the Doctor would come back for her after his recall to Gallifrey, but he never did, leaving her feeling as if she'd done something wrong. The two reconciled and parted company, Sarah returning to her life of investigation.

HARRY SULLIVAN
Ian Marter
First Appeared: "Robot" (1974)
Departed: "Terror of the Zygons" (1975)
23 episodes (7 stories)
Fourth Doctor

Later appearances: "The Android Invasion" (1975)

Harry Sullivan was a doctor in the Royal Navy, who was attached as medical officer to the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce, the military organisation to which the Doctor acted as the scientific advisor. Harry was first mentioned (though not seen) in "Planet of the Spiders", when the Brigadier thought that the Third Doctor had gone into a coma. The Brigadier called Sullivan and asked him to come to the Doctor's laboratory, but told him not to bother after Sergeant Benton was able to wake the Doctor up by offering him a cup of coffee. In the next serial, "Robot", after the Doctor's third regeneration, Sullivan was called in to attend him, and ended up travelling aboard the TARDIS with the Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith (played by Elisabeth Sladen) for several subsequent adventures.  

Sullivan was rather old-fashioned and stereotypically English in his attitudes. He often employed slightly archaic language, for example, referring to Sarah affectionately as "old thing". He was nonetheless depicted as possessing great bravery and a "make-do" attitude, adapting well to the many strange situations in which he found himself. He could, however, also be quite clumsy and unsubtle, leading the Doctor to once declare, in a moment of frustration, that "Harry Sullivan is an imbecile!" Nonetheless he was shown to be well-liked by the Doctor and Sarah, the latter with whom he often had a slightly flirtatious relationship.  

The character had actually been devised by the production team as a means of handling any action scenes required in episodes when they had envisioned that the new Doctor would be played by an older actor (Sarah even jokingly compares Harry to James Bond at one point). When forty year-old Tom Baker was cast, however, this was no longer a concern and the decision was taken to write Harry out— something producer Philip Hinchcliffe later admitted was probably a mistake, as Sullivan was a likeable and popular character who worked well with both of his fellow leads.  

Sullivan's last regular appearance was in the season thirteen opener "Terror of the Zygons", which had actually been made at the conclusion of the twelfth production block and held over to start the following season. At the conclusion of this story he is seen choosing to return to London by train rather than by TARDIS with the Doctor and Sarah, who continue their adventures without him. He does, however, reappear two stories later in "The Android Invasion", both as the original Harry and an android double. This was the character's final appearance in the programme, and there was no proper "farewell scene" for him. 

LEELA
Louise Jameson
First Appeared: "The Face of Evil" (1977)
Departed: "The Invasion of Time" (1978)
40 episodes (9 stories)
Fourth Doctor

Later Appearance: "Dimensions in Time" (1993)

Leela was a warrior of the savage Sevateem tribe, who were the descendants of the crew of an Earth ship that crash landed on an unnamed planet somewhere in the far future. The name of her tribe was a corruption of "survey team". Leela first appeared in the 1977 serial, "The Face of Evil", where she aided the Doctor against the mad god Xoanaon. The god turned out to be the ship's computer, which had become both sentient and schizophrenic due to the Doctor's tampering with it in the past. Although the Doctor at this point was content to travel alone, Leela forced her way into the TARDIS and continued to accompany the Doctor on his journeys.  

Although Leela was a primitive, she was also highly intelligent, grasping advanced concepts easily and translating them into terms she could cope with. Despite the Doctor's attempts at "civilizing" her, however, Leela was strong-willed enough to continue in her savage ways. She usually dressed in animal skins and went around armed with a knife or a set of poisonous Janis thorns which she did not hesitate to use on people who threatened her, much to the Doctor's disapproval.  

Although Jameson's eyes are naturally blue, as Leela she initially wore red contact lenses to make them brown. However, the contact lenses severely limited her vision, and producer Graham Williams promised her she could stop wearing them. To explain the change in-story, writer Terrance Dicks wrote a scene in the 1977 serial "Horror of Fang Rock" where Leela's eyes suffered "pigment dispersal" and turned blue after viewing the explosion of the Rutan ship.  

In her travels with the Doctor, Leela faced, among others, killer robots, murderous homunculi, the Rutan Host, and the Sontaran invasion of the Doctor's home planet of Gallifrey. It was in that last adventure, "The Invasion of Time", that she met and fell in love with Andred, a native Gallifreyan, and decided to stay behind to be with him. The first K-9 also remained with her.

K9
Voice by John Leeson (1977-1979, 1980-1981), David Brierley (1979-1980)
First Appeared: "The Invisible Enemy" (1977)
Departed: "Warriors' Gate" (1981)
40 episodes (22 stories)
Fourth Doctor

Later appearances: K9 and Company (1981), "The Five Doctors" (1983), "School Reunion" (2006), The K9 Adventures (2007?)

Debuting in the 1977 serial The Invisible Enemy, K-9 was the creation of Professor Marius, a scientist working for the Bi-Al Foundation which was built on an asteroid near Titan in the year 5000. A mobile computer, K-9 was constructed in the shape of a dog as a substitute for the one Marius had left back on Earth. Highly intelligent, with an extensive database and equipped with sophisticated sensors as well as a laser built into its nose, K-9 was instrumental in helping the Fourth Doctor and Leela defeat a sentient virus. At the end of the story, Marius suggested that K-9 join the Doctor on his travels.  

All the K-9s referred to whoever owned them as "Master" or "Mistress" depending on their gender, and were programmed to be both loyal and logical, with a penchant for taking orders literally, almost to a fault.  

K-9 Mark I continued to travel with and aid the Doctor and Leela until The Invasion of Time, when the Doctor left it on the planet Gallifrey to accompany Leela, who elected to remain behind on the Time Lord homeworld. However, once inside the TARDIS, the Doctor produced a box labelled "K-9 Mark II".  

K-9 Mark II was more mobile than its predecessor, and exhibited the ability to sense and warn others of danger. It was with the Doctor and Romana when they were shunted into the parallel universe of E-Space, and was severely damaged by time winds during the events of Warriors' Gate. The damage was such that K-9 could only function in E-Space, and when Romana decided to stay and forge her own path, the Doctor gave K-9 to her.  

K-9 Mark III was a gift from the Doctor to Sarah Jane Smith, and appeared with her in the pilot episode of the aborted spin-off series K-9 and Company as well as briefly in the 20th anniversary television movie The Five Doctors.

ROMANADVERATRELUNDAR ("ROMANA")
Mary Tamm / Lala Ward
First Appeared: "The Ribos Operation" (1978)
Regenerated
Departed: "Warriors' Gate" (1981)
40 episodes (9 stories)
Fourth Doctor

Later Appearance: "Dimensions in Time" (1993)

As a Time Lord (or Time Lady), Romana, short for Romanadvoratrelundar, was able to regenerate, and therefore the character had two incarnations with somewhat different personalities. 

Romana I

The White Guardian originally assigned Romana to assist the Doctor during the quest for the Key to Time, which was a series of linked serials which constituted the whole of Season 16 (1978-79). Romana first appeared in "The Ribos Operation", and was intended to be a contrast to the savage Leela, her predecessor. Romana was initially played as haughty and somewhat arrogant, looking down upon the Doctor (whom she considered to be her academic inferior) and responding to his initial resentment at her presence with icy put-downs. However, she soon gained an appreciation for the Doctor's experience and sense of adventure, and began to respect him as a teacher. 

Romana II

The introduction of Romana's second incarnation in "Destiny of the Daleks", a script credited to Terry Nation, but with several additions and alterations by script editor Douglas Adams, treats the concept of regeneration humorously. At the beginning of the serial, Romana changes bodily forms several times, rather like someone casually trying on different outfits, before deciding to take the form of Princess Astra, who had been played by Lalla Ward in the final serial of Season 16, The Armageddon Factor. This regeneration scene has been controversial with some fans: see below 

Romana II enjoyed a more intimate relationship with The Doctor than her predecessor, to the point that fans have assumed a romantic relationship with the Doctor. Although a relationship was never explicitly shown or intended by the writers, many fans have found the signs of a romantic relationship particularly evident in the story "City of Death", perhaps reflecting the real-life romance between Tom Baker and Lalla Ward which reportedly blossomed during the production of that story, leading to their brief marriage.  

Her final television appearance was in "Warriors' Gate", where she left the Doctor with the robot dog K-9 to forge her own path in the parallel universe of E-space. 

According to the novels, and expanded upon in the Big Finish audios, Romana later returned to Gallifrey and eventually became the Lord President of the High Council.

ADRIC
Matthew Waterhouse
First Appeared: "Full Circle" (1980)
Deceased: "Earthshock" (1982)
42 episodes (11 stories)
Fourth / Fifth Doctor

Adric was a young native of the planet Alzarius, which exists in the parallel universe of E-Space. The name Adric is an anagram derived from Nobel Prize-winning physicist Paul Dirac. 

Adric first appeared in the Fourth Doctor serial "Full Circle". Attempting to escape from the mysterious Mistfall that was threatening his community, he stumbled across and found refuge in the TARDIS, which had been drawn into E-Space via a wormhole-like phenomenon known as a Charged Vacuum Emboitment. He stowed away when the Doctor and Romana left Alzarius and accompanied them on the rest of their adventures in E-Space, remaining with the Doctor when Romana left, and the TARDIS eventually managed to find its way back into its own universe. 

With a brilliant mathematical mind and sporting a gold badge for mathematical excellence, Adric was also very well aware of his own intelligence. That, coupled with his relative immaturity, led to a personality that was abrasive and crossed over into arrogance. However, it was obvious that Adric also desperately sought validation from the Doctor as well as those around him, and was often hurt and resentful if he felt he was being sidelined or unable to contribute. 

Adric was present when, during the events of "Logopolis", the Fourth Doctor fell from the Pharos Project radio telescope and regenerated into his fifth incarnation. He continued to travel in the TARDIS along with new companions Nyssa and Tegan, but his travels came to an end in "Earthshock" when he tried to stop a Cyberman-controlled freighter from crashing into prehistoric Earth. The navigational controls had been locked by logic codes, and Adric was entering the solution to the last code when the computer was destroyed by a dying Cyberman. Unable to even tell if he had been right, he died in the crash while his fellow crewmates watched it in horror on the TARDIS viewscreen. Adric died not knowing that the freighter he was trying to stop was actually destined to be the "meteor" that would wipe out the dinosaurs. 

NYSSA
Sara Sutton
First Appeared: "The Keeper of Traken" (1981)
Departed: "Terminus" (1983)
47 episodes (13 stories)
Fourth / Fifth Doctor

Later Appearance: "Dimensions in Time" (1993)

Nyssa of Traken, or simply Nyssa, was a native of the planet Traken, a world that was so peaceful that evil literally calcified in its atmosphere. Nyssa was the daughter of Tremas, one of the Traken Union's Consuls. 

Nyssa was a child of privilege, gifted with a brilliant intellect, an expertise in bioelectronics, and a gentle, sensitive and compassionate soul. She was often the peacekeeper among the crew of the TARDIS, serving as a calm centre to her fellow companions, Adric and Tegan. Nyssa was introduced in the Fourth Doctor serial "The Keeper of Traken". 

During the events of that story, her father's body was usurped by the life force of the renegade Time Lord known as the Master. Nyssa was subsequently transported to the planet Logopolis in the serial of the same name and witnessed her planet being consumed by a wave of entropy that was sweeping the universe. She was then present when the Fourth Doctor regenerated into his fifth incarnation, and continued to accompany the Fifth Doctor. 

Adric's death in Earthshock was a severe blow to her, as it was to Tegan. However, she faced what her adventures with the Doctor had to offer with both determination and the serenity of her Trakenite birthright, turning her sadness in being the last of her people into a desire to help others. It was appropriate, therefore, that she would leave the TARDIS during the events of "Terminus" to help the leper colony station Terminus find a permanent cure for Lazar's Disease.

TEGAN JOVANKA
Janet Fielding
First Appeared: "Logopolis" (1981)
Departed: "Resurrection of the Daleks" (1984)
64 episodes (19 stories)
Fourth / Fifth Doctor

An Australian airline stewardess and a native of Brisbane, Tegan first appeared in the Fourth Doctor's last serial "Logopolis". On her way to Heathrow Airport to start her new job with Air Australia, her car suffered a flat. She entered a roadside police box to seek help, not knowing that it was actually the Doctor's disguised TARDIS. She was present when the Fourth Doctor fell from the Pharos Project radio telescope and regenerated into his fifth incarnation, and continued to journey with the Doctor and his other companions.  

Tegan was stubborn, loud, and direct, with a no-nonsense manner and not afraid to speak her mind (describing herself as a "mouth on legs"). Her time in the TARDIS coincided with that of Adric, Nyssa and Turlough. While she often bickered with them as well as with the Doctor, her strength of character kept them together and her loyalty to her fellow crewmates was unquestionable. She was close with Nyssa, and was especially saddened at her leaving. The Doctor noted that she was a good coordinator, and often encouraged her with the words, "Brave heart, Tegan." She was apparently able to speak one of many Indigenous Australian languages fluently, and showed an ability to use firearms.  

Despite her strong front, however, her adventures with the Doctor, both thrilling and terrifying, eventually took a psychological toll. The death of Adric in Earthshock led to her leaving the TARDIS for a while, and when she returned, she was once again possessed by the alien intelligence known as the Mara. Nyssa's departure affected her as well, and she was initially suspicious of Turlough's intentions in joining the Doctor. Eventually, the carnage surrounding the events of "Resurrection of the Daleks" proved too much and she bid an emotional good-bye to the Doctor and Turlough, leaving while they were still in 1984 London.

VISLOR TURLOUGH
Mark Strickson
First Appeared: "Mawdryn Undead" (1983)
Departed: "Planet of Fire" (1984)
31 episodes (10 stories)
Fifth Doctor

Vislor Turlough, or simply Turlough, first appeared in "Mawdryn Undead", he was a student at the Brendon Public School, but it became apparent that he was not what he seemed. He was contacted by the malevolent Black Guardian, who offered to take him home if he killed the Doctor. He also appeared familiar with concepts of time travel and matter transmission. At the end of the serial, Turlough asked to accompany the Doctor. Despite Tegan and Nyssa's suspicions, the Doctor accepted Turlough as part of the TARDIS crew. 

During the course of the next two serials, "Terminus" and "Enlightenment" (collectively known, together with Mawdryn Undead, as the Black Guardian Trilogy), Turlough struggled with whether or not to carry out his assignment from the Black Guardian, but eventually rejected him in favour of loyalty to the Doctor. Although always slightly cowardly, with excellent instincts of self-preservation and a streak of ruthlessness, his relationship with the Doctor and Tegan improved with time (Nyssa had departed at the end of "Terminus"). Turlough continued travelling with the Doctor when Tegan left them at the end of "Resurrection of the Daleks". 

In the very next serial, "Planet of Fire", it was revealed that Turlough was a native of the planet Trion, having become a political exile to Earth following a civil war. Also revealed for the first time in this serial was Turlough's first name, Vislor. At the end of the serial, Turlough discovered that political prisoners were no longer mistreated on Trion and decided it was time to return home

PERPUGILLIUM 'PERI' BROWN
Nicola Bryant
First Appeared: "Planet of Fire" (1984)
Departed: "The Trial of a Time Lord: Mindwarp" (1986)
33 episodes (11 stories)
Fifth / Sixth Doctor

Later Appearance: "Dimensions in Time" (1993)

Perpugilliam Brown, or Peri for short, was an American college student (her passport lists her residence as Pasadena, California) majoring in botany. Peri first appeared in "Planet of Fire", in which she encountered the Doctor and Turlough on the island of Lanzarote. When her step-father, Professor Howard Foster, was impersonated by the Master, she joined the Fifth Doctor on his travels, while Turlough departed to return to his home planet of Trion. Peri was present when the Fifth Doctor regenerated into the Sixth at the end of "The Caves of Androzani" and continued to travel with him, despite the fact that one of the first things the temporarily unstable Sixth Doctor tried to do was strangle her ("The Twin Dilemma"). 

Peri was a bright, spirited young woman, who travelled with the Doctor because, like many of his companions, she wanted to see the universe. Although she shared a more abrasive relationship with the Sixth Doctor, there was an undercurrent of affection in their verbal sparring. 

In the second segment of the Trial story arc, "Mindwarp", Peri was abducted by a slug-like creature named Kiv, who apparently transplanted his brain into her body. Soon after, the Doctor was led to believe that Peri was dead, and was severely distraught by this. It was later revealed at the end of "The Ultimate Foe" (the fourth segment of the arc) that the evidence of Peri's death had been faked by the Valeyard. Peri had, in fact, survived, presumably recovered from Kiv's transplant (if it ever actually occurred), and married King Yrcanos of Thoros Alpha, a warrior king who had assisted the Doctor and Peri during the Mindwarp incident.

MELANIE BUSH
Bonnie Langford
First Appeared: "Trial of a Time Lord: Terror of the Vervoids" (1986)
Departed: "Dragonfire" (1987)
20 episodes (6 stories)
Sixth / Seventh Doctor

Later Appearance: "Dimensions in Time" (1993)

Melanie Bush, or simply Mel, first appeared in "Terror of the Vervoids", part of the 14-part story "The Trial of a Time Lord". At that point, she and the Sixth Doctor had been travelling together for some time. The events of Vervoids were shown as part of a Matrix projection of future events being shown to the Sixth Doctor, so from his point of view, he was seeing an adventure he would have with Mel even before he met her in his own timeline. At the end of Trial, the Sixth Doctor went off with this future Mel, presumably to drop her off somewhere, meet her past self for the first time (from her point of view), and then carry on from there.  

Mel was a computer programmer from 1986 who came from the village of Pease Pottage in West Sussex, England. She had an eidetic memory, and a cheery, almost perky personality. She greeted most situations with a warm smile and good humour, and was an optimist whose views extended to believing the best of people's natures, but could also scream with the best of them. She was a health enthusiast and a vegetarian, often encouraging the slightly portly Sixth Doctor to exercise more. She was present (albeit unconcious at the time) when the Sixth Doctor regenerated into his seventh incarnation, and continued to travel with him. 

Finally, in "Dragonfire", she decided to stay on Iceworld with the galactic confidence trickster, Sabalom Glitz, leaving the Seventh Doctor to travel on with his new companion, Ace. 

DOROTHY "ACE" McSHANE
Sophie Aldred
First Appeared: "Dragonfire" (1987)
Departed: "Survival" (1989)
31 episodes (9 stories)
Seventh Doctor

A 20th Century Earth teenager from the London suburb of Perivale, Ace (given name Dorothy) first appeared in "Dragonfire", where she was working as a waitress on Iceworld, a space trading colony on the planet Svartos. She had been a troubled teen on Earth, having been expelled from school for blowing up the art room as a "creative statement". Gifted in chemistry (despite failing it for her "O"-levels), she was in her room experimenting with the extraction of nitroglycerin from gelignite when a time storm swept her up and transported her to Iceworld, and far in her relative future. There, she met the Doctor and his companion Mel. When Mel left the Doctor at the conclusion of the serial, he offered to take Ace with him in the TARDIS, and she happily accepted. 

Ace was arguably the most independent of all the Doctor's companions. Suffering from traumatic events in her childhood, including a bad relationship with her mother and the death of her close friend Manesha due to a racist firebombing, Ace covered up her own fears and insecurities with a streetwise, tough exterior. Her weapon of choice, disapproved of by the Doctor (who nonetheless found it useful on occasion), was a powerful explosive she called Nitro-9, which she mixed up in canisters and carried around in her backpack. 

Affectionately giving the Doctor the nickname of "Professor", she was convinced that the Doctor needed her to watch his back, and protected him with a fierce loyalty. In turn, the Doctor seemed to take a special interest in Ace's education, taking her across the universe and often prompting her to figure out explanations for herself rather than giving her all the answers. 

Under the Doctor's tutelage, Ace fought the Daleks and the Cybermen, encountered the all-powerful Gods of Ragnarok in "The Greatest Show in the Galaxy", the sadistic torturer called the Kandy Man in The Happiness Patrol, and many other dangers. She also faced the ghosts of her own past in "Ghost Light" and "The Curse of Fenric". Over time, she began to mature into a confident young woman, and her brash exterior ceased to be a front. 

What the Doctor was aware of but Ace was not, was that her arrival on Iceworld was no accident, but part of a larger scheme conceived by Fenric, an evil that had existed since the beginning of the universe, a plan that stretched across the centuries. Ace was a "Wolf of Fenric", one of many descendants of a Viking tainted with Fenric's genetic instructions to help free it from its ancient prison, and a pawn in the complex game between it and the Doctor. After Fenric was defeated, Ace continued to journey with the Doctor. 

The circumstances of Ace's parting of ways with the Doctor are not known, as the series went on hiatus in 1989 with the end of the very next story, "Survival". A painting seen in the extended version "Silver Nemesis" suggested that at some point in her personal future Ace would end up in 18th or 19th Century France... 

The production team's intent was to have Ace eventually enter the Prydon Academy on the Doctor's home planet of Gallifrey and train to be a Time Lord. The story, "Ice Time" by Marc Platt, was never made as the series ceased production. When the Seventh Doctor was next seen in the 1996 Television movie, he was travelling alone, with no reference to what had happened to him or Ace in the interim.

ROSE TYLER
Billie Piper
First Appeared: "Rose" (2005)
Departed: "Doomsday" (2006)
26 episodes (20 stories)
Ninth / Tenth Doctor

A 19-year old retail shop worker stumbles into the basement the building in which she works and is attacked by shop window dummies come to life. A hand grabs hers and a voice says "Run!" And Rose Tyler's life was never the same afterwards.

Immediately prior to this event, Rose was a normal girl. She lived in the Powell Estates with her mother Jackie and spent time with her boyfriend Mickey. She got up, caught the bus, went to work, and came home. Every day. Until the day she was rescued from the dummies by a stranger called the Doctor. Then her job exploded.

In spite of her dreary life, Rose didn't immediately accept the Doctor's offer to travel with him. When he made his second offer, though, saying that he also traveled in time, she didn't hesitate.

Rose developed a very deep devotion to the Doctor that bordered on—and eventually blossomed into—a romantic love. She became a very strong, proactive, capable young woman during her time in the TARDIS, meeting Daleks, Cybermen, Slitheen, a werewolf, clockwork androids, and countless other aliens. She saved the Doctor's life on a number of occasions, just as he did hers.

Her faith in and understanding of the Doctor was shaken when he removed the time vortex from her by absorbing it into his own body, damaging him beyond repair and causing him to regenerate. He emerged as a very different person, and it took Rose some time to adjust to this new being. But her trust and devotion was soon restored and the friendship renewed.

In helping the Doctor rescue the Earth from an invasion of and battle between the Daleks and the Cybermen, Rose was trapped in an alternate Earth with no way to rejoin the Doctor. The two parted company unwillingly.

MICKEY SMITH
Noel Clark
First Appeared: "Rose" (2005)
Became Companion: "School Reunion" (2006)
Departed: "The Age of Steel" (2006)
Final Appearance (to date): "Doomsday" (2006)
12 episodes (8 stories)
Ninth / Tenth Doctor

ADAM MITCHELL
Bruno Langley
First Appeared: "Dalek" (2005)
Departed: "The Long Game" (2005)
2 episodes (2 stories)
Ninth Doctor

Adam was a 'boy genius' who worked in Henry van Statten's underground complex in Utah, cataloging and doing his best at identifying alien artefacts that were found on Earth. For Adam, this work is the closest he believes he'll ever get to walking amongst the stars. One of the pieces in Van Statten's collection turned out to be a fully functional Dalek, which was being tortured. Surviving the Dalek onslaught, the Doctor and Rose decided to take Adam along with them when the underground bunker was going to be destroyed.

They crew's next stop was Satellite Five, a news broadcast station orbiting Earth in the year 200,000. Adam couldn't resist the temptation of future technology, and unintentionally put the Doctor and Rose at risk while trying to capture knowledge for his own gain. The Doctor unceremoniously dumped Adam back home at his mother's house, refusing to continue to travel with the self-serving liability.

CAPTAIN JACK HARKNESS
John Barrowman
First Appeared: "The Emptyt Child" (2005)
Departed: "The Parting of the Ways" (2005)
5 episodes (3 stories)
Ninth Doctor

Later Appearances: Torchwood (2006-?), "?" (2007)

MARTHA JONES
Freema Agyeman
First Appeared: "Smith and Jones" (2007)
Departed:
? episodes (? stories)
Tenth Doctor

Not much is known about Martha yet. The Doctor will meet her in the opening episode of Season Three. She is a medical student. More will be known as we get closer to Season Three.