Are Doctor Who’s companions more important than the Doctor?
The Doctor needs us as much as we need them.
For almost six decades, viewers all over the world have been turning to Doctor Who for adventures filled with aliens, time travel and endless possibilities.
With a main character whose face changes every few years and decades worth of stories to watch, read and listen to, what is it that makes it so special?
In a cosmos filled with Time Lord lore, it is arguably the Doctor’s companions who are most important to the show - and our entry point into this vast and complicated world.
Growing up with Doctor Who, it was often the companions I related to the most. While I felt that the Doctor reflected some of my life and feelings, I also wanted to be more like them and, despite my connection to them, their world seemed so far away. It was the companions within each season that made me connect so strongly to the stories.
In many ways, the Doctor’s friends are us. When Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) enters the TARDIS for the first time, or Bill Potts (Pearl Mackie) steps foot on her first alien world, we’re discovering the universe through their eyes. We’re wearing Rose’s pink hoodie or Bill’s high-top trainers.
The Doctor may be mad and odd and brilliant, but the people surrounding them are what grounds the show and makes it so loveable.
When Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) felt she wasn’t good enough, we saw ourselves in her. When Graham O’Brien (Bradley Walsh) mourned the loss of his wife, his grief reminded us of our own. When Clara Oswald (Jenna Coleman) found a best friend in the Doctor, we found ourselves loving him, too.
When these characters stepped aboard a spaceship that could take them anywhere at any time, we journeyed with them, transporting from our planet to somewhere far away. This is something that feels so special to the core of Doctor Who; where else can people like you or I go on such unique and diverse escapades?
With an ever-changing roster of friends, every new season or story can be fresh for those of us who have been travelling with the Doctor for a while - or a jumping-on point for anyone diving in for the first time.
With a new pal comes new perspectives, experiences, loves and losses. A new relationship with the Doctor. A new way for us to hold the Doctor’s hand and experience a trip of a lifetime.
Take Rose’s first encounter with a Dalek (Dalek, 2005). She is compassionate and attentive. She listens to the creature, despite knowing it could be a threat. She is emotional and she is human.
The Doctor’s stance is a little different; having known and dealt with the Daleks for many regenerations, they are determined to kill the pepperpot menace. Although the Daleks had been a constant enemy since Who began in 1963, it’s Rose’s view of the age-old foe that makes it such a compelling watch. Her innocence and compassion kept viewers hooked for the first two seasons of New Who, and cemented the show in many people’s hearts.
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It’s not just Rose who solidified the significance of the Doctor’s pals. Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen), companion to the Third and Fourth Doctors, proved countless times that she was as important to Who as the Doctor was - and was so beloved that she even got her own show and series of adventures!
From her very first moment in The Time Warrior (1974), Sarah holds her own next to the Doctor, from attempting to fool them with an alias to fighting back when they suggest she makes them coffee. She is then fierce enough to stow away on the TARDIS, changing the Doctor’s life forever.
Sarah Jane became integral to Doctor Who, proving that companions could be just as smart, brave and wonderful as our favourite Time Lord. Her brilliance is immediately on a par with theirs, bringing us closer to the Doctor and indicating the importance of having someone alongside them to hook viewers in. Sarah Jane became an icon and one of the best-loved companions - spanning multiple generations.
There’s Clara Oswald’s tenacity and strength through constant loss, and how she held the viewer's hands through the transition from the Eleventh incarnation to the Twelfth.
It’s Ace's (Sophie Aldred) ability to bring wonder and excitement to everything and her student/teacher relationship with the Seventh Doctor that influences our own relationship with the 'Professor'.
Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman) taught us to appreciate ourselves in the face of unrequited love and Yasmin Khan’s (Mandip Gill) mental health storyline reflected a world that is unique to our human-ness, one that the Doctor may understand and feel - but is more relatable to the audience here on Earth, especially when experienced through the lens of a young, queer, Asian woman.
All of this is without even touching on what it means to see yourself or your experience represented in such a huge franchise.
Sexuality, class and race are all addressed by those who join the Doctor on their travels, showing us that a fairer world is indeed achievable - and giving us a better future to look towards.
Up until recently, the main source of diversity within the show’s lead cast has been via the role of the companion. Viewers may relate to the Doctor, too, and many feel reflected in them, but for others, they’re more likely to see themselves in a companion or friend within the Whoniverse.
Without companions, the Doctor’s world would be more difficult to digest, and the Doctor would be a worse-off character for it.
It is, after all, Donna Noble who persuades them to save just one single family during the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in The Fires of Pompeii. It’s Clara who supports the Twelfth Doctor to be more empathetic and caring. It’s Susan (Carole Ann Ford), Ian (William Russell), Barbara (Jacqueline Hill) and Vicki (Maureen O'Brien) that helped to humanise the First Doctor and bring out their grandfatherly qualities, making them a hero to children all over the country when the programme first launched in 1963.
The dynamic of including people just like us, the audience, into this alien landscape means that we’re influencing the Doctor’s world just as much as they influence ours. It is only through our inclusion that we’re so able to love the Doctor, learn from them and be inspired by them.
With the most important part of the show being centred on the TARDIS’s guests, Doctor Who has thrived, and the Whoniverse has felt like home for countless viewers and fans.
The Third Doctor without Jo (Katy Manning)? The Eleventh Doctor without Amy (Karen Gillan)? The Second Doctor without Jamie (Frazer Hines) and Zoe (Wendy Padbury)? Donna comments that the Doctor needs someone to stop them during darker times, and Amy insists that they should never, ever be alone. The Doctor needs us as much as we need them.
In all these years of Doctor Who, it is the sidekicks, friends and loved ones that make us want to tune back in. As long as we can be the Sarah Jane or the Rose Tyler of that world, the show will continue to be our favourite history-jumping, alien-stopping, future-exploring franchise - and have a place in our hearts forever.
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