The Doctor’s Companion Ep. 8 – Davies’ Companions
Monday, February 15th, 2010
Tracking down those older episodes is tough, so to get an extra week of research, Scott and Randy take time to discuss the many companions of the Russell T. Davies era. From Rose to Wilfred and everyone in between, there have been a variety of companions to The Doctor. How do we rank them? Which was our favorite single episode companions? Who could we have done without? Find out all this and more in the newest episode of The Doctor’s Companion!
Next Week: Regenerations Part 3 (for real this time… seriously)
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Great discussion. You guys covered every possible topic as I thought it. Believe it or not, my list is:
1.) Rose
2.) Donna
3.) Martha
And I love Martha. The thing is, while I know most people find Donna to be obnoxious and grating. I actually find Catherine Tate to be HILARIOUS!! She is so funny and sarcastic, but I know that’s just me. Donna’s back-and-forth with the Doctor is great TV. As quickly as the 2nd episode in “The Fires of Pompeii” she was very funny and her crying pleas of mercy for the Roman family at the end actually touched me.
I’m in love with Rose personally. Her transition from quirky, airhead shopgirl to Xena Warrior Princess might be much, but in Series 2 she went from helpless to able to stand on her own, caring for everyone she met, fighting for the weak. She was pretty great.
1.) Donna
2.) Rose
3.) Martha
Ranking these is pretty hard as all three companions are great for different reasons. I absolutely love Rose’s story, but her few appearances after she left the show diminished her character slightly for me. Rose’s story over the first two series is epic and awesome. Martha is also great fun to watch, but Donna is my favorite.
I loved Donna from the moment we met her. I think I’m unlike most people in that I loved the Runaway Bride special. I was kind of sad when Donna didn’t become the permanent companion after that, so I was excited when she did so later on. Donna just got better and better as they explored more and more facets of her character. Plus, Wilf exists because of her, so she gets bonus points for that.
I also have to echo the love for Girl in the Fireplace. It’s not quite my favorite Who episode, but it comes very, very close.
4 people, 4 different rankings. Interesting. I think the only possible ranking left is Martha, Rose, Donna. I wonder if we could turn all these rankings into a personality profile. :P
Seriously though, I think is says a lot about the companions that there is such a wide variety of opinions on the three main companions.
What about the secondary companions? Didn’t hear a lot of opinions on those. :)
Another great episode.
As for my main companions or season long companions:
1. Rose
2. Donna
3. Martha
To me Rose worked much better with the ninth doctor. An adventuring friendship. Once she started gushing over Tennant she lost some points. Martha is a great character but i thought too smart to get wrapped up in getting the Doctors affection. Donna was …….well Donna take her or leave her which I liked. She did grow as a charcter which was nice as well.
Seconary Companions or multiple episode companions:
1. Captain Jack
2. Wilf
3. Sarah Jane Smith
4. Mickey
5. Pete
Episodic Companions:
1. Madame de Pompadour
2. Sally Sparrow
3. Jenny
4. Timothy – Family of Blood
5. Adelaide
6 Lady Christina
Madame de Pompadour is quite possibly my favorate character of the series. The chemistry was amazing. I’ll even admit the I got choked up when the letter was read at the end. I would love to see the return of Sally Sparrow, not sure how but I would love to see it.
I think there should be some honorable mentions for the Historical figures:
1. Charles Dickens
2. Queen Victoria
3. Shakespeare
4. Agatha Christie
I’m definatly looking forward to seeing how Amy Pond turns out.
Hey, Jenny made your list at #3. Woot. :)
Also, I completely forgot about Sally, so thanks for bringing her up. Another cool character. Blink being my favorite episode, I tend to give her a lot of credit for playing the role she did in making the episode memorable. That was one of the episodes that didn’t completely focus on the Doctor, and we’ve seen that doing that can end in disaster without the right character.
Secondary companions are a little harder to pick for me. I have just forgotten about some of them because they are only in one episode.
Anyway, I really like Wilfred, Captain Jack, Pete Tyler, Madame de Pompadour, Sally Sparrow (even though she technically isn’t much of a “companion”), and Shakespeare. I remember liking Jenny, but I’d have to rewatch those episodes as I’ve forgotten a lot of the details.
Who was that guy who Eccleston kicked out of the Tardis, it was after the Simon Pegg episode I think…
Your thinking of Adam Mitchell. Got kicked out for trying to get rich. He had potential in ‘Dalek’ but I didn’t do much in ‘The Long Game’. Although i thought the Vomit thing would be handy.
As far as Secondary characters, I can not believe that no one has mentioned…..Rose’s Mom.
I know she never actually traveled with the Doctor, but she was in many episodes and formed a great relationship with the Doctor. (More of the 9th Doctor) She is a completely helpless, useless character in the midst of danger, but that is part of what makes her so funny. I really had a good time with episodes with her.
For other Secondary characters, I have to say, I LOVE Jack Harkness. What an awesome character!! But I have agree with you guys, he is very different from before and after Torchwood. Without his bravado and “Unable to Die” thing, Jack doesn’t stand out as much as other Companions.
But I have to disagree with Scott. I thought he was a fantastic companion in the three part finale in the 3rd Series. The Doctor-Martha-Jack dynamic was excellent.
I liked Rose’s mom because even though she’d loathe me saying it- there was A LOT of my mom in her.
For me it’s:
1)Rose
2)Donna
3)Martha
Rose was my best because, honestly, she’s probably the most identifiable character on the show for me when I started watching (Donna’s probably the most currently). I worked in a shop, I lived with my mom, I had a bad die job, we wore similar clothes and I was only a couple of years older. And sometimes with companions you like seeing someone like you get to go hang out with The Doctor.
And, frankly, I always loved the love story angle. Yes, dammitt, I was a ’shipper. *hangs head* I do agree when she came back she was really not right and I didn’t quite like what they did to her either but re-watching her episodes were always the funnest.
Donna comes next mostly because I loved her buddy relationship with The Doctor and her relationship with Wilf was always great. I just thought they played pretty cooly together.
I never really loved Martha though. The whole, “why doesn’t he love me?” got on my nerves. Fast. Other than that I liked her well enough but not as much as most people do. *Shrug*
A bit late to TDC but making my way through them pretty quick. As per usual another great episode but Mickey “the dog” Smith better than Jack “the coat wearing immortal” Harckness . . .come oooooon. :(
My personal Companion list in total would probably be:
Rose
Jack
Donna
Wilfred
Martha
Mickey
Though Martha and Mickey are in my bottom two I completely agree that they would be nicely paired on Torchwood, giving their new charatcter evolution seen at the ending of “end of time part 2″ Thats about it really, onto the next one now. Ha! :P
Paul,
Scotland, Edinburgh
(fans everywhere by the way, been passing on the podcasts to other friends)
Glad to see a new face commenting. Hope you enjoy the remaining episodes. :)
Welcome to the site Paul! Don’t mind that you’re late, just glad you’re here now :)
I love all the companions… so making a list is always close between all of them. Plus, its all based on personal preference.
Thanks for passing the show on to friends. Word of mouth is really the best way to get people to listen.
Where’d you hear about us?
Found the site on google a while back just looking for podcasts, been a fan of the Buffcast and Angel Investigations for a while now but never really interacted on the site to be honest just enjoyed the podcasts, like yourself a big Whedon Fan. . . Laptop got broken a while back and could not remember the name of the site but when I finally got it back looked up the site again (was saved under favourites luckily) and saw the TDC podcasts. Loving them so far.
One other thing to add to this podcast is that I hope that Matt Smith does interact with John Barrowman at some point. Jack Harckness is a really interesting charatcer on both shows, though as you said is portrayed slightly different on Torchwood. John Barrowman was asked the same question during a radio interview and he said that “whenever is The Doctor needs him, he’ll be there” . . .so hopefully if Matt Smith stays on for a few seasons then they will get a bit screen time together. :)