With Doctor Who set to welcome the first female incarnation of its eponymous hero, it’s also getting ready to shake up the usual Doctor-companion dynamic. The BBC announced Sunday that the doctor will now have three companions, played by Tosin Cole, Mandip Gill, and game show host, Bradley Walsh.
For most of its 54 years, Doctor Who has relied on a simple relationship formula—the eccentric, ancient, alien Doctor, and a young human girl who tags along on his adventures. Thus, it’s quite an unusual choice to give Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor multiple companions, two of them male.
But it’s not without precedent. Ensemble casts have appeared on the show before, with mixed success. There was the original gang—two schoolteachers and “an unearthly child”—then a “gobby Australian,” an orphaned alien, and an obnoxious prodigy—and more recently, a married couple and their sassy archeologist daughter, River Song.
Male companions also aren’t unheard of—in fact, they used to be quite common—but they tend to be downplayed in discussions of the show’s history. That’s a shame, because the list of male companions includes some of the finest characters the show has ever produced. Here’s the definitive ranking of all the male companions on Doctor Who, so far.
18. Kamelion
At the very bottom of the list is Kamelion, a slightly creepy, pathetic robot who takes on the face of the strongest personality in the room. He only lasts two episodes before the Doctor decommissions him.
17. Adam Mitchell
Adam Mitchell is the earliest male companion in the rebooted show. He hops on the TARDIS and is booted off the very next episode for trying to break the laws of time to make a quick buck. Fare thee well, Adam. We hardly knew ye.
16. Ben Jackson
A working-class sailor, Ben Jackson is tacked on to the end of the first Doctor’s era, and the beginning of the second’s. He’s largely overshadowed by other, more complex and engaging companions. It doesn’t help that most of his stories were wiped when the BBC deleted its archives.
15. Steven Taylor
Steven Taylor, a space pilot from the future, travels with the first Doctor. He’s more charismatic than Ben Jackson, and more willing to question the Doctor, but there’s nothing really exceptional about him.
Mike Yates was created as a love interest for the third Doctor’s main companion, Jo Grant, but when Jo is married off to a long-haired mushroom-growing hippie professor in The Green Death, Mike is left adrift. A surprise plot twist near the end of his run makes Mike a more interesting character, but also complicates his status as a companion. Nevertheless, he’s charming and dashing and a good member of the ensemble.
13. Adric
The Wesley Crusher of Doctor Who, Adric is a whiny whiz kid who’s so unabashedly nerdy that he wears a star badge on his chest for “mathematical excellence.” He might as well put up a neon sign saying, “Kick me.” When he crashes a spaceship into prehistoric Earth, blowing up the dinosaurs and himself along with them, it’s almost a relief.
I say almost, because what makes Adric so annoying is also what makes him so interesting. His arrogance and brashness create an interesting dynamic in the TARDIS. Peter Davison’s mild-mannered fifth Doctor is not as combative or curious as Tom Baker’s bohemian fourth Doctor, so Adric provides the show with some needed uncertainty. Also, he’s the only long-term companion that Doctor Who has managed to properly kill off. It was a shocking moment and the end of a great episode.
12. Nardole
Nardole started off as one of the Doctor’s most painfully silly companions. His entire shtick consisted of squealing and making bad jokes, while the Doctor had adventures with the far more entertaining River Song. Nardole works much better as the twelfth Doctor’s dour, longsuffering valet, struggling to keep his master on the straight and narrow. He’s finally given a heroic, if bittersweet, exit, guiding a group of children away from an invasion of cybermen under the mistaken impression that the Doctor has been killed.
11. Mickey Smith
Mickey Smith is another companion who begins so pathetically that it’s hard to root for him. In his first episode, he’s defeated by an evil trashcan. However, after being left in a parallel universe, he emerges a seasoned warrior and strategist, complete with catchphrase: “Mickey Smith: defender of the Earth.” He was last seen fighting Sontarans with his wife, fellow companion Martha Jones. His journey from pitiful cowardice to competent courage makes for quite a character arc.
10. Sergeant Benton
During the third Doctor’s travails as a member of the United Nations Intelligence Task Force (UNIT), he works with several regular characters. One of the best is Sergeant Benton, a Samwise-Gamgee, salt-of-the-Earth plod who accompanies Doctors two, three, and four. He’s a bit more prominent than Mike Yates, and more important to the Doctor. If the Earth has been invaded by dinosaurs and you’ve been framed by the higher ups, Sergeant Benton is the guy to call.
When the third Doctor, Jon Pertwee, left the show, it was assumed his successor would be older and less athletic than his Bond-meets-Pimpernel take on the character. In anticipation, the show cast a younger man, Harry Sullivan, to do the running and shooting. Since fourth Doctor Tom Baker turned out to be younger and fitter than the showrunners expected, Harry quickly moved on, but in the meantime, Ian Marter puts in a charming performance as Baker’s bumblingly British sidekick. He’s a particularly good foil for the Doctor in one of the classic era’s best stories, Genesis of the Daleks.
The fifth Doctor’s gaggle of companions were really a remarkable bunch. It was the first ensemble cast in a while, which made the new Doctor, a fair-haired 30-year-old, seem less like a lonely explorer than a longsuffering Scout Leader.
Between pompous Adric and sourpuss Tegan Jovanka he had his hands full, but neither of them match Vislor Turlough for trouble. Turlough is a shifty schoolboy-turned-assassin who arrives on the TARDIS on a mission—he’s been directed to murder the Doctor. His subsequent battle between cowardice and courage make him one of the more complicated and unpredictable companions in Classic Who. Of course, it also means he never quite builds the charm that the best companions achieve.
Ian Chesterton is one of the Doctor’s very first companions. A handsome, stolid science teacher, he and his colleague Barbara stumble upon the TARDIS in a junkyard while they’re looking for their student, Susan Foreman. Susan’s grandfather, the first Doctor, kidnaps Ian and Barbara and sweeps them off to meet cavemen, Aztecs, giant ants, and, of course, Daleks.
Ian is like a cross between Mr. Rogers and Indiana Jones. He’s far more relatable and trustworthy than the mysterious, deceptive, and sometimes violent Doctor, so at first, he’s basically the hero. But the name of the show is Doctor Who, not Science Teacher Named After a Catholic Philosopher, so Ian’s run on the show was brief. It was nonetheless influential, as he was the protagonist of Doctor Who in its infancy, guiding it to its later fame.
Jack Harkness arrives midway through the first season of the rebooted show, just in time to rescue the Doctor’s companion, Rose, from a barrage balloon in the middle of the Blitz. Rose soon discovers Jack is a rogue time agent who spends half of his time attempting to con unsuspecting time travelers, and the other half flirting with anyone in his general vicinity. Jack, suave, sexy, and flamboyant, acts as a hunky rival to the quirky, big-eared ninth Doctor, and ended up getting a spinoff show of his own.
5. K9
I’m willing to fight you on this. This little tin badass traveled with the fourth Doctor for half his tenure. K9’s hobbies include blowing things up, trash-talking the Doctor, and answering complex science questions. Part of the reason K9 works so well is that Tom Baker’s Doctor is 99% ego, especially late in his run. He can become unbearably smug if there’s no one there to knock him down a few notches, and K9 does the job admirably. He’s like the Terminator meets Don Rickles by way of C-3PO. He’s also a metal dog with a goofy name. But there was seldom a companion who had so much sass, or so much firepower to back it up.
4. Wilfred Mott
While he only served aboard the TARDIS for one two-part episode, Wilf played a pivotal role in the Doctor’s life.
David Tennant’s tenth incarnation is one of the most emo, hubristic Doctors. Guilt-ridden for destroying his own people, he also finds their absence liberating. Ultimately, he spins out of control, breaking the laws of time to recklessly rewrite history. As he’s dealing with the consequences of these actions, and facing his impending regeneration, he encounters Wilfred Mott, the down-to-Earth granddad of a previous companion.
Wilf’s simplicity and innocence anchor the insecure Doctor and produce some of the best dialogues of the show, as the Doctor does some soul-searching and recommits himself to his role in the universe.
Doctor Who seldom has the patience to pull off subtle, persuasive romance (robots to kill, galaxies to explore), but the layered relationship of Rory Williams and Amy Pond is a notable exception.
Rory seems at first to be the second Mickey Smith, another useless boyfriend tagging along behind a sassy, sexy female companion. But while Rory is ordinary, he’s no coward, and his steadiness anchors the immature Amy. Ultimately, Rory becomes an armor-clad warrior prepared to cross the galaxy to save his family. We don’t see many unambiguous heroes on TV, but Rory’s one of them.
He contrasts markedly with the Doctor, who initially captivates Amy with his life of adventure. It’s notable that her final decision as a character is to choose a normal life with Rory over the Doctor’s offer of “all of time and space.” And it’s also notable that, in the end, she doesn’t hesitate.
2. Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart
Nicholas Courtney first acted as a supporting character in a William Hartnell episode, and would return a few years later to inhabit his most famous role, Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart. It would have been difficult to predict the mythic proportions to which the Brigadier, a staid military man, would grow in the Doctor Who universe. He’s a constant throughout the classic series (acting opposite all eight of the classic Doctors, if you count radio dramas), popping up every few years to roll his eyes and order his eccentric alien pal to get his act together.
Matter-of-fact and a bit unimaginative, the Brigadier is a still point in a world of killer robots and alien invasions. He tells the Doctor it’s a companion’s job “to pass you your test tubes and to tell you how brilliant you are,” and he clearly sees himself as the opposite—the Doctor’s minder. That’s a role he fills admirably, always ready with a cocked eyebrow and a tart rejoinder.
He also knows the solution to every problem is a big gun. When faced with a demonic apparition, he coolly turns to a private and says, “Chap with the wings there. Five rounds rapid.”
In the same way that one can’t imagine Holmes without Watson, or Mulder without Scully, many Doctors have a definitive companion. For the eleventh Doctor, it’s clearly Amy Pond. For the third, it’s Jo Grant and the fourth it’s Sarah Jane Smith. Only one male companion ever came close to that level of friendship with the Doctor.
Jamie McCrimmon is unquestionably the second Doctor’s definitive companion. A good-tempered young highlander, Jamie handles himself surprisingly well for an 18th century man in a brave new world of Cybermen and Yeti and Time Lords. He has the most tremendous chemistry with the second Doctor. The two of them are one of the show’s great comic double acts, and Patrick Troughton and Frazer Hines would often improvise some of their best moments.
When Jamie finally exits the TARDIS under tragic circumstances, it packs just as much emotional punch as any melodramatic finale in the new series.
In fact, Jamie would be a good character for Doctor Who’s new showrunners to keep in mind as they plan the new male TARDIS inhabitants. He’s the perfect template. He has all the wonder and courage that define a good companion. He admires but doesn’t worship the Doctor. He’s not a competitive figure—he’s just an ordinary man adrift in the galaxy. And that’s what Doctor Who is all about, when it comes down to it.
