Something For The Dads

This week's blog posting has been brewing for a while and regards the important subject of which one of Doctor Who's female assistants would be the best to be locked up in the TARDIS with. This started off as a tea-break conversation at work although I must admit the conversation got a little salacious. The general opinion seemed to be Peri - or, for those that never saw the original series, Rose or Amy. In fact, when the show was originally devised the producers were very careful to make sure that there was something of interest for all the family: granddaughter Susan would appeal to the kids, with Barbara and Ian of more appeal to older viewers. For the first few series there wasn't really anyone specifically designed to appeal as someone "for the dads" - someone with obvious sex appeal to keep the dads tuned in.  However, over the years the Doctor has travelled time and space with some remarkably attractive young ladies - although some may have had personality traits that would be really grating: would you really want to be stranded in the little blue box with them for any time? Now, for the first time, on a Doctor by Doctor basis, we have the definitive list of the Doctors' top companions - at least as discussed by my mates at the pub.

The First Doctor, played by William Hartnell, had quite a few companions during his three year stint in the role. However, I have to say I'm a little limited here as there are one or two that I've never seen on screen. One of my colleagues said he had a serious crush on Susan, the Doctor's granddaughter, and I must admit that I find Carole Ann Ford a very attractive actress. The odd thing I find from watching these old black and white episodes is that it is the male companions who tend to be much stronger: particularly Ian (played by William Russell) and Steven (Peter Purves in his pre-Blue Peter days). The leading lady at the start was Barbara (Jacqueline Hill) who was Susan's history teacher. I actually think Barbara was one of the best companions from the whole series, acting as the voice of reason to Hartnell's cantankerous Doctor, but if there is one companion that would have to get the dad's vote it would be Polly, played by Anneke Wills, who portrayed the character as "a proper 60's dolly bird" and really established the trend for the veritable old time lord hanging out with some serious eye candy.

Polly was around when the Doctor first regenerated into cosmic clown Patrick Troughton. However, the second Doctor is probably most fondly remembered for trusty Highland companion, Jamie McCrimmon, but he also had two attractive young ladies travelling with him in the form of Victoria Waterfield and Zoe Heriot. They actually demonstrate two of the problems that the writers have had with the female companions over the years. Victoria was a sweet, pretty girl but screamed at pretty much everything: Daleks, Cybermen, Ice Warriors, the lot... I can only assume that the Doctor took her along as a sort of early warning system. Zoe, on the other hand, was a brain-box and general bloody know-it-all and seemed to regard the Doctor as being something of a fool at times (which, admittedly, he could be). However Zoe had the great advantage of having an ace line in catsuits, so she gets the vote. In fact this is a bit dodgy for the dad's vote as the character was only mean to be about 15 years old. However, Wendy Padbury who played Zoe was about 21 at the time - so that's OK then?

Moving on to the Third Doctor, played by Jon Pertwee, we get another brain-box in the form of Liz Shaw. I think Liz was a decent enough companion but she didn't quite gel with the Doctor in the same way Zoe had and her replacement, Jo Grant (Katy Manning), was the complete opposite: an attractive but highly scatter-brained young woman. I also think that the regular cast at this time were a very close knit team and Pertwee's final scenes with her, where he pensively drives off as Jo leaves to get married, were not just down to good acting. The sensible money should go on Jo but her replacement in the form of Elisabeth Sladen's Sarah Jane Smith was a revelation. Here, someone finally managed to get the character of female assistant down to a tee. She was very pretty but still assertive and intelligent without ever competing with the Doctor. She could also pull off being both brave and vulnerable at the same time. She would appear alongside Pertwee again in the 5 Doctors TV special - so Sarah Jane it is.

Now, of all the Doctors, I think Tom Bakers Forth incarnation really had the best looking companions. He started off with Sarah Jane and, in his third series in the role, started travelling with Leela: a savage girl played by Louise Jameson in a sort of leather bikini type thing. Apparently, she was rather surprised at the amount of attention this brought her - until she realised that appearing on teatime telly, just after the footy results, in front of lots of hormonal teenage boys and their lecherous dads, in a somewhat risqué outfit was probably asking for quite a bit of attention. Leela appeared for a couple of series until it was decided that the Doctor should have a timelady as his companion: Romanadvoratrelundar (or Romana, for short) in the very shapely form of Mary Tamm. She only appeared in one series: The Key To Time. I've been watching this with the kids on DVD and she really was the most elegant thing to look at - it's just a pity that they couldn't write some better lines for someone who was, even then, an accomplished film actress. However, it was her reincarnation in the shape of Lalla Ward that was my favourite - I really was infatuated with her at the time. There was always the feeling that there was more to her relationship with the Doctor than platonic friendship and, in fact, Tom Baker and Lalla Ward were married for a while. For that reason it has to be Romana Mk II for the Forth Doctor.

As far as the Fifth Doctor is concerned it's Peri. However, we have to reserve her for the Sixth for reasons that will become obvious. Peter Davidson's Doctor did inherit a crew from the Forth Doctor including Sarah Sutton's Nyssa and Janet Fielding's Tegan. Now, Sarah Sutton is lovely but I always found the character of Nyssa to be rather dull. Again, I think this was the fault of the writers who seemed to find it easier to write for Adric (another bloody know-all who they saw fit to blow up during Davidson's first series) and Tegan - a perpetually complaining Australian air hostess (standing the whole whinging pom thing on its head). The only really memorable story involving Nyssa was Black Orchid in which Sarah Sutton also played Nyssa's doppelganger - I'm assuming the writers were prodded to write a decent story line for her. So, for the Fifth Doctor, I'm going to go for the constantly bickering Tegan: mainly for miniskirt related reasons.

The Sixth Doctor gets Peri! Colin Baker only has one other option and it’s really no contest. Melanie Bush was probably the last person one would want to be locked in the TARDIS with. Now I've nothing against Bonnie Langford, who is a perfectly decent actress, but the character of Mel was dreadful. It was as if the writers had set out to make a Doctor Who spoof: what does the companion do? Get caught by aliens and scream a lot. Part of the problem was that I could remember Ms Langford in Just William. She was great in that as the bratty Violet Elizabeth, the lisping little girl who would " thcream and thcream and thcream until I'm thick!" Unfortunately, Mel would scream and scream and scream until she made everyone else sick. Peri, on the other hand probably made quite a few adolescent boys (and their dads) go blind.  I seem to recall that the first time we see her she is wearing a bikini and she had a habit of wearing not particularly much quite regularly. However, I also liked the character (even if they did occasionally portray her as being a Scotch egg short of a picnic) and she also made the best of some of the more ropey scripts. She could argue with the Doctor as well as Tegan but there was certainly lots of affection there - even if the Sixth Doctor tried to strangle her once! I actually saw Nicola Bryant appearing in a comedy a couple of years back and she is still as gorgeous as ever.

The Seventh Doctor started out with the dreadful screaming Mel and probably some of the lousiest scripts the series has ever produced. Things improved in the last two series as Sylvester McCoy developed the Doctor into his darkest territory since the early Hartnell episodes. He also had a new travelling companion in the form of Ace, played by Sophie Aldred, a sort of Tomboy nutter with a past almost as mysterious as the Doctor's. It was an interesting departure for the series as the character development of the assistant became almost as important as the Doctor's adventures. This would become a feature of the series when it was brought back in 2005 although we never saw the conclusion of this story as the show was cancelled in 1989. We can only assume that the Seventh Doctor and Ace rode off into the sunset together.

The Eighth Doctor is a bit tricky as Paul McGann only made the one TV film. It wasn't the best realisation of the show, in spite of the big production budget, as they seemed to have lost its essential British quirkiness, and for that reason Dr Grace Holloway (played by Daphne Ashbrook) seemed more of an obvious romantic interest which wasn't in keeping with this series (although actually rather fitting for this blog entry!) Anyway, as far as the Eighth Doctor goes I'm going to cheat. Whilst the show was off air there were many radio plays made of Doctor Who (which continue to this day) with former actors adding their voice to this extended Whoniverse. Paul McGann has made many of these plays and one of his regular companions is Lucie Miller, played by the lovely Sheridan Smith. In fact, it was rumoured that she was going to star in the TV series before Catherine Tate was cast. It's a pity that she didn't although Donna Noble did make for an interesting character.

The Ninth Doctor will have to be Rose - and I can't see Christopher Eccleston doing radio plays any time soon. There were some eyebrows raised when Billie Piper was cast in this role as she was mainly known as teeny pop singer. I had actually seen her acting prior to this in a BBC adaptation of The Canterbury Tales so I thought it was a smart move: and so it proved to be. As with Ace there was more backstory to Rose and it was also more than slightly hinted that there was romantic involvement between them. It was also interesting that we saw more of the character's home life and extended family (including Camille Coduri as her unfeasibly young mother).

The Tenth Doctor gets quite a few companions, starting with Rose, and including several guest appearances - even Kylie gave it a go. I suppose that, Rose aside, Donna Noble and Martha Jones are the main ones. I think Freema Agyeman wins in the looks department whereas Katherine Tate had the loudmouth redhead thing down to a tee. However, the most significant character he meets is the mysterious River Song played by Alex Kingston. I think the gung-ho nature of the character makes her instantly fun and Alex Kingston's flirtatiousness and somehow slightly inappropriate sexiness (like your aunt trying to cop off with your best mate) really add to the appeal. So, even though she features more with the Eleventh Doctor, I'm going to lock her up in the TARDIS with David Tennent's Tenth. Hello Sweetie!

And so finally to the Eleventh Doctor who will get to spend some quality time with Amy. After all she manages the holy trinity of be Scottish, ginger and with legs that are about 7 feet long. It actually took me a while to warm to the character as she came across as rather prickly during her first series in the TARDIS. In fact I preferred her portrayal as a child by Karen Gillan's cousin to begin with. However, I think the character progressed and the chemistry between Karen Gillan and Matt Smith brings out the best in both characters. Amy has really moved on and it's not all about shouting a lot and wearing really short skirts. But let's face it: those legs are great, aren’t they?

So would you agree or go for someone different? (I must admit, Jo Grant and Leela should really be up there.) Just to balance the wanton sexism of this we did try to come up with Doctor by Doctor list of the best male companions but got rather stuck around Doctors six and seven. Maybe that's one for another day?