It's a braw day in Moray! Welcome to the penultimate post in the "Companion Chronicle" series. I've been posting about the Companions of Doctor Who in alphabetical order, drawing on books, comics and audio, in addition to tv. In the next post, I'll announce my Top Ten but for now, here are Companions P-S; there are some serious contenders for those vital ten spots...
Patricia Menzies: a Detective Inspector with the Greater Manchester Police, Menzies is a sardonic 21st century cop who had three audio encounters with the Sixth Doctor beginning with The Condemned. She asked the Doctor if she could join him but he turned her down.
Penny 11: an android from the amusement park planet Happyworld, Penny was a child-like artificial being who sacrificed herself to save the universe in the play Vox Dei by the Battered Suitcase Theatre Company. Think Star Trek's Data as Play School presenter.
Peter and Meredith ("Merry"): Modern-day companions of the Seventh Doctor from Seventh Door's Odyssey series of fanzine novellas. Peter was a teacher and a father; Merry was a journalist and a friend of Iffy Birmingham, the companion and wife of Lance Parkin's "Ian Richardson" Doctor. ( You may recall his obscure cameos in a couple of Virgin and BBC books including Beige Planet Mars).
Perpugilliam "Peri" Brown: American botany student who was rescued from the sea by Turlough. She travelled with the Fifth Doctor and had a sisterly friendship with Erimem on audio. Unfortunately, although this allowed us to see a wry humour in the often whiny and shrill Peri, it also robbed the Fifth Doctor of his noble sacrifice, giving up his life to save a virtual stranger.
Peri had a subsequently fractious relationship with the Sixth Doctor - understandably so, since during a psychotic episode, he assaulted her. The Doctor apparently believed his habitual needling of Peri helped her to cope with culture shock (Burning Heart, the Missing Adventures), Their relationship mellowed eventually but Peri appeared to meet a terrible death: her personality totally expunged and her body killed in a Time Lord assassination. However the Doctor later learned she became the partner of King Yrcanos - either as Queen of Krontep or perhaps, as his manager on a wrestling tour!
Polly Wright: Who's own Julie Christie, Chelsea Girl Polly was a Sixties swinger: by day, secretary to cybernetician Kit Pedl-uh, Professor Brett and by night, habituee of nitespots like the Inferno. Her friendship with sailor Ben led her into adventures with the First and Second Doctors. Ben and Polly were the first "old companions" I ever knew about as a child, thanks to the 1967 annual. Anneke Wills suggests Polly's surname was actually Bettingham-Smith; I like to believe she was the Honourable Hippolyta Wright and the daughter of a viscount, probably.
Raine Creevy: another posh bird, Raine is a cat burglar who travelled with the Seventh Doctor in the audio version of Season 27. Envisaged originally as Raine Cunningham, she is the daughter of career criminal Markus Creevy and handy with a sword. DWM speculated that as Ace's replACEment, this character would be called Kate Tollinger. Having been delivered as a baby by the Seventh Doctor, Raine is a little bitchy towards Ace, which is amusing.
Ria: a mad scientist's daughter from the Cal-Med 2 institute who travelled with the Doctor in the Audio Visuals fan recordings of the 80s and 90s (the ancestors of Big Finish).
Ria and her incarnation of the Doctor (aka Fred or The Wanderer) made a cameo in the DWM strip Party Animals.
Ria was revealed to be an artificially-grown being who had a psychic rapport with her "sister" Cassandra. One of the most tragic, non -canonical companions, Ria was replaced by a Dalek replicant who killed Cassandra.
River Song: Spoilers! Introduced as a future companion and confidante to an unsettled Tenth Doctor and then promptly dying to save him, this mysterious femme fatale dropped hints that they were married. As the Eleventh Doctor continued to meet the elusive Dr. Song in earlier points in her life, we discovered they really were. Sort of. We also discovered River was the former Melody Pond, daughter of Rory and Amy and conditioned to be a "bespoke psychopath". Of course, other "Mrs. Doctor" include Mark Clapham's Iphigenia Birmingham ( in the fanzine novella Integration) Idris (the Bride of Tardis-tein) and Emma in the Curse of Fatal Death ( although she was actually only his fiancee!)
Romanadvoratrelundar aka Romana (or "Fred"): the third of the Doctor's assistants, by my reckoning. Assigned in the first quest for the Key to Time. Imperious and inflexible at first, Romana was better-qualified than the Doctor and regarded as quite an imposition. Their relationship warmed considerably however and, having copied the form of Princess Astra, Romana's more wilful nature was demonstrated by her reluctance to return to Gallifrey.
She embarked on a mission to liberate the Tharils with K-9 Mk II. At some point however, she did return to Gallifrey and became President. In this role, she worked again with the Fifth, Sixth and Eighth Doctors and was a prisoner of the Daleks.
That looks exactly like the Console Room!
Russell T. Davies suggested Romana was President during the Time War and interestingly, Paul Cornell introduced a third "flapper-style" incarnation of Romana for BBC Books, modelled on Louise Brooks. This version ruthlessly pursued the Eighth Doctor and Compassion and was very unlike the witty gamine of Season 17.
Rory Williams-Pond: hapless husband of Amy Pond and the father of River Song. Rory is a nurse (like Hex) and has grown from needy manchild into action hero. Has an unfortunate penchant for being killed off and resurrected- at least, up to now...
Rose Tyler: working class Londoner and shop girl Rose abandoned her family and boyfriend for danger and monsters and life and death. She brought a human perspective to the battle-scarred Ninth Doctor and developed a profound romantic attachment to the Tenth Doctor. They were separated in Doomsday but finally Rose got her man in the form of the half-human MetaCrisis Doctor.
Rose's character was so identifiable and of the moment that she was undoubtedly instrumental in the success of Nu Who. As a member of a parallel world- version of Torchwood, Rose became a Defender of the Earth.
Roslyn "Roz" Forrester: the Seventh Doctor's Adjudicator companion from the New Adventures. Unlucky in love, hard-bitten veteran Roz was also the scion of a powerful Xhosa family on Io. Roz was killed leading an attack on the Earth Emperor in the novel So Vile a Sin. Her death caused the Seventh Doctor to have a heart attack.
Samantha "Sam" Briggs: Ahhr'ey! Potential companion and cheeky Scouser Sam teamed up with the Second Doctor to defeat The Faceless Ones. She flirted with Jamie and wore a ludicrous hat. In essence- and in fact -a Liver Bird, Sam brought a trendy Liverpudlian grit and humour to the serial but didn't go aboard the Tardis. She would be succeeded by a different archetype, the Pre-Raphaelite orphan Victoria.
Samantha "Sam Sam Sam" Jones: Schoolgirl Sam was an earnest, veggie pacifist. She began travelling with the Eight Doctor in, er, The Eight Doctors when she needed help to put an end to drug dealing in Coal Hill School. With her crush on the Doctor and her raft of trendy causes, Sam was, rather unfairly, not the most popular of Companions but in many ways she was a prototype for Rose. She befriended Sarah Jane Smith but the Council of Eight arranged Sam's assassination.
Samson and Gemma Griffin: A "Sam" was mentioned in the Big Finish audio Minuet in Hell. The company later decided to disassociate itself from the books continuity and created Samson and Gemma, a brother and sister pair. They retroactively became the Eighth Doctor's first companions before Mary Shelley and Charley Pollard. They appear in the audio Terror Firma, where they are victims of the Daleks. Gemma is a plague carrier and killed by C'rizz.
Sara Kingdom: icy trained killer and Space Security Service Agent, Kingdom was the sister of the First Doctor's ally Bret Vyon. She was deceived by the arch-traitor Mavic Chen and killed her own brother. The Target novelization of The Daleks Master Plan suggests she almost had a mental breakdown as a result. Having encountered the Daleks in her earlier career ( in the audio The Destroyers) Sara joined the fight to stop their scheme. She was aged to death by the Time Destructor but her sentience survived as a presence in a house on Earth, according to Big Finish.
Sarah Jane Smith: the sine qua non of Who Companions, feisty feminist and journalist Sarah had adventures with the Third, Fourth, Tenth and Eleventh Doctors. She also met the First, Second and Fifth (in passing) and he gifted her not one but two models of his canine computer.
Sarah Jane had some harrowing experiences on audio thanks to her old adversary. Miss Winters (like Wonder Woman, many of SJ's enemies are older women). She successfully managed to work through abandonment issues and let down her barriers. In fact, between adventures with the Brigadier, K9 and her young neighbours, Maria, Clyde and Rani, she found fulfilment as adoptive mother to extra-terrestrial children Luke and Sky.
Tenacious, ageless and wise, Sarah Jane Smith, like Barbara, Liz and Romana I, is an eternal time traveller.
Lady Serenadellatrovella aka Serena: the second Doctor's parole officer at the end of The War Games. In the BBC book World Game, the pair are dispatched to thwart a conspiracy by the Players. Serena sacrifices herself to save the Duke of Wellington from an assassination attempt.
Sha'Atara: a Steel Valkyrie from the New Asgard colony, she travelled with the Doctor for four years prior to the play Hellblossom by the Battered Suitcase Theatre Company. Sha'Atara owed the Doctor a "blood debt" but remained in Victorian London with police inspector Potts. Essentially a warrior woman in the Leela mould but also reminiscent of this Lost in Space legend:
Sharon Davies: the first non-Caucasian companion and the first created for Doctor Who Weekly. Schoolgirl Sharon was involved in The Star Beast incident, sheltering the murderous Beep the Meep.
During her adventures with the Fourth Doctor, her ageing was accelerated. As an adult, she chose to remain on the planet Unicepter IV.
I'm afraid Peri is too negative and irritating for me; River is a bit of a Mary Sue now and Sam Jones was too immature. Romana, Rose and Sarah Jane are undoubtedly Top Ten material however.
Next: Silver Leaves and Silver Cloak
All images are presumed copyright of their respective owners
No comments:
Post a Comment