Frankham-Allen - Companions: Fifty Years of Doctor Who Assistants

COMPANIONS

FIFTY YEARS OF DOCTOR WHO ASSISTANTS

An unofficial non-fiction reference book

based on the BBC television programme Doctor Who

Andy Frankham-Allen

CANDY JAR BOOKS CARDIFF

A Chaloner & Russell Company

2013

Copyright Andy Frankham-Allen 2013

Published by Candy Jar Books

Doctor Who is copyright British Broadcasting Corporation, 1963, 2013.

This book is available in print at most online retailers.

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a

retrieval system, or transmitted at any time or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the copyright holder.

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only.

A catalogue record of this book is available

from the British Library

www.candyjarbooks .co.uk

Dedicated to the memory of...

Jacqueline Hill

Adrienne Hill

Michael Craze

Caroline John

Elisabeth Sladen

Mary Tamm

and Nicholas Courtney

Companions forever gone,

but always remembered.

I only take the best.

The Doctor ( The Long Game )

Table of Contents

Foreword

When I was very young I fell in love with Doctor Who it was a series that spoke to me unlike anything else I had ever seen. And of course, my main way of entering its weird, scary, thrilling, subversive worlds was through the eyes of the Doctors friends, his assistants, his companions.

So what is the companion there for? Somewhat accurately, but cynically, pointing out a flaw in the shows format back in 1971, the writers described the companion as someone who was there to pass the Doctor his test tubes and tell him he was brilliant. However this is a rather unfair generalisation and had the people responsible for that swipe subsequently shaken up what they perceived as the status quo and done something to change that conception, one might be more forgiving of their little piece of whimsey.

Because the companion is far far more important than that. Yes, of course they are a sounding board, someone to pat him on the back, or get into trouble and need rescuing, or point out the bleedin obvious when he gets all spacey and alien and misses the little details. But above all else, the companion is there to be his best friend. And, as a result, the viewer, especially the under tens, become the Doctors best friend by default. Because they identify with the companion. More than anything else, if I was in any way the typical viewer back in the 1960s and 1970s, I wanted to be the companion. We aspire to be the companion, we want to find our own magical police box and be whisked off into space and time, fighting Daleks, stopping Cybermen, facing down the Weeping Angels. Because thats exactly what wed do to help the Doctor.

Thats why this show so captured the imaginations of generations, yes generations, of children. The need, and the love the viewer has for the companion, is as valid and true in 2013 as it was on that foggy night in November 1963.

My first best friends were Ben and Polly. My first tears shed when a companion said goodbye was for Jo Grant. My first blimey shes sexy was Leela. My first I dont like this companion was K9 (sorry, but I cannot abide cute robots and much as I respect the little mutt now, back in 1977 I wanted to punt him into outer space). Yes, the middle-aged Doctor Who fan I am now can look back and say that one worked well and that one wasnt really that well developed as a character and what were they thinking? but the pre-teen inside me who fell in love with this madcap, insane and brilliant show, still looks at each and every companion, from Susan to Clara, via Jamie, Sarah Jane, Tegan and Mel and all the others, with affection, admiration and of course a huge amount of jealousy. Because they got to do what I never did. They found their madman with a box.

Which brings us neatly to this book, and Andy Frankham-Allens guide to each and every one of those companions (and a few other friends that dont quite count as companions but were of equal importance to the Doctor at any given moment). Of course there have been books about companions before but few of them going into this amount of detail, display this amount of in-depth knowledge and above all, this amount of love. As a celebration of everything that makes the Doctors (and therefore our) best friends unique and special, this book is essential.

Whether you were there through the days of Ian & Barbara, Victoria and Zoe, Liz and the men of UNIT, the two Romanas, Adric and Nyssa, Peri, Ace and Grace or whether you only discovered your Doctor through the eyes of Rose, Martha, Donna or Amy & Rory, this is the book for you.

So step aboard your own Police Box and take a trip through the Doctors outer-space Rolodex and get reacquainted with old chums, or discover some fantastic new ones. Its good to know who these guys are because if you do find that Police Box of your own, you might just need to know what they did to ensure you dont get exterminated in the first five minutes!

Gary Russell

Cardiff, 2013

Fifty Years In...

Doctor Who began, unsurprisingly, with mystery. A Police Box sitting in a junkyard, letting out a mysterious hum. It took over half an episode before we discovered the truth behind the Police Box, because before that we had to learn a few important things. Our guides on that journey of discovery were two school teachers: Mr Ian Chesterton, who taught science, and Miss Barbara Wright, who taught history. These two characters were destined to be the voice of the audience for the next year and a half, the (initially) unwilling co-travellers on a fantastic journey through space and time with a mysterious old man called the Doctor

And so began the greatest show in the galaxy. Alas, due to the lack of timey-wimeyness in my life I wasnt there at the very beginning. Im far too young! Plus, the odd truth of the matter is I only really happened upon Doctor Who just as it was about to embark on a lengthy hiatus. The party seemed to be wrapping up when I accidentally turned the television to BBC One in 1987 and found myself watching episode two of Time and the Rani . Certainly as a child I remember watching Doctor Who ; I have very precise memories of watching Logopolis at my Nana Allens in 1981, and even vague memories of seeing Leela and K9 in the late 70s. Doctor Who was never really far from me via the occasional novelisation or magazine but it wasnt until the 1980s drew to a close that I really found myself caught up in the universe of Doctor Who just as it was (unofficially) cancelled.

Im a voracious collector, and when I get into something I dont hold back. Before the final episode of Survival was transmitted in 1989 I had every novelisation available, and even all the videos (yep, no DVDs back then), not that there were many at that point. I was discovering the past through print, learning about Ian Chesterton via An Exciting Adventure with the Daleks , discovering all about the Brigadier and Liz during The Auton Invasion , and falling in love with Sarah and Harry as they dealt with The Loch Ness Monster (these titles will not be familiar to those of you young uns whove discovered the classic series through DVDs, but dont worry, keep reading and itll all make sense). Back then I really had no idea of the journey I had embarked on.