Not every Doctor Who companion walks away from the TARDIS unscathed - here are all the characters who were left worse off after their travels with the Doctor. Particularly in its modern incarnation, Doctor Who likes to promote the narrative that travelling with the titular Time Lord is a fairy tale experience like no other. By luck or happenstance, the Doctor plucks one or two lucky humans to come with him/her on his/her adventures and see the pathways of time and space laid bare. What a treat.
Or not, as the case may be. Certainly, the majority of Doctor Who’s companion characters are thrilled by their time with the Doctor, eternally grateful that they were spared a mundane human existence and instead treated to some of the most thrilling experiences the universe has to offer. The price for such excitement is a life constantly running away from evil aliens and escaping near-death scenarios on a weekly basis. That’s just a workplace hazard when it comes to Doctor Who and most companions are willing to accept the trade-off.
A select few of the Doctor’s assistants, however, are clearly damaged, scarred or otherwise messed up after their time with the Doctor comes to an end and are in a worse place than they were when the Gallifreyan first picked them up. Here are all the Doctor Who companions who would’ve been better off staying away from the TARDIS.
Katarina
Picked up by mistake from the ancient city of Troy, Katarina is one of Doctor Who’s most fleeting assistants. The young girl handles the transition to time travel quite well, believing that being whisked away in the TARDIS is all part of Zeus’ design. Perhaps this explains why, when Katarina is held hostage by a rogue criminal on a spaceship, she chooses to lock both herself and her assailant in an airlock and launch out into space. Katarina sacrificed herself for the safety of the Doctor and his other companions, and all because she saw him as some kind of deity.
Dodo
Even the bright and brash 1960s teenager Dodo Chaplet was brought down to Earth by the stark reality of travelling with the Doctor. Characterized as loud, childish and largely useless in most world-saving situations, Dodo wasn’t Doctor Who’s most popular companion either with fans or the production team. After being hypnotized by a sentient A.I. known as WOTAN, Dodo is sent to the countryside to recover from her ordeal. The character is never seen again, and instead sends a message to the Doctor to say she won’t be returning to the TARDIS, clearly traumatized by the constant danger involved in being a companion.
Jamie/Zoe
Unlike Katarina and Dodo, Jame McCrimmon and Zoe Heriot had a wonderful time travelling with the Second Doctor and developed into far better, smarter individuals as a result of their adventures. However, they suffer a fate as cruel and devastating as any of the Doctor’s other assistants. After the Time Lords finally catch up with their runaway colleague in “The War Games,” the Second Doctor is sentenced to enforced regeneration and exile. His two companions, meanwhile, have their memories wiped and are returned to the point in their timelines the Doctor stole them from - as if none of their adventures ever happened.
This ending is especially tragic as Jamie turned from a simple-minded soldier to a loyal student of the Doctor’s, always keen to learn, and Zoe found the TARDIS to be an environment where her intelligence was appreciated, and came out of her shell as a result. After coming so far in their personal development and then having that growth abruptly snatched away, it might’ve been kinder if they never met the Doctor at all.
Adric
All Adric ever wanted to do was prove his intelligence to the Fifth Doctor, but his mentor would often dismiss his companion’s mathematical musings as an annoyance. Incidentally, the audience felt much the same. After a blazing row with the Doctor, Adric and the rest of the TARDIS team find themselves up against the Cybermen, but while every other character manages to escape to safety, Adric deliberately remains behind in order to prove his calculations can save the day. While the young genius succeeds, he does so at the cost of his own life and heroically goes up with the ship in a ball of flames.
Tegan
If there was an award for most regularly disgruntled Doctor Who companion, Tegan Jovanka would be the clear winner. Another accidental addition to the Doctor’s life, Tegan spends most of her time in space wanting to go home and praying she doesn’t get killed. After witnessing the death of a friend and being possessed by an angry alien snake, Tegan finally finds herself back at Heathrow Airport, and is annoyed when the Doctor leaves her behind. Tegan returns the following season with a renewed sense of determination and courage, but exits the TARDIS for good in “Resurrection of the Daleks” under somewhat acrimonious circumstances, tired of the constant stench of death that follows that little blue box through space and time.
Kamelion
Although not a human (or regularly seen) companion, Kamelion is a sentient android capable of independent thought and therefore, by the Doctor’s own standards, should be considered a life form in his own right. Initially used as a tool under the influence of the Master, the Doctor frees Kamelion from captivity and takes him along in the TARDIS as one of his own. After only a handful of appearances, however, Kamelion is once again subjected to the Master’s manipulation and begs the Doctor to destroy him. The Time Lord duly obliges.
Peri
Peri Brown’s time in the TARDIS was going swimmingly right up until “The Caves of Androzani,” in which she and the Doctor come into contact with a fatal poison. Thankfully, the Doctor finds an antidote and sacrifices one of his own regenerations so that Peri can take the remedy, atoning for putting his companion in such a dangerous position. Unfortunately, that brush with death was only the beginning of Peri’s problems. The newly-regenerated Sixth Doctor was not only rude and condescending to his one and only assistant, but also tried to strangle her. Peri eventually escaped the Doctor’s employ and ended up married to a character played by Brian Blessed. A grim fate indeed.
Donna
Donna had a whale of a time travelling with the Tenth Doctor but, like Jamie and Zoe before her, was forced to have all memories of these adventures wiped. Rather than a punishment from the Time Lords, Donna’s mind-wipe was necessitated after she merged with the Doctor and her human mind went into overload. While being forced to forget all the wonderful memories she made in the TARDIS is punishment enough, Donna’s condition also meant that she would die if she ever remembered this missing period of her life. So, not only did the Doctor leave Donna ignorant of her importance in the universe, she also became a ticking time bomb constantly at risk of a painful death.
Amy/Rory
The case of the Ponds in Doctor Who is a curious one, since both characters would surely claim that meeting the Doctor was the best experience of their lives. And yet the Eleventh Doctor put Amy and Rory through more than any other companion in the series. After first coming between the pair as a potential love rival, the Doctor’s TARDIS infected the newlyweds’ unborn child with Time Lord energy, making the infant a target for villains across the universe. Amy was then kidnapped and separated from her child, Rory died a multitude of deaths and was turned into an Auton and, finally, both Ponds fell victim to the Weeping Angels. But yes, totally worth it.
Bill
Bill’s story fit perfectly into the typical Doctor Who companion mold, taken from her position serving fries at a university and given the entirety of time and space to play with. Bill took much of the danger that came with being the Doctor’s friend in her stride, but after only a single season by the Time Lord’s side, she was put through the painful process of being turned into a Cyberman. Steven Moffat attempt to soften the harsh reality of Bill’s fate, having her enter a metaphysical relationship with a sentient puddle. Most would rather just stick to serving fries.
More: How Doctor Who’s 50th Anniversary Would’ve Been Different With Christopher Eccleston
Doctor Who season 12 premieres in 2020 on BBC and BBC America.
