Ten Doctor Who companions you might not have heard of: 10-5

Doctor Who has had many companions over it’s past nearly 50 years. Here are some of the companions you may have not heard of or have forgotten.

 

10. Turlough

Vislor Turlough¹ was a bit of an enigma for Doctor Who companions. First appearing in Mawdryn Undead, Turlough was a student of Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart’s but there was a twist: he was trying to kill the Doctor.

Turlough wasn’t the human he appeared to be. In fact he was a native of the planet Trion and a political exile following a civil war on his home world. Turlough had made an agreement with the Black Guardian following the refusal of the Doctor to hand over the Key to Time. In return for killing the Doctor, Turlough would be taken home.

Turlough was different character in the sense that he already understood the concepts of time travel and dematerialization. Although viewed with suspicion by Tegan and Nyssa, the Doctor brought Turlough along as a companion at the end of Mawdryn Undead.

Not being known for his courage, Turlough often conspired  to end the Doctor’s life and was cowardly in his intentions. After time though, Turlough grew to be a more than capable companion for the Doctor, earning trust even in Tegan.

Turlough’s final appearance was in Planet of Fire where  he found out that exiles were welcome back on Trion and he returned.

 

9. Sharon Davies

 

Hailing from the small mining town of Blackcastle, Sharon Davis²  first encountered the Fourth Doctor after a spaceship carrying Beep the Meep crash-landed in her town. A teenager initially, she adopted the cute and cuddly Beep only to find out later that he was a wanted intergalactic criminal. Using the influence of black light radiation, Beep tried to have Sharon kill the Doctor. Following the successful capture of Beep, The Doctor invited Sharon to travel with him.

Sharon’s travels with the Doctor included an encounter with the Werelox and their masters the Daleks and suddenly aging four years due to the TARDIS chrono-compensator. After encountering the psychic Slinth, Sharon chose to remain with Vernor Allen, a professional dreamer she had met and began a relationship with on Uniceptor IV.

8. Bernice Summerfield

 

Appearing in the Big Finish Audio Plays³, Bernice Summerfield ⁴ is an archaeologist from the 26th and 27th century and a companion of the Eighth Doctor.

While celebrating her 30th birthday on the planet Heaven, Bernice met the Doctor and Ace.  during a Hoothi attack. Following  Ace’s decision to leave the Doctor’s, Bernice agreed to join following a promise by the Doctor  ”not to play games”  with her life.

The Doctor had previously encountered Bernice  in his previous incarnation with his companion Evelyn Smythe on a dig being conducted by the  Irving Braxiatel.

Travelling with the Doctor for  least five years, he stated that she was his longest-serving companion. Following her adventures with the Doctor she continued to have adventures on her own (as many companions do).

 

7. Evelyn Smythe

 

Feisty, educated and able to stand up to the Sixth Doctor, Evelyn Smythe⁵ stood out from other companions not merely because of her tenacity but her age.

A history professor when she first encounters the Doctor, Evelyn travels back to Elizabethan times to help the Doctor investigate an anomaly in which her family had disappeared from history. Evelyn and the Doctor find out that travelling back in time, the anomaly was created by Evelyn’s own attempt to assassinate Mary I. Evelyn chose to travel with the doctor as the notion of a time machine was irresistible to a historian like herself.

Fifty-five when she began her travels with the Doctor, Evelyn more mature than most of the Doctor’s other companions and  was more than a match for the more abrasive Sixth Doctor, repeatedly questioning his decisions and even counselling him on them. The Sixth Doctor recognized Evelyn’s wisdom and ability and respected her advice.

Evelyn chose to temporarily leave the Doctor, falling in love with Governor Rossiter of the planet Világ. She suffered from a heart condition, which she kept secret from the Doctor and thought she had it repaired but instead was injected with blood extracted from Killoran prisoners. This disguised her heart condition, but also caused Evelyn to suffer from headaches, increased aggressiveness and irritability.

During a  future visit from the Doctor and Mel to Világ, Evelyn was taken as a political prisoner and her illness worsened. With the Doctor’s aid, Evelyn’s heart condition was repaired.

Ten years after first leaving with the Doctor, Evelyn was brought back to Earth, but forced to lay low as to not interfere with her past self.⁶

 

6. Dodo Chaplet

A companion of the first Doctor,

was known for her resemblance to the Doctor’s granddaughter Susan and for her incredibly short tenure. Travelling with the Doctor for a mere 4 and a half stories, Dodo was quickly replaced by Ben and Polly when the producers’ determined that her character was not working out.

Dodo’s entry to the Whoniverse was by using the Tardis as an actual police box.During her travels, Dodo travels to the far future,  bringing the common cold with her and infecting the descendants of humanity, encountering the Celestial Toymaker; witnessing the gunfight at the O.K. Corral; and saying  good-bye to Steven in The Savages; and finally being hypnotized by artificial intelligence WOTAN in The War Machines.

Halfway through the War Machines, Dodo abruptly leaves for a rest in the country after being hypnotised, and doesn’t return, leaving her TARDIS key with Polly.⁷

 

 

 

 

5. Kamelion

Kamelion was, in many ways, a victim of the classic series. A shapeshifting android possibly envisioned as a 2 legged K-9, Kamelion lacked mobility or the realistic believability of say, a Kryton from Red Dwarf. That isn’t to say that the idea of Kamelion isn’t pretty cool.

A shapeshifting android used by the Master to impersonate King John, Kamelion travelled with the Fifth Doctor until his subsequent lapse under control of the Master and destruction in Planet of Fire.

Rarely leaving the TARDIS due to a fear of being possessed by a stronger personality, or perhaps an inability to move. Kamelion travelled with Turlough, the Doctor and Peri and was handy at one point where he prevented the Doctor from suffocating on the moon by providing a forcefield.

Kamelion  fell under the Master’s influence once again and assumed the shape of Peri’s stepfather, Howard Foster, and then the Master himself. Finally, Kamelion begged the Doctor to end his life which the Doctor reluctantly honoured that request. ⁸