Day of the Moon – shot down by US agents and taken away in a body bag. But it turned out to be a ruse and he was all right really.
The Doctor’s Wife – aged to death in the corridors of the TARDIS, a trick played by the evil entity House several times.
The Angels Take Manhattan – leapt to certain death from an apartment block rooftop, erasing the time line and arriving back in 2012.
The Angels Take Manhattan – blasted back in time by a Weeping Angel, eventually dying for real at the age of 82 in the 1980s. The discovery of his gravestone caused him to be caught by the Angel in the first place. Wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey.
THE ELEVENTH DOCTOR’S RULES FOR COMPANIONS
Rule 1: ‘The Doctor lies.’
Rule 7: ‘Never run when you are scared.’
Rule 27. ‘Never knowingly be serious.’
Rule 408. ‘Time is not the boss of you.’
OCCASIONAL COMPANIONS
Every now and then the Doctor meets that special someone on his wanderings. They may not leave with him, but they make as much impact as his regular companions.
Sara was a Space Special Security agent sent by Mavic Chen, the treacherous Guardian of the Solar System, to assassinate the Doctor and his friends. After killing her own brother, agent Bret Vyon, Sara realised the error of her ways and helped the Doctor defeat Chen and his allies the Daleks. She was killed by the Daleks’ Time Destructor.
Astrid was a waitress aboard the doomed Titanic star cruiser. When asteroids scuppered the ship, she helped the Doctor get survivors to safety and sacrificed herself to stop the villainous Max Capricorn.
When 19th-century mathematics tutor Jackson took his family to Victorian London, a chance encounter with the Cybermen changed his life for ever. When his wife was killed, Jackson attempted to rescue his son by discharging an infostamp containing data about the Doctor. Instead, the information, stolen from the Daleks, flooded his mind. Unable to accept the loss of his family, Jackson retreated into a fugue state, believing that he was a newly regenerated incarnation of the Time Lord. Adopting his very own companion, Rosita, Jackson encountered the real Doctor and eventually faced the truth about himself, and was reunited with his son.
A professional thief who stole for the thrill of the chase, Christina stole the Cup of Athelstan from the International Gallery in London. Running from the police, she jumped onto the number 200 bus but found herself transported to a distant planet as the vehicle plunged through a wormhole. Luckily for Christina – and the other passengers – the Doctor was also on board.
A survivor of the 2009 Dalek invasion of Earth, Adelaide Brooke dreamt of exploring space. Following stints at Cambridge and Rice Universities, she joined NASA and became the first woman to land on Mars. 17 years later, in 2058, she established the first human colony, Bowie Base One, on the red planet. According to established history the colony was lost the following year. When the Tenth Doctor landed on the very day Bowie Base One was due to be destroyed – a fixed point in time – the Doctor decided to play god and returned Adelaide to Earth. Appalled by the Doctor’s flawed arrogance, Adelaide took her own life, thus protecting future history. Stunned, the Doctor realised that he’d finally gone too far.
The Doctor first met Donna Noble’s grandfather during a transmat outing from the Titanic. The newspaper seller, who had served in the army as a young man but was proud never to have taken a life, missed Donna’s first wedding due to a bout of Spanish flu. He met the Time Lord again after his granddaughter visited home during her travels in the TARDIS. In December 2010, Wilf started having nightmares about the Master and, believing the Doctor could help, formed the ‘Silver Cloak’, a crack team of OAPs, to find the Time Lord. Together, the two old soldiers stopped the return of Gallifrey, although Wilf become trapped in a radiation booth. The Doctor saved him, absorbing a fatal dose of radiation that triggered his tenth regeneration.
Born 23 November 1866, Clara Oswald encountered the Eleventh Doctor while living a curious double life: she worked as a barmaid at the Rose and Crown, but she was also ‘Miss Montague’, a governess for the Latimer children. Intrigued by the Doctor, whose TARDIS was parked on a solidified cloud high above the streets of London, she all but forced her way into his hermit-like existence. On the brink of accepting a TARDIS key and joining the Doctor, Clara was grabbed by an animated ice sculpture of the Latimer’s previous governess and fell to her death. But before she breathed her last, Clara told the Doctor to ‘Run, you clever boy… and remember’, the very same words said to him by the doomed Oswin Oswald on the Dalek Asylum. Fascinated, the Doctor headed back into time and space to unravel the mystery of Clara Oswin Oswald…
FAMILY TIES
‘I was going to do shepherd’s pie. All of us, a proper sit down…’
Jackie Tyler, World War Three
They say you can pick your friends but you can’t pick your family – and some of the Doctor’s companions would travel to the other end of time to avoid a family reunion. From Jackie Tyler to Lavinia Smith, we have seen some formidable on-screen relatives since 1963 – starting with the Doctor himself. Here’s a list of them – formidable or not.
Some of the companions’ family members have popped up on screen, and there have also been many mentions of relatives that have never appeared.
Vicki – Her mother died in 2493 on Earth, while her father was murdered by Bennett on the planet Dido. (The Rescue)
Dodo – She had a great aunt who she claimed wouldn’t miss her. (The Massacre)
Victoria – Her father claimed she looked just like her late mother at the same age. (The Evil of the Daleks)
The Brigadier – he finally married Doris, but it’s implied the Brig was previously married, to the mother of his daughter, Kate. (The Power of Three)
Jo Grant – Jo’s uncle pulled some strings to get her the job at UNIT. (Terror of the Autons)