It should be pointed out that I am solely focusing on the ‘new’ series, from 2005 to 2010. In reverse order (Fifth to First) Companions and Doctors are *not* part of this list, these are only sidekicks and one-time characters. Anyone who knows me will know will already know who my number one is ;) Toby Zed (portrayed by Will Thorp) Toby Zed was a character in the two-parter “The Impossible Planet” and “Satan Pit” ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Impossible_Planet ). He started out as a regular ole archaeologist making him a prime candidate for a crush, a cute, British nerd. Of course, nothing in the Who-niverse is that simple and he eventually becomes a ‘bad guy’ when he is possessed by Satan himself. Of course adding “bad guy” to his credentials only intensifies his hotness. He is now an evil, cute, British nerd. :) And of course, he had to die. Adam Mitchell (portrayed by Bruno Langley) Adam Mitchell is the only “companion” to make my top five because I never consider him to be one. While he was in two episodes [“Dalek“ and “The Long Game“ ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalek_(Doctor_Who_episode) )], rode in the Tardis and time traveled, I don’t feel like he had the gravity of character that Doctor’s companions require. He also didn’t appear in the three major episodes “Stolen Earth“/“Journey’s End” or “End of Time”, each starring *all* of The Doctor’s companions from Rose to Donna. Adam does however make my list for being super adorable and funny. He is eventually told to leave for trying to profit financially from time travel, making him the only ‘companion’ to be kicked off the Tardis; even Rose wasn’t booted when she saved her father’s life in the past and caused a paradox, but she is cute and blonde, so I’m sure that helped ;) (I do realize, in his non-appearance in Stolen Earth-End of Time, that they were all Tennant’s companions, and Adam only appeared with Eccleston) Quintus Caecilius Iucundus (portrayed by François Pandolfo) Quintus appears in one of my favorite episodes, “The Fires of Pompeii” ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fires_of_Pompeii ) and I only just found out, was based on a real person. His father Caecilius (kie-KILL-ee-us), in real first century Pompeii, was a well-established banker, for the purpose of the episode however, Caecilius was made a marble merchant. Another change to the family was Quintus’ brother Sextus was left out and a sister Evelina was created (it is said that it’s not definite how many children Caecilius really had, so a sister could have existed). But back to Quintus! Not only did they cast a rather handsome bloke, but he plays the rebellious teen, giving him an air of bad-ass. Then to top it all off, had him wear a mini-skirt throughout the episode! :) Elton Pope (portrayed by Marc Warren) Elton has been mentioned by me before, so it should be no surprise that he made my list. Elton, like the aforementioned Sally Sparrow, is one of very few characters to be in charge of carrying an entire episode [“Love & Monsters” ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_%26_Monsters ) ] while The Doctor is elsewhere. Unlike Sally, however, Elton is a completely clownish character who stumbled his way into the life of an alien and narrowly escapes (with The Doctor’s help) from his grips. The episode is told, in part, as a webcam recording from Elton’s bedroom. He dances around his room to ELO’s Mr Blue Sky and does karate moves. This makes him the loveable goof. He eventually ends up with his friend Ursula Blake, (played by Shirley Henderson, Harry Potter’s Moaning Myrtle) in a rather peculiar, and comedic, way, rounding out the silly episode. You also get to see him shirtless for a while when he flirts with Jackie Tyler :-P Midshipman Alonso Frame (portrayed by Russell Tovey) Midshipman Frame —- Obviously. I mean, look at him!! I have already featured him as an honorable mention in my “Greatest Sidekicks” post, so there isn’t a whole lot of new info to post on this adorable man. Gay in real life, age 28, British, often appears waking up naked on his new show Being Human where he plays a werewolf. What more could I ask for? He also ends the season four specials as Capt. Jack’s date. So maybe he will appear on the new season of Torchwood!! ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyage_of_the_Damned_(Doctor_Who) ) HONORABLE MENTIONS!! Private Ross Jenkins (portrayed by Christian Cooke) Ross appears in the two-parter “Sontaran Strategem”/”Poison Sky” where he teams up with The Doctor to investigate Rattigan Academy and to eventually fight the Sontarans. Ross might be the “prettiest” boy featured in my list, but his chemistry with Tennant makes him all the more adorable. “Don’t be mean to Ross, we like Ross”. Yes we do. Sadly, Ross gets shot and dies :( Tenth Doctor - Version 2.0 (portrayed by Colum Regan) Colum is only an honorable mention for the mere fact that he doesn’t *really* appear on Doctor Who. He plays Tennant’s body double during “Journey’s End” when his chopped-off hand regenerates into a new him (yes, that happened, don’t question it). In most scenes, Tennant was able to play both versions of himself, but in wide shots where one was facing away, Regan stepped in. I believe the only shot of Regan’s front is the end of the episode where the two Doctors step out of the Tardis at Bad Wolf Bay. Regan is the second Doctor to step out, and for a split-second, you can see his face. It’s at such a distance, and the resemblance is quite good, you could never tell. Canton Everett Delaware III (portrayed by Mark Sheppard) Canton is the second gay character to make my list! I love British TV. Though I believe he is straight in real life? But anyway … Canton receives an honorable mention because these lists are meant to be from seasons one through five and he appears in the season six premiere two-parter “Impossible Astronaut“/“Day of the Moon“ (he would have been ahead of Toby otherwise). He breaks the rules for my list, but I couldn’t not mention him. A bit older than the median age of this list, but damn hot. The suit? The gun? The CIA training? Yes please
It should be pointed out that I am solely focusing on the ‘new’ series, from 2005 to present. In reverse order (Seventh to First) It should be noted as well these critiques are, for the most part, about the sidekick him/herself, *not* the episode in which he/she appears Reinette Poisson Reinette Poisson was the main sidekick in one of my favorite episodes, The Girl in the Fireplace. Better known by the name Madame de Pompadour, Reinette is a character we meet as a little girl and, through the magic of time travel, come to know as an adult (in a similar fashion as Amelia Pond in season five). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girl_in_the_Fireplace Reinette’s character as a child is haunted and stalked by the clockwork robots previously mentioned in the “Best Villains” article. The Doctor accidentally stumbles upon her when he finds the spaceship he has landed on is linked to her bedroom in 18th century Paris. The episode itself is a great one because of its use of time travel, but I felt Reinette’s performance to be a very heartfelt one, lifting the episode from “Great Who“ to just great television. She falls in love with The Doctor, as many women do. She thinks of him as a sort of imaginary friend who arrives in her times of need. One reason I loved this character was because in one episode, we got to see her from a young child through to her death at age 43, and I ended up caring about her by the end of the hour. Astrid Peth Astrid Peth, what can I say about this girl? The only grand celebrity on my list, Kylie Minogue did a great job capturing a lonely young woman looking for some adventure, only to find death, as often happens when you meet The Doctor. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyage_of_the_Damned_(Doctor_Who) Voyage Of The Damned was one of Dr Who’s Christmas Specials, episodes I look forward to, and this one did not disappoint. The Titanic (or rather, a space-flying replica) crashes into the side of the Tardis and The Doctor gets on board to look around. There he meets Astrid, a bright-eyed blonde working as a cocktail waitress on the cruise ship. She and The Doctor quickly become friends as they chat about being alone and seeing the stars. The ship is then sabotaged for financial profit and begins to crash, amidst trying to save the ship from crashing into the Earth below (and exploding with a nuclear engine) Astrid comes face to face with the villain and realizes the only way to destroy him is to sacrifice herself. As a last effort of kindness, The Doctor is able to harness her energy through the teleport bracelet she wore, and sends her atoms into space, to see the stars forever. Harriet Jones We meet Harriet Jones when she’s an MP … then she becomes Prime Minister … then former Prime Minister. A catchphrase surrounding her is “I’m Harriet Jones, Prime Minister” “Yes, I know who you are” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aliens_of_London Harriet deserves a spot on this list for sheer duration of character. Starting in the Aliens of London two-part episode with Eccleston, she carried her character, via Christmas special with Tennant, through to “The Stolen Earth”, where she was killed by the Daleks… “Harriet Jones, former Prime Minister” - “We. Know. Who. You. Are”. It is speculated that since she didn’t die on camera, perhaps she managed to escape. But producers have said the reason they kept her death off camera was because she was such a major character, they felt it offered her more dignity. Harriet wasn’t always the ‘good guy’, in The Christmas Invasion, she ended up blowing up the alien space ship even when The Doctor scared them off, this invoked The Doctor’s wrath and he used his way-with-words to bring about panic over her reign as Prime Minister. Nurse Redfern Joan Redfern has a distinction of being the only character, so far, to be seen wedding The Doctor, sort of … http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Nature_(Doctor_Who_episode) When The Doctor is stalked by a family of villainous aliens, he hides his Time Lord self within a pocket watch and becomes human. He then hides in a private school as John Smith, a teacher, and falls in love with the school’s nurse, Ms Joan Redfern. She falls for him as well, noting that he is different than any man she’s ever met, though she can’t pinpoint why. Martha is working as a maid in the school but has full recollection of who she and The Doctor really are. She and Nurse Redfern get into many arguments over her over-familiarity with The Doctor. By the end of the two-part episode, he transitions back to The Doctor and visits Nurse Redfern one last time, he puts his hands on her temples and shows her the life she and John Smith would have had, which included marriage and children. She is a very likeable character and under different circumstances, I would have loved to see her and The Doctor together. I felt she and Tennant had great chemistry as well Jenny Jenny is definitely the youngest sidekick The Doctor has had, seeing as she is one day old in the episode. Born a young-adult from clone-generating machine, Jenny is called “The Doctor’s Daughter” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Doctor%27s_Daughter Jenny is an interesting character. She is a progeneration of The Doctor, born in a time of war as a soldier. She is smart, she is a good fighter, she is cute and she often puts The Doctor in his place when they get into arguments of war. In the end of the episode, she helps save the day but is then shot by her own general, she dies but is revived by “the breath of life”, a mixture of gases used to make planets inhabitable. She escapes in a rocket and tells her friends she has a lot of running to do. The question of Jenny’s return to the series has yet to be confirmed. I think she will most likely come back someday. Sidenote, the actress (Georgia Moffett) who played Jenny is now engaged to David Tennant. That lucky bitch. Sally Sparrow Sally Sparrow is another character, along with Reinette Poisson, who is the main character of one of my favorite episodes, Blink. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blink_(Doctor_Who) Sally, however, has a distinction of being the MAIN character of her episode, as Blink is one of a very few “Doctor-light” episodes. The Doctor is stuck in the ‘60’s and leaves notes and clues for Sally to find the Tardis and send it back to him. Since The Doctor isn’t present, aside from a few video recordings, Sally is in charge of carrying the entire episode basically alone. It’s a huge task that I think she pulled off immensely well. She rates high on my list for two reasons: Her character was great in her own right, very charismatic, smart and fun —- and also that she was able to carry an episode without help from The Doctor or a companion. I still say she deserves a spin-off. Vincent Van Gogh Queen Victoria, Shakespeare, Dickens and Churchill have all had episodes on Doctor Who, but Vincent Van Gogh is the only famous sidekick to make my list (unless you count Madame de Pompadour to be ‘famous’). Troubled yet charismatic, he is a very captivating character who leads a very touching episode http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_and_the_Doctor Vincent is haunted by mental problems and a ‘hallucination’, which we come to find out is actually an invisible alien (that’s reasonable, right? lol) and we get to see some of his historic life, including being despised by many of his neighbors and townsfolk, who see him as a talentless nutjob. His flirting with Amy is cute and she takes it as a compliment, while always turning him down politely. After defeating the invisible alien creature, The Doctor and Amy bring Vincent to a museum in the present and show the exhibit of his work. The tour guide explains to The Doctor that Van Gogh is one of the best painters of all time, and his personal favorite, this leads Vincent (and some members of the viewing public) to cry. In the end, Amy mentions what their children would have looked like, “super-gingers”. Hilarious. HONORABLE MENTIONS!! Alonso Frame - Midshipman Frame, along with Astrid Peth, appeared in the episode “Voyage of the Damned”. Played by my personal crush, Russell Tovey, Alonso was endearing and very much a hero in the episode, sacrificing his health to help The Doctor any way he could. He survived the episode and was even brought back as a ‘present’ for Captain Jack in the episode “End of Time”. He also provides Tennant with a resolve to his running of joke of wanting to meet someone named Alonso so he could say, “Alons-y, Alonso”. (And did I mention he’s adorable?) Liz Ten - Queen Elizabeth X, known as Liz Ten, was featured as one of my favorite villains in Who history. She was on the list because she had a sort of amnesia about being the enemy, so she also became a sidekick while trying to solve the problem at hand. A complex moral issue covered up with brainwashing make Liz one of my favorite sidekicks Craig Owens - Craig was a great sidekick to The Doctor because for most of the episode, he had no idea The Doctor wasn’t just some bloke, though he knew he was a little odd. With a room for rent, Craig allows The Doctor to stay with him, to hang out with him and even to join him for some football (soccer). The Doctor ends up being better than Craig at most things, which leads him to grow very jealous, especially when he thinks The Doctor might be flirting with his crush, Sophie. It is said that Craig will be returning as a character in a future Who episode
It should be pointed out that I am solely focusing on the ‘new’ series, from 2005 to present.
In reverse order (Number Five to Number One)
It should be noted as well these critiques are, for the most part, about the villain itself, *not* the episode in which it appears
The Dream Lord
Perhaps a forgettable character in his own right, I have chosen The Dream Lord as one of my favorites because his method of psychological torture and the eventual resolution of the episode were so memorable for me that he warrants some praise.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy%27s_Choice_(Doctor_Who)
The Dream Lord is a man who claims to know The Doctor very well, perhaps better than anyone, and so he devises the perfect plan to bring him down. He shall put The Doctor and his companions, fiances Amy and Rory, in two perilous situations, one real and one a dream he has created. If they cannot figure out which is the real world, they will all die. The rule is, if you die in the dream, you wake up in the real world — if you die in the real world, well, you die. In the end, it is revealed who The Dream Lord really is, and to be honest, it’s a bit of a cop-out, but again, the method of ‘torture’ and guessing throughout the episode made up for it
Liz Ten
Queen Elizabeth X has the disctinction of being the only member of the Doctor Who Project to be mentioned as both a Greatest Villain -and- a Greatest Sidekick.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beast_Below
Liz Ten makes my list because of the intricacies of her character. Some villains have been ‘misunderstood’ or would kill to survive or save their race, but Liz is the first to genuinely not know she was the culprit. When The Doctor and Donna meet up with her, she knows something is up, and vows to help The Doctor find who is responsible and fix the problem. She does not realize however that she is responsible because she has voluntarily had her mind wiped to forget the events; making her both a villain and a companion.
Cassandra
A stark contrast to epic enemies such as The Weeping Angels, The Daleks or The Master … Lady Cassandra O’Brien.Δ17 is a rather humourous villain. She is the universe’s last “pure human”, after thousands of years of human emigration, colonization and inter-breeding across the stars.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_End_of_the_World_(Doctor_Who)
She is many many years old and has had so much plastic surgery, she is nothing but a stretched out “trampoline” of skin, two eyes and a mouth. She has had her body stretched and extremities removed to be as thin as possible, the dream of all true humans. She re-appears, however, in a second episode and inhabits the body of Rose, and then ultimately The Doctor
The Master
The Master is a Time Lord, the only remaining Time Lord besides The Doctor. He escaped the Time War by locking his essence inside a pocket watch and assuming ‘human’ form.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopia_(Doctor_Who)
When confronted with The Doctor and upon seeing the Tardis, his memories come flooding back and he is reborn. He steals the Tardis and wreaks havoc on the present-day Earth. The Master makes my list simply for being an evil bastard, essentially the anti-Doctor, the nega-Doctor, the arch-Doctor … He is bad-ass, psychotic, and kinda hot. Plus his episodes had some kick-ass soundtracks, including Scissor Sisters
Weeping Angels
The Weeping Angels are arguably one of the highest praised villains in the modern Doctor Who series. They are spooky, they aren’t vicious, and their style of ‘killing’ is unlike any monster we’ve seen before. The episode itself also ranks highly among viewers for being original and very spooky.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blink_(Doctor_Who)
The Angels appear to be simple stone statues, but when not viewed, they become animated and will attack. They are some of the fastest things in the universe and can cross a room in a literal blink-of-an-eye. Once they make contact, the victim is tossed into the past, to before his own birth. The Angels feed off the “potential energy” of the years their victims would have lived in the present. The Doctor describes them as “the only psychopaths in the universe to kill you nicely” because their victims are otherwise uninjured and may live out their lifespans in the past.
HONORABLE MENTIONS!!
Clockwork Robots - “The Girl In The Fireplace” is one of my favorite episodes of all, and the clockwork robots represent yet another “We aren’t evil, we are doing this for self-preservation” group of villains. Creepy and stylish, they add a great element to an already great episode
Fortune Teller - The fortune teller from the episode “Turn Left”, like the Dream Lord, is not really a villain who is super amazing, but rather their form of villainy and the episode following are so well done and gripping, that I need to praise the methods more than the villain.
The Empty Child - The ‘empty child’ in the episode of the same name was a creepy little bugger who could fuel nightmares and strike the heebie-jeebies into anyone with a soul. The reason he only made the honorable mentions list is, however, because he wasn’t enough of a presence. It’s hard to be a monotone zombie-like creature and make a big impact.
