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Attention all Doctor Who fans!

Give me your opinions and bits of nostalgia concerning Dr. Who and his bevy of villains, characters and Companions...who was good, who was bad? Who was bumped off that should have stayed dead, and so forth...

While he seems to have been a nice guy, and he did a lot of charitable work duirng and after his run, on the whole the Colin Baker years were a mistake.

Everytime I see "Earthshock" at a con (which is more often than you might think), the death of Adric never fails to elicit a roar of approval from the assembled throng.

Is Adric's passing the only death in the series? What about in the early years, say in the Hartnell run? Wasn't there a character who died then, I think her name was Sara Kingdom or something.

There were two characters - Sara and (I believe) Katrina - who were knocked off during a particularly lengthy Dalek series. Both are often considered Companions even though neither was really around for very long.

Yes - the 12-part Dalek Master Plan

My fav companions were Sarah Jane and Romana (the first one - I found the blonde one annoying)

It's hard for me to remember specific storylines, but to be unoriginal, stuff with the Daleks and the Master was always great fun.

When I was a very wee bairn I used to watch Doctor Who on an old black and white TV set from behind the sofa. One of my earliest memories is of me and my best friend watching a Dalek episode and “shooting” the TV with our toy guns. Other very early memories are of an episode featuring large Ant like creatures called the Zarbi (?) But the all time scary one from those days were the Yeti. After watching those episodes, for years afterwards I was scared that if I went to London I was going to have to travel on the London Underground.

"Everytime I see "Earthshock" at a con (which is more often than you might think), the death of Adric never fails to elicit a roar of approval from the assembled throng."


If ever there was a "mistake"... Adric had ONE story in which he WASN'T annoying... "The Keeper Of Traken". He actually looked like after his 3 previous stories he was finally settling in and showing some growth as a character. he got to show off the intellectual side of his character, and he got along quite well with both The Doctor and Nyssa-- one could have imagined a budding young romance there. But he was pretty much brushed aside in the next story, and after that, he just got MORE annoying than he was when he debuted. NO WONDER no one (apart from Nyssa & Tegan) seemed upset when he got bumped. (And if you think about he, he had EVERY CHANCE to get out of that situation... STUPID GIT!)

Poor old Adric I don't think he was any worse then a lot of assistants he's just the cool one to hate. the ones I rember watching every afternoon were the Sylvester McCoy ones and I thought Ace was pretty cool mostly because she used to blow stuff up I rember thinking Melanie was a bit of a twat. Of course Rose is a bloody good assistant as well however one thing that troubles me about Rose is that she has a family and a life outside the doctor. It was definently an interesting idea to explore but maybe after she returned from being missing a year it would have made more sence if she gave up this companion bit. It would have been bad if she didnt mention her mum and stuff but having her and even Adam with families and mobile phones to call families etc added a distraction where as prehaphs if the girl from the war had of been introduced as an assistant if the brother had been killed off it would have worked better.

Is it tragic-- or just plain STUPID-- that they finally revived DOCTOR WHO, but couldn't be bothered GETTING THE EPISODES OVER HERE TO AMERICA?????

(Yeah, I know, very soon... but still...!)

He was the archetypical role model for every kid who had zit problems :rolleyes:

my favourite period of DR WHO was the Tom Baker years and especially from the period that LEELA and K-9 came on the show !!

i hadn't seen any of the Sarah Jane Smith episodes, and i really liked the first Romana also, in the 'Key To Time' and 'Stones of Blood' episodes, and i too, didn't like the second Romana, that much !!

looking forward to seeing K-9 return in the new series !!

i had the DR WHO toys at this time also ! [ the DR, the TARDIS, K-9 and a CYBERMAN ]

Matthew.

The Baker years are my favorite too, partially because he was the first Doctor I encountered. I liked Sylvester McCoy too, though only about half of his eps were any good.

I read recently that Baker seems to have thought companions were unnecessary to the show, and he lobbied to get them removed. That's ego for you.

My top 5 favorite girls (in chronological order) are Zoe, Liz, Sarah, Romana 2 & Mel. (Sarah's my #1)

I also like Jo, Leela, Romana 1 & Ace in certain stories.

But my FAVORITE supporting character on the show is The Brigadier! (Especially when he's written well-- like in "SPEARHEAD FROM SPACE" and "BATTLEFIELD".)


And, while not from the show, I adore Susan from the movies (much better than the original on TV)-- and Louise (the 2nd movie) was pretty cool too!

I'm thinking those Peter Cushing DR WHO movies must be set before the events of "An Unearthly Child" coz Susan looks much younger than when she was first seen...and Louise - did she count as a Companion?

The 2 Peter Cushing-Roberta Tovey films take place in an ALTERNATE universe-- something comic-book fans are very familiar with!

I used to think it would be a great idea if the TV "Doctor" (any one of them, take your pick) got sucked into a parallel universe (hey, it has happened at least twice!) and met "Dr. Who" -- Peter Cushing. They could have done a story featuring the alternate universe version of The Master -- Christopher Lee!!


If memory serves, Susan & Barbara in the 1st movie were both his grand-daughters-- while Louise in the 2nd film was his niece. Ian (1st film) and Tom Campbell (Bernard Cribbins in the 2nd film) just travelled along with them. But I guess that makes them "companions", even if it was only for one story apiece.


The REAL Ian Chesterton, by the way (William Russell, alias Russell Enoch), who was the REAL "hero" of the first 2 seasons (the Guy Williams to William Hartnell's Jonathan Harris-- heh heh heh) recently turned up as a butler in a POIROT 2-hour mystery.

First Doctor (William Hartnell): Focused mostly on "historical" stories. "The Aztecs" and "The Dalek's Master Plan" were particularly good. Companions Sara Kingdom and Katerina both died.

Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton): My personal favorite and favorite male companion (Jamie), though frankly a lot of the stories were weak. "Tomb of the Cybermen" is a standout, as are "The Ice Warriors" and "The War Games." The Second Doctor stories also introduced UNIT and the Brigadier.

Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee): The super-spy-on-Earth period, working closely with UNIT. "The Sea Devils" and "The Three Doctors" were memorable episodes, and "Terror of the Autons" introduced the Doctor's nemesis: The Master.

Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker): Longest-running single actor playing the Doctor, and the one most Americans saw first. Several excellent stories including "Genesis of the Daleks" and the six-part "Key to Time" story. Introduced a number of distinctive companions, including Leela, Adric, Nyssa, fellow Time Lord Romana, and K-9. (Also visited Gallifrey for the first time, in "The Deadly Assassin.")

Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison): My second-favorite Doctor, with more science-fictiony storylines. Standouts include "Castrovalva," "Terminus," "Earthshock," and "The Caves of Androzani." A traitorous companion (Turlough) appears, and the mega-crossover "The Five Doctors" occurs.

Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker): Unstable and smug, probably my least favorite Doctor. Less memorable stories, apart from "Mark of the Rani" (introducing another renegade Time Lord) and "Trial of a Time Lord," which ended Baker's run.

Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy): Probably would've been good if not for unreasonable timing demands; all stories were rushed and compressed. New companion, Ace, did nothing for me. "Remembrance of the Daleks" wasn't bad as a nostalgia episode.

Eighth Doctor (Paul McGann): Lasted for only a single TV movie, best forgotten--though it wasn't McGann's fault.

Ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston): Starting over, with some fantastic new hour-long stories. Almost all have been memorable, particularly "End of the World," "Dalek," and "Father's Day."

Tenth Doctor (David Tennant): In the works....

Well, considering that he was bonking one of his companions (Romana 2) for real...

Re: Baker and the bonking: Who was the woman he was with, when both were caught in a time warp which prevented him from participating in the events of the "Five Doctors"? Was this Leela or Romana 2?

Romana 2. I believe they used a bit of footage from an unfinished ep called "Shada" in their case.

I'll take "Continuity Gaffes" for $400, Alex.

Are you going for Double Jeopardy, OM?

I forgot turlogh he was an annoying ginger shit.

Aside from Jamie, which other Dr. Who companion has shown up more than once in the entire series?

I assume you mean more than one continuous string of "being-a-companion" stories, right?

Well, the Brigadier has been around since the early adventures of the second Doctor. He's met just about all of the Doctors at various times.

In The Five Doctors, several companions were seen for an additional time: Susan, Sarah Jane, and the Brigadier most prominently, but also illusionary appearances by Jamie and Zoe, Capt. Yates and Liz Shaw (and a clip from "Shada" with the second Romana).

There are a number of "two Doctors" companions.

Ben and Polly (1st and second)
Sarah Jane (3rd and 4th)
Adric, Nyssa, Tegan (4th and 5th)
Peri (5th and 6th)
Mel (6th and 7th)
and now Rose (9th and 10th)

I'm pretty fond of all the Doctors and their periods. They all had something interesting to offer. Its just a pity that the 6th and 7th Doctors were relatively undermined by the BBC and production issues...