Skip to main content

Who has been the Doctor's companion for the longest time?


I was having a debate with my brother the other day, about this question. He claims Clara is the longest time companion because she helped every incarnation of the Doctor. (little spoiler from Series 8):



Even since his childhood, as we witnessed in "LISTEN"



That can't be right because those were Clara's echoes for the most part. My counter answer: Handles, the Cyberman head we met in The Time of The Doctor.


The Doctor got stranded in Trenzalore for 300 years, waiting for the TARDIS to come back after returning Clara home. During that time, he probably saw three or four generations of Trenzalorians (is that word right?) live their full lives, but Handles remained by his side after finally breaking down when the TARDIS and Clara returned 300 years later.


I'm not very familiar with Classic Who. It's been impossible for us to get access to those episodes here in my country. Is there a companion for the Doctor who travelled with him for more than 300 years? My first guess was Susan, but I can't find information on how long they travelled after leaving Gallifrey.



TL;DR: Well, the title. Does Handles have the record for being with the Doctor for the most time?



Answer



Record-holders for longest tenures can be measured in different ways.



  1. All time winner: The TARDIS, as a sentient being, she wins having been with the Doctor since the character's creation with the exception of a period of exile on Earth.

  2. Consecutive episodes: Jamie McCrimmon - 113 episodes, the better part of three seasons.

  3. In terms of stories: Amy Pond from the start of Season 5 to midway through Season 7.

  4. In terms of calendar time: Tegan (3 days shy of three years), followed closely by Sarah Jane (six weeks shy of three years). Both are the only travelling companions to appear during four consecutive seasons as a show regular.

  5. Long term regular cast member: The Brigadier showed up for five years during Jon Pertwee's Doctor Who. Regular or not, the character appeared in more episodes of the programme than all of the 1980s Doctors except Tom Baker.

  6. In terms of continuous story time: Handles, having spent 300 years with him on Trenzalore, before finally succumbing to breakdown.


  7. Longest time span of time between first and last adventures from the Companion's POV: Currently goes to Rory Williams aka Rory Pond or The Lone Centurion who waited a long 1894 years for the Pandorica to open and release his beloved Amy Pond before continuing on his adventures with the Doctor and rebooting the Universe - Second Series Doctor Who.


From the TARDIS Wiki entry on Companions





  • If the Doctor's TARDIS is considered as a companion, she tops all categories, having been a constant in the series since 23rd November 1963 and being ubiquitous across all media with the notable exception of the early Third Doctor era when the TARDIS was not featured regularly due to the Doctor's exile to Earth, as well as the Fourth Doctor stories The Sontaran Experiment and Genesis of the Daleks and the Tenth Doctor story Midnight.




  • In terms of consecutive individual episodes, Jamie McCrimmon is the easy winner with one hundred and thirteen episodes between TV: The Highlanders and The War Games, outdistancing most Doctors, much less all other companions. He served for the better part of three seasons, during which Doctor Who had its highest episode count. Due to changed television consumption habits, that record will almost certainly never be approached, much less broken.





  • In terms of stories, given that BBC Wales has a much higher story count than the original series, the high water mark has so far been set by Amy Pond, having been the primary companion for 31 full-length televised stories from the start of series 5 to her departure midway through series 7. In addition, she has cameo appearances in TV: Closing Time (where her name does still appear in the main credits) and TV: The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe.




  • In terms of calendar time that the public would have perceived a character as being a regular on Doctor Who, the winner is Tegan. She clocks in at three days shy of three years, from her first to last regular appearances. She only very narrowly defeats Sarah Jane, who is some six weeks shy of three years as a regular character. Note that calendar years are not the same thing as seasons, because Doctor Who did not begin its seasons on the same date each year (it should be noted, however, that Tegan and Sarah Jane are as of 2012 the only travelling companions to appear during four consecutive seasons as a regular).




  • Special mention should be given here, too, to the character of the Brigadier. It's entirely possible that some members of the viewing community regarded him as at least a kind of regular throughout all five seasons of Jon Pertwee's Doctor Who. Although this isn't true from a contractual standpoint, he's still an incredibly long-serving member of the cast. Regular or not, the character appeared in more episodes of the programme than all of the 1980s Doctors except Tom Baker.





  • In terms of how long a companion has remained with the Doctor continuously within the story, Handles likely holds the current record, having spent 300 years with him on Trenzalore, before finally succumbing to breakdown.





Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Did the gatekeeper and the keymaster get intimate in Ghostbusters?

According to TVTropes ( usual warning, don't follow the link or you'll waste half your life in a twisty maze of content ): In Ghostbusters, it's strongly implied that Dana Barret, while possessed by Zuul the Gatekeeper, had sex with Louis Tully, who was possessed by Vinz Clortho the Keymaster (key, gate, get it?), in order to free Big Bad Gozer. In fact, a deleted scene from the movie has Venkman explicitly asking Dana if she and Louis "did it". I turned the quote into a spoiler since it contains really poor-taste joke, but the gist of it is that it's implied that as part of freeing Gozer , the two characters possessed by the Keymaster and the Gatekeeper had sex. Is there any canon confirmation or denial of this theory (canon meaning something from creators' interviews, DVD commentary, script, delete scenes etc...)? Answer The Richard Mueller novelisation and both versions of the script strongly suggest that they didn't have sex (or at the very l...

Why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize Missy right away?

So after it was established that Missy is actually both the Master, and the "woman in the shop" who gave Clara the TARDIS number... ...why didn't The Doctor or Clara recognize her right away? I remember the Tenth Doctor in The Sound of Drums stating that Timelords had a way of recognizing other Timelords no matter if they had regenerated. And Clara should have recognized her as well... I'm hoping for a better explanation than "Moffat screwed up", and that I actually missed something after two watchthroughs of the episode. Answer There seems to be a lot of in-canon uncertainty as to the extent to which Time Lords can recognise one another which far pre-dates Moffat's tenure. From the Time Lords page on Wikipedia : Whether or not Time Lords can recognise each other across regenerations is not made entirely clear: In The War Games, the War Chief recognises the Second Doctor despite his regeneration and it is implied that the Doctor knows him when they fir...

story identification - Animation: floating island, flying pests

At least 20 years ago I watched a short animated film which stuck in my mind. The whole thing was wordless, possibly European, and I'm pretty sure I didn't imagine it... It featured a flying island which was inhabited by some creatures who (in my memory) reminded me of the Moomins. The island was frequently bothered by large winged animals who swooped around, although I don't think they did any actual damage. At the end one of the moomin creatures suddenly gets a weird feeling, feels forced to climb to the top of the island and then plunges down a shaft right through the centre - only to emerge at the bottom as one of the flyers. Answer Skywhales from 1983. The story begins with a man warning the tribe of approaching skywhales. The drummers then warn everybody of the hunt as everyone get prepared to set "sail". Except one man is found in his home sleeping as the noise wake him up. He then gets ready and is about to take his weapon as he hesitates then decides ...

warhammer40k - What evidence supposedly supports Tau as related to the Necrontyr?

I've heard of rumours saying that the Tau from Warhammer 40K are in fact the Necrontyr. Is there anything that supports this statement, in WH40K canon? I just found this, on 1d4 chan 1 : Helping Necrons? Or are they Necrontyr descendants? An often overlooked issue is that Tau have no warp signatures, just like Necrons, hate Warpspawns and Warp in general, just like Necrons, have the exact same skull shape,stature and short lives, and the overwhelming need for Technology and beam weapons, JUST LIKE NECRONS. GW may have planned a race that simply prepares a pacified, multiracial galaxy for Necrons to feast upon, supported by Ethereals that have a C'tan phase blade. Then there is a reference of "dark seed in east" by the Deceiver, so the tricky C'tan might give Tzeentch the finger in the JUST AS PLANNED competition. Or maybe GW just has so little creativity that they simply made a new civ conforming to an Old One's standards without knowing it. Is this the connec...