Rule 3: ‘Well, I’ll think up the third by the time we get back to Perivale.’
THE SORRY BALLAD OF KAMELION
In November 1981, during the recording of Earthshock, freelance effects designer Richard Gregory, whose company had constructed the Cybermen costumes, told producer John Nathan-Turner about a fully working robot that had been created by Chris Padmore and Mike Power of CP Cybernetics. Originally built as a promotional tool, the ‘android’ could make gestures and deliver dialogue provided by prerecorded cassette. Excited by the concept, Nathan-Turner and script editor Eric Saward visited CP Cybernetics’ workshop. They were greeted by a robot dressed in a swimming costume and rubber cap to disguise the parts that had yet to be finished. On hearing plans to make the robot walk, Nathan-Turner commissioned Terence Dudley to write Kamelion’s debut story, The King’s Demons.
When it came to filming, Kamelion proved to be nothing short of a disaster. Every scene required 15 minutes of extensive programming and even then the robot’s pre-recorded speeches repeatedly went out of sync. It also couldn’t walk. The final straw came when Kamelion’s hydraulic arms jammed beyond repair.
Kamelion officially joined the TARDIS as a companion at the end of The King’s Demons, although he effectively vanished until his departure in Planet of Fire, some six stories later. New scenes with the robot were filmed for The Awakening but hit the cutting-room floor before transmission.
OFF-SCREEN COMPANIONS
As well as his TV assistants, the Doctor has been joined by a whole host of companions in books, comics, audio dramas and stage plays. Here are the most significant.
COMPANION ROLL CALL: THE 1990s
played by DAPHNE ASHBROOK
Doctor Who appearance: Doctor Who (1996)
A familiar face on US television, Long Beach-born actress Daphne Ashbrook scored two firsts in Doctor Who. Not only was she the first and – to date – only American to be cast as a companion, she was also the first to lock lips with the Doctor. Prior to the 1996 TV movie, she appeared in many classic cult television shows including The A-Team, The Fall Guy, Falcon Crest and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. In 2012, she joined the cast of Hollywood Heights, a new teenage drama for Nickelodeon.
Dr Grace Holloway was enjoying a performance of Madame Butterfly when she was called back to Walker General Hospital to operate on the victim of a gangland shooting. Grace resigned after losing her patient, only to discover that the man she’d seen die the previous night had regenerated into the Eighth Doctor. After helping defeat the Master, the Doctor offered to show Grace the universe, but the feisty surgeon refused.
And another thing: If the 1996 TV movie had resulted in a full series, producer Philip David Segal planned to bring Grace back as the ongoing companion.
KISSING COMPANIONS
‘Trust me, it’s this or go to your room and design a new screwdriver. Don’t make my mistakes.’
The Doctor, A Christmas Carol
As a general rule, there’s never any kissing in the TARDIS. Every now and then, however, things happen, and companions lock lips with the Doctor. Here’s the full rundown of amorous allies:
Nyssa (well, on the cheek) – Terminus
Dr Grace Holloway – Doctor Who
Captain Jack Harkness – The Parting of the Ways
Rose Tyler – The Parting of the Ways, New Earth (sort of), Journey’s End (sort of)
Martha Jones – Smith and Jones
Astrid Peth – Voyage of the Damned
Donna Noble – The Unicorn and the Wasp
Lady Christina de Souza – Planet of the Dead
Amy Pond – Flesh and Stone
Rory Williams – Dinosaurs on a Spaceship
Clara Oswin Oswald – The Snowmen
AND THE REST
It isn’t just companions that get to snog the Doctor:
Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, aka Madame de Pompadour, aka Reinette – The Girl in the Fireplace
Jackie Tyler – Army of Ghosts
Joan Redfern – Human Nature / The Family of Blood
Marilyn Monroe (there was lipstick!) – A Christmas Carol
River Song – Day of the Moon, Let’s Kill Hitler, The Wedding of River Song
COMPANION ROLL CALL: THE 2000s
played by BILLIE PIPER
First regular Doctor Who appearance: Rose (2005)
Final regular Doctor Who appearance: Journey’s End (2008)
Final guest Doctor Who appearance: The End of Time, Part Two (2010)
Swindon-born Billie Piper joined the Sylvia Young Theatre School at the age of 12. Three years later, after modelling for a poster campaign for Smash Hits magazine, she was signed to Innocent Records and reached number one with her first single, Because We Want To, in 1998. In 2001, Billie retired from music and returned to acting in the BBC’s 2003 retelling of Chaucer’s The Miller’s Tale. Following her departure from Doctor Who, Piper played Hannah Baxter in ITV2’s Secret Diary of a Call Girl and made her stage debut in a tour of Christopher Hampton’s Treats which ended in London’s West End in 2007.
Shop assistant Rose Tyler unwittingly first met the Doctor on 1 January 2005, when she came across the dying Tenth Doctor. Less than three months later, the Ninth Doctor rescued her from Autons hiding in the basement of Henrik’s department store. Accepting the last Time Lord’s invitation to join him, Rose stayed on board the TARDIS until she was trapped in an alternative universe, seemingly for ever. However, when Davros threatened to destroy all of reality, Rose found a way to cross the dimensional divides.
And another thing: Billie Piper’s performance as Rose won her the National Television Award for Most Popular Actress two years running.
played by BRUNO LANGLEY
First regular Doctor Who appearance: Dalek (2005)
Final regular Doctor Who appearance: The Long Game (2005)
Bruno Langley knew little of Doctor Who before being cast as the Ninth Doctor’s would-be male companion – he even walked straight past the TARDIS set without knowing what it was. The actor’s big break came in the Linda Green comedy series, although he would become better known as Todd Grimshaw, Coronation Street’s first gay character. Following Adam’s expulsion from the TARDIS, Langley appeared in The League of Gentlemen’s Apocalypse and Dalziel and Pascoe, before making a return to Weatherfield in 2011.