Doctor Who - Top 50 Companions: Part 5

And now we're half way through the Top 50 list of Doctor Who companions and it's a rather diverse bunch I'm listing here.

26: Vislor Turlough (Mark Strickson)

We've never really had a dark companion on Doctor Who and while future companions such as Jack Harkness and River Song would have a little ambiguity about them, it was Fifth Doctor companion, Turlough who really could've been the first antagonist companion we've had. He nearly came close to killing the Doctor at the start of his tenure and by the end of it, they were solid friends. Turlough was definitely an interesting combination with the Fifth Doctor and Tegan Jovanka.

27: Captain Mike Yates (Richard Franklin)

Okay maybe another slightly ambiguous companion or maybe a more misguided one? Pertwee's era was probably the most successful for companions and considering that we had an even female/male ratio of them, it's amazing how brilliant the lot of them are. I quite liked Mike's reserved attitude, occassional dry wit, misguided sense of wanting to do right before his inevitable redemption of sorts in Planet Of The Spiders as well.

28: Zoe Heriot (Wendy Padbury)

Zoe Heriot - how I love thee. This is a young woman who wrecked a computer in The Invasion by proving just how much smarter she was than it and while Jamie didn't seem as smitten with her as he was with Victoria, it was the dynamic with these two and the Second Doctor that became one of my favourites. Plus her and Jamie's exits in The War Games set up a precedent we'd later see with Donna Noble.

29: Victoria Waterfield (Deborah Watling)

Okay, so Victoria could scream a little and be a bit more afraid at times than other companions but if there's one reason she deserves to be on the list, it's definitely for that scene about family with the Second Doctor in The Tomb Of The Cybermen. Oh and the fact that she's bloody fantastic as well.

30: Paternoster Gang - Madame Vastra/Jenny Flint/Commander Strax (Neve McIntosh/Catrin Stewart/Dan Stewart)

Okay, I'm aware this is cheating in a Top 50 list but I couldn't exclude any of them from it and bundling them together seemed like a logical choice here. With this trio we've got a katana wielding Silurian, her Victorian wife and maid and of course, a certain Sontaran whose general bloodlust hasn't been quelled just because he's a butler. A spin-off with these three (either television or audio) seems pretty inevitable but for the time being, they're some of the best allies both the Eleventh and Twelfth Doctors will have in their tenures.

Part 6 of this list will go up tomorrow.