When you are travelling the universe with a Time Lord, sometimes it can take a lot to make you stop. Other times you just wander off or fall in love, staying behind with someone you’ve barely met.
Ahead of Amy and Rory’s departure from Doctor Who this weekend in The Angels Take Manhattan, we take a look back at some of the strongest companion exits in the show’s history...
#10: Ian and Barbara (The Chase: The Planet of Decision)
Getting hold of the Daleks’ timeship, the school teachers seized the opportunity to get back home to the 1960s after enduring random travels in the TARDIS. At first the Doctor won’t hear of it, believing it to be too much of a risk, but he’s eventually persuaded.
The couple make it safely back to 1965, a mere two years since they left, but the Doctor is left bereft.
#9: Susan (The Dalek Invasion of Earth: Flashpoint)
Original companion Susan fell in love, but she would never have left the Doctor’s side so he took the decision out of her hands. Locking her out of the TARDIS, he chose to give his granddaughter the chance of a normal life, albeit it in the Dalek ravaged world of the 21st century.
The first member of the TARDIS crew to leave, Susan’s departure prompted the Doctor’s oft-quoted speech which includes: “One day, I shall come back. Yes, I shall come back…” and which introduced The Five Doctors, where she was reunited with her grandfather once more.
#8: River Song (Forest of the Dead)
Though her companion status was dubious at the time, as we had only just met her, River certainly knew her Doctor. Well enough in fact to know that he would lay down his life to save the people accidently stored at the Library.
Taking the choice from him, River gave up her own life knowing the Doctor had a future with her still to come. Despite her death, the Doctor manages to salvage her essence for a digital afterlife of sorts, living with friends in the computer.
#7: Jo (The Green Death)
In a simpler time, Jo Grant left the Doctor because she fell in love. In the days before a married couple had ever travelled with the Time Lord, this meant a parting of the ways.
Idealistic and spirited, Dr Clifford Jones intended to trek off up the Amazon rainforest and principled Jo went with him, leaving her three-year association with UNIT and the Doctor behind. The Doctor never looked so alone.
#6: Sarah Jane (The Hand of Fear)
For want of a better word, Sarah Jane got dumped. The Doctor was off back to Gallifrey and she couldn’t come along. And so, with a few moments notice, she gathered her things and was unceremoniously left behind.
Sarah’s exit is beautifully played, apparently worked out by the actors themselves and chock full of unspoken emotion. Blissfully, it wasn’t the end for Sarah Jane.
#5: Rose (Doomsday)
After the drama of closing the rift between parallel dimensions, and Rose’s fall towards the void, there was just time for a heartbreaking, but non-physical, goodbye on the beach at Bad Wolf Bay. Burning up a sun just to say goodbye, the Doctor finally summoned the courage to admit his feelings, but lost the connection before he had a chance to say.
Beautiful and touching, sadly that was not the end. Teased through the whole of Series 4, and in the flesh for the final three episodes, Rose appeared again to help defend the multiverse from Davros’ reality bomb.
Finally we returned to that beach again, with Rose gaining custody of half-human Doctor 10.5 and presumably given strict instructions not to go ripping holes through the dimensional void again.
#4: Jamie and Zoe (The War Games)
To deal the battle schemes of the War Lord, the second Doctor had to resort to calling for help from his own people. It cost him his liberty and a further regeneration, but they weren’t the only things he lost.
Faithful companions Jamie and Zoe were returned to their own times, their memories cruelly wiped of all but their first adventure with the Time Lord. Sadly, that also meant Jamie would never remember her either.
#3: Donna (Journey’s End)
Stuck in a TARDIS on the edge of destruction, Donna interacted with the Doctor’s pickled hand and ended up on the receiving end of a bolt of regenerative energy. As the DoctorDonna she burned bright, but had to be stopped to save her life and was condemned to a death of personality, and a mind wipe of sorts, in order to grant her a safer, more mundane human life.
Donna too suffered a slight return in The End of Time, but never enough to spoil that heart-rending finale.
#2: Adric (Earthshock)
Has a companion’s exit ever made more of an impact? Literally, in his case as the accidently time-travelling, Cyber-controlled space freighter he was on was implied to have caused the extinction of the dinosaurs! No theme music played and credits rolled over a black backdrop and the remnants of his broken gold star badge.
Despite the character being petulant and annoying much of the time, more akin to annoying younger brother than the initial concept of an artful dodger in space, there’s no denying that Adric left in style.
#1: Peri (The Trial of a Time Lord)
As you watch a Doctor Who story and the stakes get bigger and bigger, you count on our hero having a plan. With the Doctor acting out of character, and the fact that he was viewing events alone in that Gallifreyan Courtroom, things didn’t look great for Peri.
Chosen as the receptacle for the brain of the Mentor, Lord Kiv, the show delivered a chilling moment as Peri stood bald headed from the transfer operation and spoke with an inhuman voice: “Protect me! I am your Lord and Master.” With the Doctor taken out of time, it fell to enraged warrior King Yrcarnos to resolve the situation by killing everything in sight.
Despite being slightly negated by the bizarre revelation that she’d been rescued and turned into Brian Blessed’s bride at a later date, arguably a worse fate, Peri's departure was a highly memorable shocker… as was her replacement!
What's your favourite Doctor Who companion exit? Let us know below...
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