Top 5 Worst Classic Who Companions

If you have been following my ‘Doctor Who’ posts (and you should, they are awesome) I have been focusing a lot on the NuWho era of the long running sci fi show. But I am fan of all Who, both Nu and Classic, so I thought this time I would take you back, way back, back into time (no pun intended).

The Doctor has had many companions over the more than 50 years of the show and, while there is debate over which is the best of the new companions, I can’t say that there are any that I dislike or detest. And no, Ninth Doctor companion Adam Mitchell does not count because he was intended to be unlikable.

But when it comes to the Classic Who era there are a few companions that just rubbed me the wrong way. So for this edition of “So Who Saturdays” we will be counting down the Top 5 worst companions to travel with the Doctor in the Classic era. Allons-y, Geronimo and here we go:

#5 Vislor Turlough (Fifth Doctor)

Now Turlough is best known for being a secret pawn of Doctor Who villain and bird headwear enthusiast the Black Guardian who tried to get him to kill the Fifth Doctor. But even after he was freed from ole bird head’s influence he always seemed a bit untrustworthy. And overall he was not a very interesting character. Just a lot of meh.

#4 Perpugilliam “Peri” Brown (Fifth and Sixth Doctor)

When the show runners wanted to boost ratings they decided to introduce Peri and her (ahem) assets. She was a blatant attempt to sex up the show and in her first season walked around in some tight and revealing outfits, though she wore more modest clothing as the show progressed. She is also remembered for her faux American accent and according to reports they even tried to pass off the British actress, Nicole Bryant, as an American in real life. The 1980s were a strange time.

#3 Kamelion (Fifth Doctor)

This shape-shifting android and poor man’s K9 was introduced as an agent of the Master who used his abilities to impersonate King John. After the Doctor freed him from the Master’s control he spent most of his time in the TARDIS until he would come under the sway of the Master again and ask the Doctor to destroy him.

Behind the scenes we saw so little of him because the robot gave so much trouble to work. A simple solution would have been to make him assume a regular form and then shape shift from episode to episode. Such a huge waste of potential.

#2 Mel Bush (Sixth and Seventh Doctor)

Boy could this girl scream. And scream. And then scream some more. Mel was abruptly introduced during the Trial of a Timelord season and from the Sixth Doctor’s future. Unfortunately this meant that we never saw when they first met or got her back story. She was only notable for her horrendous outfits, bright hair and, as mentioned above, the extremely annoying screaming.

#1 Adric (Fourth and Fifth Doctor)

I am not a violent person. As Michael Jackson once sang “I’m a lover, not a fighter”. But that snotty little know-it-all Adric made me want to punch him in the face.

This mathematical genius was less of a companion for the Doctor and more of a potentially dangerous nuisance. He was always second guessing the Doctor and even outright betraying him. And not “alien-took-over-my-will” betraying, just “I-know-better-so-I-will-do-whatever-the-hell-I-want” betraying. He began traveling with the Fourth Doctor and then the Fifth after the Fourth regenerated; the Fifth Doctor has four out of the five on this list and was sadly saddled with a lot of dead weight.

Adric’s shocking demise (one of the few companions to die in the franchise’s history) in the episode Earthshock was caused by his intellectual arrogance. But his death was done well and in a touching manner, but I was still not sorry to know that it was the last I would be seeing of this super brat. Goodbye and good riddance.

So who is your least favorite Classic Who companion? Feel free to comment below. 

For my Top 7 NuWho Doctor/Companion combos you can click here and for my Top 7 Worst NuWho Monsters you can click here.