The Doctor and their relationships with their Companions

[JD]

One of the things I've always found interesting about Doctor Who is the relationships between the Doctors and their companions and the way the develop over time. It's interesting how some become more of an equal friendship, some become romantic, and some are more of a mentor mentee realtionship. So I thought might be interesting to see which ones would fall into which category. I'm going by the ones I've seen a lot or are at least fresh in my mind.

Friendship
10/14 & Donna
15 & Ruby
15 & Belinda
11 & Amy & Rory
13 & her companions

Romantic
4 & Romana II
10 & Rose
11 & River

Mentor & Mentee
3 & Jo
4 & Leela
2 & Jamie & Victoria
4 & Sarah Jane

Ones I'm unclear on
10 & Martha
10 & Jack

 

[Timewalker]

You're missing a category: Familial (family)

That would include the First Doctor and Susan, and Amy and Rory obviously become family (though in what order all that happens with the Eleventh Doctor I'm not sure - absolutely nothing about his time makes any sense to me).

There are also those that could be said to be Along For the Ride (ie. Tegan - all she ever wanted was to get back to Heathrow, at least until she got fired and then she came back until it wasn't fun anymore). I'd put Dodo there as well - she had no strong connections to the Doctor and didn't even say goodbye when she left.

Ian and Barbara belong in the Friendship category. Not sure about Vicky, as I don't remember if she and the Doctor were that close.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

I'm inclined to put Jamie and Zoe in family, too. They had such a strong bond with each other that I would say exceeds mentorship. But I would agree with the rest of the pairings under mentorship, which would also include Ace and maybe even Nyssa (although she was more of an intellectual equal like Romana but without any hint of romance).

Along for the ride would also include Katarina, Ben & Polly, Victoria, and Turlough.

 

[Marc]

The challenge - what category would Liz Shaw be in?

 

[Turtletrekker]

I think that an argument can be made for putting 13 and Yaz under "romantic".

 

[The Nth Doctor]

The challenge - what category would Liz Shaw be in?

I was thinking about that earlier. Maybe strictly professional? Early days Brig would fit that category, too, but they became close friends over the years. I wouldn't put Benton or Yates in that category either. They both were always overly friendly with him, despite their military training.

 

[Sketcher]

12 and Bill Potts is a pretty obvious mentor/student role.

With how much 13 spouted out the word fam, family would be the right category. I'm kidding, but "find me my fam" is unfortunately burned into my memory.

What's 12 and Clara? Toxic?

 

[Timewalker]

Clara's toxic, period.

I think we need Has an Agenda as a category, and that's where Turlough can go. He definitely had an agenda during the Black Guardian arc.

 

[Starkers]

13 and Yaz definitely needs to be in the romantic category, there isn't any ambiguity there. It was rubbishly handled but clearly they had romantic feelings for one another and if there's any doubt 13s chat with 15 in The Reality War blows those doubts out of the water.

Clara is an interesting one because she had a very different relationship with 11 to 12. With 11 I think you can make the argument that it's romantic at times, but with 12 it's more friendship.

Re Liz I think there's an argument for professional bordering on friendship where she and the Brigadier (and Kate amongst others) sits. I wonder if there's a category of equals as well, where certainly both Romanas sit to a certain degree.