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
12 & Clara

Romantic
4 & Romana II
10 & Rose
11 & River
13 & Yaz (from @Turtletrekker)
11 & Clara (from @Starkers)
Fugitive & Lee Clayton (from @DigificWriter)

Mentor & Mentee
3 & Jo
4 & Leela
2 & Jamie & Victoria
4 & Sarah Jane
12 & Bill (from @Sketcher)

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

From @Timewalker
Family
1 & Susan
11 & Amy & Rory
2 & Jaimie & Victoria (from @The Nth Doctor)

From @The Nth Doctor
Along for the ride
4 & Tegan
1 & Katarina
1 & Ben & Polly
1 & Dodo (from @Timewalker)

 

[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.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

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.

For the first three serials, yes, but after that business was cleared up and forgiven, he became a full-fledged companion of his own right for another seven serials. Proper companion outweighs Has an Agenda two to one.

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.

Much like Rose with The Ninth and Tenth Doctors but in reverse order.

I wonder if there's a category of equals as well, where certainly both Romanas sit to a certain degree.

Yeah, I ruminated on that thought, too, in regards to Nyssa. I think Romana I goes there but Romana II is romantic.

 

[Starkers]

For the first three serials, yes, but after that business was cleared up and forgiven, he became a full-fledged companion of his own right for another seven serials. Proper companion outweighs Has an Agenda two to one.


Much like Rose with The Ninth and Tenth Doctors but in reverse order.


Yeah, I ruminated on that thought, too, in regards to Nyssa. I think Romana I goes there but Romana II is romantic.

See I'd suggest Nine and Rose was romantic, just a different kind of romantic to Ten and Rose.

To me at least it always felt like Nive loved Rose, but he wouldn't ever express that love, maybe it was part of his guilt over the Time War, maybe because he (rightly) saw that he was waaaaayyyy to old for her, but he was never going to act on his feelings.

Ten was a lot more relaxed about how he felt about Rose.

 

[Qonundrum]

From goo-goo eyes during the highlights of their real life together, to neither of them staring at each other despite the script necessitating the issue, it detracts from their respective stories either way. So it's just bad acting between 4 and Romana.

Especially when 4 states in "City of Death" that immortal line of "you're a very beautiful woman, probably" to the Countess not in a way to keep Romana from getting all jealous and catfighty but in a way to suggest he doesn't give a crap about gettin' busy with women. Unless that's bad acting of another sort, except the rest of the script isn't about them - not even for 2 seconds - holding hands in the bar and asking if they want to swap saliva and diseases with one another.

Conscious sexualizing the Doctor is the province of 21st century Who. And the Americanized 1996 TV movie, which has far more in common with the modern era than McCoy's ever had. (nobody in modern Who comes close to Ace. Except for maybe Bill, but even then Ace had more rebellious nature and other adventurous traits being made use of.)

 

[DigificWriter]

9 and 10 were definitely romantically interested in both Rose and Jack, and 13 was definitely romantically interested in Yaz.

The Fugitive Doctor and Lee Clayton is also another one to add to the Romantic category.

 

[JD]

The challenge - what category would Liz Shaw be in?

I struggled with that one, because I just watched those ones not that long ago, but I wasn't really sure if it would be friend or something else.

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.

I figured most of the "equals" would probably be either friendship or romantic.