Goodbye, Ponds: Top 5 Doctor Who Farewells

So, it’s goodbye to the Ponds in this week’s The Angels Take Manhattan – But what other farewells have there been in history of Doctor Who? Which are the best? What’s the worst? And why do the companions who travel with Colin Baker end up with hairy loud misogynists?


5) Rose Tyler (Doomsday, 2006)

Massively diluted due to subsequent returns and being married off to a human Doctor on a wet beach, the emotional impact of England’s Rose Tyler being dragged into an (allegedly) inescapable other dimension was shocking and unpredictable, not least because it flew directly in the face of David Tennant’s solve-everything-attitude incarnation of the Doctor. It was a glorious end for Billie Piper, who only a few years previously, had been dismissed by fans as ‘stunt casting’.


4) Jo Grant (The Green Death, 1973)

Forget the revisionist viewings of whether or not Pertwee’s Doc is being side-lined romantically for a younger, hippier, and more human model, this departure scene sticks with the lonely Time Lord, rather than the departing companion played by Katy Manning, as we witness the Doctor hesitating outside the pub before driving on; a stark reminder that even if these people are his friends, their lives move swiftly on without him. Of course, the scene is given added poignancy when you consider the classic Barry Letts production team was dismantling.

3) Sarah Jane Smith (The Hand Of Fear, 1976)

The archetypal tacked-on, bundled-out-of-the-TARDIS scene, but also the template of how to do such a scene absolutely correctly. Elisabeth Sladen plays the scene as if she’s never given any consideration to the possibility that her travels with The Doctor might end - even in the story that’s just happened, on present-day Earth, she doesn’t take time to catch up with friends. That belief was likely to have been shared by the millions of fans who adored her. Her unexpected return to the series thirty years later was one of the show’s emotional high-points.

2) Adric (Earthshock, 1982)

Infamously, not the most popular of companions, but it’s that simple fact that makes Adric’s noble sacrifice all the more affecting. It’s in a story that begins with Matthew Waterhouse’s character bickering with the rest of the TARDIS crew about the lack of respect he’s afforded, and that he’s side-lined in favour of comparatively less intelligent companions – a sort of proto-Sheldon Cooper. He’s even responsible for saving the Doctor in his absence – via the use of his gold-edged award in the shape of a star. One thinks that even now, the Doctor carries the gilt of Adric’s death but, like the closing credits of this story, in silence.

1) Susan Foreman (The Dalek Invasion Of Earth, 1965)

It’s the very first departure of a series regular, and as such, is milked for everything it’s got. There’s David’s awkward flirting as he realises that Susan’s loyalties lie with her grandfather (witness Ian being completely oblivious to the situation, and Barbra almost having to forcibly drag him away to give the couple a bit of privacy), and William Hartnell’s subtle bit of business as he darts into the TARDIS – it’s clear that he’s decided to leave Susan behind long before David brings it up. And, of course, there’s the Doctor’s final speech to his grand-daughter, a almost-coda for the series, certainly iconic enough to serve as a prologue to the 20th anniversary adventure, The Five Doctors: “One day, I shall come back. Yes, I shall come back. Until then, there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. Just go forward in all your beliefs and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine …. “

And The Worst :

Perpugillium Brown (Mindwarp, 1986)

Oh, we know. In a fair world, this would easily be the best, by a country light-year – it’s a shocking, violent, and cruel. Surprisingly, it’s even casual and unfeeling (as far as villain Kiv is concerned, Peri is just a body – perhaps reflecting some dad’s views) and it strikes home as the murder of a well-loved companion – made all the more unbearable because the Doctor might’ve been able to help if the Valeyard hadn’t dragged him off to the Trial Of A Timelord. We’re pretty sure it’s the way Nicola Bryant would’ve wanted to go. But then, a few episodes later, the OXO mum arrives to kiss it all better in a clumsy bit of retro fitting that even Bobby Ewing wouldn’t have dared come out of the shower for. It makes about as much sense as Melanie Bush suddenly deciding that she wants to stay on a ice-cube planet with an intergalactic Del Boy. Which, admittedly, also happened.