Companions: Fifty Years of Doctor Who Assistants (48 page)

Aiming for the Day of the Dead festival in Mexico, they instead end up in
A Town Called Mercy
in 1870, and find the townsfolk protecting an alien doctor called Kahler-Jex from a cyborg gunslinger. When the Doctor discovers that Kahler-Jex is a mass murderer, he wants to hand him over to the gunslinger to save the townsfolk. Rory sides with him, leaving Amy to wonder what has happened to them. She doesn’t believe Rory will let the Doctor take Kahler-Jex’s life; ‘Save us all? Yeah, I am,’ Rory tells her. Amy will not have it and challenges the Doctor directly, drawing a gun on him to make him listen. This is what happens, she says, when the Doctor travels alone for too long. ‘We can’t be like him. We have to be better than him.’ Her words strike home and the Doctor acquiesces with a simple ‘Amelia Pond’.

In
The Power of Three
, Amy & Rory are concerned they have two lives: Doctor life and real life. Rory believes they need to make a choice, and Amy agrees. Amy is now writing magazine articles, while Rory continues to be a nurse. The Doctor is surprised to learn they both have jobs, until they point out that they don’t just sit around waiting for him in between visits. Amy explains that for them, her and Rory, it has been ten years since they first travelled with the Doctor. Not for him, or even for Earth, but for
them
, further muddying the dating of their current life. They are introduced to Kate Stewart, daughter of the Doctor’s old friend Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, head of scientific research at UNIT – the Doctor is surprised that science now runs the military, and delighted to learn it is Kate’s doing. Amy especially likes Kate, relating to her irreverent humour – the Doctor believes the Brigadier would be proud of Kate. Amy & Rory realise that they are almost at the end of their time with the Doctor as they are both making commitments months ahead – for the first time ever. Amy agrees to be a bridesmaid and Rory agrees to go full-time at the hospital. Nine months later the Doctor arrives for their wedding anniversary and whisks them off to the Savoy Hotel in 1890 as a gift, only to find themselves embroiled in an attempted Zygon takeover. Amy even, accidentally, marries Henry VIII. Amy tells the Doctor that she isn’t sure if she can have both lives anymore, because they pull at each other. There was a time – years – when she couldn’t live without him, but now she and Rory are settled, they have built a life. The Doctor has been expecting this, and that is why he keeps on running back to Amy, because she was the first person he saw in his eleventh incarnation (a big change, since he has never run back to other companions who first saw any of his previous incarnations). He tells her that she is seared onto his hearts, and always will be. ‘I’m running to you, and Rory, before you fade from me.’ Brian helps them decide, telling them that they have to go with the Doctor and save every planet they can. Who else gets a chance to do that? Life will still be waiting for them, and so will he. Amy realises what ‘the power of three’ is – them. Her, Rory and the Doctor. Unbeatable.

A picnic in 2012 New York (
The Angels Take Manhattan
) goes wrong when Rory finds himself transported to the 1930s by a Weeping Angel and meets his daughter, River. Amy and the Doctor manage to track them down with the TARDIS, fixing onto River’s vortex manipulator. In 2012 Amy and the Doctor find an old Rory whose timeline has been eaten by the Angels. Amy watches him die, a fact Rory finds very hard to handle. She thinks they can run, but the Doctor tells them they are not after her, just Rory. By escaping they can create a paradox, and thus poison the Angel’s food source.

Rory realises the only way to do it is to kill himself. Amy will not let him, but he tells her that he would rather die than not have Amy in his life. As ever he will do anything to save her. This time, though, she is not willing to just let him do it, so she says they either jump together or not at all. The Doctor and River reach the rooftop just as Amy & Rory jump, unable to stop them. They return to the graveyard where the TARDIS stands, happy to have beaten the Angels, but a lone Angel survives. Before they can do anything, the Angel takes Rory.

Beside herself, Amy insists they can take the TARDIS and get him from the past, but the Doctor tells her he cannot – one more paradox would rip New York apart. Amy refuses to believe this until River tells her it is true. Unwilling to be without him, Amy realises that there is space on his gravestone for one more name, and she willingly gives herself to the Angel. The Doctor tries to stop her, but River tells Amy to do it. ‘You look after him,’ Amy tells River, whom she calls Melody once more. The Doctor tells her if she does this she will be creating a fixed point in time, and he will never be able to see her again. Amy knows she will be fine, because she will be with Rory.

‘Raggedy Man, goodbye!’

The Doctor is understandably devastated, but takes a little comfort in knowing that River, at least, will pop in to see Amy & Rory from time to time.

As revealed in
The Bells of Saint John
Amy goes on to write children’s books as Amelia Williams, and both she and Rory live to an old age in New York’s past. Rory dies aged eighty-two, and Amy aged eighty-seven.

Amy leaves a message for the Doctor in Melody Malone’s book, ‘Don’t be alone, Doctor.’

Over the past few years many old companions have left us, actors so well regarded by the fans. Tributes are always made, usually with an onscreen caption, or in the case of Nicholas Courtney an acknowledgement of his death via his character in
The Wedding of River Song
, but the only companion to transcend the classic and new series of
Doctor Who
is Sarah Jane Smith, and her death is marked with a very fitting tribute. A new companion for the fiftieth anniversary, named after her; Elisabeth
Clara
Miller (or Sladen, as she is commonly known by the world at large).

Clara Oswald
–
Jenna-Louise Coleman
(
Asylum of the Daleks
and
The Snowmen
plus
The Bells of Saint John
to
The Name of the Doctor…
)

We have, so far, met three versions of her; Oswin Oswald in
Asylum of the Daleks
, Clara Oswin Oswald in
The Snowmen
, and the version who becomes the Doctor’s companion, Clara Oswald in
The Bells of Saint John
. She is a mystery, a companion splintered through time and space, with potentially hundreds of her existing to help the Doctor wherever he materialises – only she doesn’t know it, until he turns up and she finds herself drawn into helping him.

In
Asylum of the Daleks
the Doctor, Rory and Amy find themselves being helped through the asylum by Oswin, the Junior Entertainment Manager of the starliner
Alaska
which crashed onto the Dalek Asylum planet. Throughout the story Oswin believes she is still trapped in the
Alaska
, passing the time by making soufflés, while keeping the insane Daleks at bay. But when the Doctor finally makes his way to her, he discovers the worst possible truth – she is a Dalek! Due to her exceptional intelligence, she has been fully converted, unlike the rest of the
Alaska
crew who are converted into a variation of the Daleks’ robomen, but as a result Oswin creates a dream world in which she is holding the Daleks at bay. She is horrified to discover the truth, and has to fight the Dalek instinct to exterminate the Doctor, this she does and lowers the defences of the asylum so the Doctor can destroy the planet. Before he departs, Oswin tells the Doctor ‘run, you clever boy, and remember’.

The second time the Doctor meets her is in Victorian London in
The Snowmen
, where she is living two lives; as Clara Oswin Oswald she is a barmaid at The Rose & Crown, while maintaining a secret life as ‘Miss Montague’ the governess. This version was born on 23rd November 1866, and helps the Doctor solve the mystery of the Ice Governess. She falls to her death, and before she dies, she again tells the Doctor ‘run, you clever boy, and remember’. It is enough to convince the Doctor that she and Oswin are the same woman. This is enough to keep him on the lookout for her next appearance.

He first meets twenty-first century Clara Oswald when she is a young child, swinging in a park. He spends some time watching her life, trying to uncover the mystery, and is surprised to learn she has a normal life, with parents. Her mother dies in March 2005. She is not terribly computer literate, and comes to the Doctor’s attention when she calls tech support, having been given the number from a ‘woman in a shop’ – the number is a direct line to the TARDIS. She uses the phrase ‘run, you clever boy, and remember’ to assist her in remembering the password for her Wi-Fi. Almost uploaded to the Great Intelligence’s datacloud, her mind is returned with the technical knowledge that she receives while in the cloud. Her favourite book is
Summer Falls
by Amelia Williams, and she likes chapter
eleven
better than
ten
. She is a bit confused and weary of the Doctor
initially,
since he is so certain they have met before, but she gradually warms to him and finds herself gladly helping him. She is fascinated by the idea of time travel, but refuses to go away with him at first. Instead she tells him to come back the next day and ask again. Which he promptly does in
The Rings of Akhaten
, and promises to take her ‘somewhere awesome’.

While on Akhaten she is annoyed that the TARDIS will not let her back in, and is convinced that it does not like her. She takes the plethora of aliens in her stride, and helps Merry Gajelh, the young Queen of Years, find the strength to sing the Long Song at the Festival of Offerings. She gives up her mother’s ring, which is of great sentimental value, but it is returned to her by the people of Akhaten after she helps save them by sacrificing the leaf that brought her parents together. She later encounters a Martian Ice Warrior in 1983 on the Soviet submarine,
Firebird
. She acquits herself well when it is down to her to question the warrior, Grand Marshall Skaldak, and doesn’t shy from the danger presented when Skaldak emerges from his armour to hunt them down. She is out to impress the Doctor at first, and asks how she did when questioning Skaldak. He tells her it is not a test, however she did great. When the Doctor tells her to remain where she is, safe with Professor Grisenko, she agrees and the Doctor is slightly shocked by compliance – so many companions before her would always wander off regardless. They go to Caliburn House in
Hide
, ostensibly to uncover the mystery of the ‘Witch of the Well’, but really the Doctor wants to consult with Emma Grayling, an empathic psychic, to find out what Clara is. He is disappointed to learn that Clara is just a normal young woman. Her continued belief that the TARDIS doesn’t like her is compounded when the voice interface appears as a holographic copy of her, and they argue about trying to save the Doctor. Having seen the entire life cycle of Earth, she confronts the Doctor, thinking that she is nothing more than a ‘ghost’ to him. When she is trapped inside the TARDIS, in
Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS
, she discovers the Doctor’s name after finding
The History of the Time War
book in the TARDIS library. Her mistrust in the time ship seems validated by the constant reconfiguring of the internal dimensions when she is lost, constantly finding herself back in the console room. The Doctor confronts her, convinced she is a trap for him, but she maintains she has no idea why he keeps meeting her. Time is snapped back to the point before the TARDIS is snatched up by the scavenger vessel run by the Baalen Brothers, and Clara no longer remembers anything of her time trapped in the TARDIS, neither does she remember knowing the Doctor’s name.

In 1893 Clara finds herself a victim of The Crimson Horror, but is saved by the Doctor. Once again he teams up with Madame Vastra, Jenny Flint and the Sontaran nurse, Strax. Jenny, in particular is confused by the appearance of Clara, having seen her die in The Snowmen; all the Doctor can say is ‘it’s complicated’. Clara returns home to her job as nanny to discover that Angie and Artie have found pictures of her travels with the Doctor, including a picture of Clara Oswin Oswald – who is definitely not her.
 
Suddenly the Doctor’s confusion about her makes sense to Clara. She convinces the Doctor to take her wards on a quick trip to the holiday planet, Hedgewick’s World of Wonders. There she hints at a possible love-interest in the Doctor, but dismisses it. Revelations abound on Trenzalore in
 
The Name of the Doctor
, when Clara discovers that she was born to save the Doctor, splintering herself throughout his timeline in an effort to undo the damage caused by the Great Intelligence. Versions of Clara are seen trying to attract the attention of various incarnations of the Doctor, including the Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Seventh. Most important of all, though, is her appearance on Gallifrey at the moment the First Doctor and Susan first leave on their travels. It is Clara who tells the Doctor which TARDIS to take – although it is broken, it will be much more fun. Thus taking the entire series full circle…

Ninth, Tenth and Eleventh Doctors

Expanded Universe

With the regeneration of Doctor Who into the more marketing savvy and ‘brand’ conscious world of 2005 and its reintroduction back into mainstream popular culture, the Expanded Universe expands like, well, a Big Bang. There are the additions of spin-off shows such as
Torchwood
and
The Sarah Jane Adventures
and the appearance on magazine shelves of titles such as
Battles in Time
; collectable trading cards that were reinforced by a magazine containing a comic strip of the Tenth Doctor’s adventures. Pitched at a much younger audience,
Battles in Time
has a colourful, stylistically simple and easily accessible look, as does another magazine,
Doctor Who Adventures
. Then there is the
Doctor Who Storybook
, a role playing series called
Decide Your Destiny
and, keeping in mind this is also a post-Internet world, the expansion continues into online projects such as
BBC Online
comics; an online series of comic strips posted on the BBC website by professional
Doctor Who
writers.