SIDRAT: Some Idiosyncratic Diverse Ramblings About TARDIStimes

I am probably a lone voice in this but, for the most part, I would not ever want to see the return of former companions unless the intention is to either have them rejoin the TARDIS crew, complete their story or kill them.

Controversial?

Perhaps.

The reason School Reunion is such a triumph is that it does not disturb or alter the time Sarah travelled with her two Doctors – it is a natural continuation of her story. But that card has now been played. It is hard to see how it can be played again.

Very few companions have travelled with two incarnations  – only Ben, Polly, Sarah, Tegan, Nyssa, Adric, Peri and Rose.

How many of the rest would even cope with or believe in the notion of regeneration? Steven? Dodo? Victoria? Zoe? Donna? Amy? I am not sure. Not because of their intelligence, but because of who they are, how they met and interacted with the Doctor, and what their memories of him are like.

Amy is a particularly interesting case. She might have seen Melody regenerate and she might know that the Doctor can, but would she, obsessed her entire life until Angels Take Manhattan by Smith’s Dr, cope with a different incarnation – how would meeting a different Doctor work out for Amy?

But there are other factors.

Each companion is of his/her time and each has a particular experience with their Doctor. Any return would have to seamlessly fit that experience.

Jamie’s participation in Two Doctors makes the case for the wrong way to revisit companions. What Fraser Hines does there is no seamless continuation of Jamie – it’s a different, knowing take in an era, unlike his original, which does not take Doctor Who for what it is. It made me inexpressibly sad to see Troughton and Jamie mis-used to prop up and validate the Sixth Doctor, at some cost to the great memories of their original joyous contribution to the series.

Now – a story set in Jamie’s Scotland where some terrible thing is happening and the Doctor literally bumps into him – yes, that could work. Restore his memories even? Have the Doctor fight alongside him – perhaps watch him die? I always hoped for a Yeti story in Jamie’s Scotland where the GI possess him and then wait…like a spider… for the moment they can Web the TARDIS and force the TARDIS to land. The Yeti amongst the heather always seemed a good idea to me…

Ian Chesterton could return – I rather wish he had in Mawdryn Undead. I would quite like an aged Chesterton having some final adventures in the TARDIS. Wilf but with experience.

The Doctor has never travelled with an older woman – I would love to see an older Zoe joining him – that would be entirely consistent with Zoe : she stowed away because she wanted more from life than the Wheel offered – with her memories gone, she would still, presumably, have that desire? And what fun Padbury could have! It would be the same for Jo Grant I think – klutz Granny in Time and Space…

I loved Rose – but would not want her back travelling. Her story is done. Her appearance in the 50th special is probably going to be fine, assuming she and Tennant are plucked from their pre-Army of Ghosts timeline or they are post Donna-Doctor, the loving couple from the alternative Universe. Anything else, though, is likely to be problematic.

Donna can’t return because of her particular fate – and, in any event, her story has been told.

It might be interesting to have a one off adventure with Nyssa – say the leper colony was being invaded? Or Turlough on Trion with that planet suffering a crisis?

Equally, of course, it might be possible to revisit an old companion in an unexpected context – Steven might have turned out to be a tyrannical leader who needs to be deposed – how interesting would it be for the Doctor to have to bring down the leader he helped install in Savages?

Tegan might have been sought out by the Mara, again, and become possessed and established proper roots for it in modern day Earth – the Doctor might have to sanction her death or imprisonment or wipe out her mind to save the day? Or stand by as Kate Stewart took action he cannot?

Romana could easily return – but why would she? She is very much now her own person – a renegade Time Lord forged from her time with the Doctor. Why would she go back to Gallifrey or the TARDIS? It would need to be some story…

And, I guess, that’s the issue. Return appearances of companions should always be about the story. School Reunion showed that rather well. Whatever was going on in the school was secondary to the Doctor facing up to what he had done to Sarah by his treatment of her in Hand of Fear and to the story of Sarah-Jane Smith and her need for closure.

Not every former companion needs closure, some have had their time, completed their journey.

There is a difference, a crucial one in my view, between wanting the return of a companion because they were good in their day and wanting them back to tell a story that is a step forward in the tale of the Doctor’s life. Only the second should be encouraged.