- Susan Foreman – I always thought that Carole Ann Ford was believable as a girl that was from “somewhere else” and was sorry that the part wasn’t what she’d been told it would be.
- Jamie McCrimmon – Frazer Hines had great chemistry with Patrick Troughton. The pair were one of the program’s great teams.
- Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart – Nick Courtney was great with every Doctor he worked with, but he was especially good as the “Watson” to Jon Pertwee’s “Holmes”.
- Sarah Jane Smith – The greatest companion of them all. While I enjoyed her adventures with Jon Pertwee, David Tennant and Matt Smith, Lis Sladen’s work with Tom Baker is a big part of what made me a life-long fan of the program.
- Leela of the Sevateem – Louise Jameson’s “bloodthirsty Eliza Doolittle” was a great character, one that I found very entertaining.
- Ace - An attempt to create a modern “street” kid with emotional depth. Overall, quite successful.
- Donna Noble – Catherine Tate proved – if proof was needed – that she was more than a comedic actress. Donna was a nice break in the string of “girls in love with the Doctor” (Rose, Martha, Amy, Clara -why did they keep coming back to that?).
- Wilfred Mott – Love me some Bernard Cribbins. Another favorite actor.
- Bill Potts – Pearl Mackie was just what the show needed at the time. A shame that she and Capaldi couldn’t have had a longer run together.
- Nardole – An odd little man who proved to have depth. Matt Lucas did quite well here.
Replies
Do you mind if I add some audio companions...?
10. Peri - Peri (and the Sixth Doctor, too) got a raw deal on TV. she signed on the the nice-guy fifth Doctor and ended up with one who was more than a bit of a jerk. They started to to repair the Doctor/Peri relationship on TV, then Colin Baker was fired. On audio, I really like the post-"Trial" Peri/Sixie (as Baker refers to himself) stories, but even the pre-"Trial" ones fix their relationship.
8-9. Ace & Mel - These two go together. On TV their respective tenures with the (Seventh) Doctor crossed over briefly, but on audio, Mel signed on for a second hitch. Ace displays years of characterization, but Mel's story picks up about six months after we last saw her on TV. On TV she was supposedly a computer expert, yet was not show touching a computer even once. That problem has been rectified, plus traveling with Sabalom Glitz for a time has give her a rougher edge. She and Ace have such different personalities anyway, and they play off well against each other and the Doctor.
6-7. Constance & Flip - Another pair. Flip traveled with the (Sixth) Doctor first, then Constance did, then they both traveled with him together. As with Ace & Mel, these are two very different women who, somehow, get on well and complement each other.
4-5. Liv & Helen - A med tech from the future and a WWI era Wren, another unlikely pair. Liv had an initial adventure with the Seventh Doctor, then settled in with the Eighth for a long tenure. Helen eventually joined them.
3. Evelyn Smythe - If you are put off by the "boyfriend Doctors" of the revival era, Evelyn Smythe is the companion for you. An older professional woman, a professor, she is able to give as well as she gets and readily holds her own in disagreements with the (Sixth) Doctor. She is his first companion after his trial.
2. Charlotte "Charley" Pollard - An "Edwardian Adventuress" who was fated to die in the historic crash of the R-101 dirigible's maiden voyage before a long tenure with the (Eighth) Doctor. Already something of an anomaly herself because of the whole cheating fate thing, she became even more of one after a falling out with the Doctor and finding herself inadvertently traveling with his Sixth self. She has gone on to have two sets of solo adventures with a third planned.
1. Lucie Miller - Companion of the Eighth Doctor, she is simply my favorite companion ever, and my favorite Doctor/companion pairing ever, and that includes TV, bot classic and revival.
HONORABLE MENTIONS: Bliss (Eighth Doctor's companion during the Time War) and Mary Shelley (traveled with the Eighth Doctor prior to Charley), Susan (older, reconciled with her grandfather, had a son).
Interesting,
Jeff of Earth-J said:
It's hard for me to comment on those, since I don't know most of them. If I was going into "Extended Universe" stuff, I might add Bernice Summerfield and Frobisher.