Everyone has their favorite Doctor Who companions. If asked who their all-time faves from any era are, some will go old school and list off the likes of Ace, Astra, or Sarah Jane. New Whovians will meanwhile namedrop the likes of Rose Tyler, Martha Jones, and Donna Noble. Even the newest companion, Ruby Sunday, has a fanbase ranking her at the top.
However, little to do some diehard Whovians know, some of the best Doctor Who companions don’t even appear on the television show. As much as Doctor Who has had its presence known through movies and television shows, the lore expands into comic books, where The Doctor’s adventures continue alongside companions who never made it onscreen. Nonetheless, without a television debut, some of these companions are the most intriguing, captivating, and charismatic The Doctor has encountered in any of his lives.
10 Josie Day
Debuts in “The Pictures of Josephine Day” by George Mann and Emma Vieceli
Believe it or not, one of Doctor Who’s best companions was a painting. The Doctor Who: The Eighth Doctor miniseries, the title incarnation finds one Josephine “Josie” Day in his cottage, painting cryptic pieces of art depicting alien worlds. Further inspection by The Doctor reveals her body is full of particles created by the alien species Artificers of Wrall. It is soon discovered that the original Lady Josephine had asked one of the Artificers to paint her portrait, one that would literally take on a life of her own.
After the real Lady Josephine died, her portrait was auctioned off to an older gentleman who turned out to be the Twelfth Doctor. After dropping Josephine’s portrait off at his cottage, she decided to live life anew as Josie in search of purpose and a Doctor to help her..
9 Gabby Gonzalez
Debuts in “Revolution of Terror” by Nick Abadzis ad Elena Casagrande
Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor introduces Gabby Gonzalez, someone who comes into The Doctor’s life not long after Donna Noble’s exit. She’s an accounting student with bigger dreams of the art life as she works out of her father’s laundromat (ironically, Gabby’s encounter with Ten’s laundry system exposes his costume’s secret origin story). An alien attack in local Brooklyn is how she meets The Doctor and joins his escapades, but her life alters forever in more ways than one.
Unknowingly to her, Gabby possessed block transfer energy, allowing her to manifest levitating talking mouths and butterflies. As her powers continued to transform and evolve, so did Gabby, who eventually transformed into the Vortex Butterfly, an omnipotent creature possessing reality-warping powers.
8 Olla
Debuts in “A Cold Day in Hell!” by Simon Furman, John Ridgway, and Tim Perkins
During The Seventh Doctor’s adventures held in the classic Doctor Who Magazines, he and his literal penguin companion Frobisher (don’t worry, we’ll get to him) visit the planet A-Lux hoping to find pleasure and heat. Instead, they find an invading Ice Warriors turning the usually warm planet to snowy cold, and in less pleasurable terms, they run into a heat vampire who attempts to drain the Doctor of his body temperature.
Not the friendliest terms for any companion to meet the Doctor, but they grow friendly by story’s end and she winds up traveling with him. In time, readers learn that she’s actually fleeing A-Lux after stealing money and evading the crimes she’s expected to answer for. A vampire on the run, she lies and schemes her way into the TARDIS, convincing Seven that her cohort was actually a master who enslaved her. The Doctor ends up sending her back on the condition she is given a fair trial.
7 ARC
Debuts in “Whodunnit?” by Al Ewing and Bob Cook
The Doctor is no stranger to having companions who are of the more robotic persuasion or sporting some kind of technological, artificial intelligence. Characters like K-9 immediately come to mind, but in the comics, The Eleventh Doctor had ARC, which stands for Autonomous Reasoning Center. Held within the United System Research Base of SERVEYOUinc, ARC spent years tortured by Dr. Ballard until he finally managed to escape.
In the process, ARC would accidentally send the staff members into comas just in hopes of trying to communicate and read minds. When ARC meets the Doctor, the latter would allow the former to travel with him after getting all these people out of their comas. Even by AI robot standards, ARC is one of the more unique companions for The Doctor, with the circumstances of meeting is all the more unique.
6 Kevin the Robotic Tyrannosaurus
Debuts in “When Worlds Collide” by Tony Lee and Matthew Dow Smith
Speaking of unique robot companions, it’s hard to get more unique than a combination between advanced technology and the prehistoric era. Kevin wasn’t so much a dinosaur – at least he didn’t consider himself as such – as he was an actor pretending to be a dinosaur. Again, his perspective. He was an animatronic dinosaur with an advanced brain capacity instilled into his head to give him an actual personality. Existing as part of an amusement part, Kevin decided he was playing the part of a dinosaur for everyone’s entertainment.
Still, though, Kevin wanted more with his life than to roar like some Neanderthal of a creature. So, when he meets The Doctor, Amy and Rory Pond, he decides to tag along onto the TARDIS in his search for something more. Even to a T-Rex sized actor, he was amazed that it was bigger on the inside.
5 The Sapling
Debuts in “The Scream” Rob Williams, Leandro Casco, and Wellington Diaz
A virus called The Planting would produce actual saplings that would slowly be birthed into fully grown adults. One such sapling was The Sapling, destined to produce genocide. However, this sapling’s development was interrupted by an advanced member of The Silence calling himself The Scream. The Scream implemented memories of both The Doctor and one Alice Obiefune (another companion to The Eleventh Doctor) in hopes of inhabiting The Sapling’s body, thus using its virus potential to take over and consume entire planets.
Perhaps The Doctor’s influence was enough to get through to The Sapling. In helping Sapling escape The Scream, Eleven would allow Sapling to travel with him and Alice.
4 Frobisher
Debuts in “The Shape Shifter” by Steve Parkhouse and John Ridgway
As promised earlier, it’s time to talk about an actual talking penguin resident of the TARDIS. Frobisher had the pleasure of assisting both the Sixth and Seventh Doctors, but he and The Doctor actually have something in common: both are more alien than meets the eye. This so-called penguin is actually an alien shapeshifter from the planet Xenon. This member of the Whifferdill race could transform into any way, shape, and form he so pleased. He just felt most pleased being a penguin.
He also was pleased to join The Doctor on his adventures when they met during the 82nd Century, when Frobisher was masquerading as Avan Tarklu hoping to collect a bounty on The Doctor’s head. However, Six’s personality was too likable to turn in. Instead, they stole the bounty money, split it, and decided to keep hanging out.
3 Anubis
Debuts in The Sands of Time by Justin Richards
Yes, this is about the Anubis, but not the Anubis that audiences may be most familiar with. Not to be confused with the classic depiction of the Egyptian deity, this version of Anubis (nicknamed Newbis) was an alien member of the Osirian race, who possessed god-like abilities and, thus, was praised as such in ancient Egypt on Earth. Anubis’ father, Sutekh the Destroyer, lived up to the name by wishing to destroy all life in the universe. His son, though, didn’t want to walk down the same path his father did.
Against his will, though, his father’s essence would take control of Anubis’ body until he was destroyed by The Doctor. The Tenth Doctor would resurrect Anubis before gifting him the opportunity to travel the galaxy with him.
2 Kroton the Cyberman
“Throwback: The Soul of a Cyberman” by Steve Moore and Steve Dillon
The Doctor has spent several centuries and incarnations battling the wicked Cybermen, but Kroton might have the distinction of being the only Cyberman who The Doctor would call a friend. Speaking of distinctions, Krotons has still retained his feelings and emotions after becoming a Cyberman. He came to the realization when he saw his higher-ups targeting resistance fighters and spontaneously decided to turn against them. After sacrificing himself, he travels the galaxy helping those in need and saving people.
He eventually catches the attention of the Eighth Doctor while on the Qutrusian Cargo Freighter X-703 when they were in need of assistance. Afterward, he’d join Eight and his then-companion Izzy in their travels. He would eventually move on to becoming a guardian to the omniverse, leaving The Doctor as a hero.
1 Destrii
Debuts in “Ophidius” by Scott Gray, Martin Geraghty, and Robin Smith
Destrii (or Destriilantos) is an Oblivioner from the Oblivion alien race, whom have been genetically modified into human-animal forms. When the Doctor’s TARDIS gets sucked inside of the Ophidius, Eight meets the ship’s owner to be Destrii. Initially, as she was on the run herself, she tried to trick The Doctor into allowing her to run away with him by transferring her mind into that of his companion, Izzy’s. The Eighth Doctor would reverse the trickery when he learned the truth, but as it turns out, he might’ve let Destrii on board if she had just asked.
She manages to change The Doctor’s mind about her when she helps him stop the Zeronites. He offers her a spot on the TARDIS only if she abides by his rules. She agrees, and in times, The Doctor’s more positive character traits rubs off on Destrii, solidifying her as one of the best companions in Doctor Who history.
