Ranking the Companion Exits of New Who

Guest contributor Will Atkinson counts down his list, then cast your own vote.

Oh, woe is me! The ever-wonderful Clara has shuffled off this mortal coil and into that big TARDIS in the sky – or at the very least she’s flown off into the sky in her own big TARDIS. And as the Impossible Girl bowed out of our favourite show, I turned my mind back to the other times that companions have departed since the show came back, and due to my total lack of imagination, there was only one way I could possibly express this – you guessed it, a list! As per usual, this is from worst to best. I’ve also only included the companions that have accompanied the Doctor for a full series, so apologies for the lack of Mickey, River Song or… er… Adam. But feel free to include them in your own lists in the comments!

5. Martha

Now I’ll come clean – I’m not the world’s biggest fan of Martha. I certainly liked her, and she had some good stories but overall she’s not a favourite of mine. Her exit certainly doesn’t help. It feels a bit half-hearted, as it was being written with the full knowledge that she’ll be back next year. Though the story about her friend who fancies someone certainly allows a culmination to the story of her feelings for the Doctor, the fact that the Doctor doesn’t really act on it (not it that way!) leaves the scene a bit… well… wonky. On the whole, despite these niggles, I think that it does just about work – it ties up Martha’s journey, and it ends on a positive note. But for emotional impact, it pales in comparison to the others on this list.

4. Clara

Clara’s exit was spectacular, unusual, enjoyable and very, very drawn out. Now don’t get me wrong; I was as happy to see Rigsy, Me, Gallifrey and all the rest of it as much as any fan was. The problem with her exit is, unfortunately, how bloomin’ long she takes to go. I would have much preferred her final goodbye to have been at the end of Face the Raven and to have left it there. For shock value alone it was brilliant, and despite a final speech that was slightly drawn out, it was immediately compensated by her masterful final moments, both chilling and poignant at once, especially with her important final comment of “Let me be brave”.

…And then she came back to life two weeks in a row.

Now, the Clara ‘ghost’ in Heaven Sent was all well and good – the Doctor had to have someone to talk to apart from himself, and it may as well have been the lass from Lancashire. But then, frankly, I was left feeling a bit dismayed by her big role in Hell Bent. Yes, it was nice seeing her again, but did we really need to? In all honesty, did it really add much to the story? Would it not have been better to have had a story of the Doctor trying to get revenge on the Time Lords for what they did to Clara, as it seemed to be at the start? I’m not really sure. To be honest, it just felt like overkill. They tied up her story so well at the end of Face the Raven, only to chuck it away with deaths that weren’t deaths, mind wipes that weren’t really mind wipes and the ACARDIS (American Cuisine and Relative Dimensions in Space). So sorry everyone for being a bit of a downer. But hey – at least we got to see the original control room!

3. Amy and Rory

Steven Moffat seems to have a thing about convoluted goodbyes – Clara took a fair while to go (as I have already ranted about) and Amy and Rory had several goodbyes that weren’t, with the ends of The God Complex, The Wedding of River Song and even The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe being the most prominent. But their actual goodbye in The Angels Take Manhattan was very much worth the wait. The best thing about it is that while it of course builds up to their departure, it is still a very good episode, with a lot of timey-wimey antics and witty lines that certainly kept this fan happy. The actual goodbye is also great – the initial shock of having the two of them jump of a building, then the rug pull of having them survive before dispatching them again certainly left me feeling a bit emotionally wounded when I first saw it. You can even say I had something in my eye…wait, sorry, that’s the wrong Weeping Angel story. But anyway, while it might not be an all-time number one, the tale of Amelia Pond’s farewell to her Raggedy Man is certainly a companion exit of a very high order.

2. Donna

As anyone who’s read my Ranking the Davros Stories article will know*, I’m not the biggest fan of Journey’s End. It is certainly spectacular, but I’ve never been very sure whether it deserves the applause that it gets as I’ve always thought it was a bit too infatuated with itself, and a bit too grand because of it. But one thing I do like about it is Donna’s exit. Donna was a brilliant companion, and suited the Tenth Doctor like a glove, and her exit reflects that. Haunting, heart-breaking and of the highest order, it deserves its spot in the top tier of departures. It is an example of an exit where everything works, with the performances, direction, writing and even the music all being spot on. From chats about Charlie Chaplin to a drenched Doctor, this is a fantastic exit for a fantastic companion.

And in any other list it would almost certainly come first. However, there’s still one more companion and one more exit to rank – and really, could it be anything else?

1. Rose

The first proper companion exit of New Who is still, in my eyes, the best. It is just such an unforgettable moment, with the bombast of the fight of the Daleks and the Cybermen all left behind for the quiet of two people who love each other but can never be together. Except, of course, when she came back two years later. Nevertheless, this is still an exceptional moment and it shows how much the show had changed since it had returned to our screens that it could attempt something as emotional and powerful. This was, and is, a shining tribute to one of the show’s best companions, and has earned its place at the top of my list.

But that’s only my opinion. Go on and debate your own rankings below!

*Quick bit of self promotion!

Have Your Say…

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