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Companions
Companions: More than Sixty Years of Doctor Who Assistants
Doctor Who
was never really about the Doctor. This is the story of the Time Lord’s companions – friends through all time and space.
Discover the journeys of every one of the Doctor’s assistants, from Susan, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright, to Fifteenth Doctor companion Ruby Sunday, including their adventures off-screen, in novels, comics and audio.
More Than Sixty Years of Doctor Who Assistants is an in-depth account of each companion, examining their arcs, significance in the TV series and how they traversed different times, places and mediums.
Relive their travels on television. Learn what companions did after they left the TARDIS. And meet the Doctor’s wider network of friends, from Evelyn Smythe to Liv Chenka, Professor Bernice Summerfield and even his grandchildren, John and Gillian.
See the universe anew through their eyes.
Discover the journeys of every one of the Doctor’s assistants, from Susan, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright, to Fifteenth Doctor companion Ruby Sunday, including their adventures off-screen, in novels, comics and audio.
More Than Sixty Years of Doctor Who Assistants is an in-depth account of each companion, examining their arcs, significance in the TV series and how they traversed different times, places and mediums.
Relive their travels on television. Learn what companions did after they left the TARDIS. And meet the Doctor’s wider network of friends, from Evelyn Smythe to Liv Chenka, Professor Bernice Summerfield and even his grandchildren, John and Gillian.
See the universe anew through their eyes.
516 pages, Hardcover
Published June 26, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 14, 2026
As we learn about each other, so we learn about ourselves.
I have recently been starting from day dot with Doctor Who, after only beginning my journey when Christopher Eccleston came into the show. I have now finished all of William Hartnell and thought this would be a good accompaniment in my journey through time and space ….
How wrong I was.
While I will admit that this book is really well researched, it took me two MONTHS to read it in its entirety. It felt like I was wading through treacle (or fish fingers and custard) most of the time, and I really never felt like I was getting far with it. This book is just a wall of text - there are no photos of the particular companions that are being referenced, so I was stuck, with only really knowing the companions of the First Doctor and then Nine onwards. And even from the front cover, I was lost as to who most of them were, apart from the obvious ones. (why weren’t Barbara or Ian on the cover?)
The book also gets extremely repetitive. You’ve got each companion in detail, from their first appearance to their last, and with so many companions either appearing alongside each other or overlapping/travelling alongside multiple doctors, you read the same stories numerous times - I am now sick of reading about River Song.
The book also goes into great detail about the expanded universe of each companion, plus companions that only appeared in the expanded universe. I have only read a handful of the novelisations in my time, so I think if this had been cut down, or just given brief descriptions, then it would have been better. The expanded universe covers the comics, the annuals, the online stories, the audio books, and probably even more that I can’t remember now.
The book does start to feel like it’s on a race to the finish line from about Thirteen onwards. The expanded universe chapters are noticeably shorter - presumably because we’re catching up by this stage and there hasn’t been the time to produce loads of spinoffs - and it only covers up until Ruby’s series alongside Fifteen - Belinda only gets the briefest of mentions, so it’s not quite as up to date as I would have liked.
I think this book will help as I discover more of the series itself and I may go back and re-read about some companions - and it may have shed some light on the storylines and companions that I gave up on (Amy & Clara particularly). But ultimately, I would say this is for the die hard fans only - even one of the authors mentions in the acknowledgments about thanking the readers for their patience as the page count “spiralled” out of control! Well, that’s one word for it.
Enjoy reading 500+ pages everyone.
I have recently been starting from day dot with Doctor Who, after only beginning my journey when Christopher Eccleston came into the show. I have now finished all of William Hartnell and thought this would be a good accompaniment in my journey through time and space ….
How wrong I was.
While I will admit that this book is really well researched, it took me two MONTHS to read it in its entirety. It felt like I was wading through treacle (or fish fingers and custard) most of the time, and I really never felt like I was getting far with it. This book is just a wall of text - there are no photos of the particular companions that are being referenced, so I was stuck, with only really knowing the companions of the First Doctor and then Nine onwards. And even from the front cover, I was lost as to who most of them were, apart from the obvious ones. (why weren’t Barbara or Ian on the cover?)
The book also gets extremely repetitive. You’ve got each companion in detail, from their first appearance to their last, and with so many companions either appearing alongside each other or overlapping/travelling alongside multiple doctors, you read the same stories numerous times - I am now sick of reading about River Song.
The book also goes into great detail about the expanded universe of each companion, plus companions that only appeared in the expanded universe. I have only read a handful of the novelisations in my time, so I think if this had been cut down, or just given brief descriptions, then it would have been better. The expanded universe covers the comics, the annuals, the online stories, the audio books, and probably even more that I can’t remember now.
The book does start to feel like it’s on a race to the finish line from about Thirteen onwards. The expanded universe chapters are noticeably shorter - presumably because we’re catching up by this stage and there hasn’t been the time to produce loads of spinoffs - and it only covers up until Ruby’s series alongside Fifteen - Belinda only gets the briefest of mentions, so it’s not quite as up to date as I would have liked.
I think this book will help as I discover more of the series itself and I may go back and re-read about some companions - and it may have shed some light on the storylines and companions that I gave up on (Amy & Clara particularly). But ultimately, I would say this is for the die hard fans only - even one of the authors mentions in the acknowledgments about thanking the readers for their patience as the page count “spiralled” out of control! Well, that’s one word for it.
Enjoy reading 500+ pages everyone.
July 7, 2025
I really enjoyed the original edition of this when it came out for the 50th anniversary, and so when I realised this was coming out I knew I just had to get it. In all honesty you couldn't ask for a better tome, with full details of the companions' lives before, after and during their time with the Doctor. An incredibly easy read, and the only gripe I could find was the odd spelling error here and there; the proofreading could be better.
As a random story, I started reading this when travelling to Derby by train for a con, and later that day I saw Gary Russell, who wrote the foreword, in Derby HMV. Funny how these things turn out!
As a random story, I started reading this when travelling to Derby by train for a con, and later that day I saw Gary Russell, who wrote the foreword, in Derby HMV. Funny how these things turn out!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews