On the surface, traveling with the Doctor seems like a dream. As the Fifteenth Doctor said, you don't have to worry about a job, boss, bills, or anything else that stresses the average human. You can fill your life with adventure and go pretty much anywhere in the TARDIS. But as fans of the show know, life as a sidekick can be really complicated and downright sad. In the most recent seasons of the show, we've seen a number of teammates go through the ropes in different ways. Sometimes, it's permanent, like the sad end of Bill Potts. But even when it doesn't last, seeing bad things happen to the Doctor's friends is distressing.
The Doctor's current companion, Ruby Sunday, went through a calendar where He lost everyone She became enchanted and spent 65 years being run over by an older version of herself. We saw her spend a lifetime trying to solve a mystery without the doctor. The worst thing is that it is not the first time that Doctor Who The companion left (or parted with) the doctor and grew older while waiting for his return. Below are other colleagues who went through a similar experience.
Amy Pond – “The Girl I've Been Waiting For”
Eleventh Doctor companion Amy Pond has a rather unique relationship with the Doctor. She met him as a child and grew up talking about her imaginary friend in the blue box who promised to return soon. She returned, but it was years later when she was an adult and preparing to marry Rory Williams (who also became a companion), and they began to travel.
Later, in “The Girl Who Waited”, she was separated from the Doctor and Rory in a quarantine facility on a foreign planet. Time passed much faster there, which led to her being there for 36 years. We meet an older Amy and the Doctor must leave her behind to save the younger Amy and avoid a paradox. Once again, Amy (or at least a version of her) had to wait a long time for the Doctor's return.
Amy and Rory finally leave the TARDIS after a Weeping Angel sends them back in time. The Doctor can't reach them and we learn that they die of old age, together. What a wild ride.
Rory Williams – “The Doctor's Wife” and “Angels Take Manhattan”
Speaking of Rory and those Weeping Angels, we get to see an older Rory in “Angels Take Manhattan.” Before it's all over, Rory ends up at Winter Quay, a hotel full of aging people who are being used by the Weeping Angels to harness their energy. Amy and Rory go through extreme measures to free Rory from this imprisonment, but we see him in old age.
Before all of that, “The Doctor's Wife” shows poor Rory getting stuck in a Tardis maze where his timeline is rapidly speeding up as he tries to escape. Amy finds him and he's bigger and hysterical. Luckily, this time Conundrum works as the episode progresses.
Clara Oswald – “Last Christmas”
We love a weird Christmas episode. “Last Christmas” is a kind of dream story within a dream. It's about, well, crabs that latch onto your face and force you into dreams while they eat your brain. fantastic This happens to the doctor's twelfth companion Clara Oswald, who ends up with a crab on her face so big she looks big. He says it's been 62 years. Of course, the doctor returns to young Clara and she decides to continue traveling with him.
Sarah Jane Smith – “School Reunion”
Now this one is quite different. Instead of everything happening in an episode or two, this legitimately takes decades. Sarah Jane Smith is one of the most beloved classics who spent time with the Third and Fourth Doctors. In the 1976 series, The Hand of Fear, the Fourth Doctor is summoned to his home planet of Gallifrey and says he cannot go with him. He leaves her on Earth (in the wrong place) and goes to Tardis. Sarah makes an appearance in a birthday story in 1983. But because of the Timey Wimey stuff, Sarah ends up back in her life investigating strange things on Earth with K9, a robot dog.
Thirty years after her initial departure, Sarah Jane crosses paths with the Tenth Doctor. It's a meeting that causes tension between her and her current partner Rose Tyler. Sarah Jane is upset that he never came back for her all these years. Rose is upset that the doctor could be so close to someone and leave them. And the doctor is stuck in the middle. For Sarah Jane, there were no timeline reversals or different versions. He just had to wait and wonder for years and years as he aged.
Sometimes, traveling with the doctor can lead to years of heartache, pain and longing, indeed.
