1. This figure does not count Captain Mike Yates and Sargeant John Benton, although Peter Haining includes them in Doctor Who: A Celebration. I hesitate to include them because they did not actually travel in the Tardis over an extended period with the Doctor - - Benton, for example, only did so once in The Three Doctors. Nor, for that matter, did Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart, apart from the aforementioned story and the radio play The Paradise of Death, though he is more commonly considered a companion. I thus include him in this number. This figure also includes Dr. Grace Holloway as she is also considered a companion -- though strangely enough, she is one of the few who never screams!
2. Quoted from the rec.arts.drwho FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) File as found on the Internet.
3. For the purposes of this paper, I prefer to put aside the ever-raging debate over the actual relations between the Doctor and Susan. In the years since the series' premiere, revelations about the Doctor's past have led many fans to believe there are no actual familial relations between the two at all. They argue that Susan's use of the word "Grandfather" in addressing the Doctor is merely a term of endearment and nothing more. But Verity Lambert has stated on several occasions that the two characters were created from the start to be related, and it is this initial framing which is important to my argument. As to Susan's age, I refer the reader to the episode The Sensorites, in which the Doctor refers to Susan as being younger than the young-looking character Carol Maitland.
4. The subsequent male companions also become dependent on the Doctor. The men, however, still exert slightly more control over their lives than the women. Often, in fact, they stand in for the Doctor when he is otherwise occupied. This becomes apparent in all the instances in which the Doctor asks a male companion to "look after" a female companion who accompanies them (cf. The Ark in Space). This implies that the male companion, by virtue of being a man, does not need looking after, despite his own dependence on the Doctor. A good example of this comes from the ways to which they are referred -- though the women are always referred to as "girls," the men are rarely referred to as "boys." Thus the men retain more of their masculine, adult power than the women retain of their feminine power.
5. Worth noting is that both characters undergo the following process during the tenure of the Fourth Doctor, as played by Tom Baker. Though Baker's time in the role was certainly not the only one to see changes in characters like this, he has been described as one of the most dominating actors to play the Doctor.
6. At least Leela gets her bath before she leaves, unlike Sarah. She takes it after being threatened by K-9 under the Doctor's instruction -- to relax after the strain, one assumes. The fact that she is playing with a blow-up floating toy in the brief shot we have of her in the "tub" -- or rather, the Olympic size swimming pool the Doctor calls a tub – simply emphasizes her emasculation.
7. Even the non-humanoid "males" of the series, it seems, feel the ever-present need to "look after the girls."
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Copyright Tony Whitt 1997, 2002. All right reserved.