Last year, I found out about the greatest TV show in the history of my whole life, Doctor Who. Doctor Who is a British show about a thousand year old alien, who goes under the alias “The Doctor”, and travels throughout time and space to save the world from intergalactic aliens ( I know, it’s super nerdy). While the Doctor has adventures throughout time and space in his TARDIS ( a time machine disguised as a police telephone box), he is usually accompanied by a companion who travels with him and helps him during their travels. The companions are an essential part to Doctor Who because they act as surrogate audience to us and as a conscious to the Doctor. Throughout the revival series of Doctor Who, there has been about ten companions to the Doctor (although in the old series, there were a lot more). In my opinion, I found some to have bland storylines and personalities while others had much too complicated ones. I will be ranking the revival series companions from my least favorite to my favorite.

*I will only be doing what I like to call the “main” companions, which are the companions that progressed the storyline a lot more than other short-term companions.

7. Nardole (Matt Lucas) (Twelfth Doctor)

Nardole was Professor River Song’s (the wife of the Doctor) assistant turned the Doctor’s companion during the 2016 Christmas specials. His adventures ranged from meeting a superhero to saving a civilization from Cybermen. I found Nardole odd because he just appeared out of the blue, deciding to travel with the Doctor. He had no backstory, no introduction, and no reason to go with the Doctor. While I did find him interesting bringing in an “alien” perspective, he did not really get any character development. Also, he wasn’t really involved in the first half of the season, just naysaying the Doctor about traveling with Bill instead of protecting the creepy vault.

6. Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman) (Tenth Doctor)

Martha Jones, “The Girl Who Walked the Earth” and one of the Doctor’s closest friend. Martha’s journey started when the Doctor first appeared to her during her training as a medical student and the hospital she was working in was transported to the moon. Her travels include meeting Shakespeare, seeing a new planet, and single handedly saved the earth. Martha, to me, was basically a replacement for the first companion the Doctor traveled with. She was just a generic character that followed around the Doctor with the also generic reason of traveling with him to see the universe. While I did like how she just left on her own terms, I found it unsatisfying that she left because he didn’t reciprocate her feelings for him. Nonetheless, Martha was a pretty good companion.

5. Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) (Ninth & Tenth Doctor)

Rose Tyler aka Bad Wolf, was the first companion of the revival series and one of the fan favorites. Rose met the Doctor when she was being chased by live mannequins in the store she was working at. He told her to escape before he blew the whole store up. She saw the end of the world, met Charles Dickens, and even was the first witness to see the Doctor regenerate. Rose also grew a romantic relationship with the Doctor which he reciprocated.  Rose was a good companion throughout her run, but I feel like she got a little bit of a spoiled ending. Her ending was her getting a Doctor clone to live and love her for the rest of her life in an alternate dimension (don’t ask, it’s a complicated story). While many people think that her ending was perfect, I thought that she got everything she ever wanted while some of the other companions had a tragic ending. But nonetheless, Rose was great companion to kick start the series again.

4. Clara Oswald (Jenna Coleman) (Eleventh & Twelfth Doctor)

Clara “Oswin” Oswald ,The Impossible Girl, was one of the most legendary and confusing companions the show has ever had. She first met the Doctor in the future where she died, and met him again in the past where she died again, and again in present time. Her mysterious existence intrigued the Doctor, which is why he took her along as a companion. Her mystery was finally resolved in the season 7 finale where she jumped into the Doctor’s timeline to save him which shattered herself into different versions of herself throughout time and space. Her adventures were continued when the Doctor regenerated into his twelfth version. She traveled with him for quite some time before her sad, depressing death. Clara was a companion that I really liked for a while before the show made her too overpowering. She initially was just a clever and curious girl before she became too reckless and headstrong, always believing the Doctor would save her. Clara just became too much like the Doctor in my taste, but I still really like her as a companion.

3. Bill Potts (Pearl Mackie) (Twelfth Doctor)

Bill Potts was the most recent companion and she was one of my favorite. Being introduced as the first ever openly gay companion, Bill was fun, quirky, and constantly curious ( I’m serious, she would not stop asking questions). Bill first met the Doctor when he asked to be her tutor at the university she always wanted to go to, which she gladly accepted. Then, she got caught up into the Doctor’s world when her girlfriend fused with a sentient alien oil and she started to travel with him, in hopes to find a way to save her. Bill saw amazing things, such as a robot society that uses emojis to talk and a sea monster under the frozen Thames River. Bill was a really fun companion to me because she asks very unique questions and she brought in a new perspective the show. Also, she quipped wisecracks and jokes under pressure which really lightened the mood of a tough situation. While I am sad that Bill is departing after this year’s Christmas special, I am ready to see how her story ends.

2. Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) (Tenth Doctor)

Donna Noble, “The Most Important Woman in the Whole of Creation,” was the Doctor’s best and greatest friend. She first met him on her wedding day when she ended up in his TARDIS just as he had lost Rose; she initially declined to travel with him. By the second time they met, she changed her mind and agreed to travel with him. Donna traveled to the last day before the volcano erupted at Pompeii, save an enslaved race of aliens, and even rescued the entire galaxy. But alas, great things have to come to an end as her human mind couldn’t handle the Time-Lord knowledge she obtained when her DNA was merged with the Doctor’s. The Doctor had to erase her memory of all their adventures in order to save her life. She continued on to have a content life without the Doctor, but he lived an unhappy one without her. I was initially annoyed at Donna when I first met her because of her brash and loud personality, but then I fell in love with her when she came back. She was smart, funny, and her constant wisecracking, as well as her nature to always stand up for what is right made her one of my favorite companions. Additionally, while many of the companions were the Doctor’s conscious, Donna took the role more seriously than others like when she pleaded with him to save one family on volcano day in Pompeii. Donna may have forgotten everything, but I will never forget Donna.

1.Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) and Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill) (Eleventh Doctor)

Amelia “Amy” Pond, “The Girl Who Waited,” and Rory Williams, “The Last Centurion,” were the greatest companions the Doctor ever had. Amy first met the “Raggedy” Doctor when she was a little girl. He crashed his TARDIS in her backyard after his explosive regeneration in which he immediately befriended her. But just before he asked her to travel with him, his TARDIS started to malfunction and sent him 14 years into the future where he met her again as a grown woman getting married to her childhood friend, Rory. The Doctor whisked both of them away to space and and they both eventually had grown accustomed to it. They, along with their daughter River Song, had many adventures with the Doctor, ranging from fighting vampires to creating the second Big Bang. They were having the best of times until they went to Manhattan. Both Amy and Rory got sent to the past there by the hands of  the Weeping Angels, never to see the Doctor ever again (I was upset for the rest of that day). I really loved the three of them travelling time and space together because they had great personalities that bounced off of each other. The Doctor was intelligent and quirky, Amy was adventurous and stubborn, while Rory was cautious and loving. I also loved how that no matter what, Amy and Rory would wait until the Doctor came back to them for another adventure. Amy and Rory were more than friends to the Doctor; they were his family, both literally and figuratively.