While she’s no scientist, she’s not stupid and we see her gradually grow more knowledgeable in scientific matters (in The Time Monster, for example, when she guesses exactly what the device the Doctor built does).
She’s resourceful (remember that she does happen to be a fully qualified UNIT agent who has studied escapology) and frequently gets the Doctor out of tight jams. She doesn’t hang around waiting for someone to tell her what to do—she uses her own initiative many times, sometimes with good results (such as when she frees the Doctor in The Sea Devils) and sometimes with bad results (when she tracks down the Master on her own in Terror of the Autons—though note that she does succeed in finding him, and by Frontier in Space she’s become immune to his hypnotism).
She has far more agency than she gets credit for. She knows what she wants and isn’t shy about getting it. In her first episode we learn she got her job with UNIT by asking her well-connected uncle for it, but she’s also immediately willing to do all the hard work involved. The first thing she does is try to put out a fire—no screaming involved, she just grabs the fire extinguisher and puts it out. It turns out she’s actually ruined one of the Doctor’s projects, but her eagerness and sweet personality win him over so quickly that he doesn’t have the heart to fire her. In The Mind of Evil, during a prison riot, she grabs the gun from the prisoner holding her hostage and turns the situation around, covering the prisoners with it and then casually handing them over to the governor.
In The Curse of Peladon, King Peladon offers her a life of luxury as his queen, but she turns him down. She also turns down Latep in Planet of the Daleks—who asks her to stay with him on Skaro—because she’s more interested in her own life on Earth. When she accepts Cliff’s offer of marriage in The Green Death, it’s not on a whim but something she genuinely wants. She isn’t willing to settle for just anyone.
(continues) When she and the Doctor visit the sexist Draconians in Frontier in Space, one of them tells her to not to speak, and her response is simply to tell him to be quiet so she can carry on talking. Later she remarks, “I think it’s about time women’s lib was brought to Draconia.”
Jo is passionate above all else, and it shows in everything she does. She throws herself into her work, she enjoys life very much, and she’s incredibly compassionate and driven to do good. In The Mind of Evil she takes care of the Doctor after his ordeal with the Keller Machine and treats the prisoner Barnham very kindly, showing more concern for him than anyone else does. She brings a captured Ogron a banana in Frontier in Space, showing kindness to a species even the Doctor treats with contempt. Her compassion is so strong that she tries to sacrifice her own life in The Daemons to save the Doctor, asking Azal to kill her in his place. This action is what ultimately saves them all, because Azal can’t comprehend her behaviour. And finally, she chooses to leave the Doctor because she wants to save the planet the old-fashioned way—not by going into space and fighting aliens, but through simple ground level activism.
Perhaps the most profound example of her strong spirit and her bravery is The Time Monster, when the Master’s actions threaten to destroy the entire universe. She’s trapped aboard his TARDIS, and the only way to stop him is for the Doctor to time ram the two vessels, which will kill all three of them. The Doctor threatens to do it, but the Master calls his bluff, pointing out that the Doctor doesn’t have it in him to destroy Jo. Jo has no such qualms and time rams the TARDISes herself, even though she knows it’ll kill her and her best friend. She believes it’s worth it to save the rest of the universe. “Think of all those millions of people who’ll die,” she says. “Think of all those millions of people who’ll never be born!” The three of them do survive through the intervention of Kronos, but that doesn’t take anything away from Jo’s decision to destroy the two TARDISes—a decision the Doctor himself wasn’t able to make.
Despite his strong desire to be free of his exile, the Doctor is clearly the most dependent one in their relationship. He worries that she might choose to stay with Peladon, and when he finally gets his freedom in The Three Doctors, Jo is sad but willing to accept that he probably wants to leave, but he instead chooses to remain with UNIT (which shows some great character development for Three, who lied to Liz to get her to give him the TARDIS key in his first serial and tried to abandon them all). In the end, it’s not the Doctor who leaves Jo but Jo who leaves the Doctor. She makes the decision to part ways, and he is clearly the one most affected by it, and can’t even stay for the rest of the party. It’s such a simple companion departure—no tragedy involved, just leaving to get married—and yet it remains one of the most heart-breaking moments in Classic Who. We rarely see the Doctor so upset over a companion’s exit.(anonymous)
She is the original nepo baby, got a job because of her uncle and it’s strongly implied she got put with the doctor so all the annoying people would be in one room and the brigadier wouldn’t have to deal with them too much. Every outfit is iconic, and she is part of the best era of Doctor Who: 3 and his gay and homosexual unit gang (anonymous)
Vislor Turlough
Turlough is an alien prince, a child soldier, a planetary exile, a would-be assassin, and a reluctant hero. He joined the TARDIS under orders to murder the Doctor, and instead was surprised to find himself caring for people other than himself for the first time in a long time. He’s sarcastic and superior and self-interested and a survivor. He pretends to be more of a coward than he really is. He’s an artist, he keeps up with the Doctor on technical subjects, and he only changes out of his fetish-bait school uniform to put on a pair of short shorts and a speedo. We don't learn his full name or what planet he's from until his final serial. He is my favourite companion <3 (anonymous)
My favourite ginger alien freak with no eyebrows who can't drive. Turlough has one of the best character transformations while travelling in the tardis. He goes from trying to kill the doctor so he can leave earth and go home, but ends up staying, and becoming more selfless and brave. Enlightenment is of the best doctor who stories of all time, and that is in no small part because of Turlough. A vote for Turlough is a vote for ginger weirdos everywhere <3 (@gothicacetheatrekid )
A self-proclaimed selfish coward who commits acts of unimaginable selfless bravery at the slightest provocation. A scheming intellectual on the outside, surprisingly dumb on the inside. He masks like his life depends on it (it does). Acts cold and calculating and bitter and sarcastic so no one ever sees the soft, deeply wounded little boy underneath. The perpetual outsider who never fitted in. His performed identity is weirdly attached to the school he was trapped at and HATED. He once took a quick break literally running from villains in order to fix his outfit. He's the weirdest freak. He's sopping wetTM. He may or may not be the Doctor's subby little boytoy. Nobody in the universe quite like Vislor Turlough. (@genderqueerpond)
have you considered that Guy Who Is A Coward following around on the heels of Guy Who Must Stick His Nose Into Trouble is actually quite Brave and Romantic.
Was digging around under my bed for socks trying to escape laundry day and noticed a book, which I fished out with some effort. It turned out to be my copy of Trading Futures by Lance fucking Parkin, left there like some cursed artifact by an evil wizard intent on troubling my sleep and bedeviling my days.
In recent years of Dr who the doctor generally doesn't use physical violence due to his moral scruples but in 60s who the doctor generally didn't use physical violence bcos he was delegating it to whichever handsome 21 year old boy he was toting around
The first doctor like 2 episodes later: now Steven the invisible people who live on this planet are very tall so you want to aim about 8 feet off the ground. Ok start blasting my boy.
Like ppl keep bringing up broader points about the doctor delegating violence and citing companions like Ace and Leela. No I'm talking specifically about the initial 6 seasons of the show when the doctor having a full time handsome action boy in the tardis was an essential part of the formula.
It's a very specific dr who companion archetype that doesn't really exist outside the 60s.
essentially in the 60s the formula of the show, rather than Doctor + companion, was the Doctor + boy companion + girl companion, with the boy companion's job being to punch people in the face and look good doing.
classic who's last boy companion was Harry Sullivan who i think it would be fair to describe as a deliberate pastiche of the archetype, framed as a very old-fashioned guy and played as kind of dim witted next to the Doctor in spite of being, himself, an actual medical professional
Turlough and Adric are both boys who are companions but neither is the Boy Companion. Adric is, interestingly, a male version of the plucky teenager companion from the 60s (extremely similar specifically to Zoe). Turlough is in a category all by himself called the Rat Bastard.
the 13th Doctor's era has a new, unique type of male companion which is the goofy old man companion. i have mixed feelings about the goofy old man companion as patently he exists to fill the vacuum left by not casting a goofy old man as the doctor themselves.
that brings us to nuwho's remaining line up of male companions. are any of these guys the Boy Companion?
Jack IMO is the closest. like wouldn't be massively out of place in 60s doctor who. he's much more of a bad boy than any of the 60s boy companions. the doctor is also a lot more disapproving of his methods which is more of a post 60s dynamic.
Mickey introduced a new character archetype which is the companion's kinda pathetic boyfriend. he does eventually outgrow this role but does so by ceasing to be a doctor who companion and going off to do his own thing.
Rory is example 2 of the companion's kinda pathetic boyfriend but in later seasons I'd have to say Rory does essentially become the boy companion to Amy's girl companion but he undergoes pretty significant character development to get there. IMO he's closest to Ian in that him doing action stuff is a little funny due to being at odds w his usual persona.
‘Oh, I’m not one of them,’ he said lightly ‘I’m here because I can talk to your people. And someone’s got to.’
‘You mean the ones who took over the city,’ said Bounce. ‘All right, I can take you to see some of them.’
So, when they were both sufficiently dry, Bounce put him on her back and carried him away into the wet and shining Bewilderness.
- The Year of Intelligent Tigers, pg. 84
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