LDS Geeks Podcast #38: Third Doctor Review

Here's our final round of the Third Doctor. His time with UNIT and his new friends changed Doctor Who. Enjoy!

--Spencer 

LDS Geeks Podcast #33: Third Doctor Companions

We're back for some more Classic Doctor Who! The Third Doctor had some amazing companions and even the UNIT personnel were pretty great (except for Yates). I hope you enjoy our latest episode!

--Spencer 

LDS Geeks Podcast #31: Third Doctor Adventures

TJ and I finally managed to work through technical issues (at least for this time) and find time in our schedules to record again. Join us this time for our favorite adventures with the Third Doctor.

--Spencer

PS: I had an allergy attack literally an hour before recording. I tried to edit out most of the sniffles, but I apologize in advance for the unattractive noise. 

Third Doctor Revisited: "Planet of the Spiders"

It’s time to round off the Third Doctor content, as TJ and I are already on our way into the Fourth Doctor era. We’ve still got three podcast episodes to go about the Third Doctor, but this will be my last blog post dedicated to Jon Pertwee episodes of Classic Doctor Who. So please enjoy some of my random musings from watching the Third Doctor’s final story: “Planet of the Spiders”

Doctor Who did a great job rounding off the Third Doctor with a proper finale, just like they did with the Second Doctor. We had the return of Jo Grant (sort of) and Mike Yates. They even found a wonderful use of Sarah Jane being a reporter. All these pieces came together with an alien plot and the preparation for our formal regeneration-centric story.

“Why spiders?” Ron Weasley would say. There’s something somewhat universal about spiders making for a good villain. These spiders reminded me of “Turn Left” and “Runaway Bride”. What is it with Doctor Who and monster spiders? In addition to Donna’s two encounters with eight-legged aliens, we also had “Arachnids in the UK” with the Thirteenth Doctor. It should go without saying to not watch this story if you have arachnophobia. But that much should be clear from the title.

I had a little chuckle on the inside as our characters seemingly chased the crystal around like a comedy. It reminded me of watching “What’s Up, Doc?” when I was in college. I’ll have to watch it again sometime but I feel like to some extent you could put some Scooby Doo music synced to all the times the crystal changed hands. But in seriousness, I liked that they brought the crystal back with Jo’s letter, bringing the Third Doctor’s tenure full circle.

And of course we had the leading up to the Doctor regenerating, Our first proper regeneration since “The Tenth Planet”. But this time we had a name for the process and context for the change. Demonstrated by the example of the Doctor’s old mentor, known at the time as K'anpo, regeneration became a staple part of the Doctor Who lore. Now we can have regenerations of not only the Doctor, but also the Monk, the Master, the Rani, etc… or just the Master.

Speaking of regeneration, this was also the first of many times the Doctor sacrificed himself for a friend. Just like the Third Doctor sacrificed himself for Sarah Jane, we’d later see him sacrifice himself and trigger regeneration for the sake of Peri, Rose, and Wilf. A tragic ending for the Doctor each time.

Now on our way into the Fourth Doctor era. I wanted to say something about the portrayal of Tommy in this story and his becoming “normal” but I couldn’t articulate it–I’ll save it for another time. Overall I really enjoyed this story and we’ll discuss it more during our Third Doctor podcast series. I would just love to have the Hermit return. Can we please? Please?

LDS Geeks Podcast #28: Third Doctor Villains

In honor of Halloween and spooky season, we're going out of order again with our Doctor Who podcast series so that we could talk about the Third Doctor's most notable villains. We've got some good ones who've kept recurring through the last fifty years since the Third Doctor's era.

--Spencer

PS: I know I've apologized for technical issues in the past, but I felt like it was particularly bad this time. Please give us your feedback on how this episode went and thank you for being patient with us being amateur podcasters.

Friday Creature Feature - Sontarans

"And if I'm ever in the need of advice from a psychotic potato dwarf, you'll certainly be the first to know."
--Eleventh Doctor ("The Snowmen")

With over sixty years of content and upgrades in special effects, much has changed about Doctor Who. What once was cardboard backgrounds (see "Keys of Marinus" where you can clearly tell Ian and Barbara are walking in place) is now CGI and cinematic quality. Even the villains have changed drastically (see Silurians and Cybermen). Besides the Daleks (who think they're perfect already), one of the few who hasn't changed much is the Sontarans.

What are Sontarans?

These walking potatoes are a clone race built solely for battle. They're prideful and would rather die honorable in battle than to surrender. Their planet, Sontar, is dense with strong gravitational pull, resulting in their stocky troll-like build. They breathe through a probic vent in the back of their neck (if you can call that a neck). That vent is their big weakness, as a quick whack to it can temporarily incapacitate the baked potato.

A recurring gag ever since their conception in the 1970s is their inability to perceive differences in gender; notable examples are when Sarah Jane meets them in "The Time Warrior" and when multiple versions of Clara interact with Strax in the Eleventh and Twelfth Doctor eras. The Doctor brashly chalked this up to being a clone race and "Two genders is a bit further than he can count."

They're described as the finest soldiers of the galaxy, which makes sense since that's what they're bred to do. Their mortal enemy is Rutan Host, but they've been at war so long (50 000+ years) that no one even knows why they're fighting anymore. 

The Doctor and the Sontarans

On-screen the Doctor's first encounter with the Sontarans was when the Third Doctor and Sarah Jane ended up in the Middle Ages and thwarted the plans of Commander Lynx. The Doctor would later meet the Sontarans sporadically through the almost fifty years of television, encountering seven other incarnations of the Doctor, and Sarah Jane would even meet a lone Sontaran after her time in the TARDIS during The Sarah Jane Adventures.

One notable recurring Sontaran is fan-favorite Strax (TJ and I love him at least). Indebted to the Doctor and later companion of Vastra and Jenny, Strax assisted the Eleventh and Twelfth Doctors on occasion. While I don't know if you could say Strax was a "good guy" he's probably the most civil Sontaran to have existed--though he did like to go to Scotland get in fights, while living in Victorian England. His temperamental and violent nature still shined through his butler facade frequently, which made for plenty of comical moments. Vastra, Jenny, the Doctor, and Clara tended to keep him in line, but how much can you really reform a Sontaran?

It's been a few regenerations since we last saw Strax, but I think it would be worth having him and his friends back again. It's only been a couple years since we last saw other Sontarans, but Strax and his grenades will always have a special place in my heart. As such, I'll leave you with another great Strax-related quote.

"I'm the clever one, you're the potato one."
--Eleventh Doctor ("The Snowmen")

Third Doctor Revisited: "The Three Doctors"

I knew I had to write something about the tenth anniversary special of Doctor Who when TJ and I got to that point. Despite the “First Law of Time” (as it’s called by the Time Lords) precluding the crossing of one’s own timeline, this story set the precedent for anniversary stories; “The Five Doctors” (twentieth anniversary) and “The Day of the Doctor” (fiftieth anniversary) continued this trend, in addition to other multi-Doctor stories (like “The Two Doctors” and “Twice Upon a Time”).

This story saw the return of the First Doctor, though due to William Hartnell’s health he was limited to filming his character trapped in a “time eddy”. According to the pseudo-canon material, he was pulled from time at the period when Vicki and Steven were his companions. Hartnell was unable to film with the other Doctors, but was able to film his scenes elsewhere to still help the other Doctors defeat Omega. It was the last appearance of the First Doctor, as portrayed by William Hartnell, as he passed away about two years later. All Whovians ought to be grateful to that first First Doctor actor, who started this 60+ year journey.

P

atrick Troughton as the Second Doctor also returned of course, recalling his encounters with Benton and Lethbridge-Stewart in “The Web of Fear” and “The Invasion”. I found his rivalry with his future self amusing. We kind of saw that dynamic between the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors, but this rivalry was much more pronounced. Unlike future multi-Doctor stories where the memories were blurred and mostly forgotten, the Second Doctor seemed to remember this adventure when encountering the Third Doctor again in “The Five Doctors”. His stories weren’t my favorite, but I enjoyed him as the Doctor, so I’m glad he returned and would return two more times. As he was on the orders of the Time Lords, my theory places this appearance after “The War Games” and before his regeneration (see my Fugitive Doctor post for more on that), but the pseudo-canon places this moment while Jamie and Zoe were still in the TARDIS.

Finally, the third of the three Doctors was naturally the current Jon Pertwee incarnation. Unlike other multi-Doctor stories, the Third Doctor was the only incarnation with a clear companion (even in “The Day of the Doctor” you could sort of say that Queen Elizabeth was the Tenth Doctor’s companion). Jo had wonderful chemistry with all three of the Doctors and I felt like she kept the story moving. And finally, after years of being stuck on Earth with UNIT, the Third Doctor’s exile on Earth finally ended, allowing him and Jo to willingly head into time and space (instead of the Time Lords directing his travels). 

This story also marks the first time the Brigadier and Benton entered the TARDIS. Insert “bigger on the inside” commentaries and the Brig’s repeatedly skeptical comments. You’d think that after three years of working closely with the Doctor, he’d be more willing to believe. But I guess like Ben and Ian, we needed that skeptic in the TARDIS.

The Time Lords in crisis: Something you don’t see too often. It shows just how big of a threat Omega was, though honestly I’m not sure I understand what effect Omega had on Gallifrey during this story. All the same, Omega was a big enough deal that he would be referenced throughout the series (example: The Hand of Omega in “Remembrance of the Daleks”) and he would reappear against the Fifth Doctor. Only a couple other Time Lords have that much recurring prominence in Doctor Who, besides the Master. But we’ll get to more Time Lords as we get into the Fourth Doctor era shortly I’m sure.

Third Doctor Revisited: "The Time Monster"

As of writing this blog post, I'm still working my way through the Third Doctor era (got slowed down by a couple other projects, like re-watching Wolverine). Regardless, I plough through the classic era, as TJ and I try to figure out when we have time to podcast together and to finish discussing the Second Doctor. In the meantime, I had some random thoughts as I watched "The Time Monster". It didn't make my "top stories" when I watched the Third Doctor years ago, but I definitely enjoyed it this time. So here we go!

This story is one of many that take a myth and make them relatable for me. "The Daemons" was another like this, as was the recent appearance of Sutehk against the Fifteenth Doctor (see also "Pyramid of Mars" with the Fourth Doctor). These are the kinds of stories that still pull me into Doctor Who. Human myth understood in a sense of science and/or aliens. 

This story was especially intriguing after watching/reading Percy Jackson. Like most kids I've learned bits and pieces of Greek mythology through my childhood (if you can count Disney's Hercules). Stories like this make me wish I'd understood more from my Classic Civilization at BYU (it was the only class I failed during my bachelor's degree--Let's just say The Odyssey and The Iliad went over my head). But between Doctor Who stories like this and being pulled into Percy Jackson, it makes me want to learn more about classic mythology. 

While I'm already referencing Percy Jackson, I was surprised by the ending of this story (even though I'd seen it before). Unlike what's portrayed in "The Lightning Thief" (I still need to read "Sea of Monsters"--I've only seen the movie), Kronos wasn't all evil in this story. Go figure. Just in Doctor Who fashion, taking a known creature or entity and flipping your expectations upside-down. 

It was an interesting twist to see different twists on time travel. The Doctor and the Master both had a TARDIS present, but there was also Crystal of Kronos that pulled the Master to Atlantis. To make it even weirder, the Doctor even managed to trap a TARDIS within a TARDIS within a TARDIS...). Time travel's crazy right?

According to IMDB this story is one of the lowest rated among the Third Doctor's adventures. Between the Master, Atlantis, and Kronos, I felt it was engaging and well paced. So why the low ratings? Maybe someone else has watched this tory and can give their review.

The Master's fate in this story demonstrated some of the Doctor's most undeserved compassion, like when the Tenth Doctor tried to keep the Master from dying. But it offers a soul-searching question, which I'll end on, would you wish eternal torment on your worst enemy?

Third Doctor Revisited: "Spearhead From Space"

Finally finished off with the Second Doctor era (and the head-canon following) so we're onto the Third Doctor era, as TJ and I continue to make our way through Classic Who. And I had enough random thoughts or tidbits to make a blog post. So here we go!

This was also my first exposure to the Third Doctor, over ten years ago, when some friends and I did a marathon of sorts before the 50th Anniversary Special; we had one story from each of the eleven Doctors of the time. Possibly one of the best things I did in college.

As the Third Doctor appeared, this was the first color episode to appear as well. I gotta wonder what it was like to watch the First and Second Doctors and then move into complete color, a novelty at the time. It's like a whole new era of Doctor Who. And not just because of the color.

With the Doctor grounded on Earth, unable to fly the TARDIS and working with UNIT, this episode (and this era) stretched the idea of who qualified as “companion” to the Doctor. Typically, Liz is considered the companion of this season, but she doesn't travel in the TARDIS any more than the Brigadier or other UNIT staff. In some lists, including my own, sometimes I'll even include recurring UNIT personnel, but I always include the Brig.

This story also brings up a lot of details that end up running through decades of Doctor Who. Let's start with the fact that this is the first time the Doctor's referenced to have two hearts, one of the few specific things we know about Time Lord anatomy. His allegiance with UNIT made him the organization's primary scientific advisor, which has continued over decades of canon, as recently as the Fourteenth Doctor.

As the second post-regeneration story, it was new territory for lots of themes and running gags. Lots of long time threads of regeneration began here. For example, the post-regeneration coma first happened here with the Third Doctor, but it would come up again with the Eighth, Tenth, and Twelfth Doctors, while the others showed no sign of problem. The Third Doctor was also the first of the Doctors to steal hospital clothes for his outfit, followed by the Eighth and Eleventh Doctors. 

The silly moments in this story also showcased the wonderful character of the Third Doctor and his comedic timing. I still can't get over the Doctor cuddling his shoes and escaping in a wheelchair. Can't wait to see more of him as I continue through the Third Doctor era (and I can't wait to see Sarah Jane again).

Sarah Jane Smith Binge List

This month would have marked the 76th birthday of Elizabeth Sladen, who played fan-favorite Sarah Jane Smith alongside seven different Doctors and got her own spin-off Sarah Jane Adventures (SJA) during the early years of Modern Who. In honor of her birthday, I wanted to highlight some of her best stories that I want to rewatch someday soon.

Third Doctor Era (Season 11)

The Time Warrior - Naturally you need to start with her first appearance. She snuck into UNIT and teamed up with the Third Doctor, almost by accident.

Invasion of the Dinosaurs - This was my favorite of Sarah Jane’s early stories. To say the special effects are dated would be an understatement, but the story is solid

Planet of the Spiders - Sarah Jane’s first experience with the Doctor regenerating (also the first time “regeneration” was a canon term). It also gave us the only TV appearance of the Hermit.

Fourth Doctor Era (Seasons 12-14)

Robot - Can’t talk about Sarah Jane without addressing the beginning of the Fourth Doctor and the introduction of Harry Sullivan.

Genesis of the Daleks - One of Sarah Jane’s iconic stories, featuring Davros for the first time and the backstory of the Daleks.

The Android Invasion - In some ways, this one was freakier than Blink. But that’s just one Whovian's opinion.

The Hand of Fear - After her final adventure with the Fourth Doctor, it was sad to leave Sarah Jane behind, especially since she was left in the wrong place.

A Girl’s Best Friend - It was supposed to be a pilot for a spin-off series, but Sarah Jane wouldn’t get that spin-off until the modern era. But this Christmas special did get Sarah Jane her K-9, who would keep on reappearing.

Fifth Doctor Era (20th Anniversary)

The Five Doctors - Sarah Jane only had one appearance during Peter Davison’s run. She teamed up with the Third Doctor in the Death Zone, before returning to her home again. She would not be seen again in the Classic era.

Tenth Doctor Era (Series 2-4, SJA Series 1-3)

School Reunion - The Tenth Doctor, Rose, and Mickey teamed up with Sarah Jane and K-9. I would love more episodes like this, bringing Classic companions back for one-off stories.

SJA Series 1 - The first installment of the Sarah Jane Adventures introduced Luke, Maria, and Clyde. If you were to only watch a couple stories from this season I’d recommend  “Invasion of the Bane”, “Revenge of the Slitheen”, and “Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?”

The Stolen Earth/Journey’s End - Sarah Jane and Luke guest star in this epic Doctor Who crossover, along with the companions of the main series and the team from Torchwood. 

SJA Series 2 - This season said goodbye to Maria and hello to Rani. Some of the must-sees from this period include “The Last Sontaran”, “The Day of the Clown”, and “The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith” (which explains why she was raised by her aunt).

SJA Series 3 - This season took place during the year of Tenth Doctor specials. Without a companion, he showed up in the Sarah Jane Adventures. “The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith” saw him team up with Sarah Jane and her friends.

The End of Time - Sarah Jane and Luke only briefly show up during the Tenth Doctor’s farewell tour, but this heartbreaking scene is still worth watching.

Eleventh Doctor Era (SJA Series 4-5)

SJA Series 4 - With Luke off for early admission at Oxford, Sarah Jane had a smaller team. But that didn’t stop her from facing off against her alien foes. Highlights for this season are “The Nightmare Man”, “The Empty Planet”, and of course “Death of the Doctor”, which featured the return of Jo Grant and the appearance of the Eleventh Doctor.

SJA Series 5 - This season was cut short, due to Elizabeth Sladen’s passing. In “Sky” she adopted a little alien girl (named “Sky”) and “The Man Who Never Was” gave her a loving tribute at the end.

Sometime after this, Sarah Jane Smith reportedly died. We don’t know how she died, but some speculated she had been taken by the Doctor again. Her funeral was attended by many of the Doctor’s companions and her team. Her funeral was described in a webcast in 2020. A beautiful goodbye to a beautiful companion. We miss you, Sarah Jane. We miss you, Elizabeth Sladen.

The Third Doctor

HALLEJIAH! I’m done with school! That last class I was doing is over and now it’s time for being an adult and for me that means plenty of overtime hours to pay for Disneyland in September. Gotta do what you’ve gotta do, right? In the meantime, how about some Doctor Who? This time I’ve got some Third Doctor for you.

The "other" Brig and Liz look a little
trippy in "Inferno".

Season 7

Top Story: Inferno

Inferno was unique in this part of the Third Doctor era because it played with the TARDIS more. It jumped to a parallel world and actually used the TARDIS, which was rare during the Third Doctor era, especially this early on. It was quite interesting seeing Liz and the Brigadier in the parallel world. Gotta say that the Brigadier looks better with the mustache.

Flop Story: The Silurians

The Doctor teams up with Liz and
the Brigadier to stop the Autons in
"Spearhead from Space".

It’s very possible that I didn’t care for this story because I’d seen the Silurians in Matt Smith’s era of Doctor Who. Because of the reverse order that I was introduced to them, I felt like this Silurian story was basically the same as the Matt Smith one: Humans meet Silurians, the Doctor tries to negotiate between them, and the humans screw it up. Maybe I’d have liked this story better if I had watched it before I watched the Matt Smith one.

Honorable Mention: Spearhead from Space

This story not only introduced the Third Doctor to us, but it also introduced the UNIT-based storyline, which would be the basis of Doctor Who for the next five seasons, as well as many stories over the years since the Third Doctor. It brought the Brigadier back as a main character, last seen in "The Invasion".

The Doctor essentially takes on a
devil in "The Daemons"

Season 8

Top Story: The Daemons

This story brought a season’s long back-and-forth with the Master to an end. It was kind of interesting to see the Doctor toy with everyone, pretending to control Bessie with magic. It was one of those episodes that toyed with the Doctor’s understanding of the world: does magic really exist or not? Also, as a side note, Sergeant Osgood, who appears in this story, was intended to be the father of Petronella Osgood, who works for UNIT in the Eleventh and Twelfth Doctor eras.

Flop Story: The Mind of Evil

This one was another convoluted plan by the Master to rule the world. From what I remember of the story, it was kind of repetitive and it didn’t engage me too much in what I was watching. Granted, maybe I was watching it on a grave shift and I just don’t remember it properly.

Off the ground and the Doctor is dealing 
with space politician "Colony in Space"

Honorable Mention: Colony in Space

First time off world since the Doctor was grounded! Yay! Though he didn’t have control over the TARDIS yet, but instead was at the mercy of the Time Lords. All the same, it got a little bit of the space travel back into Doctor Who. It also showed the Doctor’s new sonic screwdriver for the first time. We’d seen it on occasion in the Second Doctor era, but it was this Doctor who made it a more frequent companion.

The Doctor gets interrogated in
"Day of the Daleks"

Season 9

Top Story: Day of the Daleks

So we get some more time travel shenanigans here, as well as the return of the Daleks. This story got top marks from its creative use of time travel. I liked having the little twists from the visitors from the future. It was also the first time in years that the Daleks had appeared and we all know how important the Daleks are in the Doctor’s life.

Flop Story: The Sea Devils

It felt like this story was "The Silurians" all over again, except this time we had the Master. So same formula as before: Humans meet Sea Devils, the Doctor tries to negotiate between them, and the humans screw it up. Maybe I didn’t give this story enough of a chance, but that was my impression about it at least. Plus it took forever for the Sea Devils to even show up. This story was honestly a lot more about the Master.

Discrimination still exists in "The Mutants"

Honorable Mention: The Mutants

Nice somewhat political statement about overthrowing the native population. It’s also just this crazy idea that we think we know other people, when really they’re just in the middle of their process. The settlers thought the mutants were deadly and evil, when really they were only like that because someone screwed up their metamorphosis. Undergone naturally, the metamorphosis turned them into something beautiful. There’s a gospel metaphor in there somewhere. I’m not sure where.

The Master tries to hypnotize Jo in
"Frontier in Space"

Season 10

Top Story: Frontier in Space

Not too long after regaining the ability to travel in the TARDIS (we’ll get to that in a second), the Doctor and Jo end up in the middle of a war between the Draconians and Earth. It was an interesting, mind-twisting plot. The humans were deceived into thinking the Draconians were attacking them and the Draconians were deceived into thinking the humans were attacking them. However, in reality, the attackers on both sides are the Ogrons, masked by a hypnosis device. They’re led by the Master and, surprise, the Daleks (who we see more of in the next story). This was kind of a sad story in hindsight because it was the last appearance of the Master, as portrayed by Roger Delgado. The Master wouldn’t be seen again until the Fourth Doctor era.

Flop Story: The Green Death

This could have been an amazing story, with Jo falling in love, saving the world, and leaving the Doctor. However, instead it kind of came across as a tree-hugger story. I have nothing against tree-huggers… except when it’s overdone. Also it doesn’t help that because of disputes about her character, Katy Manning wouldn’t return as Jo until 2010 when she appeared in the Sarah Jane Adventures.

The Second and Third Doctors have
to work together to stop Omega.

Honorable Mention: Planet of the Daleks

This story directly followed “Frontier in Space” and it also served as a sequel to the First Doctor story “The Daleks”, showing what happened with the Thals after the Doctor, Ian, Barbara, and Susan left Skaro. As a story itself it was great, but it was also just cool to see it tie things together, both with the previous story and with one of the first First Doctor stories.

Special Episode: The Three Doctors

Honestly, this one could easily have had Honorable Mention, so I had to put it in its own category to be fair. To start out Season 10, Doctor Who had its 10^th Anniversary Special, which featured the First Doctor, the Second Doctor, and the Third Doctor. The Time Lords set the three Doctors against Omega to stop him and in return they reward the Third Doctor with his knowledge of how to pilot the TARDIS again. So after this story, it’s back into the Time Vortex for some adventuring.

Season 11

The Doctor takes on a stegosaurus in
"The Invasion of the Dinosaurs"

Top Story: Invasion of the Dinosaurs

Before I watched this story, I thought it sounded really silly. When I watched it, it looked silly, with all of the plastic dinosaurs. It was beautifully horrific special effects. However, the story wasn’t what I expected. Somehow I imagined dinosaurs invading London and having that be the plot. Instead, that’s just the diversion. Somehow I didn’t see that coming, at least not at first.

Flop Story: Death to the Daleks

It’s hard for me to say that any Dalek episode is bad, but this story was just hard to follow. Perhaps this was another that I watched during an overnight shift at work, but I just couldn’t get into it. It’s a shame really because this was Sarah Jane’s first off-world adventure and the first time she met the Daleks. I would have hoped for a more spectacular story.

The Doctor and Sarah Jane help out
the Queen of Peladon

Honorable Mention: Monster of Peladon

Reaching back a couple seasons to “The Curse of Peladon”, the Doctor and Sarah Jane travel here to visit, only to find out that many years have passed. Even though I wasn’t a huge fan of Jo’s adventure to Peladon, this one was kind of cool, as it played as a sequel to that original story and it gave Sarah Jane some great personality. My favorite, as she said to the Queen of Peladon, “There is nothing only about being a girl.” As far as female characters go, Sarah Jane is great!

Third Doctor Companions:

Liz                   Spearhead from Space - Inferno

Jo                     Terror of the Autons - The Green Death

Sarah Jane       The Time Warrior - (4th Doctor)

Jo became quite resourceful while
she worked with the Doctor

Favorite Companion:

Having watched modern Doctor Who and The Sarah Jane Adventures, I’d have thought that Sarah Jane would be my favorite Third Doctor companion. However, as much as I liked Sarah Jane, I loved Jo Grant. She started out as the ditzy blonde, but she grew and matured and became stronger and braver. Her character development was wonderful, turning from a dumb blonde to a clever sidekick for the Doctor.

No one's sass can match up to Liz Shaw

Least Favorite Companion:

It was hard to choose my least favorite companion of the Third Doctor, because I liked all three. However, if I have to choose one it would be Liz Shaw. Liz was great and I loved her sarcasm and sass. The problem is that, unlike Jo, her character was kind of flat. She was a skeptic when she met the Doctor and that never really changed, even after seeing some of the workings of the TARDIS and alien creatures. That being said, Liz only stayed for one season. If she had been a companion longer and had a proper trip with the Doctor, maybe things would have been different.

Alright. That’s all for now. I’m headed out to the Hill Cumorah Pageant later this week. I’m going to try to post still while I’m gone, but since I’m going to be super busy, I make no promises. If not sooner, I’ll see you again in the second half of July.

Decades later, Sarah Jane and Jo met over the supposed death
of the Doctor, but the Third Doctor's companions knew better

Check out our other Doctor Who features:

• First Doctor
• Second Doctor
• Fourth Doctor Part 1 and Part 2
• Fifth Doctor
• Sixth Doctor
• Seventh Doctor
• Eighth Doctor
• Ninth Doctor
• Tenth Doctor
• Eleventh Doctor
• Twelfth Doctor