May 26, 2023
The Doctor's adventures beyond the screen have included many new faces and friends...
Through countless adventures across TV, audio drama, comics and books, there are now plenty of brilliant characters populating the Doctor Who universe. We’re all familiar with ones like Donna Noble, Yasmin Khan and Sarah Jane Smith, but what about some of the companions that have featured in the expanded universe? Characters who are just as important to the Doctor but have yet to grace our screens?
We thought we’d shed some light on some of the Doctor’s lesser-known friends from the world beyond the screen.
So, here are just some companions from Doctor Who’s expanded universe. Which ones do you know?
Molly O'Sullivan
Big Finish Productions
The release of 2012’s Dark Eyes audio anthology didn’t just give the Eighth Doctor a new look, it also introduced a new companion, Molly O’Sullivan (played by Ruth Bradley), an Irish chambermaid-turned-nursing assistant. After meeting the Doctor in France during World War I, she was quickly whisked away to adventure, with the Daleks never too far behind!
Notable for her unusually dark eyes, which were at the heart of the series’ mystery, Molly was the last companion mentioned by the Eighth Doctor onscreen before his tragic regeneration in The Night of the Doctor.
Charley Pollard
Big Finish Productions
Charley Pollard (played by India Fisher) first appeared in the 2001 Big Finish story Storm Warning and was the Eighth Doctor’s first audio companion
Born into a well-to-do family in the 1930s, she first met the Eighth Doctor after stowing away on the Airship R101, where she had originally been fated to die in a crash. By saving her and taking her on as a companion, the Doctor created a paradox, allowing anti-time to seep into the universe. However, that didn’t stop them from travelling through time and space! Charley would later travel with the Sixth Doctor… somehow. It’s a complicated thing, time travel.
Evelyn Smythe
Big Finish Productions
Played by Maggie Staples, Evelyn Smythe was the first original companion to be featured in a Big Finish audio drama, making her debut in 2000’s The Marian Conspiracy.
A professor of history at Sheffield Hallam University, Evelyn was revealed to be a nexus in time, a fact which drew the Doctor to her. Upon being offered the chance to travel in the TARDIS, Evelyn couldn’t resist the idea of seeing all of time and space. As a woman a little older than the Doctor was used to travelling with, she was well-equipped to deal with their adventures, viewing him as her companion. Intelligent and outspoken, Evelyn’s no-nonsense attitude often clashed with the Doctor's more eccentric tendencies, though she quickly proved to be his closest confidant, offering him advice when he needed it.
Lucie Miller
Big Finish Productions
Played by Sheridan Smith, Lucie Miller was another companion of the Eighth Doctor in the Big Finish audio dramas. At first an unwilling traveller in the TARDIS, she was placed into the Doctor’s care by the Time Lords for mysterious reasons, much to his chagrin.
Despite a rocky start to their adventures involving mutant Daleks, the pair soon became fond of each other. A native of Blackpool, Lucie joins Clara and Dan among the Northerners who travelled in the TARDIS. However, the conclusion of her journeys with the Doctor is enough to break both your hearts...
Gabby Gonzalez
Titan Comics
An artist at heart, Gabby struggles to make ends meet while working at her father’s Mexican restaurant in Brooklyn, managing shifts at a laundromat and studying accounting at night school. She first encountered the Tenth Doctor during a run-in with a Cerebravore on the New York subway.
Featured in Titan Comics’ Tenth Doctor series, Gabby is the first Mexican-American companion. and travelled with the Doctor following his loss of Donna Noble after Journey’s End. Like Martha before her, Gabby was initially promised just one trip in the TARDIS. Of course, one trip became many, and Gabby ended up travelling to the Pentaquoteque Gallery on the planet Ouloumos, facing off against the Weeping Angels in World War 1, and tapping into strange powers, thanks to the Binary Apprentice.
Alice Obiefune
Titan Comics
Alice Obiefune was a companion of the Doctor exclusive to Titan Comics’ Eleventh Doctor series. Grieving the recent loss of her mother, Alice was working as a library assistant in London when she encountered the Eleventh Doctor who was chasing a Kharitite, a dog-like beast that fed on negative emotions. After an adventure in the House of Commons and having returned the Kharitite back to its rightful owner, the Doctor offered Alice the trip of a lifetime.
Together, the travelled to the planet Rokhandi, the Amstron sacred library and prehistoric Earth. Alice was adept at dealing with a wide array of people and their issues, thanks to her job, and she was never afraid of calling the Doctor out when he needed it.
Frobisher
Doctor Who Magazine
A shapeshifting Whifferdill from the planet Xenon and a cunning detective to boot, Frobisher (voiced by Robert Jezek) can take on any form he chooses. Generally, that seems to be that of a small penguin! He first met the Sixth Doctor when tracking him for a bounty. Quickly becoming fond of this fellow face-changing traveller, Frobisher decided to steal the bounty and split it with him. From that point forward, he would go on to have adventures with many incarnations of the Doctor.
Characterised by his dry-wit, penchant for disguises and often ill-timed jokes, Frobisher is certainly one of the most memorable companions of Doctor Who’s expanded universe.
Liv Chenka
Big Finish Productions
A native of the planet Kaldor in the Mutter’s Spiral galaxy, Liv Chenka (played by Nicola Walker) was a medical technician who is known to have met the Seventh, Eighth and Ninth Doctors. Serving on the cargo ship, Lorelei, Liv first encountered the Doctor during an apparent attack on the ship by Voc robots. She would later fight the Daleks on Nixyce VII where she once again met the Doctor and stepped back onto the TARDIS alongside fellow companion Molly O’Sullivan.
Liv was forced to become accustomed to 21st century life when she became stranded on Earth in 2020 with the Eighth Doctor and fellow companion, Helen Sinclair. Together they moved into a house on Baker Street. How many other companions can say they’ve lived in a house with the Doctor?
Bernice Summerfield
Virgin New Adventures Novels
An archaeologist from the 26th century, Bernice “Benny” Summerfield is perhaps one of the most celebrated companions from Doctor Who’s expanded universe. Originally created by Paul Cornell for the New Adventures novels in the 90s, Benny soon made the jump to audio drama, portrayed by actress Lisa Bowerman.
While she was initially a companion of the Seventh Doctor, she also went on to have adventures with David Warner’s Unbound Doctor in an alternate dimension.
