History Characters / DoctorWhoRevivalSeriesCompanions

* OlderSidekick: Subverted in the story. Obviously more than qualifies in the real world; he's more than twice David Tennant's age. In fact, Creator/BernardCribbins is the oldest actor to have played a companion on the show, and had already appeared as a companion in the ''Film/DaleksInvasionEarth2150AD'' film in 1966, five years before David Tennant was born. In-universe, the Doctor is still ''much'' older. The Tenth Doctor lampshades this saying he would be proud if Wilfred was his old man.

* RetGone: Briefly happens to her during "The Church on Ruby Road" when the Goblins go back and kidnap her as a baby before she can be found by the priest. The Doctor is the only one who remembers her thanks to RippleEffectProofMemory and goes back himself to rescue her and fix the timeline.

* ArtificialHybrid: The biological meta-crisis made her half-Time Lord.

* [[BigBrotherInstinct Big Sister Instinct]]: Quickly finds herself chasing after the Goblins when they kidnap Lulubelle and haul her into their airship.

%%!!Fifteenth Doctor Era
%%[[folder:Ruby Sunday]]
%%!!Ruby Sunday (Fifteenth Doctor)
%%->'''Debut:''' [[Recap/DoctorWho2023CSTheChurchOnRubyRoad "The Church on Ruby Road"]] (2023)

%%->'''Played by:''' Creator/MillieGibson
%%[[/folder]]

* CharacterOutlivesActor: [[spoiler:Bernard Cribbins passed away after filming his cameo for the end of "Wild Blue Yonder", but Wilf is mentioned to be safe and sound during the next episode.]]

* LikeASonToMe: Despite being the Doctor's junior by more than 800 years, not that he knows it when he declares it.
-->'''The Master''': ''*sneering*'' Your dad's acting up.
-->'''Wilf''': Yeah? Well I'd be proud if I was!

-->'''The Doctor:''' I'd be proud.\\

A newspaper salesman from 21st century Chiswick, London. Originally a one-off character in [[Recap/DoctorWho2007CSVoyageOfTheDamned "Voyage of the Damned"]], Wilfred was eventually revealed to also be Donna Noble's grandfather (a last-minute rewrite due to the actor hired to play Donna's father dying). This resulted in quite a few recurring roles throughout the fourth series, leading to fan-favourite status for the character and finally full-fledged companion status in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime "The End of Time"]], the Tenth Doctor's final story. [[spoiler:He made a return appearance in 60th anniversary special [[Recap/DoctorWho60thASWildBlueYonder "Wild Blue Yonder"]], which proved to be Bernard Cribbins's final role, with a FakeShemp standing in for him in [[Recap/DoctorWho60thASTheGiggle "The Giggle"]].]]

* ThrowTheDogABone: Despite the lack of respect he earned in life, [[spoiler: [[DeathEqualsRedemption sacrificing himself to stop The Master]] in ''Prisoners Of Time'' got him acknowledged post-mortem as "A Companion True.]]"

[[folder:Clara Oswald]]
->[[Characters/DoctorWhoClaraOswald Has her own page.]]
[[/folder]]

!!Twelfth Doctor Era

[[folder:Nardole]]
!!Nardole (Twelfth Doctor)
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nardole.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"Are you the Surgeon? There's a medical emergency!"'']]
->'''Debut:''' "[[Recap/DoctorWho2015CSTheHusbandsOfRiverSong The Husbands of River Song]]" (2015)
->'''Joins TARDIS Crew:''' "[[Recap/DoctorWho2016CSTheReturnOfDoctorMysterio The Return of Doctor Mysterio]]" (2016)[[note]]First story in which he appears as a companion; he actually joins the Doctor earlier in his timeline, as depicted in "Extremis"[[/note]]
->'''Departure Story:''' "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E12TheDoctorFalls The Doctor Falls]]" (2017)
->'''Final Appearance:''' "[[Recap/DoctorWho2017CSTwiceUponATime Twice Upon a Time]]" (2017)

->'''Played by:''' Creator/MattLucas (2015-2017)

-->''"[[BadassBoast I am the only person you have ever met, or ever will meet, who is officially licensed to]] [[PunctuatedForEmphasis kick. The Doctor's.]]'' '''''[[PunctuatedForEmphasis Arse.]]''''' ''I will happily do the same to you, in the event that you do not align yourself with any instructions I have issued which I personally judge to be in the best interests of your safety and survival."''

A timid, unassuming HumanAlien of the 54th century who was a servant of River Song during her caper to reclaim a valuable diamond from (the head of) the tyrannical cyborg King Hydroflax, whom she'd recently married to get close to. On Mendorax Dellora in 5343, he was sent to fetch the surgeon River hired to perform the... "operation"... and a misunderstanding meant that he brought back the Twelfth Doctor. ''Long'' story short, by the end of this misadventure Hydroflax himself was destroyed and Nardole's head — just the head, mind — was peacefully sharing and controlling his deactivated robot body with that of Ramone, one of River's many husbands and also involved in the scheme; together they served as a waiter at a restaurant near the Singing Towers of Darillium. However, during the long night the Doctor spent with River on Darillium (long as in equivalent to 24 Earth years) he "reassembled" Nardole into a cyborg.

Before River went to her death in the Library, she tasked Nardole with becoming the Doctor's "valet"; he promised to take care of the Doctor, to keep him from losing his sense of self and his noble morals... by any means needed, up to and including kicking his arse. Thus, he followed the Doctor to what ''was'' to be the execution of Missy (the Master), and from there they took to guarding the Vault beneath St. Luke's University on Earth. Nardole is determined to make sure the Doctor holds to his vow to watch over Missy for 1,000 years, but this becomes harder when, several decades into the vigil, the Doctor meets and befriends Bill Potts.

[[folder:River Song]]
->[[Characters/DoctorWhoRiverSong Has her own page.]]
[[/folder]]

* BadassBureaucrat: She was an office worker prior to being a companion, and her office skills prove extremely useful in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E4TheSontaranStratagem "The Sontaran Strategem"]], [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E6TheDoctorsDaughter "The Doctor's Daughter"]] and [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E13JourneysEnd "Journey's End"]]. Her ability to understand office files, work a calendar system and type 100 words a minute ends up saving the universe several times over. [[spoiler: she eventually takes a high-paying job with Unit, and negotiates for twice the offered salary.]]
* BadassNormal: Of the smart variety; whilst The Doctor infiltrated (and later broke into) a corporate office building [[MagicTool with psychic paper and the sonic screwdriver]], she did the same with little more than really good BS skills and an absurd amount of patience.
* BelatedHappyEnding: Her reunion with the Fourteenth Doctor fifteen years after the end of her tenure as a companion results in [[spoiler:the bitter part of her personal bittersweet ending being undone and her memories being restored]].

* ClingyJealousGirl: Averted; the Doctor expects the same snarking he got from Rose/Sarah, but when Donna meets Martha they just shake hands and get along fine. Donna's concerns are more that she might lose her position as the Doctor's companion.

* DitzyGenius: She sometimes struggles to follow the Doctor's instructions and he complains that "[she] can't change a bulb". But she's a convincing actress who easily infiltrates a corporate facility as an inspector and can easily point out odd details and patterns others would miss, like how no one has ever called in sick at a company she and the Doctor were investigating.
** [[spoiler: Over the course of the 60th anniversary specials she's not only the first to notice that the Not Things in "Wild Blue Yonder" are scaring them, helping the Doctor realize that their fear makes it easier for the Not Things to accomplish their goals, but she immediately figures out that the brainwave spikes in "The Giggle" are musical notes, helping the Doctor and UNIT discover the cause of the Hate Plague in the episode. Notably the latter case follows UNIT investigating the brainwaves for ''two days''. Kate is so impressed she immediately offers Donna a job.]]

** And then 15 years later she gets an even better one by [[spoiler: having her memories restored, offered a well-paying ''permanent'' job at UNIT and gets to spend the rest of her life with the post-bigeneration Fourteen whom she brought into her happy family.]]

* IJustWantToBeSpecial: Her entire character arc is wanting to be more than "useless". And she'll never know what a difference she made.

* LaserGuidedAmnesia: The Doctor had to give her this after she became the [=DoctorDonna=] so she wouldn't die. [[spoiler: "[[Recap/DoctorWho60thASTheStarBeast The Star Beast]]" shows that she [[AmnesiacResonance retains some portions of memory in the form of dreams and slips of the tongue]], and she eventually regains her memories altogether.]]

* NotQuiteForever: Like Rose before her, Donna was fully committed to life with the Doctor in the TARDIS and wanted it to last forever. Admitting that only makes what [[LaserGuidedAmnesia happens to her next]] all the more tragic.

** [[spoiler:Solidified in [[Recap/DoctorWho60thASTheGiggle The Giggle]], where the Fourteenth Doctor retires to Earth (albeit with short trips elsewhere) while the Fifteenth Doctor continues to travel. Their final scene together sees them happily having dinner with Donna's family and Mel, with every indication that their strong friendship will last a lifetime. Notably, this marks Donna and Mel as the very first companions to remain a constant presence in The Doctor's life following the end of their adventures, and fulfills Donna's desire to be with him forever.]]

* RagsToRiches: Following her mind wipe, The Doctor gifts her a winning lottery ticket, securing her financial freedom.
** [[spoiler: In the 60th Anniversary specials, it's revealed that after buying a house, Donna gave the rest of her winnings to charity. However "The Giggle" sees her take a job at Unit, negotiating for twice the offered salary while allowing her to help people.]]

* SpottingTheThread: A recurring habit of hers. She consistently spots patterns or vital clues, often before The Doctor and always to his praise. [[spoiler: Her tendency to do this thoroughly impresses Kate Stewart who not only offers her a high-paying job, but happily accepts when Donna asks for twice the offered salary and five week's annual holiday.]]

* SurprisinglyHappyEnding: Her eventual fate in both her departures. While her initial tenure as companion ended with The Doctor erasing her memories, he borrowed some money from her father in the past to purchase a winning lottery ticket on her behalf - however, the whole situation is bittersweet, at best. [[spoiler: In the 60th Anniversary Specials she regains her memories, and following the 14th Doctor's bigeneration he retires to Earth with his best friend and her family a constant presence in his life, with every indication that the both of them are truly happy with the arrangement.]]

A newspaper salesman from 21st century Chiswick, London. Originally a one-off character in [[Recap/DoctorWho2007CSVoyageOfTheDamned "Voyage of the Damned"]], Wilfred was eventually revealed to also be Donna Noble's grandfather (a last-minute rewrite due to the actor hired to play Donna's father dying). This resulted in quite a few recurring roles throughout the fourth series, leading to fan-favourite status for the character and finally full-fledged companion status in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime "The End of Time"]], the Tenth Doctor's final story. %%Wilfred is set to reappear in "The Giggle", the third in the trilogy of 60th Anniversary Specials and [[HistoryRepeats David Tennant's second regeneration episode]].

* BadassNormal: His first thought during a Dalek invasion is to shoot one Dalek in the eyestalk. '''With a paintball gun'''. It didn't ''work'', but that's still quite a few levels of badassness above the norm. Bonus points for it being his first encounter with the aforementioned pepperpots. He also [[spoiler: squirreled his family away into hiding, keeping faith that the Doctor would eventually return to save Earth from a catastrophe that's made the rest of the world go mad.]]

* TheBusCameBack: [[spoiler:Makes a brief reappearance at the end of "Wild Blue Yonder" after having not been seen since "The End of Time: Part Two" 13 years prior.]]

* CharacterOutlivesActor: Bernard Cribbins passed away after filming his cameo for the end of "Wild Blue Yonder", but Wilf is mentioned to be safe and sound during the next episode.
* ChekhovsGun: Owns one, and convinces the Doctor to accept it as a gift.

* MoreExpendableThanYou: He tried to talk the Tenth Doctor out of his HeroicSacrifice because he knows that the Doctor is a hero on a grand scale and he himself is just an old human man. The Doctor's response is basically, "No, you're not."

* LikeASonToMe: Despite being the Doctor's junior by more than 800 years.

* ParentalSubstitute: Is this to Donna. After her father died, and given her mother's aloofness, she always turns to "Gramps". In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime "The End of Time"]] he also takes on some of these traits with the Doctor.

* ShipTease: With the Doctor. While it seems to die around the end of Series 5 (the Doctor, for his part, never reciprocated), this becomes a major plot point when she becomes pregnant and her baby turns out to have Time Lord DNA. Rumours promptly start flying about the universe as to exactly what happened, with Dorium noting that anyone now hunting Amy or her family will be in serious trouble, explicitly remarking to the Headless Monks, "I've even heard who's child you've taken. Are. You. Mad?!", before talking up the Doctor's reputation as TheDreaded, implying that the Doctor is the father. Due to [[invoked]]TrollingCreator, it takes a ''while'' before we find out that it was all a big RedHerring, and the Doctor has never touched Amy.

* {{Foil}}: The Nurse to the Doctor's Doctor. Also to Mickey Smith, as both are the boyfriends of the Doctor's main companion who feel unapreciated and threatened by their girlfriend's close relationship with the Doctor. They were also childhood friends with their respective love interests and experience surprising character development into a more stronger and tough character. The difference is that Rory's character development is shown by him proving his love for Amy by waiting almost 2000 years for her which strengthens their relationship, while Mickey's invovles him moving on from Rose.

* SurprisinglyHappyEnding: Her eventual fate in both her departures. While her initial tenure as companion ended with The Doctor erasing her memories, he borrowed some money from her father in the past to purchase a winning lottery ticket on her behalf - however, the whole situation is bittersweet, at best. [[Spoiler: In the 60th Anniversary Specials she regains her memories, and following the 14th Doctor's bigeneration he retires to Earth with his best friend and her family a constant presence in his life, with every indication that the both of them are truly happy with the arrangement.]]

* BadassBureaucrat: She was an office worker prior to being a companion, and her office skills prove extremely useful in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E4TheSontaranStratagem "The Sontaran Strategem"]], [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E6TheDoctorsDaughter "The Doctor's Daughter"]] and [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E13JourneysEnd "Journey's End"]]. Her ability to understand office files, work a calendar system and type 100 words a minute ends up saving the universe several times over.

* EarnYourHappyEnding: Despite the whole "getting your mind wiped and unable to remember all the stuff you did or you will ''die''" thing, Donna does eventually get to marry a nice bloke who genuinely loves her, her mother starts being nice to her, and one of the Tenth Doctor's last acts is to make sure the Temple-Nobles are financially secure. [[spoiler:Scratch the last part, as the softness she subconsciously picked up from the Doctor compelled her to give every penny of her lottery winnings away, much to her own regret.]]

->'''Final Appearance:''' [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime "The End of Time"]] (2009-10)

* *[[spoiler: Over the course of the 60th anniversary specials she's not only the first to notice that the Not Things in "Wild Blue Yonder" are scaring them, helping the Doctor realize that their fear makes it easier for the Not Things to accomplish their goals, but she immediately figures out that the brainwave spikes in "The Giggle" are musical notes, helping the Doctor and UNIT discover the cause of the Hate Plague in the episode. Notably the latter case follows UNIT investigating the brainwaves for ''two days''. Kate is so impressed she immediately offers Donna a job.]]

!!Donna Noble (Tenth and Fourteenth Doctors)

* AbusiveParents: Donna's mom, Sylvia, is verbally abusive to both Donna and Wilf (Donna's grandfather) in a depressingly realistic way. The Doctor is actually shocked when he realizes the extent of it, and tells Sylvia to stop it. By the time of [[Recap/DoctorWho60thASTheStarBeast "The Star Beast"]], Sylvia has cleaned up her act, going so far as to slap the Doctor when she thinks he'll endanger her daughter's life.

* *[[spoiler: Over the course of the 60th anniversary specials she's not only the first to notice that the Not Things in "Wild Blue Yonder" are scaring them, helping the Doctor realize that their fear makes it easier for the Not Things to accomplish their goals, but she immediately figures out that the brainwave spikes in "The Giggle" are musical notes, helping the Doctor and Unit discover the cause of the Hate Plague in the episode. Notably the latter case follows Unit investigating the brainwaves for two days. Kate is so impressed she immediately offers Donna a job.]]

* DitzyGenius: Heavily downplayed. Donna occasionally shows herself to be somewhat unintelligent, by her own admission, as well as being a tad less logical than several other companions such as her immediate predecessor, Martha. However, she also consistently spots clues that even the Doctor has missed, such as an empty file in "The Sontaran Strategem." [[spoiler: Over the course of the 60th anniversary specials she's not only the first to notice that the Not Things in "Wild Blue Yonder" are scaring them, helping the Doctor realize that their fear makes it easier for the Not Things to accomplish their goals, but she immediately figures out that the brainwave spikes in "The Giggle" are musical notes, helping the Doctor and Unit discover the cause of the HatePlague in the episode. Notably the latter case follows Unit investigating the brainwaves for two days. Kate is so impressed she immediately offers Donna a job.

** [[spoiler:Solidified in [[Recap/DoctorWho60thASTheGiggle The Giggle]], where the Fourteenth Doctor retires to Earth (albeit with short trips elsewhere) while the Fifteenth Doctor continues to travel. Their final scene together sees them happily having dinner with Donna's family and Mel, with every indication that their strong friendship will last a lifetime. Notably, this marks Donna and Mel as the very first companions to remain a constant presence in The Doctor's life following the end of their adventures, and fulfills Donna's desire to be with him forever.

* SurprisinglyHappyEnding: Her eventual fate in both her departures. While her initial tenure as companion ended with The Doctor erasing her memories, he borrowed some money from her father in the past to purchase a winning lottery ticket on her behalf - however, the whole situation is bittersweet, at best. [[Spoiler: In the 60th Anniversary Specials she regains her memories, and following the 14th Doctor's bigeneration he happily retires to Earth with his best friend and her family a constant presence in his life, with every indication that the both of them are truly happy with the arrangement.]]

%%->'''Debut:''' [[Recap/DoctorWhoS37E1TheChurchOnRubyRoad "The Church on Ruby Road"]] (2023)

* BigBad: For [[spoiler:''[[ComicBook/DoctorWhoPrisonersOfTime Prisoners of Time]]'']].