A constant feature of Doctor Who has been its ever-changing cast, whether it's the person playing the Doctor or those who accompany them on their travels. Although it is always painful for the Doctor when one of their "companions" departs the TARDIS for good, they typically do so while in good health, or mostly intact, at the very least.
Unfortunately, this is not true for them all. Some companions leave the Doctor under painful circumstances. A few have even died -- or suffered a fate worse than death. This article highlights companions from across the show's nearly 60-year history, all of whom have been dealt the worst endings the universe has to offer, fatal or otherwise.
The departure of Donna Noble (Catherine Tate) is one of the most tragic endings in Doctor Who since the 2005 revival. Moments after becoming the "DoctorDonna," a hybrid of her natural tenacity and the Doctor's infinite knowledge, her memory was forcibly erased to prevent her new abilities from burning her brain and killing her.
Although Second Doctor companions Jamie McCrimmon and Zoe Heriot were the first to have their adventures wiped from their minds, Donna's fate was arguably worse. Forgetting her travels in the TARDIS meant losing the self-worth she had acquired, so while countless worlds cherished the memory of the woman who had saved them, she went back to believing that she was "nothing special."
Of the few companions who died during the program's original run from 1963-89, Adric (Matthew Waterhouse) is arguably the most iconic. Alone on a freighter the Cybermen sought to crash into Earth, the math genius managed to send it to prehistoric times, but its console was damaged before he could complete his calculations. Uttering his famous last words, "Now I'll never know if I was right," Adric perished upon the freighter's destruction, wiping out the dinosaurs.
The grief of his fellow time travelers was so great that, for the one and only time in its history, Doctor Who's end credits rolled in silence to emphasize their sorrow.
Another companion who suffered at the hands of the Cybermen was Bill Potts (Pearl Mackie) -- albeit in a more direct fashion. She was converted into a primitive version of the emotionless cyborgs, leaving her fighting for what little humanity she had left. She was thankfully rescued by her love interest, Heather, leaving her metal-infused body behind to explore the cosmos as a sentient oil creature. Nevertheless, her departure depicts the horrors of Cyber-conversion better than any prior episode of the show.
The fate of Peri Brown (Nicola Bryant) is both horrific and confusing in equal measure. She was seemingly killed during the 14-part epic "The Trial of a Time Lord;" her mind erased and replaced with that of the monstrous Kiv before he is destroyed in her body. However, the end of the serial suggested that Peri had avoided this death and become a warrior queen instead.
"Peri and the Piscon Paradox," an audio story produced by Big Finish Productions, later revealed that there are at least five versions of Peri existing simultaneously, a result of rogue Time Lords attempting to undo the original's death. Yes, Peri's demise was so grim that the Doctor's own people tried to change it.
Most episodes from "The Daleks' Master Plan" no longer exist after being wiped by the BBC, but this 12-part story is still sharply remembered for being the first to kill off one of the Doctor's companions. Having only boarded the TARDIS in the previous serial, Trojan handmaid Katarina (Adrienne Hill) was taken hostage by a convict who attempted to hijack the ship she and her friends had stolen to evade the Daleks. Believing that her death had been foretold, she sacrificed herself by opening the ship's airlock, ejecting her and the hijacker into space so that the Daleks could ultimately be defeated.
Tragically, Katarina's immediate replacement did not fare much better. Having been tricked into killing her own brother, Sara Kingdom (Jean Marsh) avenged him by joining the TARDIS crew, becoming vital in helping them stop "The Daleks' Master Plan." After a great deal of time on the run, they finally managed to turn the Daleks' Time Destructor against them, but Sara was sadly caught in the crossfire. She was aged to death along with the Daleks, crumbling to dust in her debut story.
It is a particular shame that so much of "The Daleks' Master Plan" has not survived in its original form, as few other Doctor Who adventures have robbed the Doctor of so many companions in a single bound.
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