Barbara and Ian. OH MY GOODNESS. They are so cute!
Cuter even than Sarah! Jane! and Harry! Almost as cute as Liz and the Brig, just without the pyrotechnics of exasperation and the science of sass!
- Lacking the pyrotechnics of exasperation and the science of sass
There’s one thing to keep in mind with Barbara and Ian, however. Barbara is awesome whether she’s flying solo or being cute with Ian or mixing it up with the Doctor.
Ian? Dude, he has to be with Barbara to get on the awesome radar.
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Ian? Dude, he has to be with Barbara to get on the awesome radar.
I dunno about that — even 40+ years later, Ian still ranks among the top five companions in terms of usefulness. Heck, he might even be in the top three! Barbara, on the other hand… ;)
OMG. Stop it! Barbara was awesome. And so was Ian, as long as he was with Barbara.
Who are the other four in your top five useful companions? Let me guess: Jo and Ace are givens, I think. I can’t think of any others who would rank with them and be objective about it. You know how I am about ourn Sarah! Jane! and ourn Liz Shaw…
Wait…not Peri? Please, not Peri.
Maybe Jamie?
I almost forgot: awesome does not necessarily mean useful. Awesome is just awesome. HA!
You may be right about awesome not necessarily meaning useful, but I’d argue that being useless makes one considerably less awesome. ;)
As far as the five most useful companions go… hmm. I’d certainly put Ace and her nitro-9 in there, and Leela and her janis thorns would make the cut… and then I guess Ian would be next! There’d probably be multiple-way ties for the remaining spots, though Jo would have a good chance of taking the fourth. I’m not actually sure she was ultimately all that useful (though she was way more so than our Sarah Jane ;)), but she went to greater lengths for the Doctor than almost any other companion. Off the top of my head, I think only Martha did more.
Actually, considering that she was literally the Doctor’s servant for two full months and then spent another year traveling the globe and telling everyone about how wonderful he is (even though he was a total dick to her), Martha should probably take the top spot.
And ye gods, no, Peri was not useful in the least… unless we count her ability to inspire drooling with those prominent assets of hers as a useful action. I think only Tegan was more useless than Peri… and I might just feel that way because Tegan does nothing for me whatsoever. ;)
Eh, it all depends on how you look at awesomeness in comparison to usefulness, I think. =) I don’t think the two are necessarily connected in the least. =) I will concede the point about Sarah! Jane! not being all that useful, but that doesn’t diminish her freakin’ awesomeness in my book. Poor Liz wasn’t around long enough to sustain her usefulness, though her awesomeness ranks pretty high. And she was quite useful, holding the wires for the Doctor in Spearhead, holding the wee contraption for the Doctor in Spearhead, blowing up circuits in Spearhead, being cute with her hardhat in The Silurians, being cute announcing, “It’s a globe!” in The Silurians, backtalking the Brig at every opportunity, rolling her eyes and making faces at the Brig, also at every opportunity…
Oh, wait. Those last few examples are more awesome than useful… ;-)
Leela. I will have to agree with Leela being one of the most useful. Martha? I haven’t seen enough Martha to agree or disagree. Same with Ace – haven’t seen enough of her to have a strong opinion, but from what I’ve seen, she was pretty handy to have around. Even with the boombox. LOL