It’s Valentine’s Day, so we thought we’d spend time mulling over love stories in Doctor Who. So if you’re feeling a little romantic and frisky… well, what are you doing, visiting the Doctor Who Companion?!
Either way, before Date Night, here’s our top 10 loving relationships in everyone’s favourite sci-fi show.
Honourable Mentions
There was probably something going on between Polly Wright and Ben Jackson; the latter certainly fancied the former (I mean, it’s Anneke Wills! Come on!), and there was a frisson in the air between them. However, nothing explicit happened on screen, and they left together, but without some of the joy expressed by another couple in our list. We like to think they became a couple after leaving the TARDIS anyway.
Elton Pope and Ursula Blake from Love & Monsters nearly made it onto our list — they grow naturally with each other and her being ripped away from him is tragic — but we simply can’t get over the paving slab thing.
And then there’s the Doctor and Madame de Pompadour (The Girl in the Fireplace), who really should be on our list, but they appear in every “love stories in Doctor Who” article going and they don’t spend that long together, in retrospect. Plus, she was in a dalliance with the king. Arguably, the Doctor was in a dalliance with the queen — Queen Elizabeth I, that is. So we’re being cheeky and excluding them from the Top 10.
Finally, there’s Captain Jack Harkness and himself. No explanation needed.
10. Graham O’Brien and Grace
The Thirteenth Doctor era doesn’t get a lot of praise, but its approach to Graham O’Brien’s love of his deceased other half, Grace, was well handled. (Unlike his fear of cancer coming back…)
Grace died in The Woman Who Fell to Earth, Jodie Whittaker’s first episode as the Doctor, but she remained a presence throughout that series and Graham’s time on the TARDIS. It arguably culminated in It Takes You Away and, to some degree, The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos; the former saw Graham tempted by another universe posing as Grace, showing his grief was overwhelming, and the latter saw him tempted to kill the alien responsible for Grace’s passing. It’s really Bradley Walsh’s acting that means we buy into their relationship.
9. Jo Grant and Clifford Jones
Jo Grant’s romance is something of a whirlwind, entirely contained within The Green Death, during which Clifford frequently insults her. Ah, true love.
Jo’s love of Clifford — and his way of life, perhaps just as appealing to her as Clifford himself — is strong enough that she’s tempted away from UNIT and from the Doctor. The Third Doctor accepts this, as the youngster flying the nest. It does pull the rug from underneath you, somewhat; nonetheless, their love is strong enough that they remain together and have numerous children and grandkids, all while exploring the world and sticking up for good causes.
8. Madame Vastra and Jenny Flint
The Silurian and the Victorian maid. Often accompanied by their pet potato.
They’re an unusual couple, granted, but there’s something quite sweet about this inter-species romance. Particularly interesting is Vastra’s prejudices, her thinking humans are still essentially apes with delusions of grandeur, despite falling for one of us. She does treat Jenny like a maid, while Vastra is the matron of the house; still, Jenny can see through all that and uncover the heart that beats below the reptilian skin. At the end of the day, they know they can rely on each other through tick and thin — that’s important in a time when they have to keep up pretences for fear of judgement.
7. Rose Tyler and the Ninth Doctor
Put your pitchforks down!
This relationship is a controversial one, perhaps because it was arguably the first time the Doctor was shown to be romantically interested in someone (sorry, Cameca) which was always going to split opinion, or perhaps because Rose and the Tenth Doctor became too close at points. Nonetheless, there’s something very sweet and unusual about Rose’s relationship with Christopher Eccleston’s Ninth Doctor.
Before the Tenth Doctor and Rose get too chummy, Eccleston’s Doctor quietly falls for his new companion, who helps pull him out of his post-Time War reverie. He’s still a Time Lord who gets stroppy when she saves his dad from inevitable death in Father’s Day, but he’s willing to sacrifice his life for her in The Parting of the Ways, just when she’s on the verge of really understanding the heart of his incarnation.
6. John Smith and Nurse Redfern
In Human Nature/ The Family of Blood, the Tenth Doctor decides to wreck the lives of normal human beings (including his own companion, Martha Jones), in order to “be kind” to a family of aliens who want to eat him. We’ve all been there, eh?
It results in this lovely romance between John Smith, aka the Doctor’s human persona, and Nurse Redfern, who works at the school where he decides to hide out. He breaks her heart. His heart breaks too. So do viewers’ hearts. While we see glimpses of their future together — marriage and grandkids — it’s futile as, if the Family of Blood gets their way, the ground will be razed anyway. Nurse Redfern proves the stronger person here as she gives up the man she loves, because she simply must. She gives him up to save the world.
5. Bill Potts and Heather
Seemingly named after William Hartnell and his wife, Heather, Bill Potts’ relationship with a cute girl she’s just met who subsequently turns to water is sweet and naïve in its way. Still, there’s a strong enough attraction that Donny Osmond’s Puppy Love isn’t required because, after Heather apparently dies, she actually sticks around, leaving a teardrop with Bill so she can rescue her at the end of the day.
So Bill is ultimately saved from her Cyber-fate, though not before the Twelfth Doctor gets to mourn her… and she him. When Twice Upon a Time rolls around, we learn that Bill and Heather lived together and travelled the universe before settling down and accepting death. Sweet. Morbid, but sweet. That’s life.
4. Barbara Wright and Ian Chesterton
The ultimate couple in 20th Century Doctor Who — and they weren’t even together!
Ian and Barbara were nosy enough to spy on one of their pupils and got embroiled in events concerned a mysterious police box and a crotchety old man who reckoned he could travel through the fourth dimension. Turns out, the crotchety old man had a point. They fought Daleks together; they met the Aztecs; they were separated by troublesome Romans — but their fondness for each other meant Ian and Barbara always got back together. Then they left in a blaze of glory, happy to be back in the 1960s once more. Joyous.
Modern-day yoofs would say something like “hashtag goals”.
3. The Doctor and River Song
The Eighth Doctor got all kissy-kissy with Grace back in The TV Movie, but she turned down his offer of being taken away inside a wooden box. Honestly, you can’t please a girl these days. Fortunately for the Doctor, he soon found his true love, a woman called River Song, who… uh, promptly died.
Then he met her again! And again! And again! Then they got married in an aborted timeline that never happened!
Their lives might’ve been out of order, but it’s hard to deny the chemistry between Alex Kingston’s character and David Tennant’s, Matt Smith’s, and Peter Capaldi’s Doctors.
2. Amy Pond and Rory Williams
Long-term readers of the DWC will be aware that I adore the Eleventh Doctor era, so of course Amy and Rory would be high up on the list. It was the first time we had a married couple on the TARDIS, and the first time we saw the Doctor attend his companions’ wedding.
This whole period is simply magic to me, and the Doctor seems to look back with huge affection too: once they “died” (actually living together, happily in the past, until their time came), he ran off and hid on a cloud until Jenna Coleman turned up. I’ve tried a similar tactic in the past, but restraining orders sure are tricky to get around.
1. The Doctor and the TARDIS
River? Cameca? Grace? Bad Wolf? Kamelion? The Master? Cleopatra? Rogue? Sheffield Steel? None of them holds a candle to the Doctor’s one true love: the TARDIS.
Yes, it’s the Time Lord’s trusty ship that carries the Doctor all through time and space and relative dimension(s). They’ve been together since the day they first met, which is: 1. very romantic if you think about it; and 2. terrible dating advice if you really think about it even more. Honestly, if you go on a date, leave the other person alone for a bit before you decide to ride into the sunset together.
When everyone else leaves, these two remain: the Doctor and the TARDIS — as it should be.
Happy Valentine’s Day, dear readers.
