Who’s your favorite 5th Doctor companion? Note that this is from across all mediums and includes all TV companions and only multi-story companions from other mediums. Feel free to comment explanations for your choices, but you don’t have to. You can choose as many as you want.
Part of me is surprised that Evelyn didn’t take top spot. However, I’m not surprised that Peri is at the top. Given that Big Finish is a little more niche, Peri is Sixie’s most prolific companion on TV.
They tempered the brashness a bit and lessened the bickering. You can tell just how much this incarnation cares when listening to the audios. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy his TV run, or least aspects of it. However, in Big Finish, it seems like everything is firing on all cylinders. The writing is strong, you have great companions that you’re actually able to get deep into their characters, you don’t have to worry about super-cheap looking sets. And the people making it actually care and actually get Doctor Who. For all the things that I like about Saward (and there are a few), he didn’t really get what Doctor Who was. His prefered style was dark, gritty, violent hard sci-fi, which worked in some stories or at least sort of worked, but just as often didn’t. And Big Finish is able to take the parts that worked about the era, and excise or tone down the parts that didn’t.
Currently my favorites are Peri (all time number one), Flip, and Constance, which is a funny because I didn’t care for Constance at first. Mel and Evelyn can get consolation prizes even though they’ve slipped from my top three.
I was surprised to realize this, but while I certainly at least like most of these companions, Mel’s actually the only one I feel strongly enough about to vote for as a favorite.
I’m not terribly surprised that Thomas Brewster or Mila didn’t get any votes and I’m pretty sure that Patricia McBride becomes a villain, but I am a little surprised that there are no Grant Markham fans out there (not that I’ve read the two books he was in so maybe he’s too niche).
I voted for Evelyn cause even though I’ve not heard all of her audios she’s just fab. Also I voted for Hebe because I really enjoyed her, and that arc in general!