10 Worst Doctor Who Companions Ever

3. Dodo Chaplet

Doctor Who The Long Game Adam Mitchell
BBC Studios

Despite being from somewhere up north (or London, depending on what accent Mancunian actress Jackie Lane had been asked to do that week), Dodo Chaplet was somehow even less defined than Katarina.

Audiences at least knew where Katarina had come from, because they'd spent four weeks in ancient Greece. On the other hand, Dodo accidentally steps inside the TARDIS in the closing moments of The Massacre, heavily hinted to be a descendant of 16th century servant Anne Chaplet. Dodo is purely there to make Steven feel slightly better about leaving Anne behind to endure the devastating St Bartholomew's Day massacre.

The other problem is that nobody knows what to do next, so Dodo never feels at home on the TARDIS. Unlike Susan or Vicki, she doesn't have a particularly warm relationship with the First Doctor either, who just lectures her on her diction, and use of 20th century slang. Dodo doesn't even have a particularly good dynamic with fellow companion Steven, effectively becoming his slightly annoying and antagonistic younger sister.

It's hardly surprising that when the Doctor and Dodo return to 1960s London, she's unceremoniously dispatched by phone call and two far more believable '60s youngsters come aboard the TARDIS instead.

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Citizen of the Universe, Film Programmer, Writer, Podcaster, Doctor Who fan and a gentleman to boot. As passionate about Chinese social-realist epics as I am about dumb popcorn movies.