Doctor Who: 5 Best And 5 Worst Companion Send-Offs

4. Leela

Leela is a savage warrior woman, proud of her victories in combat and her prowess with a knife. She often carried poison thorns, and wasn€™t shy about using them to kill anyone who seemed to be a threat. So what kind of send-off should this character get, you ask? Should she become a warrior queen on a distant world? No, no, let's have the botanist do that. Should she die in honorable combat against a Sontaran? No, no, that€™d be silly! Like having the only two black companions get married and hunt Sontarans together because...well, they're black! Just let her fall in love and leave her on Gallifrey, a planet known for its great and savage nature. Or something. Yes, that€™s what happened here. Because apparently women€™s priorities change as soon as they fall in love with someone. They go all gooey and give up on their previous lives completely. To be fair, Susan left due to falling in love. But that wasn't her choice. She probably would have stayed with the Doctor if given the choice. He knew that, and chose to leave her behind so that she could have her own life, and for all its troubles, it remains a powerful ending. But in this case it just doesn't really work. There's nothing about Leela's nature that indicated, prior to this story, that she was interested in love and/or romance. Now we shouldn't hate on this departure completely. It wasn€™t horrible, and it did lead to the very excellent Gallifrey audio series (which also featured Romana and two different versions of K-9), but it really was a complete violation of the character. Having her die in battle would have made much more sense, but to mid-1970s audiences, maybe it was just too much of an ask. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hlGlCW9uQc