Doctor Who: 10 Most Embarrassing Classic Series Companions

5. Kamelion

Kamelion was a shape changing android, expertly voiced by Gerald Flood. This beautiful, fully articulated, remote-controlled creation looked marvellous. In fact, it looked so terrific that producer John Nathan-Turner swiftly incorporated it into Doctor Who upon seeing a demonstration of the life-sized honest-to-goodness robot, keen to show off his latest splendid discovery. There was only one small, insignificant problem. The blasted thing didn't work. And so Kamelion became one of a small number of companions that was embarrassing to the programme's creators because it was proof that their great ideas sometimes turned out to be not so great. As far as the audience was concerned, the few people who remembered Kamelion even existed probably just thought it was a little odd that the Doctor wasn't mentioning him in subsequent episodes. Once the issues with the prop became obvious during its initial appearance in The King's Demons, it was immediately dropped, only returning so it could be officially written out of the series a long time later in Planet of Fire. In the meantime, the character... erm, stayed in the TARDIS. Doing something or other. Shame.