Doctor Who: 10 Unbeatable Doctor/Companion Duos

3. The Seventh Doctor & Ace

Contrary to what many might believe, Doctor Who was enjoying a creative renaissance in its final years and gave us a classic Doctor/Companion partnership along the way. Yes, fans can laugh at Sophie Aldred's too posh accent and Ace's use of phrases such as 'bilge-bag' and 'wicked' but there's much to love when the Doctor talks the displaced ASBO from Perivale under his wing in Season 24's closing tale Dragonfire. For an actor struggling to pin down his take on an iconic character, Sylvester McCoy was not helped by being teamed with a light entertainment actress in Bonnie Langford. With Mel written out, McCoy could push his Doctor, in line with script editor Andrew Cartmel's instincts, into darker territory. In some ways, Ace is like a female Jamie, loyal and devoted to her mentor and the plans he has set in motion. The Second Doctor was not adverse to manipulating his most trusting friend and neither is the Seventh. Ace becomes his weapon in many respects in an ongoing battle with his greatest enemies, the Daleks, Cybermen and Fenric. However, the Doctor - whether as a way of honing his weapon or out of genuine regard - does more to try and help his companion resolve her issues than ever before, leading to some of the most dramatically charged scenes in classic Who, taking her back to find out why she was so scared of the abandoned Gabriel Chase and to meet her own mother as a baby in the war. The scene where the Doctor has to break Ace's faith in him at the end of The Curse of Fenric is a high point for both actors. Few companions have developed as much as Ace. If the show had made its 27th season, Cartmel planned to send Ace to train to be a Time Lord while the New Adventures novels that followed trained her up as a Dalek killer. In many ways, Ace can be seen as the forerunner of the more down to Earth companion with their own arc that NuWho has patented.