Doctor Who's Top Ten companions

10: Grace Holloway

On the one hand, Dr Grace Holloway is a pretty shoddy companion. After all, she actually killed off the Seventh Doctor when he was rushed to a Californian hospital after being shot by a street gang.

To be fair though, she didn't know she was operating on an alien and had no idea where she was shoving her scalpel (ouch). And she more than made up for her fatal faux pas by proving an able (and thankfully non-shrieking) friend to the dashing Eighth Doctor, helping him put a stop to the Master.

Oh, and she was the first companion that the Doctor saw fit to snog. (OK, he was suffering from post-regenerative disorientation at the time, but she wasn’t complaining.)

9: Kamelion

One of the oddest of all the companions (and therefore deserving of a mention) was Kamelion – shape-shifting robot with severe self-esteem issues. It first turned up as the hapless helper of the Master, but the Fifth Doctor soon freed it from virtual slavery and took Kamelion on board the TARDIS.

The honeymoon didn’t last long, though. While Kamelion was essentially good, and wanted to help the Doctor, it was a trifle weak-willed. By which we mean it was a big metal doormat to be walked all over by just about anyone. It eventually fell under the Master’s control again, leaving the Doctor no option but to destroy Kamelion in an act of robot euthanasia. Moving stuff.

8: Ace

Probably the most violent of all the companions, Ace was a teenage tearaway with a fondness for nitroglycerine, baseball bats and her own special explosive substance which she carried around in her backpack.

A 20th Century Londoner, Ace was whisked away to the planet Iceworld by a "time storm" (her real name’s Dorothy – there’s a very subtle Wizard of Oz homage here if you look hard enough).

It was just as well she was such a trigger-happy chick – as the Seventh Doctor’s companion, she had to deal with Daleks, Cybermen, the occasional evil God, and a torturer made entirely of sweets (think Bertie Bassett, but sadistic).

What made Ace interesting was her development – her adventures actually affected her and caused her to mature and indeed argue with the Doctor. This realism set the tone for the companions that followed.

7: Leela

Every (male) hero worth his salt needs a leggy female sidekick who wears too few clothes. And Leela was just that – the nearest thing the Doctor had to his very own Bond girl.

Yet there were also shades of My Fair Lady to the relationship between Leela and the Fourth Doctor. Being a warrior from a savage tribe on an unnamed planet, Leela was sorely lacking in table manners, so the Scarfed One took it upon himself to educate and civilise her.

However, despite his best intentions she had a continued fondness for animal skins and attacking people with thorns. In the end she settled on Gallifrey – so perhaps the other Time Lords managed to sort her out.

6: Vislor Turlough

Let’s face it: the majority of the Doctor’s companions have been total goody-goodies. A blessed relief was public schoolboy Turlough, who had a refreshing habit of plotting the Doctor’s demise.

In his defence, Turlough’s nasty streak was nurtured by a Satanic being known as the Black Guardian, and let’s give him some credit - he did eventually quit his scheming and become a fully-fledged, non-evil member of the Fifth Doctor’s crew.

Still, he remains a notably unorthodox companion, and it was a pity when he returned to his home planet of Trion (yep, that human schoolboy thing was just a cover – which is perhaps why he always had his uniform on).

5: Romana II

Shock horror: a companion cleverer than the Doctor? Tis true, and Romana never tired of pointing it out.

A fellow Gallifreyan, Romana graduated from the Time Lord Academy with far higher grades than the Doctor – a fact which certainly made him bristle when she first graced the TARDIS with her haughty presence.

However, their relationship warmed considerably when Romana regenerated. Romana II was a quirkier, more playful gal, almost as eccentric as the Fourth Doctor himself. Indeed, their shared weirdness and endless banter made it seem very likely they were more than just friends. Sadly, we’ll never know for sure – unless the Tenth Doctor gets drunk one day and spills his guts...

4: Jamie McCrimmon

A hunky Scot who was, um, picked up by the Second Doctor after the Battle of Culloden in 1746, Jamie was the longest-serving of the Time Lord’s companions. And he was also one of the nicest: being a very old-fashioned sort of chap, he was always courteous to the ladies, respectful to aliens, and deferential to the Doctor.

All of which would have made him intolerably wet if it wasn’t for the fact that he was a battle-hardened soldier who could happily deal with Daleks, Yeti and – perhaps most intimidating of all – the arrogant and blustering Sixth Doctor (who stumbled across Jamie on a deserted space station).

Oh – and if his name sounds familiar, it could be because the Tenth Doctor called himself Jamie McCrimmon when he visited Queen Victoria in Scotland.

3: Captain Jack Harkness

He didn’t travel with the Ninth Doctor for very long, but it was enough to establish the dashing Captain Jack Harkness as one of the most distinctive companions of all.

A former "Time Agent" turned conman, Captain Jack was also the galaxy’s greatest flirt (though this has not been verified). A ceaseless seduction machine, he’s unable to stop himself from winking at (and groping) any man or woman or inanimate object who crosses his path. The man would pull a Dalek if they’d just stop exterminating for a second.

Yet, Captain Jack was always too charming and good-natured to be sleazy. A gallant, fearless warrior, he was a good friend of the Doctor’s – in fact, he even got to kiss him. See, noone’s immune!

2: Sarah Jane Smith

Most of the time, it’s the Doctor who gets to choose who travels on the TARDIS with him. But Sarah Jane Smith, a feminist journalist, was having none of that, and simply snuck into the police box without the Third Doctor’s knowledge.

She went onto prove herself one of his brightest and most resourceful assistants, and continued travelling with him after the down-to-earth Third Doctor morphed into the flamboyant Fourth. Eventually she settled back on Earth with K9 for company, and assumed she’d never see the Doctor again – until he re-entered her life in his dapper Tenth incarnation.

Feisty, endearing and one of the most universally popular of the Doctor’s companions, Sarah Jane would probably have come out on top – were it not for...

1: Rose Tyler

Why is Rose Tyler the most perfect of all the companions so far? Well, for one thing, she combines the gutsy, fearless attitude of Ace with the intelligence and reliability of Sarah Jane Smith. She also struck up the closest rapport with the Doctor, saving the life of the Ninth during their first adventure and bonding even more deeply with the Tenth.

She also got the whole work/life/time-travelling-heroine balance just right, returning to check on her mum and her ex-boyfriend regularly (something none of the other companions ever did).

Is it any wonder the Doctor was so uncommonly fond of her? Indeed, not since Romana II were the hints of Doctor-companion romance so strong, and was the Tenth Doctor on the verge of confessing his love when they were forced to part forever? It was just like Casablanca – but with Void Ships, parallel universes and Cybermen.