The Companions
There are many schools of thought about what constitutes a Doctor Who companion. Most often, they're described as someone someone who has travelled with the Doctor in the TARDIS, though there's not much consistency there. Liz Shaw, The Brigadier and their UNIT colleagues were Pertwee's 'companions' through many adventures on Earth in the 1970s (80s?) but they didn't travel with him.
It seems more natural to describe a companion as a character who fills the expected role of 'companion' in one of the Doctor's adventures, in other words, follow him around a lot and ask questions or put themselves in danger so that he can rescue them. And/or are described as such in the publicity. Luckily, that also rules out HG Wells who travelled with the Doctor in the rubbish Timelash and could, by no stretch of the imagination be described as a companion.
So into the playlist go Jackson Lake and Rosita from The Next Doctor, Lady Christina from tonight's Planet of the Dead and Sally Sparrow from Blink because Steven Moffat himself says she's the best companion the Doctor never had. I've also added River Song at the end, because I really like the Bebel Gilberto album it's taken from. I've skipped the spin-off companions. I would have been here all day looking for something about Oola the heat vampire or Zog the alien slave.
Companions tend to have very common names so it was quite easy to find something for everybody, apart from the early 80s when they had very uncommon names, which says a lot about the state of the programme in those days and unsurprisingly Adric, Nyssa and Vislor don't have songs about them and the only way to shoehorn Tegan into the list was through a track from Tegan and Sara.
Also, I know the Johnny Cash track is about Jackson the place and not a person, but it's all I could find.
Can you believe that someone had recorded a track called 'The Brigadier'? Pity it has nothing to do with Doctor Who. Imagine that. With references to the cane, wobbly moustache and 'Five Rounds Rapid' -- it's an ironic 90s influenced indie track just waiting to be recorded.
Happy Easter!
http://open.spotify.com/user/feelinglistless/playlist/7yf4YOty6lmieMuMhg546k
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