In Peter Capaldi’s upcoming debut episode, “Deep Breath,” everyone’s favourite Victorian monster mash-up crime-fighting team the Paternoster Gang – comprised of Silurian Madame Vastra, her human wife Jenny and their Sontaran butler Strax – will make their fifth appearance on the series.
Originally the terrific trio were one-off characters but they proved so popular they had to come back. While they got the lucky break, however, there have been many other single-episode allies of the Doctor who deserve to return. Here’s five of the best.
5. Jackson Lake
Before the Paternoster Gang were introduced as the heroes of the Victorian era, Doctor-wannabe the swashbuckling Jackson Lake was fighting Cybermen in 1850s London. He has his own sonic screwdriver (well, an ordinary screwdriver but it makes a noise, doesn’t it?), a companion and a TARDIS (a hot-air balloon known as a Tethered Aerial Release Developed in Style) – come on, the man’s begging for a comeback.
4. Christina
Aristocrat-turned-jewel-thief Lady Christina de Souza is perhaps the strongest of the one-off companions the Doctor has had (including Astrid the space waitress and Madge the World War Two mum). As a lady herself she is the perfect counterpart for the Time Lord and the pair share a love of danger. At the end of “Planet of the Dead,” she leaves the Doctor in a flying double-decker bus – so what’s stopping her from colliding with the TARDIS again one day?
3. Canton
Supernatural’s Mark Sheppard once guest starred opposite Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor as super-cool ex-FBI agent Canton Everett Delaware III. The Doctor has always had connections in Britain, like UNIT’s Kate Stewart, but in Canton he could have had an American associate. Actually, scratch that, I, for one, would love to see Canton in a spin-off about him fighting aliens in 1960s America. Don’t say you wouldn’t watch that.
2. Sally Sparrow
It might seem odd that one of Doctor Who’s most popular episodes, “Blink,” hardly features the Doctor at all. It’s not odd, however, when you realise who fills the Doctor’s role in the story – the intelligent and charismatic Sally Sparrow (pictured above). Although actress Carrie Mulligan has gone on to be a famous film star, would it be too much to ask for one, teeny-weeny “Blink” sequel? I’ve already got the title for it – “Blink 2: Blink Harder.”
1. Jenny
No, not Madame Vastra’s wife, but the Doctor’s long-lost daughter. In recent years, we’ve had the Doctor’s wife as a recurring character (and, by proxy, his mother and father-in law too) so why can’t we have his daughter? The woman who played her, Georgia Moffett, is the wife of David Tennant so surely it wouldn’t be too hard to entice her back into the Who fold. Perhaps the production team have been waiting for an older Doctor to make the father-daughter relationship more believable? If so, the time is right for Jenny to return. Fingers crossed everyone!
Christian also writes about Doctor Who – probably too much – on his blog.