MR123: The Company of Friends (spoilers)

We need another one

A box set of one-hour standalone Eight stories with different companions would be a good compromise!

Besides the ones we've had, we could have old Big Finish companions, Sam, Anji, Destrii, Stacy, Ssard? So many options!

Also if they can get Grace they should do this right away.

Yeah, there's quite a few companions to choose from if Bf ever decide to do a Volume 2, according to wiki:

Original to television, Multi-story:
(1)Grace Holloway (she appears in several comic stories, and I believe has she has brief 'off screen' (well off-page...) appearances in Vampire Science and Unnatural History, though that may be my memory playing tricks on me.

Narratively ambiguous
*1Chang Lee, (and I suppose *2Cass would count as well?)

Original to prose, Multi-story
(2)Bernice Summerfield (she appears in several short trips, The Dying Days and Benny's Story)• (3)Sam Jones • (4)Fitz Kreiner • (5)Compassion • (6)Miranda Dawkins • (7)Anji Kapoor • (8)Trix MacMillan • (9)Bazima

(Perhaps *3The Brigadier would count as well?, he appears in several short trips, The Dying Days, Minuet In Hell and The Shadows of Avalon)

Single adventure

(10)Edward Fyne • (11)Lorenzo Smitt • (12)Debbie Castle • (13)Ayfai • (14)Evelyn Chan

The wiki notes that in The Gallifrey Chronicles (which I haven't read yet) ''Marnal lists the Eighth Doctor's companions as Lorenzo, (15)Delilah, (16)Frank, (17)Claudia, Deborah (Debbie Castle), (18)Jemima-Katy, Miranda, (19)Nina, Anji and Beatrice'' I'd assume Lorenzo Smitt is the one being referred to, Beatrice is Trix, the other companions are presumably people the Doctor met during his century long exile on Earth.

According to the wiki a character called *4Larna appears in The Gallifrey Chronicles, Unnatural History, and The Infinity Doctors, I don't recall her significance but perhaps she counts as well.


Original to comics Multi-story

(20)Stacy Townsend • (21)Ssard • (22)Izzy Sinclair • (23)Fey Truscott-Sade • (24)Kroton • (25)Destrii • (26)Josie Day

Single adventure
(27)Billy Wilkins • (28)Ray Stobbs • (29)Ediphis • (30)Chantir

Original to audio, Multi-story
(31)Gemma and (32)Samson Griffin (whilst they've only made one appearance in an Audio story, Terra Firma had several flashbacks to previous adventures, and they were in a couple prose short trips I think) • (33)Mary Shelley • (34)Charley Pollard • (35)William Shakespeare (he appears in one or two of the prose short trips I think) • (36)C'rizz • (37)Lucie Miller • (38)Tamsin Drew • (39)Molly O'Sullivan • (40)Liv Chenka • (41)Helen Sinclair (42) Bliss (I'm assuming she will be in more than one boxset, the news release for the Time War set was a bit confusing, and Rakhee Thakrar is credited quite far down the list but she's on the front cover and was announced as the time war companion ages ago)

Some might argue that (*5)Alex and (*6)Susan could also count as companions, though neither traveled with the 8th Doctor full time.

Single adventure
(43)Romana II (she appears in Neverland, but the Shada remake IIRC ends with her and K9 travelling with the Doctor back to Gallifrey not doubt they got lost or distracted along the way) • (44)K9 Mark II (K9 apparently also appears in The Gallifrey Chronicles) • (45)Todd • (46)Rita (Todd and Rita were mentioned by the Older 8th Doctor in Mary's Story, (assuming the list of companions he names are chronological, it is possible Todd and Rita were the 8th Doctor's final companions) • (47)Daphne (the android built by the Doctor in Prisoner Of The Sun)

-It's been ages since I listened to it, but since the Doctor spends 600 years trapped on the planet you could argue the Jellyfish aliens he lived with were also companions, and the wiki lists a (*8)Selta as one of them


So by my count the 8th Doctor has had at least either 47, or 54 companions in total so far!

BF currently had a license through to 2025, and Titan Comics could potentially do more 8th DR stories in the future, so we could be looking at a round 60 soon...plenty to choose from for a Company Of Friends 2, maybe they could do a 54 disc boxset 

He was in the vicinity of the Seventh Doctor and Ace once (Timewyrm Exodus and Endgame, both written by Terrance Dicks). He also met Harry Sullivan, leaving before the Fourth Doctor and Sarah landed close enough to investigate (Wolfsbane)

Conrad Westmaas hasn't been active since C'rizz was written out, and C'rizz isn't a fondly remembered companion. Sheridan Smith is so busy she can only make the occasional Short Trip recording. Ruth Bradley's role in Dark Eyes had to be cut short because she was to busy to continue as much as she previously had as Molly. The Short Trips are a good way for old companions and periods to be revisited (I think doing a C'rizz Short Trip has a lot of potential that wasn't realised in his Main Range stories), while the full casts can flesh out newer dynamics. A Company of Friends box set would be marvelous.

I liked the basic character ideas behind C'rizz, and always enjoyed Conrad Westmaas's performance but I felt his backstory was a bit muddled and revealed in drips and draps that didn't always seem to gel, his personality sometimes changed between stories and often he was left as the third wheel in the partnership, some of the sparring between him and Charley was a bit ott at times i.m.o, I wouldn't say anything was wrong with C'Rizz as a character, but perhaps they didn't get everything right, I'd certainly be interested in hearing a short trip or two from C'Rizz point of view. 

If I recall correctly, yes, but not many.

I definitely want more Fitz audios someday.

IIRC there's at least one off-page gap in the novels when Fitz and The Doctor are travelling alone  and I don't think we ever read the exact moment Compassion joins as companion...