So with Matt Smith announcing is was leaving, I had to go back and crunch the numbers. If he had stayed for season 8, he would have been The Doctor in more episodes than David Tennant. It is close, though. Including the 50th, David Tennant is in 49 episodes. I'm only counting regular full length televised episodes. Including the 50th and upcoming Christmas episodes, Matt Smith is in 45. Each increases by 2 if you include their appearances in The Sarah Jane Adventures. Bottom line is that David Tennant will still be the reigning long-running Doctor of the new show. Now, this isn't too fair of a comparison, but 4th Doctor, Tom Baker, was in 175 episodes. In all cases I include their appearance at the end of the regeneration, or the beginning of the next episode as in the 4th Doctor's case. I did not include "Shada" since it was not televised and I included "The Five Doctors" which was the same footage anyway. At that amount it hardly makes a difference.
Then I got to thinking about the companion in the most episodes. I knew it was either Rose or Amy. Amy was in 33 episodes. I'm not counting Karen Gillan in "The Fires of Pompeii." With Rose, even if you don't count the two flashes on screen in "The Poison Sky" and "Midnight" but include the last 3 episodes of that season as well as "Partners In Crime" and "The End of Time Part 2" and the upcoming 50th special, Rose has 33. They are neck and neck, but technically Rose has those extra 2 appearances. Without examining every single companion, I think I can confidently say that Sarah Jane holds the record at 84 episodes, and that doesn't even include either K9 and Company or The Sarah Jane Adventures.
Classic Who fans should like this clip from Saturdays episode, "The Crimson horror". it's an interesting presentation, and it makes me wonder if the actual episode will have that olde filme quality. What I loved about it, though, was it payed homage to Tegan Jovanka, one of my favorite all time companions. First he jokingly recalls how much trouble he had getting Tegan to Heathrow airport. It took over a series for him to finally accidentally get it right, only for her to come back the next series. But what he also does was very sweet. At the sound of a scream, he tells Clara, "Brave heart, Clara", something he used to say to Tegan.
I had the pleasure to see Janet Fielding, Tegan herself, at a convention in Atlanta. This was the old days when you could get close to the stars and sometimes converse with them. before DragonCon and ComicCon I met her, Mark Strickson (Turlough), Louise Jameson (Leela), The 3rd and 5th Doctors, and I was as close to them as I am to Scott across the room. This was also when a young teen could pay for admission with his allowance. I don't know where all my pictures went, but I found these. The first is Louise Jameson, then one of both Janet Fielding and Mark Strickson, and then one of me with Janet and Mark. And I'm sorry. I'm so so sorry but you're going to see some really bad homemade highlights. I'm wearing my TARDIS key and the scarf I forced my mother to crochet, fashioned after the scarf Tom Baker wore in his final series. It's about 13 feet long and I still have it.
Being caught up on the new episode reviews has its' advantages. This is a great fourth Doctor quote i found the other day and in a little bit I'm going to post some of the promo images (and thoughts on them) for Saturday's "Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS".
So with Matt Smith announcing is was leaving, I had to go back and crunch the numbers. If he had stayed for season 8, he would have been The Doctor in more episodes than David Tennant. It is close, though. Including the 50th, David Tennant is in 49 episodes. I'm only counting regular full length televised episodes. Including the 50th and upcoming Christmas episodes, Matt Smith is in 45. Each increases by 2 if you include their appearances in The Sarah Jane Adventures. Bottom line is that David Tennant will still be the reigning long-running Doctor of the new show. Now, this isn't too fair of a comparison, but 4th Doctor, Tom Baker, was in 175 episodes. In all cases I include their appearance at the end of the regeneration, or the beginning of the next episode as in the 4th Doctor's case. I did not include "Shada" since it was not televised and I included "The Five Doctors" which was the same footage anyway. At that amount it hardly makes a difference.
Then I got to thinking about the companion in the most episodes. I knew it was either Rose or Amy. Amy was in 33 episodes. I'm not counting Karen Gillan in "The Fires of Pompeii." With Rose, even if you don't count the two flashes on screen in "The Poison Sky" and "Midnight" but include the last 3 episodes of that season as well as "Partners In Crime" and "The End of Time Part 2" and the upcoming 50th special, Rose has 33. They are neck and neck, but technically Rose has those extra 2 appearances. Without examining every single companion, I think I can confidently say that Sarah Jane holds the record at 84 episodes, and that doesn't even include either K9 and Company or The Sarah Jane Adventures.
