The Eleventh Doctor introduced us to plenty of colourful characters with his travels, meeting historical figures such as Vincent Van Gogh, Queen Nefertiti and Winston Churchill.

In the present we were re-acquainted with UNIT in ‘The Power of Three’, and he rounded up an unlikely band of heroes from various eras to help out in ‘A Good Man Goes To War’.

With the familiar faces of the ‘Paternoster Road’ gang – Madame Vastra, Jenny Flint and Strax – appearing in Peter Capaldi’s debut story last year and Kate Stewart returning in Season 9’s opener, CultBox considered which of Eleven’s other pals we would like to encounter again (excluding the Doctor’s quasi-companion and sometime wife River Song)…

 

Professor Alec Palmer (Dougray Scott) and Emma Grayling (Jessica Raine) from ‘Hide’

Okay, so we have cheated a little with our top choice being a couple, but this pairing of the good professor and his assistant was a real highlight for us.

As well as his current occupation as a ghost hunter, Alec Palmer was a professor of psychology and a keeper of secrets, haunted by his war career. Emma Grayling on the other hand was a talented empathic psychic, able to sense the feelings of other people.

Brought together as they were by the end of the tale, we wanted to see where their investigations led them next!

 

Porridge (Warwick Davis) from ‘Nightmare in Silver’

Although the episode in which he featured failed to scale the dizzy heights of Neil Gaiman’s previous effort, getting lost in its Doctor vs Doctor mind battle, his creation of the diminutive “defender of humanity and the imperator of known space” seemed a character ripe for further development.

Officially titled Emperor Ludens Nimrod Kendrick Cord Longstaff XLI, “Porridge” had fled his official duties and was hiding out on Hedgewick’s World of Wonders to have some personal time. A lonely soul, haunted by the lengths his people had to go to in order to defeat the Cybermen, Porridge was seeking meaning in his life. We would love to go back and see if he did find some happiness.

 

Liz Ten (Sophie Okonedo) from ‘The Beast Below’ and ‘The Pandorica Opens’

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth X was the ruler of Starship UK, the remains of Great Britain (sans Scotland) who were fleeing solar flares that devastated the Earth in the 29th Century. With her body clock altered, Liz Ten had reigned for two centuries without knowing the dark secret at the heart of her nation.

Smart, ballsy and not prepared to let a mystery go, she was last glimpsed in 5145 allowing River Song to nab a painting from the Royal Collection. We would love the Doctor drop in and see her cope with settling that fugitive nation on a planet somewhere… New Britannia perhaps?

 

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