Summary
- Death is not permanent for many companions on Doctor Who , with characters like Amy Pond, Rory Williams, and Clara Oswald experiencing multiple deaths and coming back to life.
- Time travel complicates the concept of death on the show, with characters dying before their own births or during events that are later reversed or wiped from existence.
- Despite the dangers they face, the Doctor always tries their best to save their companions, even if they can't save everyone. Amy, Rory, and Clara all have bittersweet endings but find some form of peace in the afterlife.
Doctor Who has seen many companions over its 60-year run, and several of them have stared death in the face and sent it away, but there are some of these supporting characters who have in fact died and then come back to life. Death isn't an unusual concept in Doctor Who. Even when the Doctor tries their best to keep everyone alive, unfortunately not everybody makes it back home safely. However, not everyone on the show stays dead, either.
Doctor Who frequently sees companions get tangled up in dangerous situations, but with the power of time travel, they tend to still manage to make their escape. Even if the Doctor can't save everyone, they still always try to do so. It's worth noting that through the complications of timelines, some characters died before their own births, and some even died during events that ended up being reversed or wiped from existence.
9 Amy Pond
Amy Pond dies on more than one occasion during her tenure as a companion of the Eleventh Doctor on Doctor Who. After the events of "The Pandorica Opens" in season 5, Amy is shot by Auton Rory against his will, and the Doctor puts her into the Pandorica in order to revive her. After 2,000 years in the Pandorica, Amy reawakens in a museum to help her younger self, alive and well. When the Doctor then reboots the universe in "The Big Bang," everyone technically dies, including Amy, who wakes up back in her childhood room on the morning of her wedding.
In the season 6 episode "The Girl Who Waited," a paradox is created, resulting in an older Amy who has been stuck in a facility for decades, believing she had been abandoned by Rory and the Doctor. As she watches her younger version be saved by Rory, older Amy decides to sacrifice herself so that Team TARDIS can get away safely. She embraces her death, only to end up being erased from existence.
Amy's final death is in her last episode, "The Angels Take Manhattan." After saving the world, Rory is sent to the past by a Weeping Angel, and Amy sees his gravestone. Knowing the rest of his life living in the past is now set in stone, she refuses to leave Rory anymore and allows the creature to send her to him. Although dead in the present day, Amy and Rory lived out the rest of their lives together in 1930s New York and adopted another child.
8 Rory Williams
Another companion of the Eleventh Doctor, Rory Williams is known on Doctor Who for his multiple deaths. A few of his deaths only last for a brief amount of time, including drowning before resuscitation in "Curse of the Black Spot" and being killed by the Eknodine during a mirage created by the Dream Lord in "Amy's Choice." Another notable death of his that was less permanent is during "The Doctor's Wife," which sees Amy encounter Rory's skeleton in the TARDIS while under mental torture.
The first of Rory's more important deaths comes during the Doctor Who season 5 episode "Cold Blood," which sees him murdered by a member of the Silurian colony. As he collapses, he lands by a large crack in the universe, which wipes him from existence. Although a devastated Amy tries to keep the memory of him alive in her head, she fails to do so and completely forgets the existence of her fiancée. Rory is then brought back into existence as an Auton Roman Centurion, with his full memories of being Rory, in "The Pandorica Opens."
Just like Amy, in "The Big Bang" he dies once again as the universe is rebooted, reawakening in Leadworth on the morning of his wedding to Amy. Rory's final death sees him being taken by a Weeping Angel, forced to live out the rest of his days in the past. Amy decides to join him, and despite them both being technically dead in the future, Rory lives out a long life with her and their son Anthony, giving Amy and Rory a perfect ending.
7 Oswin Oswald / Clara Oswin Oswald
Presuming every version of Clara Oswald across the Doctor's timeline dies, the character has an almost unlimited number of deaths. However, there are two notable versions of Clara that appear on-screen before her official introduction as a companion on Doctor Who: Oswin Oswald in "Asylum of the Daleks" and Clara Oswin Oswald in "The Snowmen." Oswin is the first version that the Eleventh Doctor encounters, unaware she has been converted into a full Dalek due to her intellect. When she discovers the heartbreaking truth, she sacrifices herself, so the Doctor can escape, allowing the planet to be destroyed.
When the Doctor meets Clara Oswin Oswald, he doesn't recognize her as Oswin, having not seen her face before. This version of the character is a bartender in 1842 who finds herself tangled up helping the Doctor against a group of vicious, alien snowmen. Standing upon a cloud where the TARDIS is parked, Clara is suddenly attacked by the Ice Governess, and the two fall rapidly to the ground. Despite efforts from the Doctor and Sontaran Strax, she is unable to survive her grave injuries, and the Doctor attends her funeral.
6 Donna Noble
Donna Noble is a companion of the Tenth Doctor best remembered for her argumentative banter and attitude toward the Time Lord. Donna only survives death once during her time on Doctor Who, in the season 4 episode "Turn Left." Donna is pulled into an alternative timeline by a soothsayer, which leads to her not meeting her ex-fiancee Lance and canceling out the events of "The Christmas Invasion." What seems like a small change results in the world's destruction, as the Doctor is killed by the Racnoss on what is supposed to be Donna's wedding day.
In order to reverse the events, to not only save the world but to also return her to the Doctor, Donna meets Rose Tyler, who sends her back in time to the day when it all began. Donna then has to convince her past self to turn left in her car rather than right, restoring the timeline and ensuring she and the Doctor meet. However, she arrives in the wrong place, and so sacrifices herself by stepping in front of a car, her death causing a massive traffic jam, which reverts the course of history.
5 Doctor Grace Holloway
Doctor Grace Holloway is the sole companion of the Eighth Doctor. In the Doctor Who TV movie, Grace tries to save the Doctor from the Master, who had taken over the Doctor's body in an attempt to rob him of his remaining regenerations. After succeeding, the Master returns to his own form and lashes out at her and the Doctor. During the scuffle, the Master throws Grace over a balcony in the TARDIS, sending her falling to her death.
After the Master is sucked into the Eye, the Doctor rushes to travel in the TARDIS back to the previous day, when Grace was still alive. Energy then begins to emit from the Eye, which brings Grace back to life, as well as the supporting characters Chang and Lee who had died earlier on. Despite asking her, Grace turns down the Doctor's invitation to join him on board the TARDIS and bids him farewell with a kiss.
4 Captain Jack Harkness
Captain Jack Harkness is a companion of the Ninth, Tenth, and Thirteenth Doctors. He initially meets the Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler during the London blitz of World War II and travels with the pair until his death in "The Parting of the Ways." As he defends Satellite 5, Jack is killed by a Dalek, while the Doctor sends Rose back to her home in the TARDIS to ensure her safety.
In an attempt to help the two men, Rose opens and absorbs the heart of the TARDIS, so she can return to Satellite 5. She struggles to control her power, however, and as she brings Jack back to life, does so on a permanent basis. This results in Jack becoming immortal, cursing him to survive through an unlimited number of deaths for the rest of time.
3 Strax
Strax the Sontaran is first introduced in the Doctor Who season 5 episode "A Good Man Goes to War," having been saved by the Doctor off-screen after being stranded on Earth. The Doctor then drafts Strax into his army heading to Demons Run, in order to rescue Amy Pond and her newborn child. Strax is killed in battle at Demons Run but is happy to die in combat as all Sontarans do. However, he is revived by Jenny Flint and Madame Vastra off-screen, and the three form the Paternoster Gang, who then return to help the Doctor in "The Snowmen."
2 Jenny
Jenny is introduced as the Tenth Doctor's daughter in Doctor Who season 4 and is killed off in her initial episode. Jenny was created by a machine, which took the Doctor's DNA to form a life with just one biological parent. While trying to stop a battle between a group of humans and the Hath, the Doctor is threatened by the leader of the humans, who tries to shoot the Time Lord.
In a panic, Jenny steps in the Doctor's way, taking the bullet for her father. Despite being the child of a Time Lord, Jenny isn't able to regenerate and dies in the Doctor's arms. However, once he leaves the planet, it appears Jenny does survive through the power of the terraforming "Source" the two armies had been fighting over, and runs off into space in search of adventure. Surprisingly Jenny never returned to Doctor Who.
1 Peri Brown
Peri Brown is a companion of the Fifth and Sixth Doctors, after meeting him during a visit to Lanzarote in 1984. Peri's exit from Doctor Who sees her taken by the Croziers, who attempt to put the evil Lord Kiv's consciousness into her via brain transplant. When she is discovered by ally warlord Yrcanos, he is heartbroken to find he is too late, and so makes the tough decision to mercy kill Peri. The Doctor believes her to be dead, but at the end of the season while on trial with the High Council of Gallifrey, it's revealed that Peri did in fact survive, married Yrcanos, and became his Queen.