By Kiyan • 12 February 2021
Love is in the air, folks.
That’s right: it’s almost Valentine’s Day, and what better way to celebrate than to sit back, relax, and appreciate some of the most memorable Doctor Who couples ever to grace our television screens, computer monitors, phones, tablets and whatever else we might’ve happened to watch Doctor Who on over the years?
Without further ado, let’s jump right into a couple of Doctor Who’s most unforgettable couples.
Elton and Ursula (Love and Monsters)
Who can talk about romance and Doctor who without talking about the seminal, nigh resplendent Series Two episode Love & Monsters, penned by the one. The only. Russell T. Davies.
No one, that’s who.
This downright euphoric piece of heaven posing as a Doctor Who episode has gone down in history as one of the most blessed 45 minutes of television for a reason, and it’s not just the inclusion of the wonderfully cute ‘n’ cuddly Absorbaloff.
It’s the heartwarming relationship between main character Elton (this is a Doctor and companion lite episode) and his girlfriend Ursula.
I won’t give away too much about their relationship for those who haven’t seen it (it’s a real romantic treat, so it’s worth experiencing firsthand), but Ursula and Elton are frankly perfect for each other. Even through troubled times, she really is his rock.
Leela and Andred (The Invasion of Time)
I know what you’re thinking: “A companion write-out marriage? Really? Those are about as romantic as a wet paper bag.
And the answer, dear reader, is yes: a companion write-out marriage.
Leela’s relationship with Andred (played, of course, by the ineffable Christopher Tranchell, who also lent his talents to The Faceless Ones as Steve Jenkins and The Massacre as Roger Colbert) is one for the Doctor Who romance history books.
True love so often leaves its most intimate intricacies — its most important innards, its vital viscera if you will — unsaid, and Leela’s and Andred’s emblemizes that idea to the utmost.
It embodies the unspokenness of true love so much, in fact, that Leela’s decision to stay on Gallifrey at the end of the Invasion of Time appears to come out of nowhere.
You know what they say though: true love blindsides. And this true love most definitely does just that.
This Lion and Itself (The Romans)
Fact: Romance wasn’t built in a day. And neither were romantics.
The two go hand in hand. Romance runs on the people who make it all possible every day. You just can’t have romance without romantics.
And boy does Doctor Who have Rome antics. So many Rome antics, in fact, that there’s an entire serial — yes, not just a passing scene here or there, not just a measly episode or two, but an entire serial — dedicated to Rome antics.
It’s called The Romans.
Don’t let its black-and-white-palletted persuasions dissuade you; The Romans has more Rome antics than you can shake an abacus at, including a revitalizing wrench that the serial gleefully yeets into the idea that romance — and therefore couples — must always be built, like the best of bicycles, for two.
The Romans, you see, come replete with lions, the veritable symbol of the most Roman thing ever: the coliseum.
The timeless majesty of this lone lion from part 3 (“All Roads Lead to Rome”) proves it: when you’ve got enough Rome antics at your disposal, romance really can be a lone venture.
Brian and Tricey (Dinosaurs on a Spaceship)
Who says couples have to be romantic though? No one in their right mind, that’s who
There are all types of couples out there, and Brian and Tricey make up an unforgettable one, forming a close bond of friendship over the course of their too-short time together aboard the Silurian Ark in Dinosaurs on a Spaceship.
Dinosaurs on a Spaceship may be a visually dark episode, the saturated blacks and cool, metallic grays of the spaceship interior lending the prehistoric story a cold, industrial, borderline-utilitarian persuasion.
But the friendship between Brian and Tricey exudes a warmth that melts all that ice away in no time and proves once and for all that camaraderie draws no distinctions of species, uniting the best among us across time and space.
Ryan and Call of Duty (The Ghost Monument)
Thirteenth Doctor companion Ryan Sinclair might not be the first character to come to mind when you think “Doctor Who couples.” But just because his soulmate flies under the radar doesn’t make the relationship any less meaningful.
Ryan loves the Call of Duty video game series — so much so, in fact, that he’s even willing to risk his life for it, charging into hostile territory with only a piece of advanced alien weaponry at his disposal to prove it in the episode The Ghost Monument.
Luckily Ryan makes it out ok, but in hindsight, things could’ve gone real south real fast for him there.
If that doesn’t say “true love,” then I don’t know what does. The fact that Ryan never mentions his love of Call of Duty ever again is just the final nail in this heart-shaped monument to affection: he’s so enamored with the series that he doesn’t want to share even the merest mention of it with anyone else.
And that’s ok. You keep doing you, Ryan, and never let true love falter.
The Twelfth Doctor and Pears (Twice Upon a Time)
The Twelfth Doctor has quite the curious relationship with the little lopsided pome known as the pear.
In Twice Upon a Time, the Twelfth Doctor relays some instructions to his future self. On the list? The infamous “never, ever eat pears.”
This may appear, at first glance, to raise a red flag for the relationship between the green fruit and the Twelfth Doctor.
But make no mistake, the bond between good old Twelve and these sweet, juicy seed-bearers is as close as can be.
Much like Ryan does when he chooses not to mention Call of Duty ever again after The Ghost Monument, the Twelfth Doctor only warns against the consumption of pears so that he can keep all the pears for himself.
The pears, it ap-pear-s, wouldn’t have it any other way either. A-pear-ently, The Twelfth Doctor and pears make the pear-fect pair, the pear-adigmatic pear-agon of romance gone not wrong, but oh so right.
Pear-sonally? I’m wishing this unconventional couple pear-manent happiness and bliss beyond com-pear in their relationship from here on out.
K-9 and No One (multiple)
Poor K-9 never could catch a break.
Maybe it was all the ledges he tended to come across — those pesky landscape-ular leaps that always seemed to impede his progress and remove him from the action.
Or maybe it was the fact that no one loved him.
No matter the incarnation, K-9 always seemed to be the one after the affection of others and not the other way around, opting to stay with Leela (and thus Andred as well) in The Invasion of Time and Romana II in Warriors’ Gate.
But like a dog chasing its own tail, K-9 never caught up with love.
On the contrary: he always seemed to be on the receiving end of the vilest of undeserved vitriol. Constantly the butt of onscreen jokes and the target of the Fourth Doctor’s light but nonetheless concerning teasing, K-9 had not a true friend in the world in my estimation, which is why he and no one make one of the most remarkable duos in Who history.
Still, I suppose getting to star in your own spinoff (not once but twice) makes it all worth it. I’m just glad someone finally threw K-9 a bone.
Well, that about wraps that up with a heart-shaped bow. Reflecting on these wonderfully unforgettable relationships hasn’t just gotten me ready for Valentine’s Day; it’s gotten me positively pumped for it.
What are your favorite Doctor Who couples, relationships, and romantic moments? Let us know in the comment down below or on Facebook or Twitter. And don’t forget to have a superb Valentine’s Day.