Ranking Doctor Who’s modern day companions
By Lacy Baugher
Petronella Osgood
Petronella Osgood was originally introduced on Doctor Who as a UNIT employee who served as a sort of personal assistant to Kate Lethbridge-Stewart. In many ways, Osgood is a stand-in for every Doctor Who fan out there watching the show. She’s brilliant, brave, and really fascinated by the myth and lore that is the Doctor. (At various points, she wears the Fourth Doctor’s signature scarf and the Eleventh Doctor’s bow tie as part of her outfits.) And in the vein of other companions who start off being underestimated only to be revealed capable of great things, Osgood saves the world. Or, rather, two of her do. (But more on that later on.)
After UNIT was invaded by Zygons, it is Osgood and her Zygon counterpart who strike a deal to maintain the peace and prevent war. They created something called Operation Double, a covert mission which would allow 20 million Zygons to live on Earth peacefully and secretly. They were also given a device called an Osgood box meant to maintain this accord through what was basically the threat of mutually assured destruction. (Though both, eventually, were revealed to be empty.) Both Osgoods became quite well established at UNIT, investigating aliens and working to make their planet and their universe a safer place.
Best episode: Season 9’s “The Zygon Inversion.” How can we not pick this one? It has two Osgoods! Yes, technically one of them is a Zygon, but we don’t know which one, and that’s kind of the point. Even when it is revealed that one of them has technically died and been replaced by another Zygon, we still don’t know whether one or neither of them is human. The best part, however, is that it doesn’t matter, because Osgood is herself, and no one else.