Losing Friends Trivia Quiz

Answer: Zoe

Zoe says this when she is sent back to her home by the Timelords, who have wiped her memories of her adventures with the Doctor. An awful, tragic moment, in which a whole era of 'Doctor Who' is erased in an instant.

Answer: Romana

Romana leaves the Doctor for happy reasons, choosing to help free the enslaved race of the Tharils. But the real poignancy of her departure comes through in the wonderful dialogue, and its perfect delivery at the hands of Tom Baker. "You were the noblest Romana of them all," he says, putting his feelings aside to give her the poetic send-off she deserves.

Answer: Adric

A more classic moment of tragic understatement would be hard to find in the series. Adric says this just before he dies saving Earth through his brilliant calculations. As the credits roll, we see not the usual starry background, but a shot of Adric's badge for mathematical excellence, smashed on the TARDIS floor.

This is the only 'Doctor Who' episode that played the credits without any sound.

Answer: Jamie

What else can the Doctor say to the boy he's spent three years travelling with? Jamie's tenure as companion lasted for more episodes than any other. The Doctor says this to him just before Jamie gets his memory wiped by the Timelords - an instruction that he'll never remember. Terrible.

Answer: Sarah

The departure of Sarah Jane must be one of the most perfectly-timed, perfectly heart-breaking companion farewells ever. She has a minor tantrum, threatening to leave. While she is packing, the Doctor gets a call to Gallifrey, but can't take her with him. "Oh come on, I was only joking!" she says, but it is no use, she has to go.

The script for the scene was rewritten at the last moment by Elisabeth Sladen and Tom Baker, the actors who played Sarah and the Doctor. Clearly they did a sterling job, because it is still hard to watch, all these years later.

Answer: Susan

This is part of a longer speech that the Doctor gives to Susan from inside the TARDIS, while she is locked outside it. He can't cope with the idea of losing her, nor with the idea of depending on her and thus holding her back. So when she is torn over wanting to leave him, he makes the decision for her. The first of many heart-wrenching departures that span the 'Doctor Who' series.

Answer: Nyssa

Nyssa is choosing to stay in the uninviting setting of Terminus so that she can use her skills and biomedical knowledge to help the people inflicted with the dreadful lazars' disease. A positive ending, perhaps. Yet when she says this to Tegan, the tears well up in her eyes.

Answer: Jo

Jo is getting married, and everyone is so busy celebrating the happy occasion, she is the only one who notices when the Doctor leaves her engagement party, climbs up the hill to Bessie, and drives away, alone. She is making a happy choice, in perhaps the only really convincing wedding departure of the series.

But the Doctor conveys his painful sense of loss, without saying very much at all.

Answer: Tegan

Tegan's farewell has to be one of the most gut-wrenching. It happens so quickly and with so much pain, in the wake of a bleak and devastating story in which everybody else who showed any kindness or humanity has been killed. "It seems I must mend my ways," says the Doctor with understated sorrow.

Answer: Barbara and Ian

Perhaps the most celebratory of all the farewells, Barbara and Ian get back to London and go off the rails with joy, playing in Trafalgar Square and skipping along the Thames embankment. When they hop on a bus and ask for an old-style bus fare, the conductor asks them this unwitting question. "No, but you're getting warm!" says Ian, and they laugh and laugh.