Math whiz, brat extraordinaire, and the only companion who managed to crash a spaceship so hard it wiped out the dinosaurs.
Character Overview
Adric, played by Matthew Waterhouse, first appeared in Full Circle (1980) and quickly became the poster child for “companion you love to hate.” Hailing from the planet Alzarius, Adric was supposed to be the boy genius of the TARDIS, armed with a shiny badge for mathematical excellence and the ego to match. Unfortunately, being a teen prodigy didn’t stop him from whining, sulking, or repeatedly siding with the bad guys “just to prove a point.”
Traveling with the Fourth and Fifth Doctors, Adric developed a reputation for being… well, insufferable. He constantly tried to outsmart the Doctor (never worked), clashed with Tegan and Nyssa (always worked, because they wanted to throttle him), and generally brought the same energy as the kid in math class who reminded the teacher they forgot to assign homework.
But give the boy some credit — his heart was occasionally in the right place. He admired the Doctor, wanted to do good, and sometimes even helped save the day. The problem was his execution: nine times out of ten, his “brilliant” plans resulted in disaster, confusion, or him getting kidnapped again.
His final story, Earthshock (1982), gave Adric the most dramatic exit of any classic companion: trapped on a doomed spaceship, he smashed his badge of mathematical excellence in frustration before dying in the crash that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. The credits rolled silently in tribute. And while fans were shocked, many couldn’t help but quietly think, “Well, at least Nyssa and Tegan get a break now.”