The companion who entered the TARDIS with a cold and left with a shrug.
Character Overview
Dorothea “Dodo” Chaplet (played by Jackie Lane) was introduced at the tail end of The Massacre of St Bartholomew’s Eve (1966). She more or less wandered into the TARDIS after mistaking it for a real police box, coughed once, and the Doctor basically went, “Good enough, you’re hired.” This was the 1960s, when background checks and narrative arcs were still considered optional.
Dodo was cheerful, slightly scatterbrained, and had the kind of inconsistent accent that made viewers wonder if the TARDIS translation circuits were having a breakdown. One week she was posh, the next week she sounded like a street urchin — and occasionally she was both in the same scene.
Her adventures included bringing the common cold to the year 10 million (The Ark), a minor incident which nearly wiped out an entire alien species. Later, she was hypnotized by the Celestial Toymaker (The Celestial Toymaker) and generally fulfilled the role of “companion in distress who gets mind-controlled far too easily.”
And then there was her exit — or, more accurately, her absence. Midway through The War Machines, Dodo is written out with the immortal narrative device of “She’s gone to stay in the country, she’s not coming back.” That’s it. No farewell scene. No goodbye wave. Just an off-screen decision and a note left with the landlord, basically. Compared to the dramatic sacrifices of Katarina and Sara Kingdom, Dodo was the companion equivalent of someone ghosting the Doctor.