The Longest Serving Doctor Who Companions

So, tonight saw the exit of Amy Pond and Rory Williams in Doctor Who, and I realise Amy must have been one of the longest serving companions. So, who is the longest serving?

Now, there are no hard and fast rules about who counts, or what counts. So, I make these assumptions:

I count someone as a companion from when they start to when they leave, so, if someone doesn't appear in an episode of an adventure they are in (which happened often in the 1960s as cast members went on holiday) then I still count them as appearing in all the episodes. The exceptions are when someone debuts in an episode other than an opening one, and leaves in an episode other than the final one.

I don't count Mission To The Unknown or Shada.

I do count Doctor-lite or companion-lite episodes (so I count Blink as one of Martha Jones', Midnight as one of Donna Noble's and The Doctor, the Widow & the Wardrobe as one of Amy Pond's and Rory Williams').

I don't include one-off companions- that includes the Bad Wilf.

I include pre-companion appearances, such as Donna Noble in The Runaway Bride, but for Mickey Smith I ignore New Earth as he has just a cameo.

I include returning companions as long as it is actually them and they are not doing a cameo- so Adric doesn't count in Time Flight, nor do the companions in the Doctor's mind near the end of The Caves of Androzani, nor the old companions he visits at the end of The End of Time. For The Five Doctors I only count Susan Foreman and Sarah Jane Smith as returning companions.

I don't any of the recurring UNIT personnel, nor K9 and Kamelion.

By number of episodes, I count a traditional 20th century episode as a single episode. The 21st century one (except for the specials, Last of the Time Lords, Journey's End and The Eleventh Hour) and the ones from Attack of the Cybermen to Revelation of the Daleks I count as 2 episodes each. Due to their length I count the specials, Last of the Time Lords, Journey's End and The Eleventh Hour as 3 episodes each. The Five Doctors counts as 4 episodes.

OK, so, here we go:

Susan Foreman- 55 (51 from An Unearthly Child to The Dalek Invasion of Earth and a return in The Five Doctors)

Barbara Wright- 77 (from An Unearthly Child to The Chase)

Ian Chesterton- 77 (as per Barbara Wright)

Vicki- 42 (from The Rescue to The Myth Makers)

Steven Taylor- 45 (from episode 6 of The Chase to The Savages)

Katarina- 5 (from episode 4 of The Myth Makers to episode 4 of The Daleks' Master Plan)

Sara Kingdom- 8 (from episode 5 to episode 12 of The Daleks' Master Plan)

Dodo Chaplet- 19 (from episode 4 of The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve to episode 2 of The War Machines)

Ben Jackson- 40 (from The War Machines to The Faceless Ones)

Polly- 40 (as per Ben Jackson)

Jamie McCrimmon- 119 (113 from The Highlanders to The War Games and a return in The Two Doctors)

Victoria Waterfield- 47 (from Evil of the Daleks to Fury from the Deep)

Zoe Heriot- 44 (from The Wheel in Space to The War Games)

Liz Shaw- 25 (from Spearhead from Space to Inferno)

Jo Grant- 77 (from Terror of the Autons to The Green Death)

Sarah Jane Smith- 91 (80 from The Time Warrior to The Hand of Fear and then returns in The Five Doctors, School Reunion and The Stolen Earth/Journey's End)

Harry Sullivan- 28 (24 from Robot to Terror of the Zygons and a return in The Android Invasion)

Leela- 40 (from The Face of Evil to The Invasion of Time)

The firat Romama- 26 (from The Ribos Operation to The Armageddon Factor)

The second Romana- 40 (from Destiny of the Daleks to Warriors' Gate)

Adric- 42 (from Full Circle to Earthshock)

Nyssa- 50 (from The Keeper of Traken to Terminus)

Tegan Jovanka- 70 (from Logopolis to Resurrection of the Daleks)

Peri Brown- 46 (from Planet of Fire to episode 8 of Trial of a Time Lord)

Mel Bush- 20 (from episode 9 of Trial of a Time Lord to Dragonfire)

Ace- 29 (from Dragonfire to Survival)

Rose Tyler- 62 (55 from Rose to Army of Ghosts/Doomsday and a return in Turn Left and The Stolen Earth/Journey's End)

Adam Mitchell- 4 (from Dalek to The Long Game)

Jack Harkness- 22 (10 from The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances to Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways and returns in Utopia/The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords and The Stolen Earth/Journey's End)

Mickey Smith- 26 (pre-companion appearances in Rose, Aliens of London/World War Three, Boom Town and Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways, 8 from School Reunion to Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel, and returns in Army of Ghosts/Doomsday and Journey's End)

Martha Jones- 38 (27 from Smith & Jones to Utopia/The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords and returns in The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky, The Doctor's Daughter and The Stolen Earth/Journey's End)

Donna Noble- 36 (pre-companion appearance in The Runaway Bride, 27 from Partners in Crime to The Stolen Earth/Journey's End and a return in The End of Time)

Amy Pond- 69 (from The Eleventh Hour to The Angels Take Manhattan)

Rory Williams- 57 (pre-companion appearance in The Eleventh Hour, 8 from The Vampires of Venice to The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood and 46 from The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang to The Angels Take Manhattan)

So, who are the longest serving companions?

In first place is Jamie McCrimmon on 119. As each new season is the equivalent of 29 episodes, it would take 4 seasons and 2 ordinary adventures to beat this.

In second place is Sarah Jane Smith on 91.

In joint third place are Barbara Wright, Ian Chesterton and Jo Grant on 77.

In sixth place is Tegan Jovanka on 70.

In seventh place is Amy Pnnd on 69.

In eighth place is Rose Tyler on 62.

In ninth place is Rory Williams on 57.

In tenth place is Susan Foreman on 55.