Forum: scifi.stackexchange.com
Tags: <doctor-who>
Title: Does The Doctor ever have a non-British companion or non-humanoid friend?
Question: The Doctor has traveled Universes and still seems to end up with an English /  UK  companion and befriends mostly humanoid--class entities. Are there any instances that deviate from this scenario?

Answers:
sents: text: On the show itself he hasn't if you don't count K9 and Kamelion.
text: In the Doctor Who comic strip, one of his long-running companions was Frobisher , from a shapeshifting race called the Whifferdill; he usually took the form of a penguin, so I don't think that counts as humanoid.
text: The Tardis wikia page on companions also mentions some other "obviously non-human species" in the "non-humans" section, but I think all the ones mentioned besides the Whifferdills would qualify as humanoid.
answer_details: author: scifi.stackexchange.com/users/22250/Hypnosifl
score: 12
sents: text: He does seem to have a preference for Humans
text: In fact, its what got him stranded here for a time.
text: However, it isn't an exclusive one.
text: At least not in the entirety of the series.
text: Since the reboot, his companions have been human and typically from somewhere or somewhen around the British Isles / United Kingdom.
text: This gets a little grey if you include Vastra and Strax as companions since they are clearly not from around here.
text: If you go back to the First Doctor and start counting , there have been many companions not from this Earth: Susan Foreman, Gallifreyan K9, Robot Dog Romana, Gallifreyan / Time Lady Adric from the E-Space planet Alzarius Nyssa from the planet
text: Traken Turlough, a political prisoner from the planet Trion Kamelion, a shape-changing sentient robot Some on that list may be "human" but just not born here - the Whoverse is a little fuzzy about the whole notion of why most aliens are bipeds who speak English, though many of them are simply humans who have ventured into space.
text: Adric and Nyssa may or may not be on that list.
text: I intentionally left out Leela , as a member of the Sevateem
text: she's almost certainly got ancestry here.
text: Also Jack Harkness, as he is from Boeshan Peninsula , a future human colony.
text: For non-humanoids entirely, the list is whittled down to K9 and (depending on her shape), Kamelion.
answer_details: author: scifi.stackexchange.com/users/22987/joshbirk
score: 10
sents: text: K9 (both versions) and Kamelion count as companions, of the Fourth and Fifth Doctors respectively.
text: The K9s were of course robot dogs, and Kamelion was an android.
answer_details: author: scifi.stackexchange.com/users/969/Daniel Roseman
score: 7
sents: text: Captain Jack isn't British and
text: being immortal isn't all that human because as Tennant stated 'dying is part of being human' so by the tenth Doctor's definition the inability to die is non-human.
text: Also to counter act the humanoid concept
text: yes jackis humanoid but his future self (the face of bo) is not.
answer_details: author: scifi.stackexchange.com/users/21674/giacomo casanova
score: 6
sents: text: The BBC, and television and movies generally, has/have a very strong preference for humanoid aliens, or larger aliens in lieu thereof: It's a heck of a lot easier to do a creature if you can put a human in the suit.
text: There have been exceptions involving puppetry or robotics ("animatronics") , but given that
text: Dr. Who originated so long ago and was a low-budget effort for many years, it shouldn't surprise anyone that there's a bias in this direction.
text: It's also easier for the most of the viewing audience to identify with humanoids.
text: "US Television features cardboard-cutout characters in front of three-dimensional scenery.
text: The BBC does it the other way around."
answer_details: author: scifi.stackexchange.com/users/22175/keshlam
score: 3

Summary of the answers:
For non-humanoids, the list of companions only features K9 and Kamelion.
The Doctor has had non-British companions including Susan and Romana and Captain Jack. Moreover, K9 and Kamelion are both non-humanoid and companions of the Doctor.