Moderator's Note: This is Mike's original Grace summary:

Not much to say about Grace. The Fox telemovie didn't really provide a lot of character development for her.



Except that guy with her at the start is not a very understanding sort of male, is he? She sure can pick them - two guys who don't appreciate what they have (I'm including the Doctor here).

The Doctor does appreciate her! He asks her to go with him - he even KISSES her! What more could anyone ask for? It's her who doesn't appreciate him. Would YOU turn down a trip in the TARDIS (not to mention a snog)?

I can't understand it, either. What exactly is she going back to--she quit her job, her boyfriend dumped her, and, unless time travel undid this, she's wanted for the theft of part of the Millenium Clock!

The Doctor doesn't appreciate her because he won't stay with her - she has to come with him. Mind you, that would make further adventures rather difficult.

Do you WANT the Doctor to stay with her? To settle down with a wife and a mortgage and 2.4 kids? I admit I was pleased when Grace said, 'No, you come with me' - a rare sign of independence and equality in a companion - but she's forgetting about the TARDIS. You can deeply appreciate someone without wanting to give up the freedom of all time and space for them. Not to mention the fact that most of the cosmos would get destroyed if the Doctor took his eyes off it for two minutes!

The Doctor should go and find a nice British girl, who'll make tea, and stand on chairs screaming ;-)

Well, since the Doctor has a time machine, he could have stayed with Grace, settled down, etc. If he wanted to nip out and save the day/planet/universe, he could, then come back a minute later.

I guess the biggest problem would be lifespan. Even if you accept that the Doctor is half-human (I don't; I've decided to believe the Master misread his data), he still has an extremely long lifespan. Grace doesn't, so one day she'll die. At that point, either the Doctor starts going to singles bars, or he gets back into the TARDIS and picks up where he left off. He's used to long-term planning. For example, he left the Hand of Omega on Earth during his first incarnation, aged 450. He doesn't return until his 7th incarnation, aged 950.

All right, I'll concede your point Emily. The Doctor does appreciate her because he at least considers it for a moment. But why doesn't he say "Oooh, I'll pop by in 2001" or something? Or is that the Time Lord equivalent of saying "I'll call you tomorrow" and then never doing so.
I'll crawl back into my giant clam now.

Relax, Chris, we're all friends here. I'm sure Emily respects your right to have an opposing opinion, even as she's disecting it.

I just feel I need to tread softly, softly - it's so easy to upset someone on all of these boards but especially the Doctor Who one - Who fans are so sensitive (and here's me with the fragile ego).

Of COURSE I respect people's right to have their own opinions! What else gives me such a great opportunity to exercise my claws? So crawl out of your clam and start fighting back, Chris! For what it's worth, none of you have ever upset me, though regrettably I seem to have upset a great many people.
And by the way, you're all absolutely right, there's no real reason why the Doctor couldn't stay with Grace. I suppose it comes down to my instinctive horror of the Doctor having sex.

I agree with the sex part, Emily. I think it has to do with the fact that, whatever it has developed into, Doctor Who is at heart a children's program. It would be like Piglet moving in with Winnie-the-Pooh and becoming his "life partner."

I'm so glad someone's come up with an alternative explanation to that suggested by the Completely Useless Encyclopedia. But even the New Adventures, which are 'adult' - and try to prove it with liberal doses of sex - keep their hands off the Doctor (well, with the exception of Lance Parkin's books).

I'm going to be dissapointed if no one is offended by this post, so here goes:

Gallefreyans (sp?) must have sex to produce little Gallefreyians. As long as The Doctor dosen't act like Will "Chase everything in a skirt" Riker, I think it okay. At least once every 30 years or so.

Have I offended every one, yet?

Earthlings may have this absurd method of reproduction, but Gallifreyans, being infinitely superior, have got something called The Loom which contains their genetic material and produces kids for them. Has anyone actually read the relevant New Adventures, and can give a proper explanation of the Loom? I remember from Lance Parkin's Cold Fusion that the Time Lords insisted a baby conceived through sex must be aborted.

I believe the Looms are discussed in detail in the NA "Lungbarrow." The Doctor Who Handbook--The Seventh Doctor has an appendix describing the Looms, too.

Charles, there's no evidence in the shows that Gallifreyans have to have sex to reproduce. They could combine their version of sperm and egg in a number of fashions, like fish (female lays eggs, male fertilizes), like some insects (male provides female with a sperm packet, no intercourse required), or artificially (like the Looms Emily mentioned). Just because the Doctor looks like a homo sapiens sapiens doesn't mean that his body works like one. As I've mentioned before, he's already shown to have abnormal physiognomy; why shouldn't this extend to the reproductive cycle?

Oh, and you're not even close to being offensive. As long as you make a reasoned statement, we here in Who-land will not take offense. We will, however, do our best to pick apart your arguement.

I vaguely remember, in the background in the Gallifrey scenes in Arc Of Infinity, there seemed to be a pregnant Time Lady? Or am I remembering wrong?

I sincerely hope you're wrong.

Perhaps it was a backwards bustle.

Thanks - I knew I could rely on you to come up with an explanation. Only one though? You're slacking!

Mike - you say the Master misread the info about the Doctor being half-human in the movie but doesn't he also confess this himself. Mind you, he could be being facetious.

I sure hope not. I think the idea of the Doctor being half-human is extremely lame. I'm opposed to the proliferation of half-breeds on TV SF. Not because I'm racist, but because they're so implausible. The likelyhood of a terran-Gallifreyan (or any other ET) crossbreed is as likely as a human/cow crossbreed, or a human/cabbage (of course, this could explain the Teletubbies).

Gallifreyans are a completely different species, and you can't crossbreed different species.

Unless, of course, Earth somehow becomes Gallifrey one day...

Now THAT'S an interesting idea. I don't know if I've every heard it suggested before.

Of course, the Doctor does talk about Gallifrey being in "another constellation", and there is mention that the Gallifreyans were the first race to evolve after the big bang. Maybe it's the other way 'round; Gallifrey becomes Earth. Or, thanks to time travel, one did/does become the other, but they still exist concurrently in time.

Perhaps Earth was colonized by Gallifreyians?

Well, Remember the Ravolox incident - they were quite happy to move earth two lights years

Still doesn't explain how Susan could be his
granddaugther now does it?

Back to Grace:too bad they left off having the
Doctor leave her in San Francisco,I mean unless
he finally got tired of dragging unsuspecting
companions all through the cosmos..
As we saw in THE DEADLY ASSASIN,the Doctor without
a companion is like having ham without eggs,it
doesn't feel right.

On the other hand if Grace had stayed she wouldn't
have been able to fall in love with Harm on JAG.
(ah,for those of you not paying attention Daphne
Ashbrook went on after the telemovie to play Lt.
Commander Rabb's love interest on JAG for about
a season and a half.)

I was suprised and elated to see I am not the only one to think of the Earth-Gallifrey connection. The Timelords seem to have an obsession with Earth (I can't stand the word Terra, why name it after a Latin word, why not a Chinese word - after all there are a heck of a lot of them, about a third of the human race). When the Doc #8 said he was half human, I was thinking that would explain why he was there all the time. But I didn't think of terms of a human parent, since Doc #7 was in the mysterious mood before the series proper ended, I was thinking that the Timelords are so distant genetically due to millenia of evolution or genetic engineering (which would explain the two hearts) that they couldn't be classified as homo sapiens anymore. Maybe they are now homo sapiens chronosus, now? The reason the good Doc was on Earth all the time was he was researching his peoples' history, which is probably against the rules and the original reason of his renegade status. Some food for thought.

As far as the origins of Gallifrey, they are so shrouded in mystery that even the Timelords aren't sure, at least most of them.

Everyne seems to think the novel Lungbarrow explains the reasons why Susan is the Doctor's grandaughter, although I haven't read it myself.
I thought the Doctor worked fine in The Deadly Assassin without a companion, although I suppose Engin and that other guy probably took the place of the companion for the story. (Ham without eggs? I usually have bacon with my eggs).
As for the Earth-Gallifrey connection, I always thought it might be because the timeline is so open to disruption but so vital to Gallifrey coming into being the Doctor has to keep things on track, although he is only very vaguely aware of this. Who knows, maybe the TARDIS was set up to draw the Doctor to Earth frequently and it's all been abig conspiracy from Day One? Pure speculation, of course.

I put Tobasco on my eggs, so I guess I'm weird.
Anyhoo, you bring up a point. During the years when the Tardis was essentially uncontrollable it does seem to focus on Earth more often than not. Could the Gallifreyans hacked into the computer and alter its course to major events in Earth's history to protect its own?
And when they exile him to Earth, the Doc #3 does seem to stumble across many Earth shattering events. Let's check them off shall we.
Spearhead from Space and Terror of the Autons are of the Auton invasions, which would have eventually destroyed the human race. DrWho and Silurians with the threat of their reconquest of Earth. Inferno with the possible destruction of Earth due to a geothermal process. The Daemons with Daemon about to destroy the planet as a failed experiment. Day of the Daleks, where they have failed only to the Doctor restoring the timeline. Well I can on and on, but the Earth was in a hell of a lot of trouble while Doc #3 was there, and good thing he was or that would be the end of it.
It also makes the Master particulary insidious since he was involved in many of these plots. Does he know something that the Doctor does not?

Anyone seen Grace's returns in Doctor Who Magazine's comic strip... the last page of the one in DWM 289 is bound to have upset a few people (don't want to give away the cliffhanger).

I haven't seen it, I never will see it, and as suitable spoiler time has elapsed, maybe you could tell us? (*Keeping fingers crossed that it involves Grace dying rather than kissing*)

Re: the Earth-Gallifrey connection - in 'Empire of Glass' Time Lord Irving Braxiatel says that his people look upon Earth as a kind of 'wayward daughter.' I'm not quite sure what he was hinting at. And as he spent the rest of the book hinting like mad about how closely related he and the Doctor were, I'm going to ignore him.

No, Grace but doesn't die but it's one of those which is reality/which is fantasy type of things. Let's just say the Doctor wakes up in bed next to Grace...

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Thought you'd be pleased.

Allright, Doctor, you go Boyyyyyyeeeee!!!!.

Actually, it does seem a logical progression from the telemovie.

They've already done a Grace sequel in the comics. She took the Doctor's line "You'll do great things, Grace" literally and started researching the Master's goo that was spat onto her arm...

Do you think Big Finish Audios might convince Daphne Ashbrook to reprise her role as Grace? With modern technology they wouldn't have to fly her over to the UK, she could record her parts in a US studio (kind of like that Frank Sinatra Duets album a few years back, Sinatra recorded his parts in studio, the others recorded their bits in other parts of the world and it was all mixed together later).

What a shame that they seem to think inventing some 'Charley' person is a better idea. I'm sick of new Companions having boys' names (Benny, Sam, Charley), and, whilst I was obviously not that taken with Grace (WHAT are you doing to my Doctor??!!! Get your hands off him THIS INSTANT!!!) I think she should have the right to become a proper Companion rather than a one-off (of course, this could just be because I'm the obsessive anoracky type who likes the distinction between Companions and temporary helpers to be clearly drawn).

I know the Doctor drops in to see her when he's in San Francisco in Unnatural History, but as we see nothing whatsoever of the meeting it doesn't really help.

i imagine it would okay for new companions to have boys' names if they are actually male?

For that matter, I know a few women named Jamie. But none named Ian or Adric. So companions' gender switching names goes both ways.

Yeah, but we never see Mike Yates saying 'Call me Michele' or Benton saying 'All my friends call me Joan'.

Er...come to think of it, I'm rather grateful about that.

Sam, Benny, Charley are no more boys' names than they are girls' names. They're names that can, and are, used by both genders - therefore they are not gender-specific.

I'm surprised that a femenist would think of them as boys' names - how do we know that the female versions didn't arise before the male versions?

Anyhow, they're only names - 'a rose by any other name...' and all that.

Hey - a feminist can ALWAYS find something to complain about if she thinks hard enough (in my case, of course, it just comes instinctively ;)).

I don't know the first thing about how names evolved, but I do know that nowadays Sam, Benny and Charley are primarily men's names. If you heard them you'd automatically assume that they were referring to people of the wrong, sorry, male gender.

Of course in the twenty-sixth century it might be different, so I will attempt to absolve Benny of any blame for her awful nickname. I will, however, blame Paul Cornell. Not only have I NEVER heard of a woman called Benny before, but, to quote the Completely Useless Encylopedia, 'Benny: Lumbering, simple-minded farmhand from Crossroads. Those who remember the character will know that he automatically springs to mind every time the other Benny is mentioned in the New Adventures. Most annoying, that.' Marvellous. That's just ruined the 70-odd books Benny appears in for thousands of people (of course, it serves them right for watching Crossroads).

Maybe having a brother called Sam makes me prejudiced in the matter of it being a boy's name. But I M Foreman assumes the Doctor's talking about a male as soon as he mentions Sam, and it's not as if she/he/it is particularly prejuced in gender matters.

When you hear the word 'Charley' don't you automatically think someone's talking about a male called 'Charlie'? Yes, it's spelled differently but that's not a lot of use, given that we're talking about audios here.

I've never trusted that 'rose by any other name' stuff. If the Doctor was called, say, Tim, I would feel VERY different about him, wouldn't you?

I'll give you your points about Charley and Benny but I've known and worked with so many female Sams over the years, they outweigh the one male Sam I know.

Samantha, Benita, Charlize...

Still, I can't blame you, Emily, for automatically thinking of Samuel, Benjamin, and Charles. You are a victim of social conditioning in a male dominated society. It's not your fault.

If I see Charley, I automatically think female, since most guys go by Chuck where I live. Benny I would probably think male because of Benny Hill, otherwise guys down here would go by Ben. Sam, I couldn't figure out. Seen plenty of both sexes named Sam.

I can just see the Doctor saying "Some people call me...Tim." (just love those Monty Python references)

CHUCK! No-one in the UK would be seen dead calling themselves Chuck!

PLEASE don't try claiming that Benita and Charlize are as common names as Benjamin and Charles, in fact I think you just made them up.

I am most touched by your concern for my victim-like status - if only I was American I'm sure I could sue the male half of the human race.

So...WHICH Doctor would be most likely (or least unlikely) to say 'Some people call me...Tim'?

Easy. Pat Troughton with Tom Baker a close second. Only those two can pull that off with the right sense of humour.

Charlize Theron is a big time Hollywood actress.

I have to apologise for Benita. There is this commercial on American TV for a Benny Hill collection, and on one of the skits they show is Benny in a dress and wig, obviously making fun of Anita Hill who I believe used to anchor the news for ITV, or was it the Beeb, way back when. "Good Evening, this is a news flash." Whereupon his dress snaps off.

However, in the South, where it is my curse to live in, there are plenty of women named Bobby Sue, Jerry (like Jerry Hall), and Ezekial Marilyn (okay I made that last one up).

The name Cameron Diaz just came to mind.

The names Pat and Drew can also be male or female. And let's not forget the possibility of confusing Jo and Joe, as was done by Bill Filer in 'The Claws of Axos'. Oh, and in 'Tomb of the Cybermen' Victoria was referred to as Vic.

So why aren't there any male companions with female nicknames, like Sally (for Salvatore)?

Jamie is a male/female name.

Mel is interchangeable. (Mel Bush and, say, Mels Smith or Gibson. Just noticed something... is Mel Bush the sixth Spice Girl, Mel B?)

Peri/Perry; Ace is hogwash as far as either names or nicknames go, (but Dorothy isn't much more realistic); Tegan; Dodo... I would love to have been there when they came up with that one! The script editor sits there with a pen, ticking off birds. "Emu... nah. Puffin... nope. Spoonbill, don't know. Dodo... Dodo! That's the one!"

I know a few males who have the nickname "Polly".

And Johnny Cash sang a song "My Name is Sue".

I think Sam is more a girl's name than a boy's - I don't know any male Sam's other than that blonde guy on 'The Bill'. Samantha sounds more contemporary than Samuel. As for Benny, well, I actually used to know a chick called Benny.

(sigh) I can't believe the extent of this discussion. We're talking about the gender-specifics of names in a Doctor-Who related thread. How depressing.

Lunier--it was "A Boy Named Sue", and, if you'll recall, the singer was very upset to be named with a girl's name.

Luke--what about Sam Donaldson?

I thought Bernice was usually shortened to Bern? That's what this woman I used to know was referred to as. If I started to call someone Benny, I'd end up shortening it to Ben.

Sam Jones (Flash Gordon), Sam Torrence, Sam Peckinpah, Sam Spade, Uncle Sam, and I can't think for the life of me who that man was in Jurassic Park, but I'm pretty sure he was a Sam. Tom Baker keeps on citing him as one of the dullest actors around. (Notice how I steered it back to some kind of Doctor Who relevancy!)

That would be Sam Neill, Pete. Actually, a rather good actor. Don't know what Tom has against him.

So was the Sam Jones in BBC Books inspired by the Flash Gordon Sam Jones?

Sam Neill! Of course! Thanks Luke!

He was rather good in 'In The Mouth of Madness'.

Okay, so why is Grace considered a companion but not the young guy with asian features. Okay, so he spent most of his time with the Master, but he ended up being a good guy in the end. I guess it was because he didn't kiss the Doctor.

I am not saying the kid should be considered a companion, but that Grace shouldn't be considered one, either. She amounted to be just a fling for the Doctor, which isn't bad since she caused his regeneration. And she decided to stay on Earth after her medical career is ruined than go gallavanting through space and time with the Doctor.

I'm sure sure it's quite fair to say she "caused" his regeneration. He did get shot, and could very well have had to regenerate regardless of any later medical treatment (or mistreatment). I think it's more a case of Grace failing to prevent his regeneration, or perhaps "hurrying" his regeneration.

If Weasel Turlough...I'm sorry, I mean Vislor Turlough...can be considered a companion, I don't think Lee's hanging out with the Master should necessarily disqualify him from companion status. If Grace counts, he should count too.

Er...should begin, "I'm NOT sure..." Bad proofreading. Oh well.

Well, _I'm_ sure that that shameless hussy's attempts to cut open the Seventh Doctor resulted in his death. OK, so he was pretty •••• thick to walk out of the TARDIS into a hail of bullets without checking the scanner first - congratulations, Mr Arch-Manipulator - but that's beside the point. He only got shot in the arm or shoulder or something - nothing at all fatal. SHE decided that he had a funny heartbeat (D'OH!) and that she'd slice him open and poke around. The X-rays told her the truth (well, OK, thanks to Luiner we now know that the X-rays told her he had one heart and two diseased lungs but that's beside the point, what Luiner says isn't canon). The Doctor himself spelt things out for her in words of one syllable - 'I'm not human, I'm not like you' (what more did she want? But then this is the woman who KNOWING that the Doctor had two hearts, alien blood, had come back from the dead in a different body, could walk through doors etc etc STILL decided to put him in a lunatic hospital)...anyway, in spite of warnings the IMBECILE went ahead and cut poor Sylvester open and KILLED him.

There is no way that Chang Lee could ever be a Companion. He was on the Doctor's side for ten minutes, maximum. Count him and you have to count everyone from a bunch of half-witted Thals in The Daleks to that ex-soldier in Survival.

Grace, on the other hand, in spite of being a FILTHY MURDERER AND SEDUCER was actually on the Doc's side for MOST of the story (though with friends like that...). And however much _I_ dislike Katarina and Sara's status as Companions, they did set a precedent for one-story assistants. And then there's the unfortunate fact that Grace was around for 100% of the Eighth Doctor's on-screen tenure, so if that doesn't make her a Companion, what does?

If anybody important in the BBC is reading this and is in the process of restarting Dr.Who I can tell you now that I have the resources to easily fake a two hearted chest x-ray that would look convincing. And, I will do it for free. Or for whatever your union scale would be for 2hours work, whichever is easier legally. Then I will be canon.

You're right, Emily, as far as percentage, Grace is with the Doctor more than any other companion. I am not sure that's a good thing, though.

Eric, they had as much as said the bullet wounds were minor. However when Grace got lost in the intracacies of the Doctor's hearts, plus the anesthesia not working very well on a Gallifreyan system, the Doctor goes into convulsions. This breaks off the probe that Grace was using, which then probably got lodged into a artery feeding one of the hearts or possibly both, thus causing massive myocardial infarction. Plus the shocks given to the Doctor probably didn't help. Paddles are positioned to shock a heart in a human, which s in the center with part of it to the left. They didn't take into account he has two hearts. Plus the shocks aren't going to remove the broken piece of equipment causing the problem in the first place. It was a desperate act that was doomed to fail. They knew they killed him.

The Doctor pretty much said that the surgery was what forced his regeneration, anyways. Right around the time he pulled out the probe his body rejected, I think.

Now why did Grace refused to go with the Doctor? Her career was in ruins. If she hadn't quit, eventually she would've lost her licence to practice due to shear imcompetance.

Hmm. Okay, I retract my defence of Grace's, um, medical skills. It's been a long time since I've seen the TV movie, and I have an (obviously faulty) memory of McCoy stepping point-blank into a burst of machine gun fire, and practically dying on the spot.

It's difficult evaluating "companion status" for the McGann TV era, since that era only lasted 90 minutes. I had the impression that Chang Lee was *intended* to be a companion, if a new series had followed the pilot. (Then again, I had the impression that McCoy was seriously wounded in the gunfight, so my impressions may not be worth much.) Even though he was only on the Doctor's side for ten minutes, that's still a reasonable percentage of McGann's 90 minute run as The Doctor.

Philosophical question: should Turlough be considered a "real" companion in Mawdryn Undead through Enlightenment....or not until post-Enlightenment? He's on the Doctor's side for LESS than 10 minutes in those first 3 stories. In Turlough's first encounter with the Doctor in Mawdryn, he tries to smash him over the head with a rock. By contrast, in Chang Lee's first encounter with the Doctor, he heroically saves the Doctor's life by rushing him to the hospit....er, okay, bad example.

LOL. Actually I think we're allowed to use hindsight when evaluating Companion status. I.e. Nyssa didn't join till Logopolis, but her tenure as a wimpish screaming skirt-dropper can certainly be said to begin in Keeper of Traken. Likewise Turlough was a physical Companion of the Doc's from Mawdryn Undead onwards, getting dragged round the universe in the Doctor's wake, and I don't see why his emotional commitment from the end of Enlightenment couldn't be, well, backdated. It's not as if plenty of Companions - Ian and Barbara spring to mind - are exactly fond of the Doctor to begin with. And it's not as if Turlough actually did the Doctor any harm. Unlike, say, Peri, who got Davison to DIE for her *shakes head disbelievingly*, not to mention all the pressure Nyssa and Tegan put on the Doctor to sacrifice ALL his regenerations to stop them staying on a luxury spaceship.

On a completely trivial subject, I would like to point out that people can die from seemingly trivial bullet wounds. The causes are various--bleeding to death, throwing a blood clot and having a myocardial infarction, shock from the wounds, infections, and so on.

Should we divide the Companions into two categories:Temporary Companions like Grace and
Permanent Compnions like Ace?
Just wondering.

So is Grace the only Companion who's never come back? All the New Who ones return all the time of course, no matter how often they die or are irrevocably trapped in another universe, and all the Old Who ones come back in MAs and PDAs (if only to get killed and/or sexually transmitted diseases) and of course in the audios (being dead or mind-wiped in no way exempts you from doing a few Companion Chronicles) or, at the very least, they get the odd short story and/or SJA name-drop.

But poor old Grace is caught in some copyright limbo or other...when Big Finish wants to bring her back her voice is attached to a completely different character (Tales from the Vault, The Next Life) and when the books want to bring her back they have to change her to a different-but-suspiciously-alike doctor (Vampire Science).

As far as I know not even the COMICS have an unrecognisably bad drawing claiming to be our Dr Holloway...

Are you complaining or relieved?

Hmm, good question. Mostly I was thinking that SOMEONE just needed to say SOMETHING about Grace this decade. But now you mention it, it IS kinda refreshing to have ONE of 'em who just STAYS DEAD. (Metaphorically speaking.)

There's a Grace Holloway Is Stupid Club established by Jac Rayner (DWM)?? Why did no one tell me this at the TIME, i.e. when I had NINE YEARS to ponder on the stupidity of Grace Holloway and literally NOTHING better to do with my life?

Oh god. 'She reappeared in the DWM comic strip The Fallen, in which she is trying to create a human-Time Lord hybrid by experimenting on the Master's "venom spit"' - she's stupid but not THAT stupid! And if she's NOT off-copyright-limits, why didn't she appear in Vampire Science instead of her hastily-drafted-in replacement Carolyn?

Kate Orman DWM article: 'Grace's story roughly follows the "hero's journey" of mythology' - to paraphrase:

Call to adventure (Doctor's pleas)
Repeated refusal (he's a nutter)
Finally answers call to adventure (in ambulance)
Seeks magic elixir (atomic clock)
Dies and comes back to life (*shudders*)
Has a supernatural guide (Doctor)
Fulfils dreams (holds back death)
Becomes her own person (rejects sidekick Companion role)
Gets to save the world while the Doctor is tied up and screaming.

Brilliant! Why did I never think of this? The telemovie TOTALLY makes sense now!

OK, the telemovie still makes NO SENSE WHATSOEVER but...never mind.

The hero's journey is what writers do when they can't think of anything that makes sense...

OH.

Well, THAT makes sense, at least.

The Tardis Eruditorum has requested a 10-year (I think) moratorium on Holly-wood, etc., using the hero's journey backdrop.

(Don't ask me why, but if you type Holly-wood properly, without the dash, nitcentral turns it into a link, and one I have no desire to share in my post.)

I wonder if the BBC have ever considered approaching Universal with a proposal to buy back the rights to the movie so we can use the American doctor, the Asian Child and Eric Roberts' Master?

Could they AFFORD the Roberts Master?

Obviously the Grace n'Lee actors come pretty cheap or they wouldn't be heard pretending to be other people in various BF audios.

You know who's missing from dying-McGann's list of Companions in Night of the Doctor? Grace. I was too outraged at the exclusion of the novels and, even worse, inclusion of the audios to notice (for seven years) but she is No True Companion. Dammit, I ALWAYS KNEW IT and was dying to frogmarch her over to the Almost Companions when I took over but the wretched woman had somehow amassed too many posts.

Oh, the pain, the pain.