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

Zoe had spunk and, despite what Lou Grant once said, I like spunk. Her glee over outscoring the Doctor in "The Krotons" was hilarious. I was also impressed that, of all the guest companions in "The Five Doctors", Zoe and Jamie were the only ones that looked as if they hadn't aged.



I didn't think Liz looked like she had aged much in The Five Doctors.

Um, I hate to be a nitpicker (actually that's untrue: I LOVE being a nitpicker) but actually it was the Doctor who outscored Zoe in the Krotons - though as she said, 'you answered more questions. And it wasn't supposed to be a competition.'

I'm remembering the bit where Zoe starts off the quiz better than the Doctor, and is quite self-satisfied about it. True, the Doctor does eventually catch up, but he's not happy about losing the lead at all.

I stand corrected - if not entirely convinced. I always thought Zoe seemed very irritated with the Doctor for repeatedly messing the test up. And perhaps a bit suspicious that he was trying to get out of going into the Kroton spaceship with her.

I can almost see the scne in my mind's eye; the Doctor gets the first answer wrong, and Zoe doesn't She gives him one of those chirpy "better luck next time" responses, guaranteed to irritate the Doctor.

See, you're starting to go all McCoy with this episode by reading into Troughton's motivation. McCoy would have tricked Zoe, but not Troughton. At least, I don't think he would....drat, now you've got me doing it!

There's only one thing for it. Sigh. I'm going to have to watch the Krotons again. This is all your fault...

It could be worse; we could be discussing "Gilligan's Island."

Um...what's Gilligan's Island?

I just knew you were going to say that....

*sigh* Okay, it was a show that ran here in America in the early to mid 60's. It revolved around 7 people who were shipwrecked on an island and were always failing in their attempts to get rescued. The show was a comedy, mind you, so hilarious antics ensued.

I guess in my US-centric attitude, I thought this show had been inflicted upon everyone in the world. Luckily for the rest of the world, I'm wrong.

I'm trying to think of a UK comedy that sank to the level of stupidity of GI, but I'm blanking. "Are You Being Served?" comes to mind, but even that show never got as moronic as GI.

Oh, and Gilligan was the lead idiot, played by Bob Denver of "Dobie Gillis" fame. Which you've probably never seen, either.

Actually, I remember watching Gilligan's Island while I was living in the UK. Perhaps Emily was lucky enough not to have seen it.

Other American shows I have watched while in the UK during the late 70's and early 80's: Star Trek, Starskey and Hutch, Charlie's Angels, Kojak, Happy Days, Beretta, Dallas (I remember my grandmother in Germany asking us if we knew who shot J.R.), A-Team, Scooby Doo and some others I can't think of off hand.

Compare that to the Brit TV shows I watched: Doctor Who (of course!), Sapphire and Steal, Blake's Seven, Space 1999, Tomorrow People, The Young Ones, Kenny Everett, Not the Nine O'Clock News, TISWAS, The Old Grey Whistle Test, The New Avengers, OTT, Benny Hill, Match of the Day, Danger Mouse, about half of the comedy shows shown on PBS's Britcom nights including Are You Being Served, and more.

I am not making a point here. It would be too easy.

Do you know I once got a letter from Peter Darvill-Evans who claimed Happy Days was never shown in the UK (I wrote to Virgin Publishing once with a few suggestions for possible program guides, like The Discontinuity Guide or The New Trek Programme Guide).

While I have only my memory to rely upon, I am about 99 percent sure Happy Days was shown in the UK. I think it was on BBC1, though I am only 50 percent sure of that.

hello guys. 1st delve into this site...

Hasn't this area strayed from the 'Zoe' title a tad? I mean what has HappyDays (with the Fonze I assume) airing on UK tv got to do with Wendy P?

Personaly I found Zoe a fine companion and NOT just due to her sweet little 'elfin' face and tight fitting space suits.

Surely Zoe's time with the Doctor were "Happy Days"?

And then there was the Happy Days cartoon where the Fonz, Cupcake, Ralph and Mr Cool the dog travelled through time - maybe they bumped into Zoe then?

Welcome flo.

Anyone know if her last name is 'Heriot' or 'Herriot'? (Zoe, not flo!)

Either way, I always subconsciously think of 'All Creatures Great and Small'. 'Herriot' isn't a very space-age name, is it?

good evening/morning (5.32am!) PJW.

The 'kinda official' Companions book published by Virgin opted for the 'Heriot' spelling.

As to whether or not Herriot is space-aged. I assume family names have been around for MANY years and still will be used in the future.

I mean as long as 'our lot' keep having sons the name Tanner will keep on going.

Regarding Wendy P herself, I'm a tad confused when she seems to withdraw from public life regarding DW and then later I read she's gonna do another signing/convention? I missed my chance to chat with her at that DW BAFTA thing, she still looks good darting about in a pair of DMs!

I think Maureen O'Brien's successfully distanced herself from the convention/signing world, but I think I'm right in thinking she is the only one. Oh, and Janet Fielding and Matthew Waterhouse. All the other companions and lead actors dip in and out willy-nilly. I don't know about you, but I can remember a time when Tom Baker was as elusive as Nessie and even having his autograph would set you into the upper echelons of fan hierarchy.

But there are a number of stars I haven't met yet, (William Russell, Peter Purves, Deborah Watling, Jackie Lane, Bonnie Langford, Louise Jameson, Wendy Padbury, Katy Manning), but I've kinda accepted that I'm never going to meet these people, having given up the convention circuit now. Although I might still try to get to Who Shop signings and suchlike in London. A bit like Pokemon, really: 'gotta catch 'em all!'

I think there'll be a day in the distant future, where all the Lestersons and Turners and Tanners and Tompkinsons sit down one day and go: 'Right, we're gonna have to give our children mad names like Madrigal Zogg. Why? Well, it sounds snazzy!'

PJW, But didn't Wendy P have some medium sized article about her role in DW within DWM at the time of her 'departure' from the convention circuit? Almost as if she just said this to get noticed again.

Any how, Zoe was still a great companion and was in one of my alltime fav stories 'The Invasion'. "...and a pattacake biscuit." Great stuff.

SONS, Flo???? SONS!!!!!!!!!! What ARE you talking about! Are you unable to conceive of a future in which women may choose to keep their OWN name on marriage, instead of displaying disgusting subservience by meekly adopting their husband's? Or a time when children are given their mother's name, because let's face it, it's the woman who goes to the hideous trouble of producing the sprog, not to mention the fact that 95% of the time it's the woman who wrecks her career rearing aforementioned brat? *Scowls* Admittedly Doctor Who has done little to disabuse us of the notion that sexism endures throughout the universe till the end of time (unless you count a small fit of screaming hysteria from Benny when she's referred to as 'Mrs Kane') but that makes it all the more important for Who fans to be on the alert for such sexist ways of thinking.

If EVERYBODY kept their last names; female and male, when they got married - you're children would have hyphenated last names right? What happens when *they* get married then? We'd have double hyphenated names! And so on, when *their* children get married!

Who decides who gets to keep their last names? It would be equally sexist to expect men to lose their last names 100% of the time from now on.

Perhaps we should just get rid of last names altogether

We could be barcoded instead.

I'm not expecting men to lose their last names, Luke. They're welcome to them, as far as I'm concerned. I'm just talking about whose name any sprogs born in wedlock get lumbered with. Personally I think it's time women got a bit of positive discrimination, and passed their own names on to the babies THEY'D gone through such trauma to produce. Still, if you find that sexist there are plenty of other ways:

Whichever surname is the most interesting (unless it's really unpronounceable)
Person who changes the most nappies
Tossing a coin
Daughters take their fathers' names, sons their mothers' (this would have quite an interesting effect on some Third World socieities, I suspect. Might spare a few Chinese baby girls from the chop, anyway)

Still, barcoding might be more sensible...

"Ouch! who trod on Emilys toes then?" Luke makes the point that a child born of two parents has to take one family name or the other. Who decides who's name's "more interesting"? I may think Tanner is real great while someone else may prefer "say..." Belasco. What if he's the 'househusband' while she swans off where she pleases? It does happen sometimes.

BUT anyway I'm not here to debate such matters. All I was suggesting is where family names come from (I assume an ancester of Toms made loaves) and unless ideas do change those names will carry on into the 'future'. It's 1st names (like flo or emily) that become 'popular or old fashioned' as parents actualy get to choose those.

As for the barcode. We (should) all have national insurance numbers (whether we like them or not) and so could have that number barcode tattooed on us.

And I assume an ancestor of mine drove carts around. I just don't see why I should have to commemorate this unexciting career every time I sign my name.

Of course there are househusbands. That's why one of my suggestions was who changes the most nappies.

I should think it's usually pretty obvious which name is the boringest. If not, toss a coin.

For us with foreign names, it takes a bit more research to figure it out. One of my ancestor's was "the best horse rider."

We could follow the lead of Iceland, and use the true patronimic style; they are all "firstname father'sson/dottir." Pop singer Bjork's full name is Bjork Gudmansdottir.

One of my ancestors must've been a medieval traveling salesman. Though I am not proud he was a proto capitalist, it is certainly better than having an ancestor that oppressed the peasants.

Still, it is a pretty boring name. I think I'd rather have a name, like, I don't know, Slartibartfast.

Or maybe I should change my legal name to Luiner. I've become quite attached to it, even if it is a made up name.

Why not let the kids choose their own names when they become adults. There have been complaints that modern westerners have lost the rite of passage rituals. Well, this makes a good one. And like a tattoo, it's stuck for life, so better choose good. Before that, they should be known as Husband name/Wife name-order of birth. So for instance, a kid could be called Fred/Wilma #1. FW1 for short. Then upon reaching adulthood, she can call herself Pebbles. Then family and friends throw a wild party to celebrate her choice.

As far as bar codes. I guess I am too American. That leaves a very bad taste in my mouth. Or maybe it is because the Nazi's tattooed serial numbers on the Jews after they rounded them all up.

Blimey, the barcoding scenario was a joke, mate! I would fight for my freedom until there was no future!

If Zoe was so logical and unemotional why did she scream all the time? I realise that screaming is logical sometimes - like when you're being attacked and someone who gives a •••• might be within earshot - but what was the point of, for example, shrieking her head off whilst revolving in a void clutching the TARDIS console? OK, she was trying to attract the Doctor's attention, but what's wrong with just yelling 'Doctor!'?

It's because she's a girl.

Ooooh dear...light the blue touch-paper and stand well back, Luke!

*Sigh* It's not Luke's fault. He grew up watching a programme where the women, not to put too fine a point on it, screamed their bloody heads off. When they weren't making the tea. It's no wonder that the git - er - I mean that the poor chap has a rather jaundiced view of women. It's a miracle that ANY of us managed to grow up sane.

However, there are limits to my patient understanding of Luke's sad condition and I should warn you that any more remarks like that and you're going to get WIPED OUT. Your posts that is, not you, since I can't be bothered to go to America just to murder a chauvinist when there are so many closer to home.

It would be a pity if u went all the way to America to murder me - only to find that I don't live there.

I'm sorry, Emily It was too easy a comment to make. I just couldn't resist!

I guess to those Brits, us Yanks and Ozzies are pretty much the same.

Exactly! And he didn't even have the decency to be called Bruce or to say 'G'day mate' every now and then just to remind me WHICH First World native-oppressing ex-British colony he happens to be living in.

When a monster is lumbering towards you, the last thing you want to do is draw attention to yourself by screaming. Surely the logical, instinctive thing to do would be to keep very, very quiet. Have any tests been carried out to determine why people scream? When you actually think about it, it's silly.

It's sort of like squirrels and rabbits "freezing" in the middle of the highway when that big, scary truck is rolling towards them. It's instinctive. Their brains probably associate the truck with a predator. Well, in the woods it probably makes sense for a small mammal to be still and quiet when it sees a predator; the surrounding foliage and/or camouflage (a white fur in snow, for example) means the predator will have a harder time spotting it compared to if it was moving. But highways full of big trucks that the squash little critters flat are relatively new. So their genes haven't adapted yet. Eventually, probably, there'll be squirrels instinctively programmed to dart across the road at the first sound of an engine.

Zoe's ancestors (and ours) were probably hunter- gathers who kept in groups for protection. When a tiger or other scary predator showed up, it probably made sense to scream, instinctively. That way you warned all your nearby caveman neighbors (who were also, most likely, your relatives) and maybe even scared away the tiger, if you screamed convincingly enough. So Zoe's screaming at a Cyberman isn't silly in a prehistorical sense....it's just badly out of date.

A split second after screaming, her rational mind probably took over again, saying: "Memo to self: high-pitched vocalizations occasionally effective against large predatory mammals are inefficient when used against Cybermen on a 21st century space station."

Come to think of it, there is an additional evolution argument when it comes to why women (at least on TV) scream so much. Back then women were (and for the most part still are) the primary caretakers of children. By screaming, she is not only saying 'hey, a large predatory animal is about to consume me, you might want to give me a hand here' but also 'oh by the way, that large predatory animal is about to consume your kids, you might want to band together with your fellow males and thwart off said animal to protect your genetic lineage."

Just a thought.

Perhaps they scream just to make the rubber monster seem scarier than it actually is. It probably works on the same principle as canned laughter - if you hear the sound of laughter, the theory is you can find something funnier in simulated group laughter. So maybe the sixties Who makers thought that by having companions scream and bawl and wail and shriek, kids up and down the country will be subliminally coerced into similar bouts of frenzy. It wasn't the Daleks themselves that were scary and sent kids up and down the country into fits, it was the sound of the piercing banshee screams. The Daleks then became synonymous with the screams in the child's mind, and so the whole fear thing people have of the Daleks even today (like that mad woman) can be traced back to the psychological high jinks Christopher Barry and co. played on the young fragile minds of sixties Britain.

Excellent theories, everyone! I'm most impressed. And there I was, all these years, thinking that the female Companions screamed all the time because the Doctor Who production team were a bunch of male chauvinists...

It's funny, but I couldn't imagine Harry or Ian or Steven screaming. Wouldn't that be odd? Could you really imagine Harry (surely the simplest male companion of them all) with his hands over his mouth, shrieking?

...maybe it would be more of a yelp

and I bet Turlough screamed like a little girl.

Of course! Turlough! You're right, Luke. If any one male companion could scream, it's Viz.

I seem to remember Jaime screaming, once or twice.

Turlough, I don't know if he would have time to work out his teenage angst to scream.

Adric seemed near to tears on a regular basis.

I've just watched 'The Sontaran Experiment' (great story) and Styre asks exactly the same question of why people scream. It's a shame 'The Sontaran Experiment' wasn't followed by 'The Sontaran Conclusions'.

If I were ever to be fortunate enough to purchase a TARDIS at amazon.com I would happily go back in time to 1969 and ask Wendy Padbury to marry me.
Beautiful, beautiful woman. Oh well....sigh....I'll just have to remain single and try the women in my timeline...not that THAT has had much success (and no, I don't mention the Wendy padbury thing to them to scare them off either!)

It's a shame 'The Sontaran Experiment' wasn't followed by 'The Sontaran Conclusions'.

But not THAT much of a shame, given that the only conclusions Styre could really have drawn from his so-called experiments was that when you tortured people to death they...er...died.

Re:Screaming Female Companions
Did'nt Victoria use her (Amplified) screams to kill off the Weed in Fury Of The Deep...?
Mind you, I now have this image of Mel with a
Wierding Module from David Lynch's version of Dune,& using it to devastate the landscape...!

It's a shame 'The Sontaran Experiment' wasn't followed by 'The Sontaran Conclusions'.

Your heart's desire has been granted: the Fifth Doctor audio Heroes of Sontar informs us that Field-Major Styre's Manual on human resistance to torture was published - posthumously.

Is Zoe Herriot a descendent of James Herriot?

You know, the 1930's vet with the friend who bore a striking resemblance to the Fifth Doctor

I always wanted to think that Tristan Farnon was the Fifth Doctor chameleon arched.

The Invasion:

'We'll never make it! Oh, we're too late!' - Zoe doesn't know that the TARDIS is indestructible?

'Why are we hiding like this, we've done nothing wrong' - which bit of 'the company makes it impossible to leave the compound' does Zoe somehow not get?

Zoe takes her feather boa on a raid-IE-offices-and-rescue-the-Doctor mission? Fantastic!

'Don't you think we ought to get out of here before somebody gets annoyed' - Zoe didn't think of that?

'The Doctor wants us to keep away from the window for some reason' 'I wonder why' 'I'm not sure' - how do people this thick remember to BREATHE?

So Zoe goes up to the window (having been specifically told not to go near said window by her desperately-signalling friends even though, come to think of it, I'm not sure WHY. Maybe she misinterpreted the signals? She does seem INCREDIBLY THICK all of a sudden) and shrieks 'Oh look it's Jamie' despite the existence of the bugging device SHE specifically told Isobel to act normal in front of...?

And then JAMIE has to tell her to keep her voice down during their Cybermen-hunting sewer excursion.

She's not the only Companion to have abruptly developed Alzheimer's early on in her acquaintanceship with the Doctor, but she IS the only one to blow up Cyber-fleets between her little...lapses.

Had the original plan for a Pertwee and Padbury Season 7 gone off, would Season 7 have stopped trying to pass off Zoe as a teenage character - under Troughton her age is "vague but teenage" despite being played by well-into-her-twenties Padbury?

Probably not - unlike certain Companions one could mention, Zoe DID look ridiculously young. (Plus, WAS it ever spelt out on-screen that she was supposed to be a teenager?)

You haven't seen Crown Court where 26 year old Wendy Padbury played a 14 year old schoolgirl.

Back to Ms. Herriot, The Mind Robber gives her that sequence where she uses judo to outfight a comic-strip superhero twice her size. This was more than 8 years before Leela. (Even though Leela's upper chest is better)

Judi, I wouldn't let MEN come on Nitcentral to start comparing Companions' ••••, so I think out of respect for equal rights you should desist too.

Unless it's REALLY relevant to a discussion as, for example, when Peter Davison is TRYING to regenerate...

Sorry, there's just this scene in More than Thirty Years in the TARDIS where a clip of Leela is played where she's running and turns so fast, one of her boob-s almost comes free of her leotard.

It's sad that intelligent, capable, Zoe is mostly remembered for lying on the console sticking her huge butt in the air. And for whether or not she knows what a candle is.

In that case, YOU should stop obsessing about The Bottom Scene and start discussing other aspects of Zoe's character, like...

...Um...

Oh yes, that time she blew up a Cyber-fleet!

Or that time she looked really really happy when Jamie threatened her with a smacked bottom...

...Er, OK, maybe not THAT one...

The damage to her human development done by her academy-for-geniuses? The hideous destruction of her most basic human rights when the Time Lords tore away her memories? Her delusion that she's cleverer than the Doctor? Her unexpected kung-fu skills against cartoon characters? That sort of thing.

at least Zoe's not a robert heinlein written female character. They giggle when pinched by men on the rear instead of filling sexual harassment suits.

Personally I have slightly more problems with Jill in Stranger in a Strange Land saying that 'When a girl gets raped, 90% of the time it's partly her fault.'

But then the Doctor's beloved Agatha Christie had Miss Marple say in Nemesis that poor men were frequently imprisoned for rape because girls nagged and nagged and nagged poor boys for sex until they gave in, and then when the girls' mothers found out they pressured them into crying rape...

Maybe it was being named "Agatha" that made her such an anti-feminist jerk?

I wonder what Zoe would make of modern computers. She was a pretty smart young woman.

It's a shame Gallifrey Base seems fixated with Padbury's large rear bumper, Tim. Me thinks they need to take a cold shower

Who's in charge over there? I 15 year old boy!?

Zoe was more than just a pretty face, she had brains (she was the one that defeated the computer in The Mind Robber, for example).

https://www.ncls.it/g/archives/7480

Look! It's Ucra Pina, Zoe, and Chloe!

Also her name is heriot with only one r

The Black Archive: The Mind Robber:

'The role of the female companion in Doctor Who has often been a sexualised one, and this trend seems to start around the time Zoe first appears in the series (although it doesn't help in this regard that zip fasteners seem to have a habit of malfunctioning around Wendy Padbury, so some shots that appear sexualised genuinely aren't intended that way)' - good grief.

Yeah she was mostly meant to be a teenager