Companions: Fifty Years of Doctor Who Assistants (29 page)

Like the Doctor, Ace has a great love of jazz, in particular she is a fan of Courtney Pine and enjoys relaxing in a pub garden on a warm November day – that is, until the Doctor’s alarm goes off. She finds this irritating, but not as much as when she later learns that the Doctor somehow managed to forget that the world is due to end on November 23rd 1988.

She enjoys being in the vault of Windsor Castle, but is a little worried about being arrested for treason – she is too young to go to the Tower. While running from security officers in the castle, she and the Doctor come across a painting of Ace in nineteenth century dress – from an adventure they are yet to have. For someone who seems so exposed to death during her travels, she is unusually freaked out when she and the Doctor find the dead mathematician in Lady Peinforte’s study. As she did twenty-five years previously, as the chronometer flies, in
Silver Nemesis
she learns a whole lot more about the history of the Time Lords and Gallifrey, and discovers that the Doctor was involved, in some capacity, during ‘the Dark Time, the Time of Chaos’ (echoing his slip up in
Remembrance of the Daleks
). When Lady Peinforte attempts to use this knowledge against the Doctor, Ace is as unconcerned as he, after all she trusts the Doctor implicitly – although at the end of the story she does want one question answered; ‘Professor? Doctor… who are you?’ She never does find out, of course.

The concept of the Cybermen disturbs her on a very visceral level, and she takes great pleasure in destroying one of the Cyber warships with nitro-9 (also destroying her much-treasured rucksack in the process), and is horrified when the Cybermen then kill the half-converted ‘walkmen’ simply because she blew up the ship. This anger fuels her later when she holds back a battalion of Cybermen with a catapult and bag of gold coins while the Doctor and the Nemesis statue prepare the final trap.

Once again, the time between seasons (in this case twenty-five [1988] and twenty-six [1989]) seems a lot longer on screen than in reality, since when we next see Ace she has grown up significantly. She is still the same young girl we knew in the previous stories, but her clothes show a new maturity, which develops gradually in her final four stories. It is notable that she rarely wears her bomber jacket through the twenty-sixth season, except when cold, but she still carries it with her, almost as if she is unwilling to let go of the ‘Ace’ identity she has created – the word ‘Ace’ is embroidered, in large letters, on the back of the jacket. Her age is now unclear, but one gets the feeling she is a long way from sixteen now, despite the Doctor not allowing her to drink alcohol in
Battlefield
. They have a new understanding about her use of nitro-9 and the Doctor actively encourages her to use it to uncover a secret entrance to an underground tunnel, after seeing Gallifreyan writing at an archaeological dig. She is aware of Clarke’s Law – that any sufficiently advanced form of technology is indistinguishable from magic – and discovers the reverse is also true after encountering the magic of the parallel Earth, Avallion, a world in which the legend of King Arthur is closer to the myth. She pulls the alien sword, Excalibur, from the stone (in truth part of a control mechanism for an organic spaceship hidden beneath Vortigen’s Lake) and becomes the Maiden of the Lake. Mixing with the people of legend doesn’t phase Ace too much, although she is confused by the idea that the Doctor will, one day, become Merlin. She also meets a legend of the Doctor’s life, in the shape of his lives-long friend, retired-Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart. She doesn’t respond well to the Brigadier initially, who refers to her as the ‘latest one’, one of many companions he has met over the years. Shefinds the Brigadier’s closeness to the Doctor something of a threat to her position. She does, however, warm to him gradually. She is especially affected by the Brigadier’s apparent death, and the effect it has on the Doctor.

She is derisive of Bessie, the Doctor’s old car, but as with the Brigadier, soon comes to love it and is seen to drive it at the end of the story. When protected by the force field from Excalibur, Morgaine tries to play mind games against Ace, but the racist attitude it brings out in her soon wakes Ace up, leaving Morgaine to muse that they ‘breed their children strong’ on Earth.

After telling him about her fear of haunted houses, the Doctor promptly takes Ace to the house in question, Gabriel Chase, in
Ghost Light
. Once again, while they explore Gabriel Chase, Ace carries her jacket like a safety blanket. She has no idea why they are at this house, the Doctor conducting an ‘initiative test’, allowing Ace to work things out as she goes along. As she is slowly introduced to the house guests, including a big-game hunter whose mind is clearly gone, a butler who is the last surviving example of the extinct Neanderthals, Ace finds herself being more and more creeped out, and she wants out – she thinks the house is an ‘asylum, with the patients in charge’. She is not much fussed that her off-the-shoulder top incenses Reverend Ernest Matthews, and easily befriends Gwendoline, the supposed ward of the naturalist, Josiah Samuel Smith. She enjoys corrupting Gwendoline, in much the same way as she did Mel, to the point where they both dress up in gentlemen’s formal wear. She discovers from Matthews that she is in Gabriel Chase and freaks out at the Doctor. She feels manipulated by him, and when he tries to coax more information out of her, she resists for a short while, but eventually concedes – to a point. She wants to deal with her terrors in her own way! She later finds herself wearing a contemporary dress, which she initially finds uncomfortable, not to say restricting when she ends up in a brawl with Control.

Much like in
Silver Nemesis
, the Doctor offers Ace the TARDIS key as a way out, but she refuses to accept it because it
is
the easy way out. Eventually she confesses all; that she burned down Gabriel Chase in 1983 when she was thirteen, after white kids had fire bombed Manisha’s flat. She stumbled into Gabriel Chase which was full of the evil left over by the events of 1883; haunted by the memory. She learns much about herself during her brief stay at Gabriel Chase, but admits she wishes she had blown up the house instead. She is clearly joking, and the Doctor responds with a tongue-in-cheek ‘wicked’, a phrase Ace often uses.

Ace’s trust, although mildly shaken by the events of
Ghost Light
, is severely tested when they arrive in Northumbria during World War II in
The Curse of Fenric
. Continuing her developing maturity, Ace chooses a contemporary hairstyle and clothes, although she is a little self-conscious about how she appears. Again she carries her jacket with her, and later adds a military issue rucksack to her ensemble. She understands logic diagrams, having really enjoyed computer studies in school – her mathematical knowledge impresses Doctor Judson, a crippled genius, no end. She loves watching the sea, which makes her feel so small, but despite her usual bravery (shown during her rock climbing with evacuees, Phyllis and Jean) she is not stupid enough to go into the water – a fact that later saves her from becoming a haemovore (a vampire-like creature). However, Ace’s level of intelligence is called into question somewhat when she meets WREN Kathleen Dudman, and her baby, Audrey. It seems almost unbelievable that Ace would not recognise her own grandmother – did she never hear stories when she was a child about her grandfather who went missing in action? Yet, somehow Ace doesn’t see the link between Kathleen; Ace even states that she hates the name Audrey because it is her mother’s name. This is compounded later when Ace reads a telegram to Kathleen about her husband being missing in action. Even later, Ace sends Kathleen and the baby to Streatham, to the future home of her Nan (Kathleen herself!). One can only assume that at some point Kathleen remarried and Ace never learned about this. Ace is confused by her loyalty to both Kathleen and Audrey, and seems to care for the baby remarkably quickly. Even the Doctor is surprised by this turn of events. When she later discovers the truth about Audrey, Ace cannot understand how she can love the baby but still hate her mum – she is sure there is something wrong with her. Indeed when she is lined up to be shot, she screams out, ‘Mum, I’m sorry!’, but when the Doctor questions her about this she refuses to comment.

Amongst the confusion with her mum, Ace finds herself attracted to Russian
Kapitän
Sorin. The attraction is mutual. Sorin finds in Ace the ‘spirit of a fighter’ and is impressed that she has the Russian Red Army emblem on her jacket. She tells him it is a not a real one – she bought it cheap in a market – so he gives her a real one, as well as his scarf. Angered by the death of Kathleen’s husband, and the fact the Doctor clearly knows what is going on but will not say, Ace confronts him and makes him tell her everything. He tells her of Fenric – a creature he once trapped in the Shadow Dimension, but he fails to tell her everything, as she later discovers when he admits she is a Wolf of Fenric, a descendent of the Vikings who stole the flask in which the Doctor trapped the entity. She discovers that her whole life had been manipulated – indeed, sending Kathleen to Streatham, and thus creating her own future, is the start of this, while her arriving in Northumbria in her own past is the endgame. Sorin, also one of the Wolves, is possessed by Fenric and learns the Doctor’s secret from Ace, who thinks she was talking to Sorin. Even then, Ace maintains her faith in the Doctor – in fact it is so strong that it creates a psychic barrier which prevents the Doctor from closing his final trap around Fenric. For the Doctor to see his plan come to fruition he needs to demolish Ace’s faith in him, and this he does in the most vicious way possible, calling forth every doubt she has ever had. He calls her an emotional cripple, a social misfit who he would not have wasted his time on had he not had a use for her. It is all lies, of course, and it is a testament to Ace’s trust in him that she still forgives him. Nonetheless, the Doctor uses Ace for his own ends – a major departure for any
Doctor Who
companion.

After the drama of Fenric and the Doctor’s manipulation, Ace just wants to return home, and the Doctor takes her back to Perivale in
Survival
. However, she is not there to see her mother, but to catch up with her friends.

Sergeant Patterson recognises Ace, and informs her that Audrey has her listed as missing, but he is convinced that Ace doesn’t care; otherwise she would make a simple phone call. He is, of course, right but Ace aggressively ignores him and returns her focus to looking for her mates. One such friend, Ange, points out that people thought Ace was dead, either that or she had gone to Birmingham.

She is quickly targeted by the Kitlings, under the guidance of the Master, and transported to the planet of the Cheetah People. There she meets a couple of her old mates, Midge and Shreela. There appears to be a lot of history between Ace and Midge – a rather aggressive history at that. Midge has spent three weeks skulking in the shadows, avoiding direct confrontation with the Cheetah People, but Ace’s appearance brings out his aggression – that later leads to his possession by the planet. Ace, too, ends up being influenced and possessed by the nature of the planet, which brings out her baser instincts. She connects with the Cheetah Person, Karra, who we later learn used to be human as well. Curiously, as the connection develops, Karra goes directly for the badge Sorin gave Ace, possibly sensing the deep feeling associated with the badge for Ace. The Doctor lets Ace’s possession continue, knowing he needs it to return to Earth and track down the Master – who now shares a psychic link with Ace via the planet.

Upon returning to Earth, Ace states quite clearly that the TARDIS is the only home she has now – her belonging issues resolved. Later, after seeing the Doctor apparently killed in a motorbike accident, she fights to hold in her rage, unconsciously calling on Karra, who promptly appears to scare off the gang who are about to descend on her. Karra is then killed by the Master and Ace finds herself weeping for all she has lost, clinging to the Doctor’s hat and umbrella. However when the Doctor returns unharmed, to remove his hat from Ace’s head, she shows no surprise, merely a smile of content. She knows that with the Doctor she will always be fine.

The last we see of Ace on television is at the end of
Survival
, walking off with the Doctor towards the TARDIS – home!

There were many plans for Ace had the series continued, but alas the show didn’t return for many years, until 1996 in fact, by which point the Seventh Doctor is travelling alone with no hint as to the fate of Ace.

Luckily in
The Sarah Jane Adventures: Death of the Doctor
we do learn from Sarah that Ace returned to Earth, since by 2010 she is going by the name Dorothy (
something
, Sarah adds, drawing attention to that fact that we never learn Ace’s surname) and runs the business A Charitable Earth (ACE).

And so, on 6th December 1989, the original twenty-six-year run of
Doctor Who
ended. The next bona fide companion wouldn’t appear until the series returned in 2005, although in the interim
Doctor Who
continued in novels and audio dramas, with a plethora of Expanded Universe companions introduced – none of whom have, to date, been mentioned on television. The only character who could have become a bona fide companion was Grace Holloway, who appeared in the 1996
Television Movie
. Had a new series been picked up, she would have resumed travelling with the Eighth Doctor, but in the event no series was commissioned and so the Eighth Doctor’s television companions amounted to zero.

Since the series returned in 2005 we have discovered the fate of several companions, and there is an interesting point to draw from this. Since 2005 every companion associated with the Tenth Doctor has ended up becoming some kind of warrior – willing to do anything to protect Earth, to the point of destroying it, as revealed in
Journey’s End
. As Davros says, the Doctor fashions weapons out of people. This wasn’t always the case – all his companions pre-Time War have gone on to do their part, but in productive non-destructive ways; from running an orphanage, to developing an international charity organisation, or fighting for aboriginal rights and the planet’s ecology, to developing vaccines that have saved millions. The Doctor’s legacy continues on in his companions – the friends he leaves behind...