A New Beginning

In March 2000 something very special indeed happened in the world of Doctor Who! A brand new companion was introduced to the Sixth incarnation of our favourite Time Lord, via Big Finish’s excellent audio adventures, in the form of Dr Evelyn Smythe, as played by Maggie Stables and created by author, Jacqueline Rayner.

The Sixth Doctor’s TV companions, in my opinion, were a couple of the worst in the series history and very typical of 1980’s Doctor Who in general:-

Peri Brown was very attractive and glamorous for the Father’s to watch on a Saturday night after the football, but her constant whining and arguments with the Doctor rapidly became boring and made the regular viewer not care less about what happened to her next.

Melanie Bush was just plain annoying with a squeaky voice and know-it-all attitude and her obligatory screaming was bad news for migraine sufferers everywhere and made you want to reach for the aspirin… FAST!

The Sixth Doctor needed a more substantial companion to travel the Whoniverse with and, as both her TV predecessors were very young girls, needed to be a more mature and world-wise lady so as to counteract the Doctor’s temperament and larger than life persona.

I have always admired and enjoyed Colin Baker’s portrayal of the Doctor and, even when his TV stories didn’t quite come up to scratch compared to some of his predecessors, Colin’s performance always shone through. In hindsight, if the Production Team and the BBC had put today’s commitment and finances into the series then I truly believe that the Sixth Doctor’s era would have been classed as one of the programmes finest. They had a first class actor and Time Lord and blew their opportunity in favour of in-house politics and not giving a damn about the series!

Maggie Stables is an English actress who first appeared in the Big Finish audio range in The Sirens of Time, as Ruthley. She has also appeared in the following stories: Zagreus, as the Great Mother, Sarah Jane Smith: The Tao Connection, as Mrs Lythe and the Bernice Summerfield story, Just War, as Ma Doras. It is Evelyn Smythe, however, that she is best known and makes the character of Evelyn extremely real and believable.

Jacqueline Rayner is a best selling British author best known for her work with Doctor Who licensed fiction. Her first professional writing credit came when she adapted Paul Cornell’s Virgin New Adventure novel, Oh No It Isn’t! for the audio format, the first release by Big Finish. (The novel featured the character of Bernice Summerfield and was part of a spin-off series from Doctor Who). She went on to do five of the six Bernice Summerfield audio adaptations and further work for Big Finish before going to work for BBC Books on their Doctor Who lines.

Her first novels came in 2001, with the Eighth Doctor adventures novel EarthWorld for BBC Books and the Bernice Summerfield novel The Squires Crystal for Big Finish. Rayner has written several other Doctor Who spin-offs and was also, for a period, the executive producer for the BBC on the Big Finish range of Doctor Who audio dramas. She has also contributed to the audio range as a writer. In all, her Doctor Who and related work consists of five novels, a number of short stories and four original audio plays.

With the start of the new television series of Doctor Who in 2005 and a shift in the BBC's Doctor Who related book output, Rayner has become, along with Justin Richards and Stephen Cole, one of the regular authors of the BBC's New Series Adventures.

Evelyn Smythe first appeared in the play The Marian Conspiracy, when the Sixth Doctor found her while searching for a temporal nexus point. Travelling with the Doctor back to 1554, she became involved with the turmoil surrounding the reign of Queen Mary, which would soon give way to that of her half-sister Elizabeth. At the end of that adventure, she insisted on accompanying the Doctor further, because as an historian, the chance to travel in a time machine was irresistible. Evelyn was fifty-five when she began her travels with the Doctor. Being more mature than most of the Doctor's other companions, she was more than a match for the more abrasive Sixth Doctor, often questioning his decisions and even counselling him on them. In turn, the Sixth Doctor recognized Evelyn's wisdom and ability and respected her advice.

Their relationship was not always smooth. Evelyn had a heart condition which she kept from the Doctor, fearing that he would return her home if he found out. She also blamed the Doctor for his inability to save a young woman named Cassie in Project: Lazarus, something the Seventh Doctor said she never forgave him for, even when she parted ways with him.

While visiting the planet Világ and helping repel an alien invasion by an aggressive humanoid species known as the Killorans, Evelyn met and fell in love with Governor Rossiter, who eventually became the political head of the union of three nations, Arrangements For War. When she and the Doctor returned a year later, Evelyn decided to stay and marry Rossiter. She subsequently became involved in the politics of Világ and underwent surgery for her heart. The surgery, however, did not actually correct her heart condition; without her knowledge, she was injected during the surgery with blood extracted from Killoran prisoners. The infusion disguised Evelyn's heart condition, but also caused her to suffer from headaches, increased aggressiveness and irritability.

Two years later, the Sixth Doctor brought his new companion Mel to visit Evelyn on Világ. During their visit, Evelyn was kidnapped by a political enemy, and during the ordeal she became seriously ill as a result of the Killoran blood in her system. With the Doctor's aid, Rossiter's daughter Sofia, a physician, corrected the effects of the Killoran blood. During her recovery, Evelyn was secretly paid a visit by the Seventh Doctor as well. The Seventh Doctor wanted to tell Evelyn that Cassie’s son was now travelling with him, and assured her that some good had come out of the tragedy after all, Thicker Than Water.

The Big Finish Doctor Who chronology lists the Sixth Doctor’s and Evelyn Smythe’s adventures as set after The Trial Of A Time Lord and before the Doctor officially meets Melanie Bush. Big Finish have numbered this “season” as Season 23a. It should be noted that, as with all spin-off media, the precise canonicity of the audio plays is unclear.

Evelyn continues to appear alongside the Sixth Doctor in new audio releases, set before her departure.