Seventh Doctor Companions

Name: Mel Bush
Race: Human
Time of Origin: 20th Century
Planet of Origin: Earth

Mel first appears 'Terror of the Vervoids', where she and the Doctor have been traveling together for some time - yet have only just met. The Doctor takes Mel back in time, and meets up with her then... or something confusing like that...

Mel is a computer programmer from the 20th century who comes from the village of Pease Pottage in England. She has an eidetic memory, and a cheery, almost perky personality. She greets most situations with a warm smile and good humour, and was an optimist whose views extend to believing the best of people's natures.

She is present (albeit unconscious at the time) when the Sixth Doctor regenerates into his seventh incarnation, and continues to travel with him.

In the serial 'Dragonfire', she decides to stay on Iceworld with the galactic confidence trickster, Sabalom Glitz, leaving the Seventh Doctor to travel on with his new companion, Ace.

Name: Ace
Race: Human
Time of Origin: 20th Century
Planet of Origin: Earth

Ace first appears in 'Dragonfire', where she is working as a waitress on the planet Iceworld. She had been a troubled teen on Earth, having been expelled from school for blowing up the art room. Gifted in chemistry, she was in her room experimenting when a time storm swept her up and transported her to Iceworld, and far in her future. There, she meets the Doctor and his companion Mel. When Mel leaves the Doctor, he offers to take Ace with him in the TARDIS, and she happily accepts.

Ace has suffered traumatic events in her childhood, including a bad relationship with her mother and the firebombing of her friend's flat. Consequently, she covers up her own fears and insecurities with a streetwise, tough exterior.

Affectionately giving the Doctor the nickname of "Professor", she is convinced that the Doctor needs her to watch his back, and protects him with a fierce loyalty. In turn, the Doctor seems to take a special interest in Ace's education and over time, she begins to mature into a confident young woman, and her brash exterior ceases to be a front.

What the Doctor is aware of, but Ace is not, is that her arrival on Iceworld was no accident but part of a larger scheme conceived by Fenric - an evil that had existed since the beginning of the universe. Ace is a 'Wolf of Fenric', one of many descendants of a Viking tainted with Fenric's genetic instructions to help free it from its ancient prison, and a pawn in the complex game between it and the Doctor. After Fenric is defeated, Ace continues to journey with the Doctor.

The circumstances of Ace's parting of ways with the Doctor are not known, as the series went on hiatus in 1989. It is suggested that at some point in her personal future Ace will end up in 18th or 19th Century France.