Ace (Doctor Who)

Ace (given name Dorothy) is a fictional character played by Sophie Aldred in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. A 20th Century Earth teenager from the London suburb of Perivale, she was a companion of the Seventh Doctor and a regular in the programme from 1987 to 1989.

Related Topics:
Sophie Aldred - British - Science fiction television - Doctor Who - Earth - London - Perivale - Companion - Seventh Doctor - 1987 - 1989

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Ace first appeared in the 1987 serial Dragonfire, where she was 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 as a "creative statement". Gifted in chemistry (despite failing it for her "O"-levels), she was in her room experimenting with the extraction of nitroglycerin from gelignite when a time storm swept her up and transported her to Iceworld, and far in her relative future. There, she met the Doctor and his companion Mel. When Mel left the Doctor at the conclusion of the serial, he offered to take Ace with him in the TARDIS, and she happily accepted.

Related Topics:
1987 - Dragonfire - "O"-level - Nitroglycerin - Gelignite - The Doctor - Mel - TARDIS

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Ace was arguably the most independent of all the Doctor's companions up to that point. Suffering from traumatic events in her childhood, including a bad relationship with her mother and the death of her close friend Manesha due to a racist firebombing, Ace covered up her own fears and insecurities with a streetwise, tough exterior. Her weapon of choice, disapproved of by the Doctor (who nonetheless found it useful on occasion), was a powerful explosive she called "Nitro-9", which she mixed up in canisters and carried around in her backpack.

Related Topics:
Racist - Firebombing

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Affectionately giving the Doctor the nickname of "Professor", she was convinced that the Doctor needed her to watch his back, and protected him with a fierce loyalty. In turn, the Doctor seemed to take a special interest in Ace's education, taking her across the universe and often prompting her to figure out explanations for herself rather than giving her all the answers.

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Under the Doctor's tutelage, Ace fought the Daleks and the Cybermen, encountered the all-powerful Gods of Ragnarok, the terrifying Kandyman, and many other dangers. She also faced the ghosts of her own past in Ghost Light and The Curse of Fenric. Over time, she began to mature into a confident young woman, and her brash exterior ceased to be a front.

Related Topics:
Dalek - Cybermen - Ragnarok - Kandyman - Ghost Light - The Curse of Fenric

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What the Doctor was aware of but Ace was not, was 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, a plan that stretched across the centuries. Ace was 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 was defeated, Ace continued to journey with the Doctor.

Related Topics:
Fenric - Viking

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The circumstances of Ace's parting of ways with the Doctor are not known, as the series went on hiatus in 1989 with the end of the very next serial, Survival. A painting seen in the extended version of the serial Silver Nemesis suggested that at some point in her personal future Ace would end up in 18th or 19th Century France. This idea was further explored in the novelisation of The Curse of Fenric and the Virgin New Adventures.

Related Topics:
1989 - Survival - Silver Nemesis - France - Virgin New Adventures

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The production team's intent was to have Ace eventually enter the Prydon Academy on the Doctor's home planet of Gallifrey and train to be a Time Lord. The story, Ice Time by Marc Platt, was never made as the series ceased production. When next we saw the Seventh Doctor in the 1996 Doctor Who television movie, he was travelling alone, with no reference to what had happened to him or Ace in the interim.

Related Topics:
Gallifrey - Time Lord - Marc Platt - 1996 - Doctor Who

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