Ace

Dorothy Gale, nicknamed "Ace", was a British teenager who lived in Perivale during the late 20th century. She joined the Doctor on his travels after being transported by a time storm to the planet Svartos in the far future.

Early life

Dorothy Gale was born in 1970. (DW: "Ghost Light") Her mother was Audrey Dudman, and her maternal grandparents were Frank and Kathleen Dudman. Through her mother, she was a descendant of the Viking who first buried the flask containing Fenric in the 9th century. (DW: "The Curse of Fenric") She lived in Perivale, London. (DW: "Dragonfire" et al)

She adopted the name Ace because she resented her real first name for being "naff." Ace decided that her mother and father could not have really been her parents because her real parents would never have given her a name like Dorothy. (DW: "Dragonfire") Her best friend was Manisha. The pair spent a lot of time wandering around together, skipping school and outdaring each other. (DW: "Ghost Light")

In 1983, Manisha's flat was firebombed by white kids. A thirteen-year-old Ace decided that she did not care anymore, and broke into the empty and overgrown Gabriel Chase for a dare. She was so mad that she felt like she needed to get away. When she entered the house, she felt the aura of intense evil left by Light a century earlier. Overwhelmed by the evil and hatred she felt was present, Ace burned the house down. (DW: "Ghost Light")

Ace took French at O-level (DW: "The Curse of Fenric") Although she was capable of synthesising a more powerful form of nitroglycerine known as Nitro-9, she did not pass her chemistry exams at school. (DW: "Dragonfire", "The Curse of Fenric") Her teachers told her that she could not expect pass chemistry A-level if she was not able to store equipment properly. (DW: "Dragonfire")

She was suspended from school after blowing up the art room. The art teacher Mrs Parkinson mistook Ace's homemade gelignite for school plasticine and asked her to return it to room. Ace tossed the gelignite over her shoulder, causing it to land in the middle of Class 1C's prize-winning pottery pig collection and cause an explosion. (DW: "Dragonfire", "Battlefield") The police let her off with a warning. (DW: "Survival") She implied that she received a probation officer at one point. (DW: "Ghost Light")

After being thrown out of school, Ace worked as a waitress in a fast food cafe, but grew bored of the same routine. She felt like she had fallen from another planet and landed in a strange girl's body. Each night, she would walk home and look at the stars through the gaps in the clouds, and try to imagine where she really came from. She dreamed that one day she would be carried off back home and returned to her real parents. (DW: "Dragonfire")

While performing an experiment to extract nitroglycerine from gelignite, Ace was transported by a time storm from her bedroom in 1980s Perivale to Iceworld on the planet Svartos around two million years in the future. She ended up becoming a waitress again - this time in Anderson's cafe - and realised that she could no longer dream about going anywhere else. (DW: "Dragonfire", "The Curse of Fenric")

Back in Perivale in the 20th century, Audrey had her daughter listed as a missing person. At the time of her disappearance, Ace's friends included Jay, Stevie, Flo, Midge, Shreela and Ange. It was rumoured that Ace was either dead or had gone to Birmingham. (DW: "Survival")

Life with the Doctor

Ace during her return to Gabriel Chase

Ace was sixteen years old (DW: "Dragonfire")

Later life

By 2010, Sarah Jane Smith was aware of a "Dorothy something" who she believed to have travelled with the Doctor. Dorothy ran a company called A Charitable Earth that had raised billions. (SJA: "Death of the Doctor")

Appendices

Appearances

• Doctor Who:
  • "Dragonfire"
  • "Remembrance of the Daleks"
  • "The Happiness Patrol"
  • "Silver Nemesis"
  • "The Greatest Show in the Galaxy"
  • "Battlefield"
  • "Ghost Light"
  • "The Curse of Fenric"
  • "Survival"
  • "The Day of the Doctor" (photograph)
• Destiny of the Doctor: "Shockwave"
• "Clara and the TARDIS" (visual record)
• "Ace Returns!"
• "Farewell, Sarah Jane"

References

• The Sarah Jane Adventures: "Death of the Doctor"

Background

At an early stage at which the character who was to become Ace was written with the name of Alf, producer John Nathan-Turner and script editor Andrew Cartmel wrote the following character outline:

"Alf is a teenage London girl who used to work on the till in a supermarket, until she was swept away from Earth by a time storm. The Doctor finds her in a distant galaxy ... working on the till in a supermarket. Fed up with her routine job, determined to see the sights of the universe, Alf pours a drink into her talking till, quits, and joins the Doctor on his adventures in the TARDIS.

"Alf is uneducated but sharp, nobody's fool. She has a sense of wonder about their travels through time and space. She is smart and tough but protective of the Doctor. Can also be stroppy and sullen. She approaches her cosmic adventuring with a down-to-earth pragmatism and a somewhat offbeat sense of humour.