Who are Ace and Tegan?

Who are the returning companions in the Thirteenth Doctor's final adventure? Read on to find out...

In the electrifying trailer for The Power of the Doctor, there were many exciting returns teased. The Master, Daleks, Ashad and the Cybermen to name but a few. However, fans were thrilled to see the return of companions to the Fifth and Seventh Doctors, Tegan and Ace. 

Don’t know about these two former TARDIS travellers? No problem. Before their return in The Power of the Doctor, get to know these two classic companions...

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Tegan

While most of the Doctor’s companions choose to travel in the TARDIS, poor Tegan was swept aboard by accident. She mistook the TARDIS for an actual Police Box while trying to call for help with a flat tyre. Instead of being able to reach a mechanic, she was swept up in a battle between the Doctor and the Master!

Sadly, her aunt Vanessa was killed during this conflict. She barely got to know the Fourth Doctor before he fell to his death and regenerated, in a bid to stop one of the Master’s nefarious schemes.

After the regeneration, Tegan became a full-time TARDIS crew member. However, with all these trips, she had a very clear goal in mind: she just wanted to get back home! Along the way, she had another encounter with the Master, visited the Great Fire of London and even fought the Cybermen. Of all the evils that Tegan fought, her most personal enemy was the Mara, a psychic snake, who possessed Tegan on numerous occasions. 

Tegan did eventually make it back to Earth and left the TARDIS for a short period. After being reunited with the Doctor and Nyssa in Amsterdam, Tegan decided to continue travelling in the TARDIS. She went on to be the longest serving of the Fifth Doctor’s companions. Her journeys across time and space were brought to a close after witnessing a Dalek massacre – after so much death and destruction, Tegan decided she’d had enough. She let the TARDIS leave without her, thinking it would be the last time she ever saw the Doctor. For now…

 

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Ace

Tegan’s relationship with the Doctor looks very simple when compared with Ace’s time in the TARDIS!

Strap in. This is going to get timey and wimey.

The Doctor and Ace - whose real name is Dorothy McShane - met on Iceworld, while the Doctor was still travelling with Melanie Bush. Despite coming from 20th Century Earth, Ace was mysteriously transported to Iceworld by a seemingly freak time storm.

At the end of that adventure, Mel decided to leave the Doctor. The Doctor offered to take Ace back to Earth - but via the scenic route of TARDIS travel! They began their adventures together, but in the background, a sinister force was manipulating events. In fact, they’d been guiding events even before the two had met. The time travellers finally confronted this malevolence in 1943.

Ace’s relationship with the Doctor could be strained at times. On several occasions, including the confrontation with Fenric, the Doctor manipulated Ace. In the case of Fenric, it was to save the day. Other times, it was to help Ace deal with her past and her fears. After the events of The Curse of Fenric, it seemed as if the two had come to a level of new understanding with each other.

We never saw the end of Ace’s adventures on-screen. At the end of Survival, the Doctor and Ace headed off for more adventures which would never grace our screens.

Despite not seeing how Ace left the TARDIS, we do know what happened to her afterwards. She founded the charity 'A Charitable Earth'; quite possibly starting with the acronym first and working backwards.

Is it Ace’s charitable ventures that reunite her with the Thirteenth Doctor? Time will tell. It always does.

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Tune into The Power of the Doctor on October 23rd 2022.