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World Game
(Terrance Dicks) |
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 Name: Serena, AKA the Time Lady Serenadellatrovella
Format:
Book
Time of Origin: Gallifrey, near the end of the
Second
Doctor's
life.
Appearances:
World Game
Doctor:
Second
Doctor
Fellow Companions:
None.
History: Serena, like Romana, was a Time Lady,
and is technically the first true Time Lady companion The Doctor
ever had - Susan, according to all information, was not yet fully
qualified at the Academy, so can't really count as a true Time Lady
in the strictest sense of the word.
When Serena first met the Second
Doctor, she was working
in the Capitol Library, studying records of the presidential
election as a means of learning more about Time Lord politics,
possessing ambitions
at a position in the High Council. Despite some of her obvious
advantages in Time Lord society, such as being a member
of an old and powerful family,
but exactly what it was that led to her being selected as
The Doctor's companion is unknown at this time. Contacted
by the Celestial Intervention
Agency, or the CIA, she was filled in on The Doctor's recent
history - including, naturally, his capture by the Time Lords after calling them for aid in
ending the War Games - and then told that she would now
be going with The Doctor as the representative of the Agency.
At the first meeting between the two Time Lords,
there was a certain hostility between The Doctor and Serena; The Doctor objected to having a companion forced on him like this, resenting
Serena's claims that she would be his supervisor, while Serena was
opposed to The Doctor calling her his assistant, and insisted that
The Doctor was merely a convict on parole. Despite their initial
anger at each other, The Doctor and Serena agreed to work together,
departing for the earliest anomaly in a Type 97 TARDIS that the CIA
had provided, since they felt The Doctor's own TARDIS was too obsolete
for such work - this TARDIS even had a working chameleon circuit.
Despite their initial disagreements, however, it should
be noted that, even before meeting The Doctor face-to-face, Serena felt
that he'd been treated unfairly; upon learning that he'd only been captured
because he wished to save the humans involved in the War Games, she commented
that his original sentence of execution seemed an unfair reward for his
altruism. As they continued to work together, Serena came to understand
more about The Doctor's reasons for leaving Gallifrey, and began to see
that, for all the charges put against him at his trial, he had only interfered
because he believed it to be right, not because he simply felt like it,
and had left Gallifrey mainly because there was no place on it for someone
with his principals. She even seemed to come to care for The Doctor in
her own way, apparently exhibiting jealousy of the Countess's fondness
for the Time Lord. Despite her naiveté about the universe outside
Gallifrey, Serena proved to be a competent and able companion for The Doctor,
managing to escape a Player called Valour who was holding her hostage while
The Doctor was forced to aid the Countess in constructing a nuclear-powered
submarine that would allow Napoleon to defeat Nelson at Trafalgar.
However,
Serena's time with The Doctor was, like the Sixth
Doctor's companion Claire Aldwych, cut tragically short after only one adventure with him. Having
learned that the Countess intended to assassinate the Duke of Wellington
at a ball held on the eve of Waterloo, The Doctor and Serena attended the
ball to find out what had happened, and Serena took the shot intended for
Wellington herself; the musket ball, fired at her from practically point-blank
range, destroyed both her hearts, thus preventing her from regenerating.
She was buried in a simple grave, the only thing on her gravestone being
SERENA, and, after the battle of Waterloo, it was visited by The Doctor
and Wellington, who assured The Doctor that he would always remember the
role he and Serena had played in the battle. Once back on Gallifrey, having
unmasked a Time Lord who'd been collaborating with the Players, The Doctor
refused to go on any more missions for the Agency until certain conditions
were met, including an order that Serena's name be placed on the Gallifreyian
Honour Roll and that he be allowed to tell her family how she had died.
Despite
The Doctor's gratitude that Jamie would be restored to him for his next
mission, it was evident that he still regretted Serena's death; indeed,
when General Grant challenged her murderer to a duel, The Doctor was able
to crush his conscience with a surprising amount of ease, and his promise
to tell her family about their loss also says a great about what she came
to mean to him (Although, admittedly, in any other case where companions
have died, either he couldn't contact their families (Adric) or he didn't
know who their families were (Claire)). |
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