One of the Doctor’s sweetest companions was the red-haired Mel, a computer programmer from Earth. Melanie Bush had a pair of leather lungs and could render a piercing scream at the sight of a frightening monster. However, she has since matured and is now far more resourceful and brave, willing to fight and ride motorbikes at a moment’s notice! Mel has travelled with multiple Doctors, but her loyalty has remained resolute to her best friend in Doctor Who.
The Trial of a Time Lord: Terror of the Vervoids
★★☆☆☆
TX: 01/11/1986 – 22/11/1986
Written by Pip and Jane Baker Directed by Chris Clough
The Sixth Doctor presents evidence from his own future as part of his defence in his trial by the Time Lords. The Doctor attests that his behaviour improves in the future. In the evidence presented, the Doctor and his future companion Mel respond to a MayDay call by the intergalactic liner Hyperion III. Onboard are a group of Vervoids, genetically grown humanoid plants created by Professor Lasky and her team. The Vervoids escape and begin killing the crew and passengers of the ship one by one and putting their corpses on a compost heap. Events take a turn for the worse when the ship is hijacked, first by Lasky’s terrified assistant Bruchner and later by a couple of rogue Mogarians and Rudge. The Doctor discovers that the element vionesium, which is onboard, has properties similar to Magnesium and that when exposed to oxygenated air it produces incredibly intense light and carbon dioxide, which can be used to defeat the Vervoids. The Doctor and Mel destroy all the Vervoids using the vionesium, however this leaves the Doctor open to the charge of genocide back at his trial.
The Trial of a Time Lord: The Ultimate Foe
★★☆☆☆
TX: 29/11/1986 – 06/12/1986
Written by Robert Holmes and Pip & Jane Baker Directed by Chris Clough
The Sixth Doctor stands accused of genocide in court by the Time Lords. Two friends of the Doctor, Mel and Sabalom Glitz are summoned to the trial secretly by the Master. The Master tells the Doctor that the Time Lords sacrificed the Earth in the future by dragging it across space where it became known as Ravolox, in order to protect stolen Gallifreyan secrets hidden on Earth from being recovered by Andromeda. The Master also reveals that he has conspired with the Doctor’s prosecutor, the Valeyard whom the Master reveals to be an evil potential future incarnation of the Doctor himself! The Valeyard flees into the Matrix and the Doctor pursues him. The Valeyard sets many traps for the Doctor in the nightmare world of the Matrix. Glitz and Mel follow the Doctor into the Matrix. Glitz has been doing a dodgy deal with the Master. The Doctor and Mel confront the Valeyard for the final time. They realise that a concealed machine in the room is a particle disseminator, with which the Valeyard plans to murder the members of the court. The Inquisitor learns the High Council has been deposed. The Master appears on the Matrix screen to offer to impose order in return for power. He loads Glitz’s master tape into his TARDIS systems, but a booby-trap is triggered, paralysing him and Glitz. Mel emerges from the Matrix to warn the Time Lords. They cannot turn off the Matrix screen, but the Doctor sabotages the Valeyard’s weapon and the Fantasy Factory explodes. The Doctor flees the Matrix, back to the courtroom. Back at the courtroom, the Inquisitor reveals to the Doctor that all charges against him have been dismissed and that his companion Peri survived the events of Thoros-Beta and is now alive and happily married to King Yrcanos. The Doctor suggests that the Inquisitor should run to be the President of Gallifrey, before departing with Mel, who has decided to put the Doctor on a diet.
Time and the Rani
★☆☆☆☆
TX: 7-28/9/1987
Written by Pip & Jane Baker Directed by Andrew Morgan
The Doctor’s TARDIS is attacked by the Rani, causing it to crash-land on the planet Lakertya. Resultantly, the Doctor regenerates and is then brought to the Rani’s lair. After being drugged to enhance his post-regenerative amnesia, the Doctor is tricked by the Rani (disguised as his companion Mel) into helping her to construct a giant time manipulator. The Doctor learns that a missile is being aimed at an asteroid composed of strange matter, passing above Lakertya. The Rani plans to use this to collect the stolen genius of the greatest scientific minds in the universe, including Einstein, by assembling a giant brain. This will allow the Rani to obtain the Loyhargil, a means of controlling time anywhere in the universe, at the expense of all life on Lakertya. Dodging many lethal traps, the enslaved native Lakertyans help the Doctor and Mel to defeat the Rani by sabotaging the launch of the rocket. The Rani escapes, but is captured by her monstrous, bat-like servants, the Tetraps, inside her own TARDIS.
Paradise Towers
★★★★☆
TX: 5-26/10/1987
Written by Stephen Wyatt Directed by Nicholas Mallett
The Seventh Doctor and Mel arrive in a tower block in the near future. The dystopian microcosm within Paradise Towers includes multi-coloured gangs of young girls called Kangs, cannibal old ladies called ‘Rezzies’ and the bureaucratic caretakers who police the towers. The Chief Caretaker captures and accuses the Doctor of being the Great Architect behind Paradise Towers. Mel narrowly escapes being eaten by the Rezzies when she is rescued by muscle man Pex. It transpires that various residents of Paradise Towers are being killed by the cleaner robots and taken to the basement to be fed to Kroagnon, the real great architect. Kroagnon possesses the body of the Chief Caretaker and begins to reimpose his designs on the Towers. Pex sacrifices himself to defeat Kroagnon/Chief Caretaker. The Kangs give the Doctor and Mel a present before they depart and the various groups in the towers resolve to live in harmony with one another. Paradise Towers is loosely based on High-Rise by J.G. Ballard.
Delta and the Bannermen
★☆☆☆☆
TX: 2-16/11/1987
Written by Malcolm Kohll Directed by Chris Clough
Most of the Chimeron have been wiped out by the Bannermen. But the Queen of the Chimeron, Delta has survived and takes an intergalactic Navarino tourist bus to Disneyland, 1959 with Mel. The Doctor follows them in the TARDIS to Earth. The holiday vehicle collides with an Earth satellite and is diverted off course, landing at a holiday camp in South Wales, led by camp director Burton. However, Gavrok and the Bannermen arrive to find and kill the Chimeron Queen Delta, who has escaped clutching her egg. Delta’s egg hatches into a bright green baby that starts to grow at a startling rate. The Chimeron Queen supports this development with the equivalent of royal jelly given to bees. Delta captures the heart of Billy, the camp’s mechanic, to the chagrin of Ray, who loves Billy herself. Ray confides her situation to the Doctor, and they stumble across a bounty hunter making contact with the Bannermen to tell them of the Chimeron’s whereabouts. Gavrok and his troops soon arrive. Delta and Billy head off for a picnic while the Doctor busies himself coordinating things back at the camp. Meanwhile, the Bannermen have destroyed the Navarino bus with all its passengers. Two American CIA agents, Hawk and Weismuller, appear on the scene, tracking the missing satellite. Gavrok booby-traps the TARDIS in an attempt to kill the Doctor. A battle ensues with Gavrok and his Bannermen against the Doctor and his crew: Ray & Billy, Goronwy, Mr. Burton and the two CIA agents. The Bannermen are foiled by honey, Goronwy’s bees and finally by the amplified scream of the Chimeron child Princess—a sound which is painful to Bannermen. Goronwy explains to Billy the purpose of royal jelly in the lifecycle of the honeybee, provoking the mechanic to consume Delta’s equivalent that she has been feeding her daughter, in the hope of metamorphosing into a Chimeron. As Gavrok and the Bannermen attack Shangri-La, the amplified scream of the Chimeron princess traumatises the attackers, including Gavrok, who becomes so stunned that he falls into the booby-trap he placed on the TARDIS and is killed. Delta and Billy leave together with the child, the two agents watch on with surprise and Goronwy winks knowingly as the Doctor and Mel slip away.
Dragonfire
★★☆☆☆
TX: 23/11/1987– 07/12/1987
Written by Ian Briggs Directed by Chris Clough
On the human colony of Iceworld, a young woman called Ace is working as a waitress after being swept up by a time storm (by Fenric) and deposited there. Ace meets the Seventh Doctor and Mel who have arrived in the TARDIS. The Doctor and Mel reunite with Sabalom Glitz, who has had his spaceship the Nosferatu confiscated. Iceworld is being controlled by the evil Kane, an ancient being from Proamon who is seeking the Dragonfire – a valuable jewel. Kane orders Glitz’s spacecraft to be destroyed, and Kane also destroys some of his own slaves. At one point, the Doctor hangs from his umbrella into a deep chasm, a meta cliffhanger! The Doctor finds the Dragonfire is located inside the head of a biomechanical dragon living in the catacombs beneath Iceworld. The Doctor, Ace, Mel and Glitz confront Kane where the Doctor reveals to him that Kane’s homeworld of Proamon has long since been destroyed by a supernova and that he has no home to return to. Devastated, Kane commits suicide by exposing himself to intense sunlight, causing his face to melt in a manner similar to that seen in Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark. Mel decides to stay with Glitz and go travelling with him. Ace boards the TARDIS to join the Doctor on further adventures in time and space.
The Power of the Doctor
★★★★★
TX: 23/10/2022
Written by Chris Chibnall Directed by Jamie Magnus Stone
Shortly after Dan decides to leave the TARDIS, the Thirteenth Doctor and Yaz are summoned to U.N.I.T by Kate Stewart who also reunites the Doctor with her former companions Tegan and Ace. Kate believes there to be a connection between volcanic activity, Tsarist Russia, some paintings and a scientific lecture and she is right! The Master (disguised as Rasputin) has returned and he embarks on his most diabolical plan yet! After being freed from U.N.I.T HQ by the Cybermen, the Master uses the Daleks to capture the Doctor. The Doctor is placed into a DNA chamber and forced to regenerate into the Master. The Doctor-Master takes Yaz in the TARDIS, but Yaz escapes and manages to find the Doctor’s old friend Vinder. The two lay a trap for the Master. Meanwhile, Kate, Ace and Tegan narrowly escape being upgraded by the Cybermen. Between regenerations, the Doctor encounters the Guardians of the Edge, former incarnations of herself! The Doctors unite mentally to defeat the Master, whilst a hologram of the Doctor assists Yaz and Vinder. The Master-Doctor is cornered and his CyberMasters shoot each other after being tricked by the Fugitive Doctor. The Daleks are destroyed by the global volcanic eruptions. The Master-Doctor is forced to regenerate back into the Thirteenth Doctor, freeing her at last! Defeated, the Master mortally wounds the Doctor with the Qurunx’s energy beam, before seemingly dying of his own injuries without regenerating. The Doctor is fatally injured and carried back to the TARDIS by Yaz. The Doctor bids goodbye to her companions, who form a support group on Earth. Alone on a cliff top, the Doctor regenerates back into a familiar face…
The Giggle
★★★★★
TX: 09/12/2023
Written by Russell T Davies Directed by Chanya Button
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oj3dNn0A9w8
In the third and final 60th Anniversary Special of Doctor Who, the terrifying Toymaker returns (played by Hollywood actor Neil Patrick Harris). The Toymaker is using the giggle of a sinister puppet to send the human race insane. The puppet was implanted indirectly by the Toymaker into the very first television footage made by television inventor John Logie Baird in 1925. After 98 years of manipulation, the puppet’s giggle sends the human race mad in 2023 by convincing everyone that they are right. The Doctor and Donna are taken to the U.N.I.T Tower where they find all this out and the Doctor is reunited with U.N.I.T recruit Melanie Bush. Mel tells the Doctor that she got a lift off a Zingo after the events of Dragonfire and that Sabalom Glitz lived to a ripe old age. The Fourteenth Doctor and Donna travel back to 1925 to confront the Toymaker, who sets many traps and puppets for them. During a card game between the Toymaker and the Doctor, the Toymaker warns the Doctor about “the one who waits”… The Toymaker returns to the present to play one final game with the Doctor. The Toymaker attacks U.N.I.T. and during the resultant destruction, the Toymaker uses a U.N.I.T. HQ laser beam to shoot the Doctor. The Fourteenth Doctor bi-generates into the Fifteenth Doctor, creating two separate incarnations of the Doctor. The two Doctors fight the Toymaker in one final ball game. The Toymaker loses and as punishment, is ordered by the Doctor to remove himself from existence. But how long will it be until the Fifteenth Doctor encounters the Toymaker’s promised legions?
The Legend of Ruby Sunday/Empire of Death
★★★★☆
TX: 15/06/2024 – 22/06/2024
Written by Russell T Davies Directed by Jamie Donoughue
The Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby Sunday return to U.N.I.T HQ on Earth where they are reunited with Kate Stewart, Melanie Bush, the Vlinx and Rose Noble. The Doctor wants to get to the bottom of the mystery of the woman who he and Ruby keep seeing throughout their adventures. Kate reveals that the woman is Kate Triad, an entrepreneur who is about to launch her revolutionary Triad Technology around the world. S. Triad is an anagram of TARDIS and Susan’s first name prompts the Doctor to theorise that she may be his granddaughter. The Doctor decides that the answers may lie at Ruby Sunday’s birth on Christmas Eve 2004. Ruby goes home and fetches a VHS tape of the CCTV of the Church on Ruby Road on the night of her birth. At U.N.I.T HQ, everyone gathers round a time window which helps to recreate the night of Ruby’s birth using the VHS. Once again, the Doctor and Ruby witness the mysterious cloaked woman. However, an elemental force engulfs the TARDIS in the video before vanishing. An ominous voice speaks from beyond, which chills the Doctor and his companions to the bone. The Doctor and Mel confront Susan Triad, who has dreams of herself in the Doctor’s adventures. As the TARDIS in the present day becomes engulfed in the same matter as back in 2004, it becomes clear that this a trap. The Doctor is horrified to discover that his old enemy Sutekh has returned and is about to wreak destruction and death upon the world… the one who waits, waits no more!
Sutekh and his servants release his dust of death which consumes the Earth and ultimately destroys all life in the universe. Sutekh abhors life and he tells the Doctor, Ruby and Mel that the destruction of all life in the universe satisfies him. Sutekh reveals that he survived the Doctor’s banishment of him at the end of Pyramids of Mars by clinging to the TARDIS in disguise and accompanying him on his adventures ever since. The Doctor vows to stop Sutekh before he, Ruby and Mel escape in a Remembered TARDIS. The Doctor is given a spoon by a kind woman on a distant planet before she disintegrates too. The Doctor realises that the key to saving the universe is to find the identity of Ruby’s biological mother. The Doctor, Ruby and Mel return to Earth so that the Doctor can perform a DNA test on Ruby and find her mother. The scan completes and the name is revealed to Ruby. Mel is revealed to be a dead servant of Sutekh and she brings the Doctor, Ruby and Ruby’s secret to Sutekh. Ruby is about to reveal the secret of her mother to Sutekh, but the Doctor and Ruby spring a trap on the ageless god. The Doctor and Ruby tie Sutekh to the TARDIS and drag him through the time vortex, restoring life to the universe in the process. The Doctor cuts the chord and Sutekh disintegrates in the time vortex. Back on Earth, U.N.I.T identify Ruby’s biological mother from her DNA: a nurse named Louise Miller, who abandoned Ruby at the Church on Ruby Road when she was a teenager. Ruby and her biological mother are reunited in a cafe in an emotional scene. With her family restored, Ruby apparently bids goodbye to the Doctor… but one question still remains, who is Mrs Flood?
Chris Olsen's TARDIS 