Lynda Moss

Lynda Moss
Species:	Human
Place of origin:	Earth
Death:	200,100, Floor 056, the Game Station
First appearance:	Bad Wolf
Appearances:	TV: The Parting of the Ways
Main actor:	Jo Joyner

Lynda Moss — self-identified as Lynda with a Y to distinguish her from Linda with an I — was one of the Big Brother contestants onboard the Game Station in 200100.

Biography

After she met the Ninth Doctor, he told her that she was "sweet" and she asked him if she could join him on his travels. The Doctor agreed and, along with Jack Harkness, they set out to save Rose Tyler from her "death" while playing The Weakest Link. Lynda was horrified when Rose was seemingly disintegrated, and she, Jack and the Doctor were arrested by Game Station security. Escaping capture and making their way to Floor 500, Jack used a supposed disintegration beam on Lynda to show the Doctor that it was in fact a transmat and Rose was alive - a prisoner of the Dalek fleet hidden at the edge of the solar system. (TV: Bad Wolf)

Rescuing Rose from the Dalek Emperor's flagship, the Doctor and Jack returned to the Game Station to find that Lynda had refused to evacuate. She wished to remain at the Doctor's side (much to Rose's jealousy) and volunteered to join the defense of the satellite while he constructed a Delta Wave to destroy the Daleks. In the battle against the massive Dalek invasion that followed, Lynda acted as a coordinator by using the station's sensors to track Dalek movement from the observation deck on Floor 056. She watched the fleet bomb entire continents out of existence on the Earth below, and was horrified when the Daleks, instead of flying up the ventilation shafts to Floor 496, instead descended to Floor 000 and exterminated the hundred or so people stranded down there.

Eventually, Lynda's location was discovered by Daleks hovering outside the satellite, on the other side of a window. She reported this to the Doctor, who assured her that her side of the station was reinforced against meteors. A Dalek squad began to cut through the door with a torch as Lynda watched, but before they cut through, more Daleks rose outside the observation window. Upon noticing Lynda, the luminosity dischargers on one of the Daleks' heads flashed in tune to the word "exterminate", its voice unable to be heard in space. The Dalek then shot out the glass and exposed Lynda to the vacuum of space, killing her. The Doctor heard her final scream over the communications. (TV: The Parting of the Ways)

Legacy

Lynda was remembered by the Doctor as one of the people who had died in his name. (TV: Journey's End)

Personality

Lynda was a very bright, bubbly and cheerful person. She became fast friends with the Doctor, who agreed to let her accompany him when she requested to do so. She was very concerned about what the audience thought of her, asking the Doctor if viewers of Big Brother on Earth liked her. He absentmindedly said that people thought that she was "sweet".

She showed great loyalty and trust in the Doctor, despite only having known him for a few hours. She stuck by his side, assisting him even when she was told to get to safety, having faith that he would keep her safe and fulfil his promise to take her with him in the TARDIS. (TV: Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways)

Behind the scenes

• In the short story LINDA United, released as part of the official Doctor Who: Lockdown! event in November 2020, an alternative counterpart of Lynda was introduced. This version had been granted immortality by the Bad Wolf entity, instead of Captain Jack Harkness, and set up her own alien investigation team. Opposed by a powerful Demigod in her own universe Linda used the Dimension cannon to escape into N-Space, and the character later returned in the charity publication Twice Upon A Time Scope's The Jack Who Stole Christmas where she defeated a version of the Boehemoth that faced off against Captain Jack and the Tenth Doctor.