Christina de Souza

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Christina de Souza
Place of origin:	Earth
Appearances:	DW: Planet of the Dead
Main actor:	[[actor::Michelle Ryan|Michelle Ryan]]

Lady Christina de Souza once adventured with the Tenth Doctor on the planet San Helios. At the conclusion of that incident, he firmly rejected her request to become a full-time traveling companion. Consequently, she was one of the few people to whom the Doctor denied even one trip in his TARDIS.

Biography

File:LadyChristinadeSouza.jpg

Lady Christina shortly after stealing the Cup of Athelstan. (DW: Planet of the Dead)

Christina de Souza was a notorious thief who stole for the thrill of it, being bored with her aristocrat upbringing. By the time she met the Tenth Doctor, Christina has already built a considerable reputation and was relentlessly pursued by Detective Inspector Macmillan.

At Easter 2009, she stole the prized Cup of Athelstan from the International Gallery in London. However, her calling card (a mechanical golden Maneki Neko waving in a mocking manner) alerted the guards to her presence and her associate was quickly found and arrested (without much concern on Christina's part). Unable to find a way to distance herself from the museum, due to the large number of police officers afoot, she was forced to use the 200 bus as an escape vehicle, bribing the driver with her diamond earrings for passage. She soon met the Doctor, initially dismissing him due to his odd behaviour. However, once the bus was caught in a wormhole and deposited on an alien planet , she established herself as the leader of the group. She deferred to the Doctor's knowledge, recognizing his understanding of the situation.. The many tools in her backpack, which included a shovel to dig out the bus wheels, a hatchet to cut away the seats (so they could be used as traction for the wheels), a mechanical winch for her heists, and a hammer. proved to be of enormous value to the group.

During the time that she spent with the Doctor, Christina became very comfortable with him, and vice-versa. She shared a sense of adventure and excitement with him that exceeded any heist that she had ever pulled off before. Against the Doctor's wishes, she winched down a shaft in the Tritovores' ship to collect the anti-gravity clamps and their power crystal (nearly electrocuting herself with the ship's defence grid in her haste). She inadvertently woke an inactive alien in the ship's hull with her body heat. Swiftly collecting the clamps, she travelled back up the shaft with the alien at her heels, though she successfully lost it after she reactivated the defence grid on her way up. She attempted to convince the Tritovores to come with them on the 200 bus, saying that they could be found a new home, but was unable to do anything to prevent their death.

Her previous heist proved to be invaluable as the Cup of Athelstan was made of gold. With more than a little aversion on her part, this served as a perfect conductor for the anti-gravity clamps, which, by themselves, were incompatible with the bus. However, the cup was mangled by the Doctor in the process to make it the right shape, earning Christina's ire. With the clamps fixed on the bus, the Doctor piloted the now flying bus through the wormhole and, upon returning to Earth, was kissed by Christina (her earlier anger forgotten and forgiven).

After returning to the ground, Christina broke away from UNIT security, expecting to travel with the Doctor as a companion, only for her request to be coldly turned away, as the Doctor revealed he had been too hurt by losing his previous companions and wasn't willing to lose another. Christina was shortly arrested by the police for her previous actions and taken away. However, the Doctor used his sonic screwdriver to unlock her handcuffs and, upon her realising this, Christina escaped the police car and ran to the bus, closing the door before the police could capture her again. Flying the bus to the Doctor, Christina happily told the Doctor that they "could have been so good together", revealing no hard feelings over her rejection, the Doctor similarly replied "Christina, we were", both of them smiling each other off. Christina then flew the bus into the night sky, the passengers on the ground cheering her on. (DW: Planet of the Dead)

Apparently Lady Christina at some point learned the Doctor's superphone number, as during a later adventure the Doctor answered the phone thinking it was her. (IDW: Tesseract) This may indicate that she and the Doctor met again and had at least one other adventure.

Personality

Christina was fiercely independent and was not beyond going against the Doctor's wishes. She was an expert thief but only stole things for the adrenaline rush. She was bored by her aristocratic life and sometimes showed a high opinion of herself. She also used her obvious charms and good looks to win people over, sometimes for selfish reasons. She showed great enthusiasm for joining the Doctor on his travels, but quickly forgave him when he refused. She could also speak French fluently, which amused the Doctor. She had an untrustworthy streak in her; she ws seen abandoning her partner in crime (who is possibly also her lover) when he was caught by guards during her escape from the museum. (DW: Planet of the Dead)

Equipment

• Winch
• Hammer
• Axe
• Spade
• Maneki Neko (calling card)
• Torch/ Flashlight

Behind the scenes

• For a time in 2009 press speculation held that this character was going to be the first companion of the Eleventh Doctor. This rumor was put to rest after the casting of Karen Gillan as Amy Pond.
• The precise manner in which the Doctor rejects Christina as a companion is interesting because it doesn't have much precedence in the history of televised Doctor Who. There have been times, as with Ian, Barbara, and Leela, when the Doctor has verbally rejected a companion, but been physically unable to stop their entry into the TARDIS. The Eleventh Doctor also verbally forebade Nasreen Chaudhry to visit the Silurian city once, but was soon convinced to let her. There have been other times, as with Jack Harkness and Adam Mitchell, when a companion has been invited at one point, but then specifically denied at another. There have been several occasions in which permission was neither given nor sought, as with the stowaways Steven Taylor, Zoe Heriot, Sarah Jane Smith, and Adric. There have also been some guest-starring characters, such as H. G. Wells and Vincent van Gogh, who have been for a trip in the TARDIS, asked to stay on board, and been denied. But what Christina does is different. She asks for initial entry into the TARDIS for the purpose of indefinite travel with the Doctor, and is denied. The only other televised character that could be said to share this distinction is Bayldon Copper, though the reason for Copper's denial was more of a personal one than moral. The two characters also share the distinction of never having set foot inside the TARDIS, even once.
• The character of Christina bears some similarities to that of Raine Creevy, a proposed companion for the aborted Season 27 of Doctor Who, which would have aired in 1990 and starred Sylvester McCoy. Raine would also have been an experienced cat burglar. Though not an actual member of the nobility like Christina, Raine was pitched as being sophisticated in her manner.
• The first Time Lord Companion who was a female cat burglar introduced while climbing into a museum's skylight and hanging over a gold artifact was Tamara Carlina "T. C." or "Tabby" Fellowes, in the short story "Tabby Cats And Time Lords" by Guy W. McLimore, Jr., beginning on page 18 of the 1985 FASA "Doctor Who Role-Playing Game Players Manual." She was the example used for character creation and play in the game. She became the human Companion of the example Time Lord character, Alis tana thcalebiviteth of the Arcalian College, AKA "Stan." Like Lady Christine, she was very acrobatic, quick-witted, stubborn, and claimed to be stealing for her father's sake. However, her father was a cat burglar himself, and she did not claim to be noble. She was also a redhead.