Diana Goddard

Diana Goddard
Species:	Human
Job:	Personal assistant
Affiliated with:	GeoComTex
Place of origin:	United States
Appearance:	Dalek
Main actor:	Anna-Louise Plowman

For a gallery of images depicting Diana Goddard, see Diana Goddard/Gallery.

Diana Goddard (usually just called Goddard) was the highly efficient and ruthless personal assistant to Henry van Statten. Over the course of just one day in 2012, her career path went from replacing the old assistant to taking over GeoComTex, van Statten's company. Another account suggested she was actually an undercover FBI agent.

Biography

According to one account, Diana was an undercover federal agent. She joined the FBI are being inspired by her dead father, who been a cop, and excelling in her exams. She was initially just undercover at Henry Van Statten’s Vault as a guard however, after taking a liking to her when she accompanied him to golf with the President, Van Statten decided to promote her to his Chief of Staff. (PROSE: Dalek)

Goddard informed Van Statten on his return to the Vault that two intruders had been captured and contacted Simmons to ask if he had got the Metaltron talking. She was by Van Statten’s side as he interrogated the Ninth Doctor and Rose and when he was responding to the escape of the Metaltron and the ensuing battle. (TV: Dalek) When Van Statten held the Doctor at gunpoint following a failed ambush, Goddard revealed her true loyalties and pulled a gun on him too, placing him under arrest. Both lowered their weapons when the Dalek appeared on a monitor demanding to speak with the Doctor. (PROSE: Dalek)

After the Doctor and Rose Tyler had destroyed the Dalek let loose in the Vault, Goddard orchestrated a corporate palace coup of sorts and took over from van Statten, demonstrating her ruthlessness by ordering his memory erased and her former boss dumped on a street corner in some city starting with the letter "S". (TV: Dalek) Another account claimed Van Statten erased his own memory, and Goddard simply arranged to take care of him in the state of mental infancy he was left in. (PROSE: Dalek) She subsequently arranged for the Vault to be filled with cement. (TV: Dalek)

Personality and traits

Whilst undercover, (PROSE: Dalek) Diana Goddard appeared a ruthless, highly efficient and cold-blooded businesswoman. She was also not afraid to voice her opinion or stand up to her boss, earning her a degree of respect from him. Even when confronted by a Dalek that had exterminated 200 people, she remained calm and did not panic. The only exception to this was when the Dalek drained power from the base and seven states in the US, where she lost some of her cool. When Van Statten revealed his opinion that his personnel were "dispensable", she was horrified, even more so when the Dalek killed most of the base's personnel that tried to stop it. When she initiated a hostile takeover of GeoComTex, she ordered her boss' memory wiped and him dumped in a city starting with the letter "S" with a satisfied smile on her face. She also understood the dangers of the alien technology contained within the Vault, ordering the place sealed with cement to stop it from falling into the wrong hands and erasing it from existence. (TV: Dalek)

In truth Goddard was dedicated to making the world a better place in memory of her father and was uncomfortable with being undercover for Van Statten. (PROSE: Dalek)

Behind the scenes

• In the online game The Last Dalek, which presents an alternate version of the events of Dalek, Diana Goddard does not appear, but she has an entry in the Dalek's memory files. She is described as; "Female subject. Age 25. American. Working her way to Van Statten's upper ranks. Calculating and professional."
• Dalek writer Rob Shearman named Goddard after his wife Jane Goddard, who acted in Jubilee (on which Dalek was based), as an in-joke.