Trinity Wells
Trinity Wells was an American newsreader. She reported several alien encounters for an American news network known as "AMNN".
Based on her Zodiac sign, Leo, she was born in July or August. In 2009, Wells was briefly taken over when Martin Trueman (possessed by the Ancient Lights) invoked Leo into his circle. (TV: Secrets of the Stars)
During Christmas 2009, she was covering a speech by Barack Obama during which he was supposed to reveal his financial plan to battle a worldwide economic recession. Along with Obama and the rest of the human race, Wells was temporarily transformed into a duplicate of the Saxon Master during the speech. (TV: The End of Time)
The Eleventh Doctor once mentioned never having met Wells in person, but knew that whenever he saw her on the news it was a sure sign there was trouble. (PROSE: The Forgotten Army)
Stories covered
- The 2006 Slitheen crisis in London. (TV: Aliens of London/World War III)
- The Sycorax spaceship flying over London in 2006. (TV: The Christmas Invasion)
- Mr Saxon announcing first contact with a supposed alien race in 2008. (TV: The Sound of Drums)
- Tranducers draining energy from electrical equipment on Earth then drawing energy from everything else including the Sun in 2008. (TV: Revenge of the Slitheen)
- The sezerfine gas emitting from ATMOS-equipped cars in 2009. (TV: The Poison Sky)
- The Earth being moved into the Medusa Cascade. (TV: The Stolen Earth)
- Martin Trueman's enslavement of almost everyone on the planet using the power of the Ancient Lights in 2009. Trinity was herself taken over when Trueman invoked Leo. (TV: Secrets of the Stars)
- The 456's possession of Earth's children and arrival on Earth in 2009. (TV: Children of Earth: Day Three, Children of Earth: Day Four)
- Barack Obama trying to get the Earth out of recession in 2009. (TV: The End of Time)
- The Vykoid's attempted takeover of New York City in 2010. (PROSE: The Forgotten Army)
Alternate realities
In the timeline known as Donna's World, she announced the March of the Adipose in the United States. She survived the events of this timeline. (TV: Turn Left)
Behind the scenes
Name
Trinity Wells was not named on-screen until Turn Left. Before that, there had been much speculation over her name. It was later revealed by Russell T Davies that she was offically unnamed until series 2, when he finally decided to name the recurring character Trinity Wells.
The words "Mal Loup" (aka Bad Wolf) appeared captioning one of her news reports, but seem to be a manifestation of the Bad Wolf meme, as explored in Turn Left, in which the word appears everywhere in many forms.
Other matters
- Trinity Wells is one of only two characters, as well as the only named character, to have appeared in Doctor Who, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures. The other one is the French newsreader, played by Anthony Debaeck.
- Apart from the Tenth Doctor, she is the only other character to have appeared in all of the first four series of Doctor Who from 2005 to 2010.
- Russell T Davies revealed in Doctor Who Confidential that he had originally planned for the Doctor to meet Trinity Wells in the special, but the scene was cut. In Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale, a full script for the scene can be read (in which Trinity reports of the destruction of Broadfell Prison and gives the Doctor information on Joshua Naismith). The reason for the scene being cut, as given in the book, is that Davies considered it to be "indulgent, and also shit."
