Jo Grant
Josephine ("Jo") Jones (née Grant), was a civilian employee of UNIT and a companion to the Third Doctor. The Brigadier decided that Jo could serve as the the Third Doctor's research assistant during his exile on Earth.
Biography
Early life
Jo was born in 1951 or 1952 (SJA: Death of the Doctor). She took an A-Level in science, though she apparently did not pass. Nevertheless, she was accepted into employment at UNIT largely because of the influence of her uncle, who had a connection to the United Nations. (DW: Terror of the Autons)
Life with the Doctor
Jo met the Doctor when the Master was using the Nestene Consciousness to conquer Earth. Though the Doctor initially rejected Jo as scientifically incompetent, the Brigadier was correct in his assertion that what the Doctor needed was "someone to pass you your test tubes and tell you how brilliant you are". Jo proved her worth to him, though, and she and the Doctor quickly became almost inseparable. (DW: Terror of the Autons)
One particular evening, Jo was dressed up, ready for a night on the town with Captain Mike Yates. Her outfit proved to be fortunate when the Doctor and she landed on the planet Peladon. Jo was introduced as an Earth princess and she was dressed appropriately. Only those of royal blood were allowed in the conference chamber. King Peladon was smitten, and later proposed marriage. In the time she and the Doctor were on Peladon, Jo grew to like the King, but decided that she really must return to her own planet. (DW: The Curse of Peladon)
Jo helped the Solonians in their persecution. She alerted the crew of the Hyperion as to the Marshal of Solos' misdoings. (DW: The Mutants)
Jo learnt well with the Doctor. When he was unwilling to complete the time ram, she completed the action. She realised why the Doctor was reluctant, but saw the risk of not completing it. (DW: The Time Monster)
She was also one of the first people to witness a meeting between different incarnations of the Doctor. At the conclusion of the adventure in which this took place, as thanks to him, the Time Lords rescinded the Doctor's exile on Earth (DW: The Three Doctors). By the time of her next meeting with the Master, she learnt to resist his direct attempts at hypnotism. (DW: Frontier in Space)
Departure
While the Third Doctor had gone to visit Metebelis III without her, Jo arrived in the Welsh village of Llanfairfach to meet with the activist and mycologist Professor Clifford Jones, who she much admired from afar. Cliff lived at Wholeweal, an alternative community, where he pursued his studies of mushrooms. Jo's show of independence had caused the Doctor to behave in a rather childish and hurt manner. (DW: The Green Death)
In the short time that UNIT were in Llanfairfach, Jo and Cliff fell in love. He reminded her of a younger version of the Doctor. Jo agreed to marry him and left UNIT. The Doctor was devastated about Jo's departure, drinking his champagne in one gulp and left on his own after giving Jo a blue crystal from Metebelis III. Before Jo and Cliff left for the Amazon, she asked her uncle to get UN status for Wholeweal. (DW: The Green Death)
Later life
A few months later, the couple, who were already on their trip up the Amazon River, returned the crystal by mail, as the expedition felt it brought them bad luck. (DW: Planet of the Spiders) Jo later tried to call the the Third Doctor at UNIT to keep in touch, but was told he had left. Jo waited to see the Doctor again, but he never came. Jo lived with the Nambikwara tribe in Mato Grosso, Brazil for six months in 1983. The Doctor was aware of incidents where she lived in huts, climbed up trees, tore down barricades, flew kites on Mount Kilimanjaro and sailed down the Yangtze River in a tea chest. (SJA: Death of the Doctor)
There are two conflicting accounts of the Joneses' life after their last contact with the Doctor. One states that they had a son named Matthew and became estranged by the 1990s (EDA: Genocide).
Another presented them as still happily married as of the late 2000s. (BFA: The Doll of Death) A later account showed Jo and Cliff still married with seven children, twelve grandchildren and expecting a thirteenth. The Joneses led a life of environmental and political activism, including an incident in which Jo handcuffed herself to Robert Mugabe. (SJA: Death of the Doctor)
Reunions with the Doctor and meeting Sarah Jane Smith
Jo was told of the Doctor's death. She brought her grandson Santiago with her to the funeral at UNIT Base 5. There, she met and bonded with Sarah Jane Smith, another former companion of the Doctor. She displayed some sadness at learning that the Doctor had returned to visit Sarah, but never had visited Jo after she left. Both doubting that the Doctor was truly dead, they found that the Doctor had not died, but had instead been stranded on a deserted planet by the Shansheeth. Although knowing from her past experiences that the Doctor was capable of changing his appearance, she was initially taken aback to see how young he now appeared. To her surprise, she learned that the Doctor had indeed kept track of her adventures in life, even though her constant "on the move" lifestyle had made it difficult for the TARDIS to pinpoint her. Reunited with the Doctor at last, Jo and Sarah Jane, stopped the Shansheeth from stealing his TARDIS. Jo and Santioago set off to travel to Norway by hovercraft. (SJA: Death of the Doctor)
In Christmas 2010, Jo encountered an alien narrator called Huxley from Verbatim Six, who believed her past adventures had been as the companion of Iris Wildthyme, a different Time Lord. To work out the truth, Jo and Iris travelled back to the 1970s. After finding the truth from the the Third Doctor, Jo and Iris set off to have adventures of their own. (CC: Find and Replace)
Death
According to one account, Jo died in a house fire in 2028 aged 77. (ST: Carpenter/Butterfly/Baronet)
Personality
Jo's first meeting with the Third Doctor didn't bode well for the future, as she mistook an important experiment for an accidental fire and ruined it by dousing it with a fire extinguisher. This earned her the Doctor's wrath. Despite this initial clumsiness, her failures fueled her enthusiasm, and she was determined to prove people wrong about her. When, for example, she recovered from the Master's hypnosis, she disobeyed orders and followed the Doctor to Luigi Rossini's Circus. There, she proved her competence by rescuing the Doctor. Having been hypnotised by the Master once, Jo was able to resist his future attempts at hypnosis by reciting nursery rhymes. (DW: Frontier in Space)
Jo claimed to be a qualified agent, but she may have exaggerated this in the same way she exaggerated her A-Levels. After saying she took an A-Level in Science, she later admitted that "I didn't say I passed." That said, there can be no doubt of Jo's abilities. She could ride a motorbike, use karate, pick locks, abseil, and even pilot a helicopter - all of which came in very useful as the Doctor's assistant. These abilities combined with her enthusiasm proved Jo to be an asset to UNIT.
Jo did not initially believe the Doctor when he said he was a time traveller. For much of her time with him, she thought his tinkering with bits of TARDIS was pointless. She may have been with the Doctor for as much as a year before she even stepped foot into the TARDIS. She was tentative during her first trip away from Earth. She repeatedly begged to be taken back home before she realised that the Doctor had no ability to do so. After the Doctor coaxed her, she did step out of the TARDIS and into her first adventure on another world. (DW: Colony in Space) Whilst Jo was certainly a member of the team, her individualism made her stand out in UNIT, and her desire to follow her own instincts and speak her mind made her and the Doctor close. Near the end of her time with UNIT, Jo told the Brigadier that she was going to Llanfairfach even if it meant resigning. (DW: The Green Death)
Despite being told of the Doctor's ability to regenerate, she was sceptical when meeting his Eleventh incarantion during the faux funeral the Shansheeth performed for him. She came to accept the Doctor's new form after confirming all that he knew was what "her" Doctor had told and knew about her. (SJA: Death of the Doctor)
Jo accepted a gun when it was offered to her, even after the Doctor declined it. (EDA: The Eight Doctors)
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