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Elizabeth "Liz" Shaw was a civilian member of UNIT. She was a companion of the Third Doctor during the latter's exile on Earth by the Time Lords.
Biography
Liz was the daughter of Reuben Shaw (1919-1995). (BBV: Ghosts of Winterborne)
Education
She was an accomplished scientist and an expert on meteorites. She also had degrees in several disciplines, including physics and medicine. (DW: Spearhead from Space)
Experiences with UNIT
Recruitment
Liz was drafted from the University of Cambridge by Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart as a scientific advisor to UNIT. (Lethbridge-Stewart did not know at that time that the Doctor had arrived on Earth and could ably serve as UNIT's scientific advisor.) Skeptical at first of UNIT's remit to defend the Earth against alien invasions, she changed her mind when she encountered the newly-regenerated Doctor and became involved in defeating the plans of the Nestene Consciousness and its animated plastic servants, the Autons. (DW: Spearhead from Space)
Career with UNIT
Liz continued to work with the Doctor and UNIT through encounters with the Silurians (DW: Doctor Who and the Silurians), Cybermen (CC: The Blue Tooth), the rogue General Carrington (DW: The Ambassadors of Death) and the Inferno Project. On a fascist version of his own Earth, the Doctor would meet a parallel version of Liz, known as Section Leader Elizabeth Shaw, who had joined the military. This version of Liz probably died, along with most of the rest of the other Earth in volcanic explosions. (DW: Inferno)
Liz's extensive training, however, still paled in comparison to the Doctor's own knowledge of the universe and scientific principles far beyond that of Earth's. Eventually, she resigned from UNIT and returned to Cambridge. She reportedly told the Brigadier that all the Doctor really needed was "someone to pass him his test tubes and tell him how brilliant he was." This feeling probably contributed to her decision to return to her own research. (DW: Terror of the Autons)
Continued association
Liz would occasionally return to help them, and assist UNIT and the Doctor. (PDA: The Devil Goblins from Neptune). On one occasion, however, when the Doctor had gone away to Peladon (DW: The Curse of Peladon) and the Brigadier needed her assistance, she could not grant it, as she had gone away on a lecture tour. (PDA: The Face of the Enemy)
A few years after leaving, Liz agreed to a short interview the investigative journalist James Stevens. Though she had some sympathy towards him, Stevens found her a "difficult" subject to interview and warned him about prying too deeply into UNIT affairs. (MA: Who Killed Kennedy)
Liz Shaw was the first official companion to not travel in the Doctor's TARDIS during her time as the Doctor's companion, as her time with the Doctor coincided with his exile to Earth imposed by the Time Lords and the removal of his knowledge of time travel. However she did travel in the TARDIS with the Doctor and her successor, Jo Grant, after the Doctor regained his knowledge. (PDA: The Wages of Sin)
Later career
Decades later, Doctor Shaw worked with the P.R.O.B.E. (the Preternatural Research Bureau), a paranormal investigation organisation not unlike UNIT or the Torchwood Institute. (BBV: The Zero Imperative) She eventually returned to working with UNIT.
Liz Shaw was still alive by 2010, but was unable to attend the Doctor's funeral as she was on the UNIT moonbase. (SJA: Death of the Doctor)
Alternate versions
As noted above, in one timeline, Liz worked under Brigade Leader Lethbridge-Stewart as Section Leader Elizabeth Shaw. (DW: Inferno) In another, following the Death of that timeline's version of the Doctor, she just managed to survive into the early 1990s on an Earth devastated by the victorious Silurians and their virus. (NA: Blood Heat)
According to some reports, Liz was part of a UNIT team which investigated an artefact left by the alien Cthalctose on the Moon in the year 2003. As a result, she unfortunately contracted Agent Yellow and died. (NA: Eternity Weeps)
Other information
Unconventionally for a woman, Liz Shaw enjoyed smoking from a pipe. (BBV: The Zero Imperative, MA: Who Killed Kennedy) The Doctor gave Liz' UNIT pass to Ace. It was stored in his hat. (DW: Battlefield)
Key Life Events
- Is recruited to UNIT by Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, where she worked alongside the Doctor. (DW: Spearhead from Space)
- Leaves UNIT. (Mentioned DW: Terror of the Autons)
- Works with P.R.O.B.E.
- Comes back to UNIT and works on there moon base (Mentioned SJA: Death of the Doctor)