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Josephine "Jo" Jones (née Grant), known simply as Jo, was placed in UNIT, against the Brigadier's wishes, by her uncle, General Hobson, a high-ranking official in the United Nations. The Brigadier decided that Jo could replace Liz Shaw, who had returned to Cambridge, as the Doctor's research assistant. Secretly hoping that the Doctor's attitude would put Jo off UNIT, the Brigadier told the Doctor that Jo would be an admirable assistant.
Biography
Early life
Jo, who was born in 1951 or 1952 (SJA: Death of the Doctor), had taken an A-Level in Science, but did not pass. (DW: Terror of the Autons)
Life with the Doctor
Jo's first meeting with the Doctor didn't bode well for the future, as she mistook an important experiment for an accidental fire. She ruined it by dousing it with a fire extinguisher, which earned her the Doctor's wrath. Despite this initial clumsiness, her failures fueled her enthusiasm, and she became more 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 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 hypnosis on further encounters by reciting nursery rhymes (DW: Frontier in Space). One such time, she reacted to the hypno-sound by seeing a Drashig, a Mutant and a Sea Devil.
Jo claimed to be a qualified agent, but she may have exaggerated about this, in the same way she exaggerated the extent of her A-Levels. After saying she took an A-Level in Science, she later revealed that "I didn't say I passed." That said, there can be no doubt of Jo's escapology abilities. She could ride a motorbike, use karate, pick locks, abseil, and even pilot a helicopter - all of which came in very useful during her time 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 a substantial period of her time with him, she thought his tinkering with bits of TARDIS was pointless. In fact, she may have been with the Doctor for as much as a year before she even stepped foot into the TARDIS. When she finally did, the Doctor discovered that Jo was not a particularly natural time traveller. In contrast with modern companions like Martha and Rose, she was extremely tentative during her first trip away from Earth. She repeatedly begged to be taken back home, before she realized that the Doctor had little ability to grant her wish. After the Doctor coaxed her, she did eventually step out of the TARDIS and into her first adventure on another world. (DW: Colony in Space) Jo's initial timorousness was eventually replaced by a more matter-of-fact approach to space travel.
On one particular evening Jo was dressed up ready for a night on the town with Captain Mike Yates, which proved to be fortunate as she and the Doctor landed on the planet of Peladon. The Doctor was mistaken for the Earth chairman of the committee assessing Peladon's application to join the Galactic Federation. Jo was introduced as an Earth Princess, as she was dressed in an appropriate manner - and only those of Royal blood were allowed to enter the conference chamber. King Peladon was smitten, and later proposed marriage, but Jo wasn't impressed. Over the time she and the Doctor were on Peladon, Jo did grow to like the King, but decided that she really must return to her own planet.
Once the Doctor regained his knowledge of time travel, Jo was persuaded to take a short trip in the TARDIS, and she subsequently took many more trips with little persuasion.
Jo learnt well with the Doctor, and when he was unwilling to complete the Time Ram, it was she who finished the action. She realised why the Doctor was reluctant, but saw the potential outcome of not completing it. (DW: The Time Monster)
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 brought her and the Doctor close. They were both very different from the norm in UNIT. Nearing the end of her time with UNIT, Jo told the Brigadier that she was going to Llanfairfach even if it meant resigning. Ironically he had orders for her to go there anyway, so her threats were unnecessary. (DW: The Green Death)
Departure
Once Jo arrived in Llanfairfach, she met Professor Clifford Jones. She was already aware of him, having read reports of his work, and ideals, in various newspapers. Jo already admired Cliff before she met him, and as she was telling the Doctor about him she said that he reminded her of a younger version of the Doctor. Over the short time that UNIT were in Llanfairfach, Jo and Cliff fell in love. Jo agreed to marry him and left UNIT. This came as something of a disappointment to Mike Yates, who had always hoped to be involved romantically with Jo, himself. Despite his sadness, Mike did attend Jo and Cliff's celebration party and put on a brave face. The Doctor, on the other hand, was devastated, drank his champagne in one and left on his own after giving Jo a blue crystal from Metebelis III. Before Jo and Cliff left for the Amazon (for what could be described as both a research trip and their honeymoon), she asked her uncle to get UN status for the Wholeweal community. (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 to the Doctor via mail, as they felt it was bringing them bad luck. (DW: Planet of the Spiders) When they came to a village in Cristalino with a phone, Jo called the Doctor at UNIT to say 'hello', but she was told that he had already left. Jo waited to see the Doctor again, but he never came. Jo later lived with the Nambikwara tribe in Mato Grosso, Brazil for six months in 1983. Although he could never come back, 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 from one another by the 1990s (EDA: Genocide) and another presented them as still happily married as of the late 2000s. (BFA: The Doll of Death) Another account also showed Jo and Cliff to still be married with seven children and twelve grandchildren (and, by late 2010, expecting a thirteenth). The Joneses led a life of environmental and political activism, including an incident where Jo handcuffed herself to Robert Mugabe. (SJA: Death of the Doctor)
Reunion with the Doctor
Jo was later informed of the apparant death of the Doctor, and brought her grandson Santiago with her to the funeral at UNIT Base 5. There, she met Sarah Jane Smith, another former companion of the Doctor. Although initially dismayed at the fact that Sarah Jane had encountered the Doctor several times since they parted ways (in contrast to herself), Jo enjoyed reminiscing with her. The two, not believing that the Doctor was dead, intended to investigate the Shansheeth, who were the funeral directors. During this time, the Doctor used the residual Artron energy in Clyde Langer's hand to switch places with him. After warmly greeting Jo and the others, the Doctor confronted one of the Shansheeth, who struck him down with an energy beam as the Jo and the others looked on.
The Doctor escaped by switching places with Clyde once more, and then again, taking and Jo and Sarah Jane with him to a barren planet, needing their help to complete a device to transport him back to Earth without switching with Clyde. During this time, Jo asked the Doctor why he never came to see her again, The Doctor replied that she had moved around too much in her life for him to track down, but also told her that he had recently visited her, along with all his old comapanions, and that he was proud that she had lived such a happy life. On their return to Earth, Jo and Sarah Jane were captured by the Shansheeth and placed into a Memory Weave, intended to extract their memories of the TARDIS key and make it real. The Doctor instructed Jo and Sarah Jane to think of all their memories of their time with him. The memories overloaded the Weave, and the machine exploded. Jo and Sarah Jane survived by hiding in the lead-lined coffin that had supposedly held the Doctor's body. Jo entered the TARDIS one last time, as it took them to Sarah Jane's house. Once there, she said goodbye first to the Doctor, and then to Sarah Jane and her friends. (SJA: Death of the Doctor)
In Christmas 2010, Jo would run into an alien narrator 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 Doctor, Jo and Iris set off to have adventures of their own. (BFA: Find and Replace)
Death
Jo died in a house fire in 2028. (ST: Carpenter/Butterfly/Baronet)