A female physics teacher taught at Deffry Vale High School in 2007. Despite never playing the lottery, she was the unexpected winner of a substantial jackpot after a ticket was posted through her door at midnight. (TV: School Reunion [+]Loading...["School Reunion (TV story)"]) The ticket, from the National Lottery Thunder-Millions draw, had been purchased at a corner shop on Tarrant Road and won her just over £11 million. (PROSE: Deffry Vale High School [+]Loading...["Deffry Vale High School (feature)"], The Secret Lives of Monsters [+]Loading...["The Secret Lives of Monsters (short story)"]) Resigning from her job, the teacher purchased a new basket for her Scottish Terrier Padsy and booked herself a Mediterranean cruise. (PROSE: The Secret Lives of Monsters [+]Loading...["The Secret Lives of Monsters (short story)"])
She was replaced by the Tenth Doctor using the alias "John Smith". When Mr Parsons spoke to Smith about the situation, he noted how the physics teacher's departure was "just plain weird" in comparison to the replacement of other members of staff who had had the flu three months earlier. The Doctor simply responded "The world is very strange." (TV: School Reunion [+]Loading...["School Reunion (TV story)"])
Accounts differed as to the teacher's identity. According to the Deffry Vale website, her name was Victoria Mehru and she was 42 years old. The school website also, however, identified the teacher replaced by "John Smith" as Ms Barrat. (PROSE: Deffry Vale High School [+]Loading...["Deffry Vale High School (feature)"]) The Time Lord Letters, a collection of the Doctor's personal correspondence, named the physics teacher as Miss Morrison. (PROSE: The Time Lord Letters [+]Loading...["The Time Lord Letters (novel)"]) A newspaper article collected in the book The Secret Lives of Monsters identified the teacher as 37-year-old Lucille Beneluct. (PROSE: The Secret Lives of Monsters [+]Loading...["The Secret Lives of Monsters (short story)"])
Behind the scenes[[edit]]
The name used for the physics teacher in the released shooting script for School Reunion was "Mrs Mehru",[1] indicating that Victoria Mehru was the originally intended name for the teacher. As this ultimately never made it into the final episode, several discrepancies are present in later sources regarding the teacher's identity.