Petronella Osgood
Petronella Osgood was a scientist who worked for UNIT, acting in a capacity of a personal assistant to Kate Stewart, in the early 21st century.
An admirer of the Doctor, she eventually met the Time Lord during the infiltration of UNIT by Zygon invaders, which was resolved by the Eleventh Doctor joined by his tenth and war incarnations. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)
The original Osgood and her Zygon double became indistinguishable from each other to everyone else. They refused to identify which of them was Zygon and which was human. (TV: The Zygon Invasion) One of them was killed by Missy. (TV: Death in Heaven) After a Zygon rebellion was ended peacefully, the Zygon rebel leader Bonnie took on the form of Osgood to maintain the peace. Both Osgoods still refused to identify if she was the human or Zygon version but promised to identify if she was human or Zygon one day when no one would care anymore. (TV The Zygon Inversion)
Biography
Osgood came from a family of science geeks. (AUDIO: Earthfall) She was recruited into UNIT because of family connections. (AUDIO: Power Cell) She had a sister. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)
Joining UNIT
Osgood often created pieces of technology to aid in UNIT's missions, often to stop the soldiers from shooting at aliens, much to Kate Stewart's delight. She tracked a set of energy units falling to Earth and warned Shindi about it. (AUDIO: Vanguard) Together with Lieutenant Sam Bishop, she was deployed to the Gobi Desert in Mongolia in search of a Nestene energy unit. She had created a holographic image projector from alien technology. (AUDIO: Earthfall) She tried to examine the energy unit using all the techniques she could think of. Kate also her to examine one of the 3D printers. When the Nestene escaped the energy unit she discovered that the Nestene could combine through the internet. (AUDIO: Bridgehead) She created a new weapon to destroy the Autons. She was able to free Captain Josh Carter from Nestene control. (AUDIO: Armageddon)
Meeting the Doctor
She was present when the Eleventh Doctor's TARDIS, along with both the Doctor and Clara Oswald, were brought to HQ in an effort to understand what had happened to several paintings in the Under-Gallery. The Doctor took a liking to her long multi-coloured scarf, which was strikingly similar to one he wore in his fourth incarnation. She displayed a type of hero-worship belief in the Doctor, twice "praying" to him to save her during moments of danger.
On the Doctor's orders, she and fellow scientist McGillop analysed the stone dust in the undergallery under the National Gallery, and it was Osgood who realised the dust was the smashed remains of the statues that had previously occupied the space. She then realised with horror that their places had been taken over by the Zygons that had escaped from the paintings. She was able to escape from them, although she was duplicated by one of their number before she got away.
She was asthmatic, and often forgot to use her inhaler when needed, especially when over-excited, often being reminded by Kate when she started wheezing. The Zygon who took her form disliked this, annoyed at "getting one with a defect," and promptly took her inhaler. When she escaped from this Zygon by tripping it with her scarf, she reclaimed her inhaler.
Osgood was in the Black Archive with her Zygon version when Kate threatened to destroy London, rather than let the alien technology in the archive fall into Zygon hands. Like the other humans and Zygons in the room, her memory was temporarily cleared by three incarnations of the Doctor, so that she could not recall whether she was the real Osgood or her Zygon duplicate. As peace talks ensued, she realised who the real Osgood was when the Zygon duplicate began wheezing and did not have the inhaler. She gave it to the Zygon version, and both Osgoods agreed to keep their discovery a secret so as not to disrupt the peace talks. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)
Tengobushi Incident
After going to a pub quiz with Jay Roy, she was tasked working out which pieces of UNIT property Lyme Industries had managed to get their hands on. She later asked Jay to help her in her work in order to work out what was kidnapping people. She started to show Jay the ropes but didn't get too far when a Tengobushi attacked. Jay decided to protect her and detonatd a bomb in her flat killing himself in the process. (AUDIO: Power Cell)
When she went to Geneva she decided to visit local Galleries, and she was followed and attacked by Dokan. She later went with Kate and Grant Avery to investigate a set of murders on a French mountainside. Going back to Geneva to analyse some secretions but was attacked by the Tengabushi but was save by Josh. She realised that the Tengabushi wanted her for her knowledge of an Alien artefact and used this to get into their ship. (AUDIO: Death in Geneva)
She and Kate had to fly their plane after the Tengobushi killed the pilots. She then investigated the Kamishi energy cell in the surroundings of the Black Archive. As part of her experiments she accidentally released some power that caused some earth tremors. After the Tengobushi released a energy barrier around the Tower, she released the Raven's to observe their advance. During the attack she was trapped in the Archive, Josh managed to get her away but managed to get her first to the Jewellery room and then to command centre. She managed to work out how to use the energy cell, and weaponised it to aid their escape. (AUDIO: The Battle of the Tower)
When they were under lock and key under Peter Latcham's orders in UNIT's base under the Rock of Gibraltar, she managed to hack into the bases computer to get their release. Whilst at Lyme's base in Antarctica she worked out a way to destroy the generator and destroyed it with the help of Dokan. The Kamishi questioned her about her actions. (AUDIO: Ice Station Alpha)
Investigating the Silence
She received a panicked call from Colonel Shindi who detected something near Helena Faversham's residence. When she was tracking the Silents she kept forgetting the positive readings. She was attacked by the Silents but soon forgot. She then question Faversham using a truth serum. (AUDIO: House of Silents)
She was working on a universal translator which could understand Axon and Sontaran. She helped Bishop to discover what happened at the Faversham estate. She later worked out a simplistic way of remembering the Silents, by writing stuff down. Investigating the people that went to Faversham's home, She started with the ones closest to her but the all disappeared. She and Bishop tracked Derek Butler but he as snatched from under her nose. She then looked through all the videos the people she was looking for had made and found subliminal messages to get the UK population to trust Kenneth LeBlanc. (AUDIO: Square One)
A month later she had to brief the rest of UNIT about her solution to getting the rest to remember the Silents. She had created a pair of sunglasses which had 360 degree cameras which could give them all views of the Silents. She called the Silents "Edvard". After she stole Carter's laptop, using the same techniques the Silents used, she found a large order of guns and explosives he had ordered. She also used it on Heston to find out where he had taken the things Josh ordered. She then tried to stop Josh from killing LeBlanc but couldn't so knocked him out. (AUDIO: Silent Majority)
She went with Bishop to the UNIT satellite to fix something on there, but they were knocked unconscious upon arrival. She started to explore the space station and found a Silent on-board. They were being controlled by the Silents and exposed the spy satellites of all the governments of the world. She tried to get the Telokni ship to stop shooting them but couldn't and had to escape. (AUDIO: In Memory Alone)
The two Osgoods
The two Osgoods created Operation Double, where a group of 20 million Zygons would be allowed to live on Earth and take on the form of the nearest person they could find. The treaty could only be maintained if both humans and Zygons agreed to live among each other in peace, and that no harm would come to anyone. They were given a device called the Osgood Box by the Doctor, to be used only in a dire emergency. (TV: The Zygon Invasion)
In 2014, Osgood was sent to Bonnybridge to investigate another U.F.O. sighting in the area. Because of this, she missed the first known interaction between the Twelfth Doctor and UNIT as well as the Fractures' attack on London. (COMIC: The Fractures)
After Missy began to deploy her Cyberman army across the world, Osgood confronted and secured her. She was stationed near Missy during her captivity aboard Boat One, who told Osgood: "I'm going to kill you in a minute," calling it their "secret girl plan". Missy proceeded to count down to Osgood's death, tormenting her after each number. She then escaped her handcuffs, killed her guards and grabbed hold of Osgood. Despite claiming to be more useful to Missy alive, Osgood was vaporised, with only her glasses remaining intact until Missy crushed them under her heel. The Twelfth Doctor later discovered them, crushed on the ground, and realised that Missy had murdered her. (TV: Death in Heaven)
After the death of one of the Osgoods, the other one refused to state whether she was the Zygon or the human. She became a target of a revolt from a rogue group of Zygons who believed they had been betrayed. (TV: The Zygon Invasion)
After the Doctor convinced Bonnie, the leader of the Zygon revolt, to stop her plan, Bonnie also assumed Osgood's form and acted as the second protector of Earth alongside the other surviving Osgood. She felt that they were a credit to both humans and Zygons and planned to take on the role of protecting the Earth from threats. (TV: The Zygon Inversion)
In September 2015, the two Osgoods watched prime minister Daniel Claremont's speech on global warming at Ravenscaur School with Kate Stewart in the Tower of London. After Claremont was revealed to be a Sea Devil during the speech, the Osgoods recommended that Kate call the Doctor. The Twelfth Doctor was already there and he defeated the Sea Devils without UNIT. (COMIC: Clara Oswald and the School of Death)
In early 2016, Osgood was in London when it was attacked by K2. She called the Twelfth Doctor and he took her into his TARDIS. They materalised above the London Eye as it was attacked by the robot. The Doctor used his sonic screwdriver to destroy K2, but he fell out of the TARDIS. Osgood saved him by throwing her scarf out of the TARDIS for the Doctor to catch. (COMIC: Robo Rampage)
Personality
Osgood was a "fan" of the Doctor. (TV: The Zygon Inversion) When asked by the Twelfth Doctor if she would like to travel with him, she was so excited that she had to use her inhaler. (TV: Death in Heaven) Osgood would become sad if she learned she missed a chance to see the Doctor; one of her fellow scientists even stated she would be disheartened to learn the Doctor had regenerated again after she had just started mimicking his previous self's fashion. (COMIC: The Fractures)
Osgood was also very intelligent. She alone was able to work out the reason why the Zygons smashed the statues in the Under-Gallery. (TV: The Day of the Doctor) She also surprised the Twelfth Doctor by guessing correctly that Missy was the Master regenerated into female form: UNIT kept files on all past Prime Ministers, including the Master. (TV: Death in Heaven) She also could come up with a plan for invading Earth by killing the Doctor, by shooting him between the eyes for each regeneration, never allowing him to talk. (TV: The Zygon Inversion)
She managed to figure out whether she or her Zygon doppelganger was the real Osgood after the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors, joined by the War Doctor, jumbled their minds, making them unable to determine their own species, in an attempt to facilitate negotiation of the ultimate peace treaty. She managed to determine this as her Zygon counterpart suffered an asthma attack, motivating her to pass her asthma inhaler to the other Osgood. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)
Osgood had a sister to whom she negatively compared herself. (TV: The Day of the Doctor) Missy understood that she had little confidence in herself. Osgood was able to keep her cool, even when faced with the threat of death from Missy and tried to reason her way out. (TV: Death in Heaven)
Appearance
Osgood dressed according to the Doctor's fashion senses from various incarnations, choosing to wear a similar scarf to that worn by the Fourth Doctor. (TV: The Day of the Doctor, COMIC: Robo Rampage) She later wore trainers similar to those worn by the Tenth Doctor and a bow-tie similar to that worn by the Eleventh Doctor. (TV: Death in Heaven) She also wore a shirt with question marks on the collars, like the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Doctors, and a cardigan similar to the Seventh Doctor's. (TV: The Zygon Invasion)
Behind the scenes
- On 24 July 2014, Ingrid Oliver appeared in character as Osgood in a video thanking fans for helping the official Doctor Who Twitter account reach one million followers.
- In DWM 484 Steven Moffat admitted his intention when writing was for Osgood to be the daughter of UNIT soldier Tom Osgood. However, he did not want to state this definitively in the script so fans were able to have their own interpretations. In the audio story Power Cell, Osgood responds to the suggestion that she had an "uncle who used to run around shooting aliens" by saying "Something like that". This is consistent with both the theory that Tom Osgood is Osgood's father and with the lack of definitive confirmation.
- Osgood appears as a background character in the London scene and the hidden Black Archives location in the Doctor Who level pack in LEGO Dimensions.
- Osgood was dubbed in German by voice actor Ghadah Al-Akel.
