Mi-Jung Kanaka
Mi-Jung Kanaka was a news anchor of Japanese descent (PROSE: The Novel of the Film) who reported for the San Francisco television channel KKBE in the 1990s. (TV: Doctor Who)
Biography
In 1997 she delivered a news report for KKBE 7 nightly news on the murder of Senator Daniel Ben-Zvi and its possible connection to the Noe Valley vampire murders the previous year. Carolyn McConnell, who had great interest in vampires due to a previous encounter with one in 1976 witnessed the report. When Carolyn sought out Kanaka the following morning to ask questions about the murder Kanaka spoke with her, despite thinking she shouldn't do so. She told Carolyn that an army general, Adrienne Kramer of UNIT came to ask questions about the incident. Kramer held her up for an hour with questions but did not take any action to block further broadcasts. Kanaka also revealed to Carolyn that she had seen six dead bodies in her time as a reporter, and Ben-Zvi was the sixth. His death was peculiar to her because he bled to death through an opened vein in his leg, but there was no blood. The exsanguination bolstered Carolyn's vampire theories, and Kanaka ask her to share any details if she had anything to add to the story. (PROSE: Vampire Science)
Kanaka continued working as a KKBE news anchor for over two years after the murder of Ben-Zvi. On New Year's Eve 1999 the Eighth Doctor witnessed her give a report for KKBE with fellow news anchor Joanna on the strange weather phenomena, including floods in Russia and snow in Hawaii, (TV: Doctor Who) dubbed "The Millennium Effect".(PROSE: The Novel of the Film) Kanaka also reported that a beryllium atomic clock was going to be unveiled at the Institute for Technological Advancement and Research. Unbeknownst to her, the freak weather patterns were the result of the Eye of Harmony having been opened by the Bruce Master inside the Doctor's TARDIS. (TV: Doctor Who)
Behind the scenes
Mi-Jung Kanaka was portrayed in the 1996 television movie Doctor Who by Mi-Jung Lee, a real journalist and news anchor in Vancouver, Canada who has acted has a news anchor in many other television and film roles. Although Lee was listed only as "News Anchor" in the film's credits, the character was given the name of Mi-Jung Kanaka in Gary Russell's novelisation of the film.
