Dodo Chaplet
Dorothea Anne Chaplet, also known as Dodo, was a companion of the First Doctor.
When she first met the Doctor in 1965, Dodo had lost her mother and father and was living unhappily with her great-aunt. At sixteen years old, she mistook the TARDIS for a police box and joined the Doctor and Steven Taylor on their travels, outstaying Steven and eventually choosing to remain in London in 1966 after a period of conditioning by WOTAN.
Accounts differed on Dodo's life after leaving the Doctor. Whilst one said that she spent her life in psychiatric hospitals before falling in love with James Stevens and being murdered, others agreed that she lived past the 1970s.
Biography
Childhood
Dorothea Anne Chaplet, (PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy) also known as "Dorry" when she was a child, was born in 1949. (PROSE: Salvation) Her grandfather was French (TV: The Massacre) and, for a school project, she researched her family tree, finding evidence that she was descended from Huguenots who left France to escape persecution. (PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy) Steven Taylor would later speculate that she was a descendant of Anne Chaplet (TV: The Massacre) who, according to one account, fled to Picardy with her brother, Raoul, to avoid the St Bartholomew's Day massacre. (PROSE: The Massacre)
Whilst one account had Dorothea claiming to be born in one of the poorest parts of London, (PROSE: The Man in the Velvet Mask) others agreed that she came from north of the capital city, (PROSE: Salvation; AUDIO: The Incherton Incident) with one specifying Yorkshire (AUDIO: The Incherton Incident) and another mentioning that she had family in North Yorkshire. (AUDIO: The Miniaturist) The family lived near a man who suffered from shell shock because of World War II. (AUDIO: The Incherton Incident) Her mother told her about Maureen, whom she called "Mole", and said that she and Dorothea had the same ears. (AUDIO: The Miniaturist)
As a child, Dorothea played Mary in a nativity play, stuffing a pillow up her front to look pregnant and riding into Bethlehem on a hobby horse, but had no lines. She played under an oak tree in a park during the summer holidays, once trying to climb it but cutting herself in the attempt, and was banned by her mother from climbing after a boy from another school fell from it. When she was alone at birthday parties, including her own, she would fidget by scratching imaginary itches. (PROSE: The Man in the Velvet Mask)
Dorothea went to a school where her uniform included a beret, gymslip and black stockings. (PROSE: The Celestial Toymaker) As a child, she traced an atlas and pinned it to her bedroom wall, drawing a star to mark that she and her parents had been to Florida, intending to do the same for other places that they would visit in the future. A recurring dream of hers involved flying above the clouds and into a fairy tale land, but the mundanity of her life as she grew up led her to forget about this dream.
The last time that Dorothea saw her mother, her mother was leaving the house in an old Morris Minor. (PROSE: Salvation) Whilst in her living room in her uniform (PROSE: The Celestial Toymaker) circa 1962, (PROSE: Salvation) a man shook his head to let her know that her mother had died, after which she turned away and hid her face as she cried. (PROSE: The Celestial Toymaker) Her dreams in the world on the other side of the Gateway implied that her mother died in a car accident on the way to Dodo's great-aunt Margaret's. (PROSE: Salvation)
Life with Margaret
Dorothea would later claim that she had no parents. (TV: The Massacre) She told Bressac that her father died during her childhood just as her mother did, (PROSE: The Man in the Velvet Mask) but another account indicated that her father was committed to an asylum following her mother's death. (PROSE: Salvation) Without any parents, she moved to live with Margaret, her great-aunt, with whom she did not share a good relationship. (TV: The Massacre) Dorothea took the map of the world that she had traced off of her wall and folded it up before putting it in the bin with only Florida marked. (PROSE: Salvation)
Dorothea switched schools in the middle of the year, moving to a secondary modern school as she was not bright enough for grammar school. She was ridiculed by her classmates and nicknamed "Dodo" for her north-of-London accent, which they thought made her sound stupid. After she had settled in and began to put the loss of her parents behind her, she embraced the nickname and, using the southern accent she developed at elocution lessons her great-aunt made her attend, sought to change its connotations. Margaret insisted on calling her "Dorothea", however, and she became torn between these two identities, (PROSE: Salvation) her accent becoming situational; (PROSE: The Man in the Velvet Mask, Salvation) she would later remark that she had felt like an actor all her life. (PROSE: The Man in the Velvet Mask) Margaret also made her attend church, but Dodo did not pay much attention.
Margaret forbade Dodo from frequenting discotheques, which kept her from being able to completely penetrate "the scene". She was not a good student and had no aspirations to go to university, although Margaret insisted that she study for it. (PROSE: Salvation) She neither spoke nor understood French, largely because she skipped her French lessons in school to learn how to kiss behind the school gymnasium, (PROSE: The Man in the Velvet Mask) and paid no attention in her scripture classes. (PROSE: Bunker Soldiers) She took a first-aid course at school but was not very good at it (PROSE: The Gunfighters) and also learnt a lot about animals and plants, visiting Whipsnade Zoo and later remarking that she knew everything about nature. (TV: The Ark) She played tennis at school and won a county championship. (PROSE: The Ark)
Dodo once owned a snakes and ladders set. (TV: The Celestial Toymaker) She was familiar with Castle Coch in Wales and went to Spain several times, the rain "bucketing" down the final time she went. (PROSE: The Ark) Before joining the First Doctor, she was a virgin, (PROSE: The Man in the Velvet Mask) had never been given flowers before (TV: The Celestial Toymaker) and had never ridden a horse. (AUDIO: The Outlaws) According to one account, she attended a finishing school where she learnt how to play poker. (PROSE: The Gunfighters)
Travels in the TARDIS
Meeting the Doctor
On a Friday the 13th, (PROSE: The Ark) in March 1965, the sixteen-year-old Dodo (PROSE: Salvation) entered the the Doctor's TARDIS on Wimbledon Common, believing it to be a police box, and encountered the First Doctor, claiming that she was after the police as she had witnessed an accident in which a young boy was injured. (TV: The Massacre)
According to one account, Dodo had visited Neville Albert Miller to help with his shopping as usual and was held captive by Joseph, who had accidentally killed Mr Miller and taken his form. Dodo escaped onto the common after Joseph tried to have sex with her and ran to what she believed to be a police box, lying to the Doctor about having seen an accident as she was afraid that she might have run into Joseph's spaceship. (PROSE: Salvation) According to another account, however, Dodo had not been escaping any danger when she met the Doctor. (AUDIO: Conflict Theory)
After Steven Taylor entered the TARDIS and warned the Doctor of approaching policemen, the Doctor dematerialised the ship without giving Dodo a choice. She told Steven that she had no parents and assured him that her great-aunt would not mind if she never returned. (TV: The Massacre)
Early adventures
Dodo's first adventure was in New York City in her present day. She and the Doctor explored the city together and, after the Doctor apologised to her for having taken her from her home, she told him about her parents and Margaret, whom she later called to let her know that she was in New York and that she would be home in time for her exams. After meeting the Latter-Day Pantheon and being arrested by Charles Marchant's soldiers, she told the Doctor about Joseph, who later took her through the Gateway and wanted to marry her. Dodo kissed him on his cheek when he elected to stay in the Land of the Gods and returned to Earth, where she told the Doctor that she wished to travel with him and see Hollywood, Egypt, Paris and Florida.
Dodo was given a bedroom on the TARDIS which she planned to brighten up and asked the Doctor to take her anywhere but home. (PROSE: Salvation) One account indicated that Dodo had several adventures between New York and the Ark, with her becoming familiar with the names of the TARDIS instruments, remarking that she "never liked" materialising, saying that she, the Doctor and Steven "always assume[d]" that the ship would materialise on land and the Doctor saying that he "always told [her]" that time was relative. (PROSE: The Ark)
Dodo went to the wardrobe room and put on a tabard without asking. When the TARDIS materialised on the Ark, she exited before the Doctor could check the readings, a concern that she waved away due to her initial belief that they were in Whipsnade Zoo. She was distraught when she inadvertently passed on her cold to the Guardians and Monoids, causing a plague which infected Steven. Once the Doctor dealt with it, they arrived seven centuries in the future, where Dodo helped the Guardians on Refusis II. (TV: The Ark)
In the Celestial Toyroom, the Toymaker showed Dodo a video of her learning of her mother's death and made her and Steven play his games, including blind man's buff with living dolls, a riddle, hunt the thimble, a dancefloor with Mrs Wiggs and Sergeant Rugg and TARDIS hopscotch with Cyril. In the final game, she was frustrated by Cyril's cheating and was fooled when he pretended to be injured. Back in the TARDIS, she gave the Doctor a sweet (TV: The Celestial Toymaker) which gave him toothache.
Seeking a dentist, the travellers landed in Tombstone, Arizona in 1881, fulfilling Dodo's lifelong wish to meet Wyatt Earp. As Miss Dodo DuPont and Steven Regret, she and Steven were forced by Billy, Ike and Phineas Clanton to play "The Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon" non-stop before she was taken captive by Doc Holliday for a time. Prior to departing, the Doctor said that Dodo had been "fast becoming a prey to every cliché-ridden convention" of the era. (TV: The Gunfighters)
Only a few days after facing the Toymaker, the TARDIS was returned to the Celestial Toyroom where Dodo was made to play musical statues and various Halloween-themed games, including one that she was horrified to find involved real human organs. They managed to escape the Toymaker's game of Murder in the Dark when Dodo played a violin and the Doctor declared that they were once again playing musical statues, confusing him. (PROSE: Murder in the Dark)
In the Himalayas in 1630, Dodo and the Doctor were saved from the Yeti by Oddiyāna, who taught Dodo a peace mantra to soothe them due to her affinity for them. He also told her, when she said that she felt that she ought to stay with the Doctor should Steven remain in Tibet with Pema Tsering, that the Doctor would understand if she decided that she would like to leave the TARDIS and find a new home. When Norbu and his bandits attacked Det-Sen Monastery, Dodo brought the Yeti in the hopes that they would frighten them away, but the bandits did not wish to abandon their loot and many were killed. (AUDIO: The Secrets of Det-Sen)
Dodo, the Doctor and Steven stayed in Russia in 1812 for several months to enjoy a holiday, having not long left Tombstone, and she was hired as Olga Nikitin's companion on the condition that she taught her how to play the piano. She and the Doctor agreed not to tell Steven about the French invasion until after Glasha and Semion Borisovich Stasov's wedding and found him after he was attacked by the Shape Thief. After the Thief took the Doctor's form, Dodo and Steven were separated, but she was reunited with the Doctor and travelled to Moscow where they were reunited with Steven and the TARDIS, which Napoléon Bonaparte had stolen. (AUDIO: Mother Russia)
Steven's last trips
Upon learning that the TARDIS had landed on Steven's birthday, Dodo found a 1967 diary and gave it to him as a present. She immediately befriended Carla Carson on Ulysses 519 and was kidnapped along with the women and children of the colony by the Rocket Men, who intended to sell them as slaves. Dodo briefly managed to get away, but Steven, disguised as a Rocket Man, returned her and allowed her and the others to escape discreetly. She was astounded when Steven told her that he had survived Van Cleef's bullet thanks to the diary that she gave him and was amused when Bill Carson asked him for permission to name the colony after him. (AUDIO: Return of the Rocket Men)
At Dodo's suggestion, the trio visited 1966 London where they investigated the theft of the Jules Rimet Cup. Dodo chased the alien who shoved the cup's base and a ransom note into Steven's hands before he teleported away and, once the cup had been recovered, asked the Doctor if he had known how the cup was supposed to be found after he sent her to buy sausages so that a dog would find it. (AUDIO: This Sporting Life)
On a passenger liner to Bukol, Dodo and Steven were captured and imitated by Orsa and Alëza. Dodo found a hatchway, enabling them to escape their cell, and the two were reunited with the Doctor, later going to a carnival together whilst the Doctor spoke with Yerma. (PROSE: The Golden Door)
Dodo, the Doctor and Steven followed Roztoq to 64 Carlysle Street, where Dodo successfully applied to become a maid. She was instructed in her new duties by Alice Fittle and left with her companions after Roztoq's defeat. (PROSE: 64 Carlysle Street)
In 1240 Kyiv, Dodo befriended Lesia and visited Steven with her when he was arrested. She unwittingly inspired Dmitri to catapult diseased corpses into the city and potentially giving the Mongols the idea to do the same, resulting in the Black Death. However, the Doctor comforted her and assured her that that was not the case. (PROSE: Bunker Soldiers)
Dodo and Steven accompanied the Doctor to the Jungle of Tropicalus where he defeated Questor in a battle of wits. (COMIC: Death to the Doctor!) After receiving a distress signal, they landed in Africa during the Boer Wars and investigated a crashed spaceship from which they learnt Kali Carash had escaped. (AUDIO: Tales from the Vault)
On Comfort, Dodo was made to take part in the evaluation and scored less well than Steven. After the two of them attempted to escape, the Doctor having been arrested as a subversive element, the two of them were split up and sent to the front lines. Dodo found Steven in her side's trench one day and helped him with his political campaign to end the war, but she was recorded suggesting a surrender and was arrested. However, the Doctor saved her and brought an end to the war by working outside of the system, after which they returned to the TARDIS. (AUDIO: The War To End All Wars)
On an unnamed planet in the far future, Dodo wandered off during a tour of the City and discovered Senta's laboratory, uncovering the life-force transference that kept the Elders alive. She said farewell to Steven when he chose to remain on the planet to oversee the peace between the Elders and the Savages, telling him that she would miss him and asking the Doctor if they would see each other again. (TV: The Savages)
Sole companion
Dodo and the Doctor did not mention Steven for some time after his departure, with Dodo resenting the Doctor for abandoning him until realising that he had done so to keep him from being lonely. She looked after the Doctor as he became increasingly frail, but he told her that he would have to face the next phase of his life alone. They arrived in France in an alternate timeline where she lost her virginity to Dalville and contracted Minski's virus, possibly sexually, which she chose to keep as a reminder of the lost timeline. (PROSE: The Man in the Velvet Mask)
After spending some time "moping" in the TARDIS, the Doctor and Dodo landed in the 13th century and encountered the remnants of an outlaw attack. She was arrested for treason as her education taught her that King John was a bad man. William of Berkshire kidnapped her from her cell and she met the Monk. He showed him their ways and brought her to ambush the Sheriff's tax collection. The Doctor managed to find her. She helped the Doctor tend to the wounded. Her confession to Nicholaa de la Haye meant that the Monk was to be executed. (AUDIO: The Outlaws)
The Doctor and Dodo landed at Coulton Salt Mine. She was curious about learning about her family which apparently came from this area. She went down the mine and heard a weird noise. Shortly afterwards she saw an ethereal girl, which looked like her mother Maureen and encountered the Miniaturist taking on her appearance. She found that the small dolls house size were miniaturised originals,[statement unclear] such as the TARDIS. She theorised that the Miniaturist took the energy from the universe to show people what they missed. (AUDIO: The Miniaturist)
In 2020s Camden Town, Dodo fell under the control of a Siren's song and left the Doctor to join her choir beneath a derelict church. The Siren spoke through her, allowing Dodo to feel her loneliness and learn that the Siren needed to return to her dimension to keep herself from dying and killing numerous people with the resulting energy release. After the Siren returned home, Dodo sobbed and, later, went to Camden Market with the Doctor. (AUDIO: The Demon Song)
Dodo and the Doctor arrived near Incherton-on-Sea in 1947 after Sanderson's spaceship forced the Doctor to land the TARDIS. They joined Virginia Hancock and fled from Captain John Andrews, with Dodo being shot and taken to the army base to be interrogated by Sanderson. She eventually escaped with Lia Halloran, resisting Sanderson's hypnosis, and rejoined the Doctor, who faded away in the TARDIS after Sanderson was killed and her ship destroyed. (AUDIO: The Incherton Incident)
In 19th century England, Dodo was concerned by the Doctor's lack of curiosity regarding strange goings-on and sneaked out of the inn to investigate. She joined Jay and the other platelayers in following the beast, which she later found to be a hyper-evolved European mole. The Doctor hurried Dodo away into the TARDIS after returning the mole to its usual size, not telling her that the Time Lords had arrived. (AUDIO: The Horror at Bletchington Station)
Dodo and the Doctor arrived in Rotar City on Tarron circa 10,000,000 and investigated the Azmec Corporation and Vorassan cult murders, breaking into the Azmecs' main building and discovering time travel technology used to summon assassins from the past to keep the Azmecs' deceptions a secret. The two travellers spoke out against them and exposed their lies, with Dodo taking a newspaper digest with her before they left. During the adventure, she remarked that she would likely return home when the Doctor could arrange it. (PROSE: Tarnished Image)
Dodo and the Doctor visited 1947 Scrabster Harbour where Dodo had difficulty finding her sea legs (AUDIO: Master of Earth) and the Golden Hind. (AUDIO: Maker of Demons) When the Doctor mentioned the Daleks to her, she had no knowledge of them and he said that she had never met them. (TV: The War Machines)
Due to previous adventures, Dodo became mistrustful of the Doctor and, on a planet in the grip of a crystalline parasite, wondered not for the first time if she was cut out for adventure. She initially thought that the planet was horrible and wanted to leave, but came to realise that it was beautiful. (PROSE: There are Fairies at the Bottom of the Garden)
Departure
Dodo helped pilot the TARDIS to London on 20 July 1966 and felt as she left the ship that she was saying goodbye. (PROSE: The War Machines) She and the Doctor went to the Post Office Tower, where WOTAN affected Dodo. She went to Inferno with Polly Wright and met Ben Jackson, later receiving a phone call which conditioned her to serve WOTAN. Under its control, she tried to recruit the Doctor to the cause but was found out and was released from its control by the Doctor's hypnosis.
Dodo, who was left in a forty-eight hour sleep, was taken to recuperate with Sir Charles Summer's wife (TV: The War Machines) at their country estate in Hertfordshire. (PROSE: WOTAN - The Super Computer!) Upon awakening, she sent a message with Polly for the Doctor, saying that she felt much better and planned on staying, (TV: The War Machines) intending to go back to live with Margaret. (PROSE: The Smugglers) Since she had been reported missing while travelling with the Doctor, she was questioned by police and told them that she had no memory of where she had been. Sir Charles Summers was interviewed about why she was there, which caused a scandal in the press. (PROSE: WOTAN - The Super Computer!)
Later life
Struggles and death
According to one account, Dodo experienced visions of her time on the Ark, in Tombstone and in the Celestial Toyroom following her conditioning, none of which she believed had really happened to her. She remained in the country for several months, recovering before returning to London seeking employment. However, she began suffering from blackouts and was repeatedly hospitalised as a result before being sent to a string of psychiatric hospitals.
In an institution near Colchester, Dodo was subject to shock therapy over a fourteen-month period. When she attempted to leave, she was put in a mixed sex ward for serious cases and accidentally killed a fellow patient in self-defence when he tried to rape her. She was declared a "hopeless case" and sent to the Glasshouse where she was interrogated by the Master about the Doctor and UNIT, eventually being left in London with her memory largely wiped.
Homeless, Dodo regularly stayed at halfway houses and got clothes from the Salvation Army. In 1970, she read James Stevens' article in the Metropolitan and contacted him to tell him what she could remember of the Glasshouse. The two became friends and lovers, with Stevens letting her live with him. She became pregnant, but before she could tell Stevens she was shot and killed by the conditioned Francis Cleary on 11 August 1971.
Dodo's funeral was attended by only Stevens and the Doctor in his second or seventh incarnation. Upon hearing of Dodo's death, the Third Doctor told Stevens that he still saw Dodo as being his responsibility and that she had died before her time. (PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy)
Survival
According to other accounts, Dodo lived past the 1970s. One source stated she went on to have a relationship with a man called Bill and worked as a secretary. One day, whilst questioning her decision to leave the Doctor on her way back from the shops, she bumped into Sarah Jane Smith and scattered the contents of their bags. Upon returning home, she realised that she had accidentally picked up Sarah's diary and decided to return it anonymously the following morning. (PROSE: Ships)
In the 21st century, Dodo attended Sarah Jane's memorial where she discussed her with the other guests and helped fight the Jackals of the Backwards Clock, foiling the Trickster's revenge plot. (WC: Farewell, Sarah Jane)
Undated events
At some point, Dodo, along with all the other companions, was scooped out of time by Adam Mitchell and held captive until the first eleven numbered incarnations of the Doctor arrived. She was later freed and returned to her own time. (COMIC: The Choice, Endgame)
At some point, Dodo was taken to the Black Archive by UNIT to have her record as a companion of the Doctor taken. Her memories of the visit were subsequently erased and she was sent on her way. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)
Parallel universes
In a parallel universe, the First Doctor, Steven and Dodo went to Kiev in the 13th century. A short period after, they went to Logopolis. After accidentally time-ramming his younger self's TARDIS and killing him, the Valeyard planned to kill Dodo in order to prevent the Doctor's visit to Logopolis. (AUDIO: He Jests at Scars...)
Legacy
Steven's youngest daughter was Dodo Taylor, named in honour of his former companion, although he did not believe that she was anything like her namesake. When Sida asked him about why he abdicated the throne of their planet, he told her about his adventure with Dodo on Comfort. (AUDIO: The War To End All Wars)
Centuries after first meeting Dodo, the Doctor was questioned by the Time Lords about his actions in 1572 Paris and how he attempted to save Anne Chaplet. The Doctor claimed that Dodo's existence was not proof of Anne's survival as "Chaplet" was not an uncommon name, but thought to himself about Dodo's resemblance to her. (PROSE: The Massacre)
The Tenth Doctor named the last dodo "Dorothea" after her. (PROSE: The Last Dodo)
Danny Pink's body was kept at the Chaplet Funeral Home. (TV: Death in Heaven)
Personality
Whilst not academically gifted, (PROSE: Salvation) Dodo had an extensive knowledge of animals and plants from around the world (TV: The Ark) and was interested in the Wild West, always wanting to meet Wyatt Earp (TV: The Gunfighters) and see Eddie Foy. (PROSE: The Gunfighters) She drank red wine and brandy (PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy) and enjoyed practising the piano, (TV: The Gunfighters; AUDIO: Mother Russia, The Demon Song) going to nightclubs (TV: The War Machines) and playing snakes and ladders, (TV: The Celestial Toymaker) also being skilled at cards, (PROSE: The Ark) poker (TV: The Gunfighters) and tennis. (PROSE: The Ark) She was also a great ballet fan. (PROSE: The Celestial Toymaker)
Dodo did not much care for being told what to do (TV: The Ark) and encouraged Steven to disobey the Doctor, pointing out that he was a grown man. In Steven's words, she would be "first in the queue" for something that was not allowed and would go absolutely anywhere, exploring places that others of her age would be too afraid to. Indeed, she did not care for conducted tours. (TV: The Savages) Her impetuousness meant that she often got herself and others into trouble. (TV: The Celestial Toymaker, The Savages; AUDIO: The Horror at Bletchington Station) She always liked winning an argument. (PROSE: The Celestial Toymaker)
A caring person, Dodo disliked cheating and other unfair behaviour but could also be naïve, being easily fooled by Cyril pretending to be injured (TV: The Celestial Toymaker) and by the Monk's claims of philanthropic intention. (AUDIO: The Outlaws) She had a bad sense of direction and said that she never knew where she was. (AUDIO: The Miniaturist) She did not like dentists (PROSE: The Ark) and thought that John Smith of John Smith and the Common Men was "a bit past it". Whilst the band was Janet's preferred pop group, they were not Dodo's. (PROSE: Salvation)
Initially enjoying travelling in the TARDIS, (TV: The Ark) Dodo was lonely, although Steven was unaware of this, and was always happy to talk to the people she met on her adventures. (AUDIO: The Secrets of Det-Sen) She thought on how travelling with the Doctor changed her and made her more likely to risk her life (AUDIO: The Horror at Bletchington Station) and that she might not be best suited to it, (PROSE: There are Fairies at the Bottom of the Garden) something which Oddiyāna told her was okay. (AUDIO: The Secrets of Det-Sen)
Dodo was unsure about whether she would ever want to get married as it would mean an end to her adventures (PROSE: Murder in the Dark) and was content to leave love to those older than her. (PROSE: The Gunfighters) Missing Steven, she decided that she would be leaving the TARDIS sooner rather than later. (PROSE: The Man in the Velvet Mask) When she was "older and wiser", she regretted her decision to leave, believing that she was unable to properly appreciate her travels at the time but, later in life, she would be. (PROSE: Ships)
The Doctor was fond of Dodo, calling her "special" (AUDIO: The Miniaturist) and being reminded of his granddaughter, (TV: The Massacre) but he disliked how she spoke (TV: The Ark, The Gunfighters) and, when faced with capture by the Time Lords, considered leaving her behind in the 19th century. (AUDIO: The Horror at Bletchington Station) He did not believe that she had a devious bone in her body (AUDIO: The Outlaws) and described her as a brave and loyal friend. (PROSE: The War Machines) James Stevens believed that she was intelligent, charming and naturally innocent. (PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy)
Ben said that Dodo seemed like a "nice bird", finding her friendly and, unlike Polly, not stuck up. (TV: The War Machines) Whilst Steven was fond of Dodo, he sometimes called her silly and a fool and told her off for acting stupidly. (TV: The Ark, The Celestial Toymaker; PROSE: The Savages) Nicholaa de la Haye did not believe that Dodo seemed "the conniving sort". (AUDIO: The Outlaws)
Appearance
Dodo was short and slim with dark hair, black eyebrows and hazel-green eyes. (PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy) She was elfin-like (PROSE: The Ark) and had an oval-shaped face with a wide mouth and thin lips and had small and delicate hands. (PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy) According to one account, she was flat-chested and looked sexless with her short hair. She described herself as short and dumpy with bad teeth. (PROSE: The Man in the Velvet Mask)
Dodo was the spitting image of Anne Chaplet (PROSE: The Massacre) and reminded the Doctor of Susan Foreman, to whom she bore some resemblance. (TV: The Massacre; PROSE: The Man in the Velvet Mask) Her friend Janet likened her to Rita Tushingham (PROSE: Salvation) and City Watcher reported that she had "one of those faces" which made it impossible to tell how old she was. (PROSE: Tarnished Image)
Behind the scenes
Development
- In initial drafts of The Massacre, it was Anne Chaplet who joined the Doctor and Steven. The character of Dodo was created when John Wiles and Donald Tosh realised the burdens of having a companion from the past, the same which had caused Katarina to be killed off.[2]
- Jackie Lane had long hair when she auditioned and John Wiles hoped that Dodo could be made distinctive by having her hair styled differently in each of her stories. However, Lane had her hair cut short after passing her audition, making this impossible.[2]
- Lane was contracted to play Dodo for thirteen episodes, from the final episode of The Massacre to the last of The Gunfighters, with an option for thirteen more.[2] During the filming of The Gunfighters, it was announced that Lane and Peter Purves would be leaving with Lane being issued a contract for six more episodes, the reason being to allow for the introduction of more fashionable companions.[3] The script for The War Machines, which originally had Dodo continue her adventures with the Doctor and new companion Rich (later renamed Ben), was rewritten to include Polly and to write Dodo out.[4]
- Dodo appeared in The Massacre with a northern accent, one which was kept in mind when the script for The Ark was written. However, Lane was asked to make the accent less pronounced due to displeasure with a regular character not speaking Received Pronunciation,[5] in-universe explanations for which were given in the novels The Man in the Velvet Mask and Salvation. Dodo's original accent was used in Big Finish audio dramas, namely by Purves, Stephen Critchlow and Lauren Cornelius. In Who Killed Kennedy, her original accent is described not as northern but as cockney.
- As years have gone by, Dodo has appeared in novels and audio dramas to further flesh out her travels with the Doctor. However, as established by the Doctor noting in The War Machines that Dodo never encountered the Daleks, Dodo is notable amongst companions for being one of the few who can never have a story in which she battles the Doctor's greatest foes, unless memory erasure were to be used.
Will the real Dodo Chaplet please stand up?
Because she only had four-and-a-half stories on television, Dodo is one of the companions least featured in other media. Unfortunately, almost all of these other appearances conflict. The Man in the Velvet Mask differs from Salvation on what Dodo's childhood was like. Salvation differs from "Bell of Doom" over why she first approached the TARDIS in Wimbledon Common. Mask, Who Killed Kennedy and Ships all disagree over what might have killed her in the 1960s or 1970s — or even whether she died in those decades.
In the twentieth anniversary edition of Kennedy, James Stevens contacts the Twelfth Doctor and convinces him to alter the coordinates of the Master's Time Ring so that he can travel to 11 August 1971 and prevent Francis Cleary from killing Dodo. Both he and Cleary die in the struggle but it allows Stevens' younger self and Dodo to live on happily together. In the new timeline, it is no longer known who killed Kennedy and Stevens and Dodo eventually write a series of children's stories about an old man who travels through time and space. She had died by December 2015.
To be sure, other companions have stories which differ over the odd biographical detail. We can wonder, thanks to The Sarah Jane Adventures story Death of the Doctor, whether Liz Shaw actually died in the novel Eternity Weeps. However, the degree of difference between individual Dodo stories is unusually high and approaches that of the conflicting descriptions of the life of Ace, who effectively has several largely irreconcilable alternate timelines.
Did Dodo die from syphilis?
There is a widespread belief in fandom that Dodo's fate in the novels is that she contracted syphilis. This view was taken by the long-running podcast, Radio Free Skaro, some of whose hosts vociferously maintained in episode 177 that she "died of syphilis" in Who Killed Kennedy. Even David Bishop, the author of Kennedy, said in his notes to the e-book version of his novel that Dodo contracted "an illness interpreted by some as a form of space herpes".
All that's pretty wide off the mark, however. The idea that she died of syphilis is a common conflation of Who Killed Kennedy, where she's simply killed by the Master, and The Man in the Velvet Mask, where she contracts the genetically-engineered Minski's virus through sexual contact. However, she doesn't die from it, nor was it even possible for her to do so, according to the Doctor. Minski's virus wasn't anything close to a venereal disease and could have been contracted by drinking water or consuming food contaminated by it. Perhaps more to the point, the word syphilis doesn't occur once in either novel. Dodo does have two sexual tragedies in Kennedy, however; she admits to having killed her would-be rapist in unarmed combat and she is murdered while pregnant.
Footnotes
- ↑ According to The Man in the Velvet Mask, Dodo was born in London. Salvation claims that her accent is "north-of-London" and The Incherton Incident says that she came from Yorkshire.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Production Notes for The Massacre
- ↑ Production Notes for The Gunfighters
- ↑ Production Notes for The War Machines
- ↑ Production Notes for The Ark
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