Charlotte Pollard
- You may be looking for the audio series or someone who once took Charley's name.
Charlotte Elspeth Pollard, also known as Charley to her friends, was a companion of the Eighth and Sixth Doctors.
After her death aboard the R101 was averted by the Eighth Doctor, Charley became a danger to the Web of Time and created a rift into the universe of anti-time. Her status as a temporal anomaly was later rectified and she and the Doctor travelled the Divergent Universe, where they met C'rizz, who later died in their universe. Charley and the Doctor were ultimately separated in a confrontation with the Cybermen, with Charley believing that the Doctor was dead and the Doctor incapable of remembering their last few hours together.
Charley was subsequently rescued by the Sixth Doctor, with whom she travelled for a time (keeping her past with his future self secret from him) before replacing his memories of her with Mila. She served the Viyrans for a time before escaping by travelling through the Ever-and-Ever Prolixity.
Biography
Early life
Charlotte Elspeth Pollard, (AUDIO: Neverland [+]Loading...["Neverland (audio story)"]) known to her family as "Lottie" (AUDIO: The Next Life) and to her friends as "Charley", (AUDIO: Storm Warning) was born on 15 April, 1912 (AUDIO: Neverland) to Lord Richard (AUDIO: Memory Lane) and Lady Louisa Pollard. (AUDIO: Zagreus) She had an older sister, Peggy, and a younger sister, Sissy. (AUDIO: A Blind Eye)
Charley was raised as a Catholic (AUDIO: The Next Life) in a manor house, looked after by servants. (AUDIO: The Chimes of Midnight, Zagreus) She sneaked some of the gypsies who camped on their property, and whom Lady Louisa was worried about, into the house to stay in the attic. (AUDIO: Memory Lane) She stole several apples from a nearby orchard as she knew that the sign warning of the owner's dog was a ruse. (AUDIO: Winter of the Demon)
As a child, Charley and her sisters were taken to an artist once a year by one of their grandmothers to have their portraits painted. (AUDIO: The Twilight Kingdom) Whilst still at school, Charley went on a day trip with her class to a portrait museum. She did not enjoy the experience nor appreciate the art, most of which were portraits of stern old men. (AUDIO: Hall of the Ten Thousand) She once went to Regent's Park Zoo and watched the dolphins. (AUDIO: Storm Warning) She also went to the Cowes Regatta. (AUDIO: Embrace the Darkness)
Charley did not like plum pudding as house cook Edith Thompson always made far too much of it at Christmas and the family would still be eating it on New Year's Day. She was also afraid that she would bite into one of the thrupenny bits which Edith put in the pudding and would lose a tooth. Edith, however, believed Charley loved the pudding and, because Charley showed her some kindness and remembered her name, came to consider the girl her best friend. (AUDIO: The Chimes of Midnight) Charley's maternal grandmother, Ermentrude Saviltride, gave Charley a copy of Alice in Wonderland for Christmas in 1919. (AUDIO: Zagreus) She had died by 1936. (AUDIO: The Fall of the House of Pollard)
Charley went on holiday to Ostend, Belgium with her family, during which she read Treasure Island. (AUDIO: The Girl Who Never Was, The Fall of the House of Pollard) With her family, Charley saw several performances at the Old Vic, including The Tempest. The Pollards always had a box from which they viewed the performances and Charley never went backstage. (AUDIO: Eclipse)
Her childhood hero was the Victorian explorer Pieter Mon Marchè, a man who did not actually exist and whom she would later inadvertently create. (AUDIO: The Man Who Wasn't There) She read Dracula (AUDIO: Minuet in Hell) and lots of Jane Austen. (AUDIO: Seasons of Fear) On her sixteenth birthday, Charley was given a brooch by her mother which had been passed down her family. She planned to pass it down to her own daughter some day. (AUDIO: Scherzo)
Charley was educated at boarding school (AUDIO: The Lamentation Cipher) before attending a finishing school alongside both Peggy and Cissy. In one of Miss Lime's reports, she said that Charley had "a head full of turnips". (AUDIO: Zagreus) She always dreamt of flying (AUDIO: If I Should Die Before I Wake) and, at finishing school, showed a great interest in the R101. (AUDIO: Zagreus)
Meeting the Doctor
In 1930, Charley met Alex Grayle, who sparked her sense of adventure and whom she decided to meet at the Singapore Hilton on New Year's Eve. (AUDIO: Seasons of Fear) To this end, she ran away from her finishing school (AUDIO: Zagreus) in October 1930 and got Simon Murchford drunk at The Hare and Hounds at Ickwell Green, stealing his papers and kit and putting on an accent to take his place on the airship. (AUDIO: Storm Warning, The Next Life) The only person who knew of this plan was Edith. (AUDIO: The Fall of the House of Pollard)
On 5 October, Charley was aboard the R101 and was found out. Whilst fleeing, she met the Eighth Doctor and together they uncovered the secret mission that the airship was on. She was rescued from the fated crash of the R101 in Beauvais, France by the Doctor and invited herself aboard his TARDIS as his newest companion. They also brought a vortisaur that Charley named Ramsay. (AUDIO: Storm Warning) Unbeknownst to her for some time, she was supposed to have died in the crash. (AUDIO: Storm Warning, Neverland, etc.)
Charley and the Doctor found the TARDIS, (AUDIO: Storm Warning) where she was given a bedroom which she would often leave in an untidy state. (AUDIO: Absolution) Before the Doctor interfered, the timeline played so that Charley's death caused her family great sadness and made Edith commit suicide. However, the changes altered that fate and created the Edward Grove. (AUDIO: The Chimes of Midnight)
Travels with the Eighth Doctor
Early adventures
Hoping to find out what was wrong with the sick Ramsay, Charley and the Doctor went to the Garazone Bazaar in 2503 and found themselves in space aboard the Vanguard after the TARDIS was mistakenly taken aboard. Charley was disgusted by the humans' plan to ally themselves with the Cybermen in order to wipe out the Orion androids and was saved by Deeva Jansen's sacrifice when a Cyberman crushed the life support pack in Charley's spacesuit. She and the Doctor used their jetpacks to return to the TARDIS, where they checked on Ramsay and discussed the nature of the androids. (AUDIO: Sword of Orion)
Charley fell asleep in the TARDIS whilst reading a book and awoke to find herself aboard an airship at the heart of the Time Vortex. She spoke to the other travellers and learnt how they came to be aboard, realising that each had been removed from their timelines for the protection of the Web of Time. Upon awakening back in the TARDIS, the Doctor told her that he had put them there. (PROSE: Repercussions...)
At Charley's request, the Doctor took her on a search to find her childhood hero, Pieter Mon Marchè. They were unable to find him and eventually learnt that he was a falsified product of time, being a mythical person based on Charley and the Doctor's search for him. (AUDIO: The Man Who Wasn't There)
Several weeks after first joining the Doctor, Charley and the Doctor's lives were saved by a man at the cost of his own and Charley convinced the Doctor to visit his family. She had, by this point, fallen in love with the Doctor, (AUDIO: Letting Go) although she did not yet know it. (PROSE: A Good Life)
Charley asked the Doctor to take her on holiday to get out of the "gothic nightmare of a ship" and was taken to 2294 Venice, where she was taken by Pietro and forced to pose as Duke Orsino's wife, Estella, with the aim of marrying him. After Duke Orsino and the real Estella killed themselves, Charley, having learnt that it did not do to live life through objects, suggested that she and the Doctor clear out the TARDIS. (AUDIO: The Stones of Venice)
After the Doctor set the coordinates to take Charley to meet Grace Holloway, he suggested that they release Ramsay, something that Charley did not wish to do but was forced to after the Vortisaur attacked her. Temporal feedback damaged the TARDIS console and caused the travellers to lose their memories, after which they landed in Malebolgia and the amnesiac Charley was made to serve at the Hellfire Club, from which she was later rescued by Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart. Brigham Elisha Dashwood III shot her with his Trans-D so that a demon could inhabit her body, but the psionovores rejected her as she was "already dead", a statement that she did not understand. (AUDIO: Minuet in Hell)
Charley and the Doctor left Malebolgia and arrived on a colony ship which they initially believed to be 16th century Kent. Charley was annoyed with the Doctor for looking to find a mystery there and, upon learning that they were on a ship, asked that they stay there to relax. Whilst on the ship, she realised how she felt about the Doctor. (PROSE: A Good Life)
Charley and the Doctor helped native tribes in Africa, after which they landed in Melbourne. Having seen what The Darvias Saga could do, Charley joined the Movement for Real Literature and almost shot and killed Nathaniel Clamp before deciding to save him by shooting Bruce Gillespie in the shoulder instead. (PROSE: Best Seller)
On a spaceship approaching Venus, Charley was appalled to meet about twenty people dying from a genetic plague who intended to crash their ship into the planet and end their lives. However, the Doctor quietly led her back into the TARDIS after she began trying to change their minds. (PROSE: Venus)
Charley went to a disco on 24 December, 1987. (PROSE: Be Good for Goodness's Sake)
The Doctor and Charley went to 2064 Prague for Christmas and were imprisoned and interrogated by Colonel Rijzki due to their lack of papers. Charley initially believed that Colonel Rijzki was a power-hungry monster but admitted that he had a point in not lowering the shield around the city on the word of a stranger. She and the Doctor took him and Ilona Hingis into the TARDIS and showed them that the world outside of the shield was safe. (PROSE: War in a Time of Peace)
Charley was imprisoned in Nigeria and released when Calabria sent the Nigerian authorities money. (PROSE: You Had Me at Verify User Name and Password)
Landing on Earth on Christmas Day after receiving a distress call, Charley and the Doctor encountered Angels who believed that Zoe Elliot was their daughter. The Doctor told them that the stars had moved since they lost their daughter and the two travellers went with them to where their real daughter was. (PROSE: They Fell)
Charley and the Doctor broke into the Brigadier's house and held a Christmas party there for him, cooking a Christmas meal and inviting Emily Chaudhry and former members of UNIT. (PROSE: Faithful Friends: Part Three)
Charley and the Doctor thwarted Dennis Krellig's plans to conquer the world, resulting in him having to move back in with his parents and get a job at a biscuit factory. (PROSE: Second Chances)
Together the Doctor and Charley encountered a mummy revived by alien technology in Paris in 1841, with Charley being irritated that the Doctor took numerous sidetrips accompanied by a gorilla whilst moving the TARDIS to rescue her from the French authorities. They discovered the mummy was working to enable an alien invasion which the Doctor foiled. (AUDIO: The Mummy Speaks!)
After leaving Paris, Charley and the Doctor, wanting to relax with a walk in the woods, landed on the forest planet of Pteron, where they exposed the moth-like Hellstrung attacking a colony of humans. However, they found out that the Hellstrung were only attacking as they were being exploited by the human leadership, who were pillaging the sap and wood of the planet. (AUDIO: Eclipse)
Charley and the Doctor, after responding to an SOS signal from a planet besieged by a writhing alien mass, became caught in a temporal paradox caused by Ilkeians constructing routes in the Time Vortex to view the slaying of the creature. However, Charley herself ended up killing the creture, unwittingly becoming part of Ilkein history. (AUDIO: The Slaying of the Writhing Mass)
The two travellers responded to a message from Deeva Jansen and returned to the Garazone System where they found that she had survived their previous encounter. They helped her escape from new programming which forced her to commit genocide and to replace humans with identical android copies; Charley herself thought for a time that she was an android before learning that her duplicate had never been activated. (AUDIO: Heart of Orion)
With Audacity
The Doctor left her in Tibet instead of Singapore, whilst he went travelling further. He returned several weeks later with Audacity Montague. (AUDIO: The Great Cyber-War [+]Loading...["The Great Cyber-War (audio story)"])
The Doctor took his friends to 107 Baker Street to celebrate Christmas and showed them the sites. She decided to make a Christmas Pudding. They went to Al Norton's flat to discover what was wrong with him. (AUDIO: Twenty-Four Doors in December [+]Loading...["Twenty-Four Doors in December (audio story)"])
Audacity and Charley waited in the car for the Doctor after tracing a strange creature. After being introduced to Eldridge Brinkwood, they told him about how they first met the creature in the frozen swimming pool, as it looked like Charley. She found it amusing that the Doctor couldn't fix the car he crashed. Eldridge took them to a former friend of his to recover from the crash. She tried to comfort Eldridge after learning that he was near death according to the Doctor's theory about the creature. She couldn't stop him letting the creature get into the house. (AUDIO: The Empty Man [+]Loading...["The Empty Man (audio story)"])
She was frightened by the canon of the Edinburgh. Charley and Audacity went to one of Donald Shaw's balls to help in the Doctor's investigations. After dancing with Archie McClellan, she went with him to see the sights and flirted with him. Inside the powerstation she was confused about an empty locked room with seven bolts, she connected it with the seven deaths. She told the Doctor about this, and helped him work out a solution. She went with Archie to get a cannon to help stop Shaw using Scottish superstition using Iron to keep out a fire. She kissed Archie after the defeat. They went with Archie to celebrate another Christmas. (AUDIO: Winter of the Demon [+]Loading...["Winter of the Demon (audio story)"])
Time's unravelling
The Doctor tried to get Charley to the Singapore Hilton per her request, but they instead landed in 1938 New York City where they came across the corpse of Jack Halliday. After being kidnapped several times, she was reunited with the Doctor and played a role in the rebroadcast of The War of the Worlds, later watching Streath and Noriam's ship depart on the TARDIS scanner. The Doctor found that Orson Welles did not know who William Shakespeare was, (AUDIO: Invaders from Mars) something that Charley later learnt was, in part, due to her survival. (AUDIO: The Time of the Daleks)
The TARDIS, apparently avoiding Singapore, took Charley and the Doctor to Edward Grove where she learnt that she was supposed to have died in the R101, her paradoxical survival resulting in Edith Thompson's uncertain fate. She was told to kill herself, but she instead chose to live and helped convince Edith to do the same, putting an end to the time loop within the house. Charley, however, continued to remember dying in the flames of the R101. (AUDIO: The Chimes of Midnight)
Charley and the Doctor landed in 1982 Ferrara after detecting an interspatial disturbance which they found was caused by Vengorr and Thon. Posing as a Time Lord and calling herself Charleyostiantayshius, Charley sowed discord between the two Threllips and sent them through their portal to Mordalius Prime. (AUDIO: Living Legend)
In an alternative timeline created by the Master, Charley met the Fourth Doctor and Leela and learnt about regeneration. When the timeline was wiped, the Doctor suddenly felt the need to visit Bob Dovie at 59A Barnsfield Crescent on 23 November 1963, where he and Charley were surprised to learn that the irate Bob had already been visited by all of the Doctor's past incarnations. (AUDIO: The Light at the End)
After six attempts, the TARDIS arrived at the Singapore Hilton and Charley was finally reunited with Alex Grayle. She and the Doctor travelled to 305, 1055 and 1806, each time meeting Sebastian Grayle and stopping him from unleashing the Nimons upon the world, after which the two travellers returned to Singapore to celebrate New Year's Eve. (AUDIO: Seasons of Fear)
Like many of his previous companions, Charley went with the Doctor to distract Ann whilst he attempted to kill her baby. (PROSE: Categorical Imperative)
Charley and the Doctor went to Armstrong's Colony after detecting technology which should not have been there. Charley was taken captive by Baron Denton de Kay Leigh and saved by the Seventh Doctor. (PROSE: The Heroine, the Hero and the Megalomaniac)
After falling into an alien gallery based on Prague, Charley was saved from hypothermia by Yan Periko and awoke with amnesia. Yan gave her the name "Libuse", which she used for several months before the Doctor projected himself into the gallery and convinced Charley that she would die if she were not released. Her status as a temporal anomaly resulted in disruptions to the gallery. (PROSE: Lady of the Snows)
The Doctor took Charley to the Cimmerian System where ROSM identified her as a threat (AUDIO: Embrace the Darkness) due to the anti-time around her (AUDIO: Neverland) and attempted to kill her, leading her to flee to an escape pod which took her down to Cimmeria IV. She began to lose her sight due to the Cimmerians, but she was reunited with the Doctor and recovered, helping the Throxilians and learning of the connection between the Cimmerians and the Solarians. (AUDIO: Embrace the Darkness)
When the TARDIS was taken to the Celestial Toyroom, the Toymaker forced a once-again amnesiac Charley to play his games whilst the Doctor was turned into a puppet. She eventually realised that the Toymaker was actually the one playing the Toyroom's game and was able to defeat him and escape in the TARDIS with the Doctor. (AUDIO: Solitaire)
A message from the Eleventh Doctor led Charley and the Doctor to 1935 London. They were accused of murder and fled to Scotland with Hilary Hammond, whom they later identified as the murderer as well as a German spy. (AUDIO: Enemy Aliens)
Charley visited an art gallery with the Doctor to see the Ten Thousand. (AUDIO: Hall of the Ten Thousand)
At an art exhibition, Charley encountered Dwayne Pherber, who attempted to feed on her. She was saved by the Doctor and Highgate before she and the Doctor were taken by Vakrass. She helped the Doctor's fifth, sixth and eighth incarnations, as well as Vislor Turlough and Constance Clarke, defeat Gostak. (AUDIO: The End of the Beginning)
Due to interference in the timeline, Charley, (AUDIO: The Time of the Daleks) like Orson Welles, (AUDIO: Invaders from Mars) had no knowledge of William Shakespeare, an impossibility which resulted in the Doctor discovering a Dalek plot. She was held hostage by the Daleks and fell through their portal to 1572 with Viola Learman and the Master Clock, which became damaged when she was attacked by a Dalek, and was to be exterminated after the clock was repaired. The Daleks were defeated and Charley saved, although the Doctor realised that she was a source of chronon energy and that time was unravelling around her. (AUDIO: The Time of the Daleks)
Charley and the Doctor tried to get Shakespeare home but instead landed in Asia Minor after the fall of Troy. They met Vicki Pallister and Troilus and, to keep Shakespeare from remembering his time with them, the Doctor had Charley ensure that he got drunk on wine. (PROSE: Apocrypha Bipedium)
After dropping Shakespeare off in Warwickshire, Charley and the Doctor were interrogated by Mike Yates after being found on an RAF base in the 1970s. (AUDIO: Foreshadowing)
Antiverse and anti-time
The TARDIS was chased by seven Battle TARDISes and, realising that they were after her, Charley used the fast return switch to ensure their capture and learnt that she had become a living portal for anti-time. In the hopes of an alternative resolution to her death, she allowed herself to be used by the Time Lords to travel into the Antiverse but ultimately resigned herself to death, not regretting a moment of time that she had spent with the Doctor. She was saved when the breach caused by her became part of established history and she returned to the TARDIS, finding the Doctor infected with anti-time and calling himself Zagreus. (AUDIO: Neverland)
After hiding from the violent Doctor, the TARDIS, in the form of the Brigadier, showed Charley projections of the history of the Divergence's attempts to break into N-Space to make up its mind as to whether or not it would help Rassilon; it did, throwing Charley from its doors. She obeyed the Doctor's command to kill him with the anti-time sword after realising that he did not love her back, but he survived and, after casting Rassilon into the Divergent Universe, he shouted at Charley to leave him as he followed in order to save the universe from anti-time.
Charley stormed out of the TARDIS but was told by Romana that the Doctor had driven her out for her own good, having asked that she find Charley a place in the timeline. Learning of a backdoor from Leela, Charley sneaked into the TARDIS to make sure that the Doctor did not make the journey alone. (AUDIO: Zagreus)
The Divergent Universe
After hiding in the TARDIS, Charley revealed herself to the Doctor, who was unhappy that she had betrayed him by coming with him into the Divergent Universe. Exiting the TARDIS, they found themselves within a strictly-designed experiment to study evolution and inadvertently helped the sound creature evolve before refusing to allow themselves to die for it. They merged into a single life-form for a time, (AUDIO: Scherzo) creating Daqar Keep, (AUDIO: The Next Life) and the sound creature faded away whilst they were able to break free. (AUDIO: Scherzo)
Charley and the Doctor entered the Interzone and were allowed by the Kro'ka into the Eutermesan Zone, where they saved C'rizz and joined him in his mission to save L'da in the Alpha Sphere. Charley was captured by the Kromon and taken to become a Kromon Queen to replace L'da after C'rizz euthanised her, causing her to begin transforming into an insect and losing her sense of self. She was saved by the Doctor and C'rizz and restored to normal with the help of the Oroog, after which she, the Doctor and C'rizz left via the Interzone. (AUDIO: The Creed of the Kromon)
The travellers arrived in Light City during Jubilee Day and were separated when the riots started, Charley almost getting crushed. She, the Doctor and C'rizz gave the Censor copies of their memories to be used for the evolution of Light City's society. (AUDIO: The Natural History of Fear)
The Kro'ka next sent Charley, the Doctor and C'rizz into the Setarus zone which they explored for two days, searching for the TARDIS, before becoming affected by a creature. Charley became confused by how angry she was with the Doctor, going so far as to betray him out of a lack of trust, and was concerned about how violent C'rizz seemed to become. She later learnt from the Doctor that the creature had been deceiving and manipulating their emotions. (AUDIO: The Twilight Kingdom)
Charley found the treatment of religion at the Multihaven to be superficial and began feeling depressed due to Miraculite. C'rizz was affected by the 23rd Church of Lucidity and tried to kill Charley before she was saved by the Doctor; she was understanding of how much he had gone through since L'da's transformation and did not hold him responsible for his actions. When she and the Doctor found what seemed to be the TARDIS, Charley was hopeful that it was the real thing but was proven wrong. (AUDIO: Faith Stealer)
In a nuclear winter on the surface of Bortresoye, Charley and C'rizz were saved from a collapsed building by Landscar and taken to Excelsior's bunker for treatment, but Charley was found to be paralysed from the waist down and was later smothered by Excelsior after realising that she was not as delusional as she pretended to be. The Doctor's suicide resulted in the cycle restarting, restoring Charley. (AUDIO: The Last)
When the Doctor was split into three different people, Charley named the innocent one "Tigger" and the grumpy one, whom she teamed up with, "Eeyore". She initially disliked the Eeyore Doctor, but came to realise that his irritability came from a concern for her safety. The three Doctors located the TARDIS in the centre of a labyrinth, after which they merged back into one and Charley, the Doctor and C'rizz set off to explore the Divergent Universe. (AUDIO: Caerdroia)
The trio travelled for some time before they came near Rassilon's Foundry and entered dreamscapes. Charley was visited by Rassilon, who attempted to shake her trust in the Doctor both in her dreams and by showing her the Doctor travelling with Perfection, making her feel easily replaceable. She also came to terms with how hardened she had become to death and the effect that her actions had had on Simon Murchford.
Charley stopped being friends with C'rizz because of his untrustworthiness, and, when the Doctor demanded that they make up before he would pilot them out of the Divergent Universe, she admitted that she was jealous of anybody who got close to the Time Lord. The three then departed, with Rassilon and the Kro'ka stuck in the evolutionary experiment and Daqar Keep and Zagreus left awaiting the end of the universe. (AUDIO: The Next Life)
Back home again
Info from The Battle of Giant's Causeway needs to be added
The TARDIS materialised in a Dalek base (AUDIO: The Next Life) and Charley and C'rizz were quickly imprisoned on Davros's orders. Gemma Griffin helped them both escape and Charley soon met Samson Griffin, learning that he and Gemma had travelled with the Doctor before she had met him. She assured the Doctor that he was not to blame for the Griffins nor the Daleks' invasion of Earth and, after the Daleks' departure, they had fun in Blackpool whilst C'rizz remained in the TARDIS. (AUDIO: Terror Firma)
Charley, the Doctor and C'rizz thwarted Darrakhaan's theft of the space-time navigator from the Sanmarus Institute (PROSE: Before Midnight) by taking over the bodies of Edward Callaghan, David Lampton and Gavin Jones. (PROSE: After Midnight)
When C'rizz expressed a desire to see a newly-formed planet free from pollution and war, Charley said that he was describing the Garden of Eden, leading the Doctor to take them to Endarra. There, Charley met Eunis Flood and was torn about his use as a lab rat upon learning that he was a serial killer. (AUDIO: Scaredy Cat)
The Doctor took Charley to see the Great Exhibition in 1851 whilst C'rizz remained in the TARDIS. She was separated from the Doctor and met the Duke of Wellington, who begged her to pose as Madeline de Roche after she and her husband accidentally left in the TARDIS. She rescued C'rizz, who then posed as Christian de Roche, from Jacob Crackles' freakshow and they were eventually reunited with the Doctor, swapping places with the real de Roches. (AUDIO: Other Lives)
On Industry, Charley and C'rizz were separated from the Doctor and searched for him, finding him frozen in time like the rest of the planet in the middle of his execution and having to pretend to be frozen themselves when they encountered the Clockwork Men. Charley was able to save the Doctor's life and both she and C'rizz were to be assessed to work in the Clock Tower, but they and the Doctor were able to defeat the Figurehead and the Clockwork Men, staying behind afterwards to enjoy the celebrations. (AUDIO: Time Works)
Instead of arriving at the Festival of Ghana, the three travellers landed in the Cube where they fled from the brain-worm, which Eric Rawden became convinced was inside Charley's head and insisted that they kill her. She was sad when they were forced to leave Gorden Latch inside the Cube whilst they departed in the TARDIS. (AUDIO: Something Inside)
On Lucentra in the 23rd century, Charley saw an illusion of her mother and started to become trapped there by nano-forms which mentally reduced her in age, making her forget who C'rizz was. She realised what was happening and vomited out the nano-forms, but she later volunteered to allow her memories to shape the prison they were in, turning the place into a composite of her childhood. She regained her memories once more and told the illusion of her mother that she hoped it would not be long before she saw her again. (AUDIO: Memory Lane)
Charley ran from a crazed C'rizz in 2007 London and approached Luke Tillyard. Luke stepped in to protect her, rendering him unconscious using his headphones and allowing her and the Doctor to take him back to the TARDIS. (PROSE: Salva Mea)
After the Doctor was kidnapped by the Kubthukians to gain access to his memories for their case against Ari Leventhal, Charley gave them a message from the Creatron Artists and Artisans Associates, telling them that the CAAA wanted to option their story for a film. The Doctor told her that the Kubthukians valued profit above truth. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Adaptation of Death)
Charley was captured by the Nine to join his collection of the Doctor's companions, being moved between Corridor 6 and Corridor 8 for reasons she was not then aware of. She joined Liv Chenka, Helen Sinclair and Bliss in escaping the prison, finding River Song and defeating the Nine, after which River returned her to her adventures with the Doctor and C'rizz. (AUDIO: Companion Piece)
A change of Doctor
Charley opened C'rizz's Absolver, after which the TARDIS landed on Utebbadon-Tarria and fell apart long enough for C'rizz to disappear and to attract Hellions, forcing Charley and the Doctor to avoid the console room for a time. As they left the TARDIS and learnt about C'rizz's actions and the Borarus, she began to blame herself, but the Doctor told her not to. She refused to listen to the Doctor's claims about C'rizz's nature and origins and cried as the Eutermesan died, his last words being to call her his sister. (AUDIO: Absolution)
Furious at the Doctor's apparent lack of concern in the wake of C'rizz's death and believing that he was happy that things were back as they were before the Divergent Universe, Charley demanded that he take her back to 1930. (AUDIO: Absolution) He claimed that he had taken them to the wreck of the R101 but Charley, insistent that she leave regardless, found that he had actually taken her to Singapore.
Due to a temporal hump, the pair had arrived in 2008, where Charley made Byron's acquaintance and met a younger version of him when the Hostile Action Displacement System took her back to 1942. On the SS Batavia, she encountered the Cybermen again and infected the Cyber-Planner with temporal corrosion, leading it to transfer its consciousness into her body. She was later freed and watched Byron apparently kill the Doctor, after which she defeated the Cybermen as well as Byron using the temporal corrosion, a condition which meant activated the HADS and left her stranded in 500002.
Charley built a crystal radio set from debris and sent out an SOS every hour, eventually resulting in the TARDIS arriving. She ran into the ship and found that it was not her Doctor (AUDIO: The Girl Who Never Was) but the Doctor in his sixth incarnation. (AUDIO: The Condemned) Whilst she knew that it was a risk to travel with him, she wanted further adventures and kept her past secret. (AUDIO: These Stolen Hours)
Travels with the Sixth Doctor
Keeping her secret
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Landing in Manchester in 2008, Charley was kidnapped by Maxine and, after hearing the TARDIS dematerialise, realised that the Doctor was not yet the man that she knew and that she would have to look after herself from then on. She answered Sam's phone calls and attempted to find him, escaping from Maxine and uncovering what happened with Sam and Antonia Bailey. After DI Menzies arrested Antonia, Charley told the Doctor that she had amnesia to avoid further difficult questions about her past and knowledge. (AUDIO: The Condemned)
Charley and the Doctor went to the Archive of Alexandria IV to return a copy of Rookwood that Charley spent four hours reading in the bath. After the copy was destroyed by the Grel, they went to find another and landed in 1738 where, due to the Grel's machine, Charley started to believe that she belonged there; she was going to marry John before meeting Dick Turpin and becoming his accomplice, "Gypsy Charlotte". She rode with Turpin to York where the Doctor caught up with her and brought her to her senses, after which they defeated the Grel. (AUDIO: The Doomwood Curse)
On a planetoid in the Antares System, Charley was recognised by the Daleks from Folkestone, forcing her to admit the truth of her identity to a replicant of the Doctor whom she believed to be real. The Daleks planned to replace her with a replicant to change the Doctor's timeline a plan which was foiled. Afterwards, Murgat told her that she could not keep lying to the Doctor forever and she promised to tell him at the right time. (AUDIO: Brotherhood of the Daleks)
Charley fled from werewolves with the Doctor on a planet in the 31st century and was captured and interrogated by Dr Paignton, who believed that she too was a werewolf. She was saved from the Red House by the Valeyard and tasked by him with stopping the Doctor from aiding Ugo, the Valeyard threatening to tell the Doctor of her history with him. (AUDIO: The Red House)
Charley and the Doctor encountered DI Menzies once more, some weeks after they first met, and encountered John and Henry Fielding. Upon learning of the involvement of the Sirens of Time in the appearance of time breaks, (AUDIO: The Avenues of Possibility) Charley and the Doctor went to investigate (WC: Prequel to The Legacy of Time) and the Doctor teamed up with his other selves to defeat them. (AUDIO: Collision Course)
Charley told the Doctor of her love for airships, prompting him to promise a visit to Jupiter before answering a distress call from a space station. There, Charley recognised that there were feelings between Professor Artemis Vane and Dr Martin Chesleworth and sympathised with the former's story whilst the Doctor claimed that no relationship was genuine if founded on a lie. This made Charley realise that she would have to tell the Doctor the truth one day and that, when she did, she would have to leave him. (AUDIO: These Stolen Hours)
On Onyakis sometime after 6087, Charley helped to defeat the Krotons by overloading their machines. As this left her unconscious, the Doctor carried her into the TARDIS where she mumbled about C'rizz and how the Doctor had not cared about his death. The Doctor took her to Al's Café to rest after their experiences. (AUDIO: Return of the Krotons)
Charley and the Doctor headed to Manchester to meet DI Menzies again after the Doctor saw anachronistic money in a newspaper. As Kelsa could detect the paradox, she told DI Menzies about how she had travelled with the Doctor in his future and begged her not to tell him. Charley was later accused of murdering Kelsa and, after travelling to Rio de Janeiro with Carmen on Brooks' casino boat, helped defeat the Tabbalac. However, Charley’s reckless actions and decision, coupled with some information from the Tabbalac, lead the Doctor to become distrustful and impatient with Charley. (AUDIO: The Raincloud Man)
Departure
Eventually, the Doctor demanded to know Charley's secret, but before she could answer him, Mila infected her with a virus that had slipped through the TARDIS's defences. This caused Charley to go out of phase with reality, allowing Mila to pose as her and take her place as the Doctor's companion, (AUDIO: Patient Zero) having a number of adventures including one to Imperial Heaven. (AUDIO: Paper Cuts)
With the Viyrans
As Viyran ambassador
Charley was found and cured by the Viyrans and helped them in their quest to expunge all the viruses that escaped from the Amethyst Viral Containment Station. (AUDIO: Blue Forgotten Planet) Although Charley had been told that she was not a prisoner, when she tried to leave she was told that she could not do so as it would make her a threat to Viyran security. (AUDIO: The Viyran Solution)
When they crossed paths with the Doctor and Mila in an alternative timeline, Mila sacrificed herself to save the Doctor and the Earth, after which Charley revealed who she really was and used the Viyrans' memory-altering technology to replace herself with Mila in the Doctor's memories. She then left with the Viyrans. (AUDIO: Blue Forgotten Planet)
Charley helped the Viyrans for years, being kept in stasis until she was need to act as an ambassador to humanoid species. Due to this lifestyle, she lost track of her age and how long she had been with them, although she did detect crow's feet and began to have some difficulty sitting down. (AUDIO: These Stolen Hours) She drew a smiley face on a thermos and named it Walter, keeping him in her pod as a lucky mascot. (AUDIO: The Viyran Solution)
The Viyrans once awoke Charley to learn from her about her adventure with the memory crabs. She recounted her story, including how the Doctor's reaction to Artemis Vane's deceit affected her plans with him. (AUDIO: These Stolen Hours)
Escape from the Viyrans
Tired of working for the Viyrans, Charley made an attempt to escape from Brouhaha-Nine-Nine-Five to Earth with Robert Buchan, assisted by a rogue Viyran. She was caught on her first attempt but tried a second time, told by the rogue to trust the Prolixity and to beware the Lamentation Cipher, and successfully escaped in a pod which the rogue prepared for her. She was pulled into the Prolixity with the Viyrans promising that they would find her and return her home to the Fieldship Prime. (AUDIO: The Lamentation Cipher)
Charley found herself in 1936 Scotland and met Mrs Turnerman, Dr Susan Broadstairs and Charity Savage, with whom she escaped from the Slaverings. She realised that the Slaverings were the infected male members of the expedition, which was confirmed by an early Viyran whom she met, and afterwards left through a Prolixity portal. (AUDIO: The Shadow at the Edge of the World)
From inside the Prolixity, Charley inadvertently made contact with Michael Dee and communicated with Richard and Louisa through him before he was able to properly manifest her, after which she explained to them that she had been travelling with a man who saved her from the R101. Their reunion was cut short when she was forced to return with a Viyran who threatened to kill her parents. Unbeknownst to her, they had erased all of her parents' memories of her. (AUDIO: The Fall of the House of Pollard)
Returned to the Fieldship Prime two years after she left, Charley learnt that she had been replaced as ambassador by Robert Buchan and that she was to be imprisoned in order to contain the Lamentation Cypher which they believed that she had been infected with. In reality, the rogue Viyran had infected her with a virus which restored all of the Viyrans to their factory settings, after which she headed towards the Prolixity with Robert moments before it closed. (AUDIO: The Viyran Solution)
As they approached the Prolixity, the pod began to take damage and Charley and Robert believed that they might die. Robert asked Charley for a hug and she asked him instead for a kiss, resulting in the two of them having sex. However, they survived their journey into the Prolixity and were transported through time and space. (AUDIO: Embankment Station)
In the 21st century
Charley and Robert's pod, which promptly vanished, crashed near Embankment tube station in 21st century London, where they were quickly tranquillised and arrested on Woking's orders. They were taken to Department 001 for interrogation and were eventually joined by the Rogue Viyran, who explained that he had dispersed the pod in order to cushion their arrival and ensure that they survived the trip, and who said that the Identical Men who arrived to neutralise the three of them could not be overcome. Charley suggested that they run. (AUDIO: Embankment Station)
After escaping from the Identical Men thanks to what Charley termed the Rogue Viyran's ruffling power, the trio escaped to a bank where Charley decided to name the increasingly human Viyran "Bertram". They were taken into police custody at Westminster Police Station before being transported to Woking and locked up with Naomi Davies, escaping only when Bertram tripped the building's power and caused the electronic door to open. Before Charley, Robert, Bertram, Naomi and Rab could escape, they were stopped by Woking, armed with a gun. (AUDIO: Ruffling)
When the bleeding Woking collapsed, Charley tended to him by using Naomi's scarf as a tourniquet and the group fled, chased by the zombified Captain Warwick and his men before they were hit by a train. She, Robert and Bertram were unaffected by the Identical Men's pulse, which she later realised had made people stop caring, and the trio were captured by Woking's men when a helicopter was sent to pick him up. After days locked up, Charley agreed to help Woking and went with him, Robert, Bertram and some soldiers to Embankment, later fleeing from the Identical Men and being teleported away by Bertram's newfound powers. (AUDIO: Seed of Chaos)
Life as a slave
Charley, Robert and Bertram found themselves wrapped up in the Gelrasians' web above Gelrasi and, whilst Bertram disappeared, Charley and Robert were taken away to a culling by the Proto-Viyrans of a humanoid work force. They were then sent down to the surface of Gelrasi and enslaved, being forced to harvest the orange coral that the Identical Men were built from without knowing the reason.
Over the years, Charley and Robert developed an understanding. They picked up some of their fellow humanoids' language and made sure to keep fit to survive the culling. Ten years after arriving on the planet, Charley and Robert were reunited with Bertram, who had Charley send a message to Rab in the past to ensure that Bertram would arrive on Gelrasi in the first place. She learnt that he had joined the Proto-Viyrans and held hands with Robert as he shot the two of them to keep their knowledge from harming the Proto-Viyran cause.
Charley found herself alone, having apparently been transported away by the Prolixity before dying, and called out to see if anybody else was with her. She received no answer. (AUDIO: The Destructive Quality of Life)
Alternate timelines
In a parallel universe, the Valeyard named Charley as someone he would have travelled with if he hadn't changed history. (AUDIO: He Jests at Scars...)
Legacy
The Eighth Doctor saluted Charley, along with his other companions, just prior to regenerating. (TV: The Night of the Doctor)
The Tenth Doctor, put on trial by the Shadow Proclamation, cited the saving of Charley Pollard as an example of his saving the life of someone who had been declared a "fixed point in time" and destined to die. (COMIC: Fugitive)
Whilst travelling through the Time Vortex, Cindy Wu saw Charley alongside other companions of the Doctor. (COMIC: The Good Companion)
The Twelfth Doctor saw Charley, among other companions, when Bernice Summerfield was hit by temporal energy in the Pyramid Eternia. (PROSE: Big Bang Generation)
Appearance
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Charley had blonde hair (AUDIO: The Next Life, The Viyran Solution) and was considered attractive. (AUDIO: The Stones of Venice, Minuet in Hell) She was about half the height of an Early Faction Cyberman. (AUDIO: Sword of Orion)
C'rizz said that he would not describe her as plump. Rufus Dimplesqueeze described her as being "tiny and feminine" (AUDIO: Other Lives) and Robert Buchan told her that she was beautiful. (AUDIO: The Lamentation Cipher)
Charley stole Simon Murchford's uniform to take his place on the R101, disguising herself as a man. (AUDIO: Storm Warning) She continued to wear these clothes during her early adventures with the Eighth Doctor as they were warm (AUDIO: The Mummy Speaks!) and wore a brooch given to her by her mother. (AUDIO: Scherzo)
After years of working for the Viyrans, Charley, unaware of how old she was, found that she had crow's feet and had developed a frown line on her forehead. (AUDIO: These Stolen Hours)
Personality
Charley was a dreamer. (AUDIO: Zagreus) Despite her upper-class upbringing, she was very sympathetic to the underdog (AUDIO: The Stones of Venice) and longed for excitement, rebelling against her background and running away in order to find adventure. (AUDIO: Storm Warning) She was resourceful, brave and was pleased to find that women could be in charge in the future, (AUDIO: Sword of Orion) being a supporter of female emancipation. (AUDIO: Minuet in Hell) She was not a fan of socialism (AUDIO: Brotherhood of the Daleks) nor did she know very much about art. (AUDIO: Hall of the Ten Thousand)
Charley believed that people lived only one life and intended to make hers count. She believed that she lived a full life during which she had become desensitised to death, remembering faces but not names. (AUDIO: The Next Life) She loved lightning because of how scary and powerful it was. (AUDIO: Storm Warning) She never got involved in fox hunting because she could not stand the killing of innocent creatures, but she did love the jackets and horses. (AUDIO: The Next Life) She was somewhat sensitive about her weight (AUDIO: Other Lives) and hated being ignored. (AUDIO: Neverland) She loved condensed milk (AUDIO: The Chimes of Midnight) and smoked salmon. (AUDIO: The Time of the Daleks) She told Robert that she never drank alcohol and never would, (AUDIO: The Lamentation Cipher) although she had drunk a gin sling with Alex Grayle. (AUDIO: Seasons of Fear) She did not like moths. (AUDIO: Eclipse)
When she was hurting, Charley would pretend to be cheerful. She hated seeing the Doctor vulnerable and would tell him that she loved him and that he should not feel bad, which could irritate him. (AUDIO: Terror Firma) She originally believed that the Doctor needed her, but later realised that it was her who needed him. (AUDIO: The Next Life) She said that the Doctor did not need her, but rather needed all of his companions. (AUDIO: Companion Piece) She considered the Doctor and C'rizz to be her family. (AUDIO: Something Inside)
Louisa described Charley as "wilful, disobedient" and that she had "little regard for authority", characteristics that she believed she had inherited from her rather than Richard. As a result, she thought that Charley was more than capable of finding her way to and from Cardington without any danger. (AUDIO: Zagreus)
Charley lost her lust for life whilst in Viyran custody, feeling little more than a glorified pet. After her escape, (AUDIO: The Lamentation Cipher) fear made her feel more alive than she had in years. (AUDIO: The Fall of the House of Pollard) She was upset that she never got to have a child. (AUDIO: The Viyran Solution)
Unlike the rest of her family, Charley spoke with and showed kindness to the Pollards' cook Edith Thompson, although she did not consider her a close friend. (AUDIO: The Chimes of Midnight) She was disgusted by the thought of different species interbreeding, (AUDIO: Sword of Orion) hated insects (AUDIO: The Creed of the Kromon) and considered all war to be a crime. (AUDIO: The Last)
When Charley pretended to be a Time Lord by the name of Charleyostiantayshius, the Doctor believed that she made a more convincing Time Lord than he did. (AUDIO: Living Legend) She also managed to pass herself off as a boy on the R101 (AUDIO: Storm Warning) and fit in extraordinarily well in the upper classes of 1572. (AUDIO: The Time of the Daleks) However, her skill at accents was variable, tending to wander. (AUDIO: Storm Warning)
Behind the scenes
- The reference to Charley in IDW Publishing's COMIC Fugitive marked the first time a character created for the Big Finish Productions audio drama line had been referenced in a comic book; she was also one of the names mentioned by the dying Eighth Doctor prior to his regeneration. (TV: The Night of the Doctor)
- In December 2014 Charley was added as a playable character to Doctor Who: Legacy and was the only character who originated from Big Finish to appear in the game. Her appearance was illustrated by Paul Hanley based on India Fisher's likeness, with an outfit inspired by fan artwork made by Simon Hodges.
- Along with Liv Chenka and Tania Bell, Charley is one of only three companions created by Big Finish to be depicted travelling with or meeting three or more incarnations of the Doctor, namely the Eighth Doctor, the Sixth Doctor and the Fourth Doctor.
- In an early character concept Charley was to have been a travel agent from the 1950s.[1]
External links
Footnotes
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