Melanie Bush
Melanie Bush, BSc (Hons) — or simply Mel or Melanie — was a computer programmer from Pease Pottage, West Sussex, who hailed from the decades that surrounded the turn of the 21st century. (PDA: Business Unusual, BFA: Catch-1782, The Juggernauts) Like Frobisher, she was a companion who traveled with the Doctor both before and after his sixth regeneration. Unlike the Whifferdill, however, she was with him at the actual moment of regeneration.
She had a temporally complex relationship with the Doctor, in which she met the Doctor at a different time than he met her, as River Song does in the latest series. Eventually, however, their timelines did synchronize, and she was able to have a more-or-less linear relationship to the Doctor, starting in the later period of his sixth life. Her temporal relationship to the seventh version of the Doctor was considerably more straightforward and linear. Even so, her travels with both versions of the Doctor mainly had to do with time paradoxes in general and/or her own alternate timelines.
Biography
Because Mel's timeline was confused with respect to the Doctor, it was difficult to state with authority the order in which events happened to her.
Before the Doctor
Melanie Bush was born to Alan and Christine (probably née Hallam) Bush, some 25 years prior to beginning her travels with the Doctor. Since at least one account established that her TARDIS travels began in 1989, this would have made Mel's year of birth 1963 or 1964. As a child, Mel took dancing lessons from a woman named Miss Fairs, and enjoyed the music of ABBA and The Bee Gees. (PDA: Business Unusual)
Melanie had a keen interest in science from a very young age. Her uncle, Dr. John Hallam — most likely her mother's brother — was deeply influential to this childhood obsession, and she credited him with her later academic success at a London university. In 2003, Hallam told his colleague, Professor David Munro, that Mel was "very gifted" with computers. (BFA: Catch-1782) As a consequence of her education, she was adept in the Human computer languages of BASIC, COBOL and FORTRAN. (BFA: The Juggernauts)
At the time of her initial encounter with the Doctor she was working at a summer job with Brighton Information Technologies, a pre-requisite for a full time job with ACL Services, Ltd.
Her home address was 36 Downview Crescent in Pease Pottage. (PDA: Business Unusual) She regularly used this address as a backdoor when writing code. For instance, she used it to override programming on the Juggernauts. (BFA: The Juggernauts)
Though a young career woman at the time she traveled with the Doctor, she once told Evelyn Smythe on the planet Világ that she had never been in love. (BFA: Thicker than Water)
A confused timeline
With respect to the Doctor
Mel first met the Doctor in Brighton in 1989 when she was 25. However, as a consequence of the Doctor's trial at the hands of the Valeyard, he already knew her then. To him their first meeting was when she was pulled from her timestream by the Time Lords and was made to testify on the Doctor's behalf. Therefore, for a time of indeterminate length — from the moment she met him in Brighton until the time the younger Sixth Doctor returned her to the side of an older Sixth Doctor on the planet Oxyveguramosa — he had to pretend that he had originally met her in Brighton, as well. (PDA: Business Unusual, MA: Time of Your Life) It was only after she was returned to his future self that their timelines synched, and he was able to progress with her in a more forthright way.
Even so, Mel and the Sixth Doctor's timelines ware not asynchronous merely because of he unusual way in which they met. Even after their respective timelines apparently came into harmony, Mel was often parted from the Sixth Doctor. On at least two occasions, she was was stranded for months away from him, even though very little time passed for him. When transported back in time to 1781 by a freak accident, the Doctor was unable to retrieve her until six months later in 1782. (BFA: Catch-1782 Later, she was accidentally left on Lethe, and the Doctor was delayed by an additional three months. (BFA: The Juggernauts) On both occasions she fully became a resident of the new era in which she found herself while waiting for the Doctor's uncertain return.
Her timeline with respect to that of the Seventh Doctor was, by contrast, considerably better synchronized — though they, too, were heavily involved in a variety of time anomalies.
With respect to companions
Her chronological placement with respect to other companions was also somewhat tricky. Technically, she both pre-dated and post-dated Evelyn Smythe. At one point, for instance, Smythe – or as she was then, Rossiter — called Mel "my replacement". (BFA: Thicker than Water) Though they disagreed on many other aspects of this first encounter between Bush and Smythe, another account of the event agreed that the bulk of Mel's travels with the Doctor postdated Evelyn's. (PDA: Instruments of Darkness) This view of events was likely one Mel held only in the moment of the encounter. Because the Mel from the trial had not yet been taken out of her timestream by the Time Lords, the Mel who met Evelyn would not yet have had knowledge that she had met the Doctor long before their "first" encounter in Brighton. From the Doctor's perspective, he met Mel at the trial, took her back to her proper time, met Evelyn (either before or after he encountered Charley Pollard and an older Jamie McCrimmon and Zoe Heriot), traveled with Evelyn, re-encountered Mel in Brighton, re-encountered Evelyn, then regenerated and continued traveling with Mel in his Seventh persona.
Less certain was Mel's placement with respect to Frobisher. Clearly, the Doctor met Frobisher at a time when he was primarily traveling with Peri, although for some of that time, she was on a temporary hiatus back in the United States. (DWM: Kane's Story) Equally clearly, Frobisher knew of the outcome of the Doctor's trial by the Time Lords; he knew, for instance, of Peri's marriage to Yrcanos. (DWMS: The Age of Chaos) Frobisher also briefly continued his journeys with the Doctor's seventh persona. (DWM: A Cold Day in Hell) This suggested some kind of overlap with Mel's time in the TARDIS, but no account definitively established that the two ever met.
Departure
Mel was highly unusual amongst the Doctor's Human companions, in that she chose to leave him at a place and time radically different from her own, without being enticed by a romantic relationship. Unlike most companions, she left the Doctor, but remained an adventurer. Trading one travelling companion for another, she departed the Doctor's side on the planet Iceworld, only to begin her travels with the galactic confidence trickster, Sabalom Glitz. It was unclear at that time how or if she expected to ever return home. (DW: Dragonfire)
Going home
Mel traveled with Glitz for about six months before deciding to try to go back home. On her way home, she detoured to the planet Avalone, where she ended up working at a holiday camp owned by Avalonian Resorts, Inc.. However, her progress towards Earth was stopped and she succumbed to the workaday life on Avalone. After two years, however, she chanced another run at Earth. She hacked into computer systems in order to send a message to Glitz to come pick her up. Instead, she was "rescued" by Dr. Who and Jason, who then imprisoned her in the Galactic Prison found in the Land of Fiction. There, she encountered another prisoner, the Doctor. He, however, was a changed and considerably darker man than she had known. He revealed to her that he manipulated her to depart his company on Iceworld because he knew what was coming (as Time's Champion) and couldn't have her as a companion. Incensed, she angrily departed his company and refused to travel with him in the TARDIS ever again. An Ace who was also much changed from the person she'd left behind on Iceworld tried to calm her down and explain the reasons both she and the Doctor were so much "harder" than the people she had known. Although the explanation did little to dispel her disillusionment, Mel did at least accept a ride from Ace. Mel thus returned to Pease Pottage in the 1990s thanks to Ace's time hopper. (NA: Head Games)
Another account of her return to Pease Pottage was known, but it was unclear whether this account described events that followed the angry final encounter with the Doctor, or whether they actually described an entirely different return journey. It was further possible that the two accounts may simply have been contradictory tellings of the same event. (PDA: More Short Trips: "Missing, Part One: Business as Usual") This second account seemed to differ from the first, in that her return was not effected by the Doctor's TARDIS. Whatever the truth of her return home, she flung a message in a bottle into the universe at some point close to the end of her travels, in the hopes that the Doctor would one day find it. (PDA: More Short Trips: "Missing, Part Two: Message in a Bottle")
Furthermore, the Doctor's sixth self would prove a complicating factor to her own timeline, even after she had returned home. He was reunited with her on Earth at some point after she had stopped traveling with both his seventh self and Glitz. (PDA: The Quantum Archangel)
Likewise, there was also the possibility that Mel in fact never permanently returned home, but instead died on the planet Heritage in the 61st century. However during this point in the Doctor's adventures many enemies were attempting to eliminate his companions from the timeline. Thus she may not have died here, but been restored to life when the timeline itself was righted. (PDA: Heritage)
Alternate timelines
While her return to Earth and possible death were perhaps the most obvious signs that the various accounts were probably describing different Melanies, there were other signs of this, as well. She herself was aware of at least one other version of herself present in an adventure on the planet Puxatornee. (BFA: Flip-Flop. Likewise, she could not ignore the potential of thousands of other versions of herself when the Doctor took her to Library of Carsus to explore the very fact that some parallel universes had disappeared. (PDA: Spiral Scratch)
There were other occasions in which she may not have been aware of other realities, but where neutral observers could not rectify obviously conflicting information about her life. For instance, there was one alternate reality in which Mel became the British Prime Minister and had to lead the United Kingdom against an invasion of Cybermen. (PDA: The Quantum Archangel). Mel's relationship with another of the Doctor's companions, Evelyn Smythe also appeared to reveal alternate realities. It was particularly unclear whether the Mel who bid farewell to Evelyn Smythe on Világ (BFA: Thicker than Water) was the same Mel who met Evelyn on Earth. (PDA: Instruments of Darkness) As Mel's trip to Carsus made clear, it was further possible that neither of these Mels was the one who traveled with the Doctor in the prime universe. (BFA: Spiral Scratch)
Personality
Mel had a cheery personality. She greeted most situations with a warm smile and good humour. She was an optimist who generally believed the best of people's natures, although she tempered this optimism with a realism and skepticism borne of her scientific education. Her generally perky personality could cool quite quickly if she detected a threat to either herself, the Doctor, or anyone whom she had befriended. (DW: Terror of the Vervoids, BFA: The Fires of Vulcan, The Wishing Beast, The Juggernauts) Though she was happy to go by the informal "Mel", she sometimes insisted on being introduced as "Melanie" to those she didn't quite trust. (BFA: The Fires of Vulcan)
Mel prided herself on her innate honesty, (BFA: Red, DW: The Ultimate Foe) and felt bad even inventing a cover story to explain away the materialization of the Doctor's TARDIS to those who happened to witness it. (BFA: The Fires of Vulcan)
An extraordinary mind
Mel had at least a couple of outstanding skills. First, she possessed — somewhat like Zoe Heriot — an eidetic memory. (DW: Terror of the Vervoids, The Ultimate Foe) It was not, however, an absolute photographic memory, as it deserted her when her memory was clouded by emotion. (BFA: The Wishing Beast) Second, she wasn't merely qualified in computer science; she was a veritable genius. Perhaps aided by her extraordinary memory, she had the ability to quickly assimilate new computer languages, even those in use in the distant future. (BFA: The Juggernauts, Red)
A screamer with a steely resolve
Mel's reaction to fear was dichotomous. In some situations, Mel met danger with a powerful scream (DW: Terror of the Vervoids, Paradise Towers, Time and the Rani). In others, she was possessed of an almost steely resolve. Though she might have cowered in fear upon first meeting the Vervoids and Tetraps, she comported herself quickly after expelling a scream. On other occasions, she displayed little fear at all. She possessed a relatively even temperament when defeating the Valeyard (DW: The Ultimate Foe) and when facing down the Bannermen (DW: Delta and the Bannermen), for instance. On still other occasions she allowed her logic to guide her swift and efficient action, as when she almost single-handedly defeated Davros and then derided the Doctor for not having killed Davros and the Daleks when he had the chance. (BFA: The Juggernauts) Likewise, she displayed extraordinary calm when she had to navigate Pompeii on foot during the actual eruption of Vesuvius, in search of the Doctor's TARDIS — when he believed it lost and his life near its end. She also displayed an ability to fight against more internal threats, such as when she fought against the effects of having been slowly drugged for six months with laudenum. (BFA: The Fires of Vulcan, Catch-1782)
Despite the occasional scream, however, Mel rarely expressed genuine, lasting phobia of anything. However, she did once admit to a fear of heights. (BFA: Red)
The logic of healthy living
Mel was a health enthusiast and a vegetarian, often encouraging the slightly portly Sixth Doctor to exercise more. Though she remained staunchly vegetarian throughout her travels with the Doctor, (BFA: The Fires of Vulcan) her attempts to be the de facto nutritionist of the Doctor virtually disappeared after that incarnation regenerated.
Her enthusiasm for healthy living was borne of the hard-nosed logic of basic science, which also manifest itself in other ways. She was, for instance, flatly dismissive of the supernatural — like ghosts — as scientifically ludicrous. (BFA: Catch-1782) Equally, she did not believe in the concept of fate. (BFA: The Juggernauts)
Relationship with the Doctor
In her relationship with both of "her" Doctors, Mel was warmly affectionate. For instance, she sometimes found herself separated from the Doctor for months on end, and was always extremely glad to see him return. (BFA: The Juggernauts, Catch-1782). She was an especially enthusiastic travelling companion. Once, when asked what she would wish for, if she had the opportunity, she replied:
I was going to wish that things could go on just as they are — for as long as we could manage. I love all this, our lives, racketing about the galaxy.
The manner of her departure from the Doctor was also gently affectionate (DW: Dragonfire) and her emotional reaction and tears were genuine when she thought him dead. (BFA: The Wishing Beast, The Vanity Box)
However, her proactive lifestyle led her to be bossy of both her Doctors. Not only did she try to reform the Sixth Doctor's health standards, for instance, but she also demanded and apparently got him to lose his multi-coloured outfit for a time. (BFA: Catch-1782) Likewise, she often spurred the Doctor to adventure, as when she insisted they stay on the Hyperion III to explore against his better judgment (DW: Terror of the Vervoids), or when she insisted on staying in Pompeii despite knowing Vesuvius was about to erupt. Her at times boundless optimism could prove the buoy the Doctor needed to survive, as when she insisted that there must be a solution to a temporal paradox that the Doctor believed was dooming he and Mel to death under the volcanic ash of Vesuvius. (BFA: The Fires of Vulcan) Perhaps because of her highly adventurous nature, she sometimes found it difficult to cope with the mundane, as when she displayed reluctance at the sight of the rather ordinary Shangri-La holiday camp. (DW: Delta and the Bannermen)
Behind the scenes
- Mel's last name is never uttered during any televised appearance, and the closing credits identify her only by her first name. Her surname is, however, regularly used in Big Finish audios and various stories told in other media.
- According to his book The Companions, John Nathan Turner planned to begin Season 24 with a storyline explaining how the Sixth Doctor met Mel. This story was never produced due to Colin Baker's removal from the role.
- In a completely non-canonical story, yet another version of Mel once again encountered the Valeyard. This version of Mel was much more cynical and hard than she was in the Doctor Who universe. (DWU: He Jests at Scars...)
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