Izzy Sinclair
Isabelle "Izzy" Sinclair was a human companion to the Eighth Doctor.
Biography
Izzy was born on 12th October, 1979. However, she did not know where she had been born, nor did she know who her biological parents were. She was adopted by Les and Sandra Sinclair, but because of her unknown ancestry chose to call herself Izzy S (for "Izzy Somebody") instead.
When she first met the the Doctor, Izzy was a 17-year-old science fiction fan and amateur paranormal investigator who lived in the town of Stockbridge, England. She was also a friend of Maxwell Edison, a UFO enthusiast who had encountered the Doctor in his fifth incarnation several years before. (DWM: Stars Fell on Stockbridge)
When Izzy first met the Doctor, she and Max had stolen an artifact that was being sought by the Doctor's old enemy, the Celestial Toymaker. The Toymaker had taken the entire town of Stockbridge into a pocket dimension and turned everyone into dolls save for Izzy and Max. The Doctor arrived in the midst of this, rescued his friends, defeated the Toymaker once again and took Izzy on board the TARDIS as his newest companion. (DWM: End Game)
Izzy had left Earth without telling her adoptive parents, but that did not concern her much as she was trying to escape what she felt was a too-mundane life. As a result, she reveled in the experience of traveling with the Doctor, even though it was usually dangerous. However, her vivacious and trusting nature eventually had tragic consequences.
When the TARDIS was swallowed by a gigantic snake-like spacecraft called Ophidius, Izzy and the Doctor met Destrii, an amphibious alien with the characteristics of a humanoid fish. Destrii was being pursued by the group of aliens that controlled Ophidius, and gained Izzy's confidence only to switch bodies with her to evade capture. When Destrii (in Izzy's body) was apparently disintegrated, Izzy had to deal with the possibility that she would be in an alien body for the rest of her life. Ironically, given her new aquatic form, Izzy had never learnt how to swim prior to ending up in Destrii's body. (DWM: Ophidius)
Just as she began to adjust to her new body, Izzy was kidnapped by operatives of Destrii's mother, the Matriax Scalamanthia of the planet Oblivion, who wanted her "daughter" to prepare for her wedding by fighting a duel to the death. While trying to trace Izzy's whereabouts with the help of his former companion Fey, the Doctor discovered that Destrii was still alive, and took her to Oblivion to switch their bodies back. In the process, both Destrii and Izzy saw into each other's minds, and Destrii saw how finding out she had been adopted made Izzy withdraw emotionally, unable to trust herself or admit that she was a lesbian. Finally coming to terms with who she was, Izzy asked the Doctor to take her back to Stockbridge so she could make amends to her adoptive parents. The Doctor dropped Izzy off at the point where she began traveling with him, so that from her parents' point of view, she had never left. (DWM: Oblivion)
As of December 2008, Izzy had taken up travelling the world, and was last heard from having found "something amazing" in Kabul. (DWM: The Stockbridge Child)
Personality
Izzy was brought up watching Science Fiction on TV and reading books by authors as varied as Iain M. Banks and H.P. Lovecraft and as such felt she was ready to travel with the Doctor. She found she was mistaken only in the fact that real life far exceeded fiction in fantastical and terrible ways. During , and after the Doctor was abducted by the Master, Izzy was left to cope with a morose Kroton and have to deal with a failing resistance to the Ash Wraith invaders. (DWM: The Glorious Dead)
After swapping bodies with Destrii, Izzy's burgeoning self confidence was first shaken and then strengthened when she both came to terms with the change and then was successfully returned to her body. The ultimate realisation of that growth was when she could tell the Doctor she was ready to go home, and to accept a kiss from Fey, symbolically accepting her own homosexuality. (DWM: Ophidius, Oblivion)
Behind the scenes
- The revelation that Izzy is a lesbian makes her the first confirmed female LGBT companion. She is not the first overall LGBT companion, as Chris Cwej takes that distinction.
- Izzy's birthday is the same as the first publishing date of Doctor Who Weekly.
- Izzy was the Eighth Doctor's most constant companion in the comic strip, appearing in nearly all of the Eighth Doctor's appearances between 1996 and 2003. Her time with the Doctor saw the coming and going of both Kroton and Fey as companions. An older Izzy made a cameo appearance in the last regular Eighth Doctor comic strip story, The Flood (DWM Issue 353) and narrates part of the story. She also appears in the short stories Syntax and Illumination by David Bailey, published in the Big Finish Productions Short Trips anthologies, Life Science and Christmas Around The World, set during her time with the Doctor.
- Izzy later made a cameo appearance in the comic story "Death to the Doctor" in which various aliens recount how different incarnations of the Doctor defeated them. One was bested by the eighth Doctor and Izzy is seen in his flashback. Her most recent reference was in the 2008 comic strip The Stockbridge Child.
- Izzy became one of the few comic strip companions to be given life by an actor when Jemima Rooper portrayed her in the 2009 Big Finish Productions release The Company of Friends.
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