Rita Jalal
Rita was a human medical student who was abducted as her shift was starting and brought abroad the Prison Ship. She was astute, quickly diagnosing a situation based on her observations. The Doctor immediately took a liking to her, joking to Amy that she was "fired".
Rita was a devout Muslim. but smiled as she told the Doctor not to be afraid as she was not an extremist. She believed the hotel was Jahannam (the Muslim version of Hell). She was observant and told the Doctor he had a god complex. Her admirable qualities led the Doctor to promise that he would take her travelling through time and space as he had done with Amy and Rory.
Unfortunately, Rita had already become the the third human the Doctor encountered to be possessed by the Minotaur, following Joe Buchanan and Howie Spragg. Earlier, while running from the Minotaur with Joe she had encountered her room. Her fear was revealed to be her father, a medical Doctor whose constant berating her over her grades scared Rita and caused her to feel deep shame.
She hid her devotions to the Minotaur from the Doctor and the others, separating herself from them in an attempt to save them. She knew the Doctor would sacrifice himself for her and did not wish for him to die. She asked the Doctor to turn off the camera before she died, to remember her as she was, before her faith was stolen from her. The Doctor shut of the camera so they wouldn't see her die, as Rita wished.
After her death the Doctor was overcome with grief and rage, tearing apart the hotel's front desk. Her death eventually caused the Doctor to realize that the Minotaur did not feed on their fears, but instead on the faith they fell back on when faced with fear. That knowledge eventually allowed the Doctor to rob the Minotaur of its food supply and save the survivors. Rita's death (coupled with that of others in the hotel) was also the catalyst in the Doctor's subsequent decision to return Amy and Rory home. (DW: The God Complex)
Behind the scenes
- Since Doctor Who returned to television in 2005, each Doctor has encountered at least one female character who charms him to the extent that he offers her the chance to be a companion, only to have her die soon after. The Ninth Doctor invited Lynda "with a Y" Moss in DW: The Parting of the Ways shortly before she was killed by the Daleks; the Tenth Doctor invited Madame de Pompadour to join him in DW: The Girl in the Fireplace but she dies of illness before she can do so; later, he also invites Astrid Peth to join him in DW: Voyage of the Damned before she sacrifices herself to defeat Max Capricorn. Jenny, who was the Doctor's biological daughter as a result of rapid cell cloning, was also set to travel with her father before she took a bullet from Cobb which was meant from the Doctor. However, unlike the others, she was resurrected (albeit not in time for her to travel with the Doctor; he had already departed from Messaline by that point). Rita is the Eleventh Doctor's equivalent.
