Portrayed by: Wendy Padbury
Doctor(s): Second Doctor
Tenure: 8 stories, from The Wheel in Space (April, 1968) to The War Games (June, 1969)
Background: Zoe is an astrometricist, astrophysicist, and computer genius aboard the titular Wheel in Space when she meets the Doctor. Seeking adventure, and the chance to develop more than just the skills she’d honed on the Wheel, she stows away aboard the TARDIS.
Family/Friends: Though we meet some of Zoe’s shipmates in her first story, we never find out much about her background or family. Zoe doesn’t have any particularly close ties when she joins the TARDIS team, being rather emotionally underdeveloped, and this is one of the things she’s looking to change with her new life. She quickly becomes fast friends with both the Doctor and Jamie.
Personality: Zoe is extremely precocious. She may even be smarter than the Doctor in certain areas, and she knows it. She’s extremely confident, displaying the curiosity and proactive nature now a staple of Companions. She’s also capable of defending herself in hand to hand combat, making her very similar to the character one imagines Carole Ann Ford initially thought she’d be playing as Susan. Zoe makes an excellent pair with Jamie, who is understandably smitten, and she, Jamie, and the Doctor make the most cohesive TARDIS team since Ian, Barbara, Vicki, and the First Doctor.
Special Skills: Math whiz, computer genius, and adept martial artist. Plus she can rock a catsuit with the best of ‘em
Best Story: The Mind Robber, an incredibly creative story which separates our heroes and allows them to explore the world of fiction
Worst Story: The Space Pirates is one of the low points of not only Zoe’s run, but the Second Doctor’s.
Highlights of tenure: Getting a computer to blow itself up using only the power of math in The Invasion, and less specifically, both Zoe’s rapport with Jamie and the Doctor and her gradual growth into a more socially adept and well-rounded young woman
Lowlights of tenure: Zoe does get a bit screamy in The Seeds of Death, though it’s a good story
Memorable quotes:
“Oh, it isn’t a theory. You can’t disprove the facts. It’s pure logic.” The Wheel in Space
“I don’t want to be thought of as a freak. Leo said that I was like a robot, a machine. Well I think he’s right. My head has been pumped full of facts and figures which I reel out automatically when needed. But, well, I want to feel things as well.” The Wheel in Space
Other notes: Zoe, along with Jamie, experiences one of the more tragic departures in the series’ run. Determined to travel with the Doctor, she is eventually torn away from her new life when the Time Lords wipe her memory of her adventures aboard the TARDIS and return her to the Wheel (and Jamie to Scotland), in a precursor to Donna’s fate.