The Green Death brought Jo Grant’s relationship with the Third Doctor to a poignant end. Jo is still one of the series’ most popular characters, but how much do we actually know about her?

By JONATHAN MORRIS

Jo Grant is sometimes regarded as the archetypal Doctor Who companion – ayoung woman, not particularly bright, who serves no function except to scream, ask the Doctor questions, get into trouble so she needs rescuing, and who has a penchant for false eyelashes, miniskirts and highly impractical footwear.

Well, the stuff about eyelashes and footwear is mostly true. And, though usually wearing perfectly sensible trousers, Jo did sometimes sport a miniskirt or mini-dress. But the rest is just wrong.

Yes, we know that Jo isn’t very well-educated. She probably went to a very good school, considering that her uncle is high up at the United Nations, but she failed General Science at A-Level (and didn’t study Latin or Greek). But on the other hand, she’s managed to become a fully qualified intelligence agent, trained in cryptology, safe-breaking and explosives. She’s adept at escapology, freeing herself from ropes in Terror of the Autons (1971) and Day of the Daleks (1972), from handcuffs in Colony in Space (1971), and picking a manacle lock in The Sea Devils (1972). She’s proficient at martial arts, disarming Mailer with a kick and Charlie with a chop in The Mind of Evil (1971), as well as delivering a knock-out blow to a guard in The Sea Devils. In that story, she’s also capable of abseiling and driving a hovercraft and a motorbike. In short, she has the ideal skill set to be a Doctor Who companion.

And the fact that she failed General Science tells us something else about her. Unlike her predecessor, Liz Shaw, she’s not remotely academic. She’s bright, intelligent and eager to learn but lives very much in the now. Rather than having a long attention span, Jo’s is highly focused on whatever is right in front of her.

Jo (Katy Manning) is astonished when she enters the TARDIS for the first time in Episode One of Colony in Space (1971).

Jo borrows a motorbike from Robbins (Royston Tickner) in Episode One of The Sea Devils (1972).

As for the part about getting into trouble – well, that’s mainly what companions are for. And Jo Grant is the classic example of the companion who decides to go off on her own to prove patronising male chauvinists wrong in a way that’s incredibly useful in terms of providing a second plot thread. More often than not, the stories have her going off so she can discover something of vital importance to the plot, such as seeing a true Axon in The Claws of Axos (1971) or finding an electronic key in The Curse of Peladon (1972) – as well as performing a daring escape along a narrow window ledge. Yes, sometimes she does end up in danger, such as her ill-advised trip to the IMC spaceship in Colony in Space or the church cavern in The Dæmons (1971), but even then she doesn’t end up being saved by the Doctor or UNIT (in The Dæmons Jo ends up saving the Doctor!). It’s only after her attempt to capture a maggot in The Green Death (1973) that she needs to be rescued – and even then, she’s proactive in her own rescue, repairing her radio so that she can call for help.