john_amend_all

thisbluespirit suggested I write something about Zoë and why she's my favourite (assuming she is).

I think it's a fairly safe assumption that she is my favourite — after all, that's what I told Wendy Padbury when I got her autograph, and I wouldn't have dared lie to her. The 'why' I find something of a mystery. I'd always liked the idea of the character since first encountering her in the novelisation of The Krotons. Around six years ago I experimented with putting her in a fanfic, and suddenly found I had a full-blown case of Zoë On The Brain — not only was I imagining what she'd do in various situations, but I cared about what happened to her, which was somewhat unnerving.

So, what's to like about Zoë?

Some of it's got to be wish-fulfilment — she's an attractive, brave, adventurous young woman who can remember anything she's seen, beat up superheroes, out-calculate computers, and blow up a telephone menu system for giving her lip (something I wish I could do every time I have to call my credit card provider). She's also infused with the 1960s' optimism about the future; she's from a world where people wear jumpsuits, eat food pills and have space stations all over the inner Solar System. (A closer look leaves one with a less rosy view of the world she comes from, but it doesn't affect the surface impression).

Listing off her abilities like that can make her sound like a pretty annoying person, if not a full-blown Mary Sue. So one further characteristic needs to go on the list: she's likeable, both in-universe and outside it. Certainly from my point of view, this is because her character flaws feel like realistic consequences of her strengths. The same problem-solving focus that has her blowing up the receptionist in The Invasion stops her realising until too late that her vandalism has consequences, and the curiosity that got her onto the TARDIS is also what leads her into the Krotons' clutches when she starts experimenting with the teaching machine.

One other wish-fulfilment aspect: She becomes aware of her lack of emotional development, expresses a desire to improve herself, and is promptly launched on a crash course that seems to bring about the desired effect within hours. Her modelling sessions with Isobel must, from her point of view, be days at most since she was sitting in her library on the Wheel wondering what was wrong with her. If only all real-life problems were capable of such an immediate resolution.

From a fan writer's view, I find her an entertaining character to write. I once said that like a Swiss Army Knife, she contains a number of useful tools. As well as being able to blow things up, knock people down, and remember anything plot-relevant, she's almost certain to bring an outsider's perspective to wherever the TARDIS happens to land next. Even in her own time, her emotional detachment serves a similar purpose. She's got enough of the characteristics listed in Sherlock Homage to carry a detective story; or she can serve as a specialist sidekick if the task at hand requires a generalist.

When writing fanfic, what we're not told about a character often gives rise to as many plotbunnies as what we are. (Who characters in the black-and-white era often seem to be sketched in a manner to remind me of the remark in Chesterton about Tudor portraits being "just realistic enough to be real"). In the case of Zoë, we know nothing about the world she comes from or her family; as I've remarked before, she might well have been grown in a jar in a laboratory. It's not clear how old she is, though since she's employed rather than in full-time education she's probably considered an adult by the standards of her time (or maybe she's a student on a work placement?). And to make things easy for shippers, her romantic preferences are left a complete blank.

It's also the case that any time the books or Big Finish revisit Zoë after The War Games, it's only to yank her chain. Consequently, the only way I'm getting something vaguely optimistic about her future is to write it myself. Again, this is where the gaps in her background provide opportunities for fanfic; Jamie and Donna were left in known periods of history, but Zoë was returned to a sketchily-outlined future that diverges considerably from the timeline we're following (with the promise of a Dalek invasion a few decades down the line, no less).

And that's why Zoë's either my favourite character or just the one I keep boring everybody rigid about. I'm never sure which.