Dr. Grace Halloway Daphne Ashbrook

• A Review by Ryu Kirtz
• A Review by Matthew Sychantha

A Review by Ryu Kirtz 23/7/97

Grace, to the extent to which she is realized at all, is not a fully realized person; she is as most companions have been, Doctor Who's New Girl as the press put, though not in this case, the series not having aired for eight years. Grace has no distinguishing characteristics, she is a pure audience identification figure, which makes her, for me, a fan, an impediment. Not a gratingly irritating one, but solidly mediocore, competently acted, a bore, one of the least good things about the Fox pilot. I liked some of her lines, excepting that infamous one, but, like the actors who have played companions over the years, I felt let down. Glad she didn't stay with the Doctor. I am a little dissapointed Chang Lee had.

A Review by Matthew Sychantha 23/10/11

Companions in the Whoniverse are difficult beasts. They need time to be met, time to grow, and time to show what they can bring to a working relationship with the Doctor. Now, one movie certainly doesn't offer the time and space needed to introduce a companion as well as an entire series does, but the rapid fire pace of introduction and relationship building of Grace Halloway does in fact work magically. Let me break it down for you.

Before we see Grace Halloway, we are introduced to her through a nickname she has been bestowed upon by her colleagues, "Amazing Grace". From here we see her shedding a tear, truly enthralled in the opera before her. Her willingness to work in an elaborate dress and not change out due to a hospital emergency, her outwitting Lee, and her continued integrity despite the major loss of a patient and her social life, including her romantic relationship, give her a flair of a renaissance hero. She is a jack of all trades with a strong moral compass.

As we move on, she takes on what could happily be described as dual shades of Liz Shaw and Amy Pond. Her scientific background keeps her on track, yet a few steps behind the Doctor. The humorous exchange of her amazement of the Doctor's two hearts while the Doctor is rambling about Puccini is a highlight of her characterization. Yet she is a woman of science. This keeps her grounded in disbelief, like a new viewer to Doctor Who would, as the elements are introduced and then forcefully explained. Yet at the same time, her reluctance to work with the Doctor forces a bit of urgency to drive the plot, done beautifully later in The Eleventh Hour. All this leads to a scene where we finally establish the Doctor and Grace as on the same page. And, once we do, it feels like a classic Doctor Who pairing in action. Grace's resources and the Doctor's resourcefulness drive what this relationship is all about. It is truly a shame that we didn't see the character develop further in either the television series or even a single book.

In the end, it is truly remarkable that Grace did not choose to join the Doctor in the TARDIS. Her life, jobless and apartment bare, had nothing left. But, that said, she is the only companion to completely reject the possibility of any era in space and time to do whatever she wanted to. Stranger still, she invites the Doctor to stay on Earth and be a part of it. She wasn't horrified by what she had seen in this strange adventure, she simply wanted to rebuild her life instead of running away. So little time, so much to do.