Tegan Jovanka

Last night we watched The Doctor Who episode "The Crimson Horror".

In it, the Doctor says something to Clara about him once helping an Australian get back to Heathrow Airport.  I thought it was just some random joke I didn't understand...despite my obsession with Australia and Doctor Who. Tim laughed. I don't know if it's because he understood the joke, or his laugh was just one of amusement over the fact that Australia was mentioned.

Later I was consulting Lord Wiki about the episode. I usually do this every night. What I'm most interested in is when he talks about continuity on the show—references to past and future episodes.  For The "Crimson Horror", he explained that the Australian remark was a reference to a past companion (Tegan Jovanka) who was Australian.

The Doctor had an Aussie companion! How did I not know about that?!

Well, now I know, at least.

Lord Wiki says Tegan has the honor of being the companion who was on the the show for the longest time consecutively.  She was on for three years and one month. But she doesn't have the honor of being on the most episodes. That honor goes to a guy named Jamie McCrimmon.

How did Tegan meet the doctor?  Well, she was on her way to Heathrow airport. Her car had a flat tire. She entered a police box to call for help, and the police box ended up being the Tardis. Then she ended up traveling with the Doctor.

I've been sitting here trying to figure out which Doctors.

I finally got it, thanks again to Lord Wiki.

She appeared in the fourth doctor (Tom Baker's) last episode. And that was the finale of season 18. For the most part, she was a companion of the fifth doctor (Peter Davison). I know him as being the father of David Tennant's wife.

From what I'm reading here Tegan is like the other companions in having a depressing emotional departure.   As a casual observer, Doctor Who looks like a campy science fiction show. At least I thought it did. But I don't think any show has ever caused me so much emotional turmoil.

Tegan Jovanka was played by Janet Fielding. She's Australian, but it looks like most of her acting work was done in the UK. Most of it is Doctor Who stuff.

Fielder is on Twitter, and her account links to an organization she's involved with. Project Motormouth.  What's that?

I shall follow the link and find out.

The top of the website is a bit messed up.  It looks like there's a problem with the HTML...or something like that.  But there's enough working here to tell me it's an organization that fights against cancer.

Wait. I think maybe there's two different things they're working on. They're also trying to save some building and use it for youth in a deprived area. It's a place for young folks to mingle, have fun, and learn business stuff.

I just looked more carefully.  There's Project MotorMOUTH, and that's for cancer. Then Project MotorHOUSE is the building project thing.

Anyway....now I'm wondering if there are any other huge Doctor Who/Australia connections I don't know about yet.

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