Ace

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Ace first appeared in the 1987 serial *Dragonfire* as a waitress on Iceworld, having been swept there from her bedroom by a time-storm while experimenting with nitroglycerin. Her backstory includes being expelled for blowing up an art room as a "creative statement" and surviving the racially motivated firebombing of her friend Manisha's flat at age 13. Traumatized by these events, she adopted a tough exterior, using Nitro-9 explosives and a baseball bat to mask her insecurities. Her journey involved confronting ghosts from her past in *Ghost Light* and *The Curse of Fenric*, where it was revealed she was unknowingly a "Wolf of Fenric," part of a genetic scheme to evolve humans into Haemovores. Although the series ended with her choosing to leave again after being returned to Perivale, spin-off novels depict her leaving the TARDIS due to the Doctor's manipulations, joining Spacefleet, and eventually becoming Time's Vigilante.

In Their Own Story

In *The Power of the Doctor* (2022), Ace was hired by Kate Stewart as a UNIT freelancer alongside Tegan Jovanka. She reunited with the Thirteenth Doctor to defeat the Master, Cybermen, and Daleks, notably working with Graham O'Brien to destroy a Dalek volcano base. During the conflict, an AI hologram of the Seventh Doctor appeared, allowing them to reconcile over their past "fallout." This event followed decades of ambiguity regarding her departure; while *Survival* showed her returning home but choosing to leave again, later stories like *Tales of the TARDIS* featured a reunion with an aged Seventh Doctor. They discussed their adventures and the Fenric incident, apologizing for their falling out. Ace reflected on visiting her grandmother years later and expressed love for the Doctor as a father figure she never had, leading them to take another trip together.

Reader's Guide

Ace is defined by her evolution from a troubled teen to a confident leader. Her signature weapons are Nitro-9 explosives (which she invented) and a baseball bat, tools often disapproved of by the Seventh Doctor yet found useful in crises. She affectionately calls the Doctor "Professor" and fiercely protects him, though their relationship is complicated by his tendency to manipulate events for what he believes are good reasons. In spin-off media, such as the Virgin New Adventures, her character deepens significantly: she leaves the TARDIS after the Doctor sacrifices her lover Jan, fights Daleks in Spacefleet for three years, and eventually returns older and harder. The story *Blood Heat* reveals that Manisha died in the firebombing, a fact Ace only learns later. Her narrative arc is one of facing trauma directly rather than running from it.

Did You Know?

• Script editor Andrew Cartmel wrote Ace specifically to be a "fighter and not a screamer".
• Ace's family name is never explicitly stated in the television series, though spin-offs use McShane, Gale, or both.
• The character was inspired by a female space engineer from the comic book *Love and Rockets*.
• In 2022's *The Power of the Doctor*, Ace worked as a UNIT freelancer alongside former companion Tegan Jovanka.
• Ace runs a charity called "A Charitable Earth" in the universe, a fact revealed by Sarah Jane Smith.