Liz Shaw Dr . Elizabeth " Liz " Shaw was a civilian member of the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce . An accomplished scientist , Liz assisted the Third Doctor while there . This often involved her winding up in the same life - threatening situations as the Doctor . She also encountered and had some adventures with the Fourth ( PROSE : " Down to Earth " ) and the Fifth Doctor . Biography . Liz was the daughter of Reuben Shaw ( 1919 - 1995 ) and Dame Emily Shaw . ( HOMEVID : " Ghosts of Winterborne " , AUDIO : " The Last Post " ) She was born in 1943 in Stoke - on - Trent . ( PROSE : " The Devil Goblins from Neptune " ) She had a sister , Lucy Shaw . ( AUDIO : " The Last Post " ) Education . She was an accomplished scientist and an expert on meteorite s . She had degrees in several disciplines , including physics and medicine . ( TV : " Spearhead from Space " ) She could speak French , or at least to a reasonable degree of proficiency . ( TV : " The Ambassadors of Death " ) She was friends with Anne Travers . ( PROSE : " Mind of Stone " ) Experiences with UNIT . Recruitment . Liz was drafted from the University of Cambridge by Brigadier Lethbridge - Stewart as a scientific advisor to UNIT . Lethbridge - Stewart did not know that the Doctor had arrived on Earth and would ably serve as UNIT ' s scientific advisor . Sceptical at first of UNIT ' s remit to defend the Earth against alien invasion s , she changed her mind when she encountered the newly - regenerated Doctor . With him , she became involved in defeating the Nestene Consciousness and its animated plastic servants , the Auton s . ( TV : " Spearhead from Space " ) Career with UNIT . Liz joined the Doctor and the Brigadier at the Wenley Moor nuclear research facility , where the Silurian s had been drawing power from the facility . After a young Silurian released an epidemic into England , the Doctor and Liz rushed to find a cure , while Liz gave the formula away to be mass produced . After this plan was stopped , the Silurians tried destroying Earth ' s van Allen Belt using their molecular disperser , so that the sun ' s radiation would burn the human s to death while allowing the cold - blooded Silurians to survive . Under the Doctor ' s instructions , Liz overloaded the Silurians ' disperser and the facility ' s reactor . As the Silurians retreated to put themselves back into hibernation , the Doctor and Liz watched as the Brigadier ordered the Silurian base blown up and the entrance permanently sealed off . ( TV : " Doctor Who and the Silurians " ) She was asked by UNIT to investigate an alien computer after a couple of scientists disappeared whilst working on it . They asked her to look at the computer had she had to hack into one on an alien spaceship with the Doctor ' s help . She was initially helped by James Foster before he disappeared and then by Childs . She was transported into the computer to help fix it . ( AUDIO : " Binary " ) Whilst the Doctor was in one of his moods Liz went to see her old friend Jean Baisemore discovering that she had gone missing . The Doctor arrived to investigate the disappearance of a set of scientist of which Jean was on . She was infected with a cyberconversion fluid when she went to a dentist . On discovering a Cybermat , the Doctor and Liz encountered a Cyberman ship under Jeans house . ( AUDIO : " The Blue Tooth " ) Liz was later called with the Doctor to investigate a crashed spaceship in the Penines . She tried to work out where the ship came from . When they got back from the North she helped to investigate the ship , testing the material it was made from . The Doctor started to act weird after seeing the contents of the ship and Liz started to be concerned , especially when the Mim started to invade . She discovered that the Mim had impersonated the Doctor and that ' s why " he " was acting weird . Entering the TARDIS she discovers an unconscious Doctor , helping him back to health . It was in the TARDIS where she met another Time Lord , when the Doctor asked for their help . ( AUDIO : " Shadow of the Past " ) Liz found herself chased down the road by a group of terrorists working for General Carrington who forced her to pull over and run for her life , until she tripped up on a pier and nearly fell to her death . She was saved by the men who wanted to kidnap her , and then put to work for her skills as a scientist to monitor the life signs of alien ambassadors who had been captured to use as living weapons . Liz was also made to help the terrorists learn to communicate with the aliens , soon accompanied by the Doctor after the terrorist for hire Reegan arranged for his capture by gassing him after he finished a trip into space . However , after he and Liz had finished work on an improved communication device , the Doctor discretely used it to send an S . O . S . signal to UNIT , which allowed the Brigadier to conduct a raid on the secret base and rescue them . ( TV : " The Ambassadors of Death " ) She often had dinner with her mother and discussed her work with UNIT . The first occurrence was during the Nestene invasion where a set of civil servants were dying and they had letters foretelling their deaths . She later wrote to her mother after the Silurian incident after she found a letter in Dr Lawrence ' s coat telling him when he was going to die . Emily later told her that the people who were receiving these letters were on her committee . Whilst dealing with the Mars Probe 7 issue she found another letter amongst Bruno Taltalian ' s things . She managed to persuade the Doctor when her mother got one of the letters . After the Doctor saved her mother but went into a coma she investigated the committee that her mother was on , and found them all in stasis fields . She later found the apocalypse clock , the machine that was sending the letters , in a bunker under Whitechapel and told it that it was the cause of the end of the world . ( AUDIO : " The Last Post " ) On Inferno Earth , the Doctor met a parallel version of Liz who had joined the military , Section Leader Elizabeth Shaw . This version of Liz probably died , along with most of the rest of the other Earth in volcanic explosions . ( TV : " Inferno " ) Liz received anonymous messages in the post about treachery in C19 , the liaison between UNIT , the UN and the British government , which also said that she would be assisted by a journalist from Amsterdam called Jana Kristan . She received a call from what she assumed was Jana , but was actually an agent of the C19 splinter group after Jana had been murdered . Liz and " Jana " met in a café , where the anonymous man gave them a final letter containing a map leading to L ' Ithe in the Channel Islands , which was linked to " something dangerous " going on in the North of England . After heading to L ' Ithe , Jana killed a Silurian and the tribe ' s leader Chukk . In the Silurian shelter under the island , Liz spotted the Doctor and ran towards her , but Jana shot at her before the Silurians killed Jana with their third eyes . The Silurian - Sea Devil hybrid Baal D ' jo helped Liz heal from her wounds . After the Doctor was returned to the British mainland with the kidnapped boy Marc Marshall , the still - injured Liz was kept prisoner and worked with Baal and his sister Sula on a means of curing the illness that led to the hybrids ' shortened lifespans . After UNIT had stopped the C19 rogue agents ' plans to take over the world , Liz returned to UNIT HQ and agreed to take part in diplomatic relations between humanity and the Silurian tribe , and to continue to find a cure for the hybrids ' condition . Liz resigned from UNIT and returned to Cambridge . She had a tearful goodbye with the Doctor , feeling inadequate to him and grieving over Marc ' s death at the C19 Vault . He made it appear that he didn ' t care , bringing out the true feelings of who she was at heart after she had only conducted herself around him as a work - minded colleague . The Doctor respected her decision to resign and was touched by her inner compassion , happy that he had finally seen " the real Liz " underneath the scientist . She quietly gave him a fond farewell while he played with a caterpillar , unable to say a proper goodbye to his face without being overcome with emotion . ( PROSE : " The Scales of Injustice " ) She reportedly told the Brigadier that all the Doctor needed was " someone to pass him his test tubes and tell him how brilliant he was " . ( TV : " Terror of the Autons " ) According to one account , Liz ' s departure after the C19 incident coincided with Mike Yates being promoted from sergeant to captain and joining UNIT full - time . ( PROSE : " The Scales of Injustice " ) Another account stated that Yates was promoted from lieutenant to captain at a point when Liz no longer worked with the Doctor and UNIT , and when Yates was stationed in Scotland . ( AUDIO : " Vengeance of the Stones " ) One account suggested that she did not return to Cambridge , but instead went to work for CERN , a then - new secret organisation . ( PROSE : " Country of the Blind " ) According to another account , when the Doctor asked if she returned to Cambridge University , Liz responded , " Indeed . " ( COMIC : " In With the Tide " ) Continued association . Liz occasionally returned to help UNIT and the Doctor ( PROSE : " The Devil Goblins from Neptune " ) and even invited the Doctor to a lecture . ( COMIC : " Change of Mind " ) On one occasion , however , when the Doctor had gone away to Peladon , and the Brigadier needed her assistance , she had gone away on a lecture tour . ( PROSE : " The Face of the Enemy " ) One year after leaving UNIT , Liz called the Third Doctor for help with a time experiment . They travelled to the year 2014 and encountered the organisation known as the Sentinels of the New Dawn . They returned to Liz ' s correct time and the two separated again . ( AUDIO : " The Sentinels of the New Dawn " ) A few years after leaving UNIT , Liz gave a short interview to the investigative journalist James Stevens . Stevens found her a " difficult " subject . She warned him against prying too deeply into UNIT affairs . ( PROSE : " Who Killed Kennedy " ) In 1974 , Liz was summoned back to UNIT when Earth was being flooded . While dealing with this crisis , he discovered the Brigadier was acting strangely , giving orders to reassign UNIT troops " in a haphazard , unpredictable manner " . She summoned the Doctor and his companion , Sarah Jane Smith , to help . When the Brigadier ordered the Tower of London to be sealed off and flooded , Liz finally decided he was unfit for duty and gave him a check up . The Doctor deduce d that the Brigadier had been possessed by a Remoraxian , a species that wanted to flood the world to allow them to colonise . The Doctor built a de - remorator to remove the Remoraxian from the Brigadier . The Doctor , Sarah Jane , Liz and the Brigadier went to the nearby UNIT seabase along with Agent Paul of the CIA . There , the Remoraxian Prime was orchestrating its plot to flood the world . When the Remoraxian Prime sent the Doctor and the Brigadier to the bottom of the sea , Sarah and Liz saved them from drowning . The American government authorised the nuclear bombing of Great Britain to stop the threat ; the Doctor was given 29 minutes to negotiate with the Remoraxians . After the Brigadier persuaded the Remoraxian Prime that the Americans would follow through with the attack , the Remoraxians left Earth , ending the storms , and Agent Paul called off the bombing . A mysterious cloaked figure abducted Liz , Sarah Jane and the Brigadier , leaving the Doctor a single message : " Say goodbye , Doctor . " ( COMIC : " In With the Tide " ) As the Doctor ' s travelling companion . Generally , Liz was the Third Doctor ' s laboratory assistant rather than his travelling companion . She joined him at a time when the Doctor was just beginning his exile on Earth . She expressed disbelief that the TARDIS was capable of flight when she first met the Doctor and remained incredulous for some time thereafter . ( TV : " Spearhead from Space " , " Inferno " ) To the extent that she travelled with him , it was in Bessie or by other , more conventional means . However , she later travelled in the TARDIS with the Doctor and her successor , Jo Grant , after the Doctor regained his knowledge of time travel . ( PROSE : " The Wages of Sin " ) At one point , she travelled with the Fourth Doctor , who had deliberately sought her out to apologise for not saying goodbye to her properly . ( PROSE : " Down to Earth " ) P . R . O . B . E . . In the 1990s , Shaw was headhunted for the Preternatural Research Bureau , or P . R . O . B . E . , a paranormal investigation organisation not unlike UNIT or the Torchwood Institute . Unlike them , P . R . O . B . E . found itself dealing with explicitly supernatural threats . To Shaw ' s frustration , the organisation was undermanned she and Lou Bayliss were " two . . . doing the work of twenty " ( and Bayliss was transferred in 1995 ) , suffering funding shortages and government disinterest . In 1994 , she noted that handing a case over to the police would lose P . R . O . B . E . all its funding ; and in 1995 , it seemed like the body may be shut down altogether by new boss Brian Rutherford . All of this was not what she ' d been promised when hired . ( HOMEVID : " The Zero Imperative " , " The Devil of Winterborne " ) She befriended P . R . O . B . E ' s ministry liaison Patricia Haggard and the two became quite close . Haggard would be overseeing P . R . O . B . E . by 1997 . Despite this , Liz still had little support and in an unguarded moment would imply Haggard was giving her little support as well . ( HOMEVID : " Ghosts of Winterborne " ) 21st century . While she continued her involvement with P . R . O . B . E . ( HOMEVID : " When to Die " ) , she was again working for UNIT by the early 21st century . ( TV : " Death of the Doctor " , PROSE : " Eternity Weeps " ) Liz lived together and was in a relationship with Patricia Haggard , a colleague at P . R . O . B . E . ( HOMEVID : " When to Die " ) One account held that in 2003 Liz was part of a UNIT team which investigated an artefact left by the alien Cthalctose on the Moon . As a result , she contracted Agent Yellow and died . ( PROSE : " Eternity Weeps " ) In others , Liz was still alive in the 2010s . UNIT personnel said Liz was unable to attend the Eleventh Doctor ' s fake funeral as she was at the UNIT Moonbase and could not return until the following Sunday . ( TV : " Death of the Doctor " ) In 2015 , she was part of a P . R . O . B . E . operation regarding Corporal 7891Alpha . ( HOMEVID : " When to Die " ) Family . At some point during her life , Liz had children and granddaughter Elizabeth Holub , and long after her mother ' s death , Elizabeth worked alongside the Seventh Doctor to prevent an attack on the city of Prague in 2050 . ( PROSE : " Fable Fusion " ) Undated events . At some point , Liz was taken to the Black Archive by UNIT to have her record as a companion of the Doctor taken . Her memories of the visit were subsequently erased and she was sent on her way . ( TV : " The Day of the Doctor " ) Alternate versions . As noted above , in one dimension , Liz worked under Brigade Leader Lethbridge - Stewart as Section Leader Elizabeth Shaw . ( TV : " Inferno " ) In another , following the death of that dimensions ' s version of the Third Doctor , she managed to survive into the early 1990s on an Earth devastated by the victorious Silurians and their virus . ( PROSE : " Blood Heat " ) Other information . Unconventionally for a woman , Liz Shaw enjoyed smoking a pipe . ( HOMEVID : " The Zero Imperative " , PROSE : " Who Killed Kennedy " ) The Seventh Doctor gave Liz ' s UNIT pass to Ace . It was stored in his hat . ( TV : " Battlefield " ) Behind the Scenes . Liz Shaw is the first companion following the show ' s move to colour and the earliest companion without any missing episodes .