Ace McShane

Ace, as she appears in Dragonfire

**Ace** was a companion of the Seventh Doctor. Her real name was **Dorothy Gale McShane**.

Initially a brash and reckless teenager, Ace matured significantly into a strong, independent adult over her many years of TARDIS travel and other experiences, who was capable of surviving on her own.

Born on Earth, Ace eventually attended the Academy on Gallifrey, becoming a Time Lord.

## Biography

### Before Travelling with the Doctor

Dorothy was born to Audrey Dudman (TV: *The Curse of Fenric*).

Ace was a Brownie, one of the lower tiers of Girl Guides. She was kicked out after she turned a summer camp's fairy marquee into a makeshift Molotov cocktail. (PROSE: *Survival*)

Naturally aggressive but also clever, Ace was skilled at using her knowledge of chemistry despite failing it for her O-levels, making bombs filled with an explosive of her own devising called Nitro-9. (TV: *Dragonfire*)

She suffered several traumatic events in her childhood in Perivale, London. These included a bad relationship with her mother and in 1983 the firebombing of her friend Manisha Purkayastha's flat by Neo-Nazis. Manisha died, prompting an angry Ace to set fire to Gabriel Chase, an abandoned mansion said to be haunted by an ancient evil. (TV: *Ghost Light*)

Ace was a troubled teen on Earth, ultimately being expelled for blowing up the art room as a "creative statement." (TV: *Battlefield*)

While she was in her room experimenting with the extraction of nitroglycerin from gelignite, a time storm swept her up and transported her to the deck of Sabalom Glitz' spacecraft, the *Nosferatu*, which was docked at Iceworld in the far future. Trapped on Svartos, she got a job as a waitress and formed a friendship with Glitz, (TV: *Dragonfire*)

Sometime later, whilst working for Anderson in Iceworld's ice cream parlour, she met the Seventh Doctor, whom she referred to as "Professor", and his companion Melanie Bush, whom Ace nicknamed "Doughnut".

Ace's career as a waitress ended when Stellar's mother complained to Ace about lumps in her milkshake, resulting in Ace pouring the drink over her head and Ace getting fired by Anderson.

When Mel left the Doctor at the conclusion of their battle with Kane, he offered to take Ace with him in the TARDIS, and she enthusiastically accepted. (TV: *Dragonfire*)

### Travels with the Doctor

Under the Doctor's tutelage, Ace fought the Daleks and faced Davros in November 1963, destroying one Dalek with an anti-tank rocket and damaging another with a baseball bat upgraded by the Hand of Omega so it delivered blasts of energy strong enough to smash Dalek eyestalks off and damage transmats. During this adventure, her portable stereo was destroyed by a Dalek, something that pleased the Doctor as it was a dangerous anachronism. The Doctor explained to her if someone technically minded found the stereo and discovered how it worked, the microchip revolution could take place 20 years too early, causing damage to the timeline. She also met and came to like Mike Smith. However, she quickly hated him when she found out he was working for the Daleks. (TV: *Remembrance of the Daleks*)

She opposed Helen A and her sadistic government, which required people to be happy on pain of death, and worked with Susan Q to undermine her rule over the colony. (TV: *The Happiness Patrol*) Visiting the Psychic Circus on Segonax, she helped defeat the Gods of Ragnarok (TV: *The Greatest Show in the Galaxy*) and stopped the Cybermen from getting hold of the Nemesis statue in 1988. During this encounter, she killed multiple Cybermen with gold coins fired from her catapult and destroyed a Cyber-shuttle using Nitro-9. She admitted to the Doctor she didn't like Cybermen. At the same time, Ace learnt several of the most chaotic events in Earth's history - the First World War and Hitler's invasion of Poland, for example - were down to the statue. (TV: *Silver Nemesis*)

At this stage, the relationship between the Doctor and Ace took a darker turn. At least initially, he had been trying to educate her, not merely have adventures with her. His style of teaching, however, was occasionally unorthodox. At times he lied to her or at least withheld certain truths, so she would face the demons of her past and emerge as a stronger person. (TV: *Ghost Light*, *The Curse of Fenric*)

She arrived in England in the 18th century, and helped the Doctor uncover a plot by the Body-snatchers. (PROSE: *Destiny*) They were chased by the Body-snatchers into an open field, where she was shot by one after they possessed Cybermen intent on destroying the Doctor's timeline. She was saved from certain death by Bernice Summerfield and Liz Shaw, the latter of whom tended to her injury. She joined the Doctor in heading to Old Marley, and played a key role in fending off the Cybermen, blowing a few up with nitro-9. After she, the Doctors and their companions evacuated from the church, she left with the Doctor. (TV: *Destiny*)

She later met Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, helping UNIT defeat the Destroyer and Morgaine in Carbury in 1997. (TV: *Battlefield*)

The Doctor forced Ace to face demons from her past, taking her to Gabriel Chase, arriving a century before she had burnt it down. There, she discovered that the presence in the house of the entity known as Light was what she had felt when compelled to burn the house down. (TV: *Ghost Light*)

While visiting Maiden's Point in 1943, Ace learned that her arrival on Iceworld was not an accident, but part of a larger scheme conceived by one of the Doctor's greatest enemies, a cosmic evil known as Fenric. Ace was a Wolf of Fenric, one of many descendants of a Viking tainted with Fenric's genetic instructions to free it from its ancient prison. Fenric had transported her to Iceworld by time storm and had made her a pawn in the complex game between it and the Doctor. The Doctor appeared to have been aware of this from their first meeting, although Ace was not. After Fenric was defeated, Ace continued to journey with the Doctor. (TV: *The Curse of Fenric*)

Ace returned to Perivale where she found that most of her old friends had gone missing. She thought they had moved on, but they had been taken to the Cheetah Planet as prey for the Cheetah People. The Master, an old enemy of the Doctor, was using them to get off the planet. Ace, after managing to get the mental influence of the Cheetah virus under control (though the Doctor noted that a part of the Cheetah Planet would "always live on inside her"), she returned with two of her friends and went off to travel with the Doctor again. They made their way back to the TARDIS, which she now called "home", (TV: *Survival*)

Ace then helped the Doctor in defeating Hhessh before he could resurrect the Martian lord Sezhyr. As it turned out, the Doctor had been trying to shape her mind to the point that she would be able to attend the Time Lord Academy. His manipulation of her was ultimately for the benefit of Time Lord observers who were assessing her potential. When she found out about the Doctor's manipulations, she lost all trust in him, though she did accept his apology. Ultimately, however, she agreed to this academic opportunity, with her and the Doctor leaving on somewhat decent terms. Before she left however, she asked the Doctor what the difference between his mental conditioning and Raina's possession by Sezhyr was, leaving the Doctor to question his own morality. (TV: *Ice Time*)

### Legacy

Ace was amongst the faces the Doctor remembered whilst fighting against the Abbot in a draining pod. (TV: *Alixion*)

## Personality

Ace covered her fears and insecurities with a tough, streetwise exterior. Her weapon of choice, disapproved of by the Doctor (who nonetheless found it useful on occasion), was a powerful explosive she called "Nitro-9", which she mixed up in canisters and carried in her backpack. She also wielded a baseball bat for a brief time before it was destroyed. (TV: *Remembrance of the Daleks*)

She was convinced the Doctor needed her to watch his back and was fiercely loyal to him. (TV: *The Curse of Fenric*) In turn, the Doctor took a special interest in Ace's education, taking her across the universe and prompting her to come to her own conclusions rather than giving her all the answers. (TV: *Ghost Light*, *Ice Time*)

Even though Ace matured greatly over her time with the Doctor, she always remained headstrong and on many occasions tended to charge into situations without completely thinking. As a result of this, in times of severe emotional pain, she was always likely to act rashly and occasionally blamed the Doctor for his regularly manipulative ways and means. (TV: *Survival*, *Ice Time*)

During her early travels with the Doctor, Ace would often set out to do something and when she was successful at it she would jump up and yell "Ace!". (TV: *Dragonfire*)

## Appearances

### Season 25

* *Remembrance of the Daleks*
* *The Happiness Patrol*
* *Silver Nemesis*
* *The Greatest Show in the Galaxy*

### Season 26

* *Battlefield*
* *Ghost Light*
* *The Curse of Fenric*
* *Survival*

### Season 27

* *Ice Time*
* *Alixion* (brief cameo)