Lena Haigh

Emma Fielding as Lena Haigh in a promotional image for Season 34

Sergeant **Lena Haigh** was a companion of the Ninth Doctor.

Working as an army officer on the Space Vessel *Sekhmet*, Lena became friends with the Doctor over the course of a few weeks. After she helped him defeat a Rutan infiltrator and negotiate an agreement with the Sontarans, she agreed to travel with him, going on many adventures across the universe with him. At the end of her adventures, she was joined by Evelyn Webster, whom she became good friends with.

Lena was ultimately forced to leave the Doctor after learning that her squadron needed her. Before she headed back, she convinced Captain Vrexic of the vessel she was on to pick up what she hoped was the Doctor, briefly meeting his tenth incarnation.

## Biography

### Early Life

Lena had a relatively regular childhood for children her age, in her opinion. She had a close relationship with her father, who worked in the military, but had a slightly more strained relationship with her mother. (PROSE: *Subjects of War*) One of her oldest friends growing up, Patroklos, inspired her to join the military. (TV : *Visions of Tomorrow*) As a teenager she had a reptilian pet. (PROSE: *Subjects of War*) She enjoyed learning History. (TV: *Phantasmagoria*)

When remembering her life before meeting the Doctor, Lena once said, "Every time I saw an advert for some campaign to go save whales, stop animal experiments, go on gay-liberation marches, or demonstrate against racism, I was there. I used to go and join people sitting in trees, stopping bypasses and runways being built." (TV: *Placebo Effect*)

### Military Career

She joined the Military of the Earth Empire five years before being stationed on the Space Station *Sekhmet*. (TV: *Subjects of War*) During that time, she had spent time in barracks fighting against various factions that had engaged in wars against the Earth Empire, including the Cybermen. One of her commanding officers during this time had often belittled her for her friendliness towards her colleagues, and had directly prevented her from becoming a sergeant as a result. Lena got her revenge by finding out about fraudulent dealings that the officer had committed that, if brought to daylight, would have brought his branch to shame, leading to his dishonourable discharge. (PROSE: *Subjects of War*)

### Travels with the Doctor

#### First Meeting

Upon receiving news that there was an intruder in the cargo hold, Lena, working under Captain Pyver, took a group of soldiers down, and found the Doctor looking around. He explained who he was, with it being confirmed by a corporal. With his identity revealed, Lena was more than willing to treat him cordially, and even took him to meet Pyver. She, alongside the Doctor and some other members of the crew, expressed her concerns about taking the Hadron Cannon through a battleground of the Rutan-Sontaran War, and was reassured by Pyver that all would be fine. (TV: *Subjects of War*) During the weeks the Doctor spent aboard the vessel, Lena became a good friend of his, with the two often confiding personal information in one another. (PROSE: *Subjects of War*)

When notified of a Rutan having gotten aboard the ship, and alongside the Doctor managed to track the Rutan down to medical officer Paxton. After it called reinforcements, she helped her comrades in battling them, holding the Rutans off as best she could. When it was clear that the Rutans could not be held off alone, Lena put forward the idea of calling in support from the Sontarans, and went through with it with permission from Pyver and the Doctor. Following the Rutans' defeat, Lena and the Doctor mediated agreements between the humans and the Sontarans, reluctantly allowing the Hadron Cannon to be given over to the Sontarans. After the Doctor asked her to travel with him, she agreed, letting her captain know what she was doing and being given leave to do so. (TV: *Subjects of War*)

#### Continued travels

Lena spent an afternoon renovating Nyssa's old TARDIS bedroom into her own bedroom. (TV: *Vampire Science*)

Landing in London, Lena discovered a time tunnel being used by humans that was blocked by Zodaal's space ship. She accidentally accelerated Zodaal's plan and gave him secrets of Gallifreyan time travel in the process. (TV: *The English Way of Death*) Around this time, they also hunted down a horde of vampires in 1976 San Francisco, meeting Carolyn McConnell in the process. (TV: *Vampire Science*)

Lena went with the Doctor to the Quadrant in London in 1987 for a narcotics investigation. When she looked at Gabriel Tyler, she saw a reflection of herself. The Doctor told her to get some elatio for the investigation, and went on the local pub scene to find it with David Daniels. When the N-Form was activated, the Doctor told Lena to get close to it and stop it with one of his gadgets. (TV: *Damaged Goods*)

The Doctor and Lena landed on the planet Darkheart after narrowly dodging another TARDIS heading in their direction. She eventually crossed paths with Ailla, one of the TARDIS' occupants, who took her onboard, and talked to her about her mentor Koschei. She eventually reconvened with the Doctor, and helped pilot Koschei's TARDIS into a pyramid on the planet. After being sent back to the main city by the Doctor, she encountered the Veltrochni Hakkauth, whom she quickly befriended, and boarded the *Piri Reis* with him. There, they saved the Doctor from arrest, and later helped evacuated hostages of the Galactic Federation into the Doctor's TARDIS. When Koschei was close to hardwiring his TARDIS to the Darkheart, Lena engaged in a brawl with him, winning and giving the Doctor time to sabotage the controls. (TV: *The Dark Path*)

Sometime later, Lena and the Doctor were summoned back to San Francisco - this time in 1997 - by McConnell after she suspected that vampires were responsible for another spate of killings. Lena, the Doctor, and McConnell worked with Adrienne Kramer and the American division of UNIT to eradicate Weird Harold's gang of vampires. (TV: *Vampire Science*)

At some point, while dealing with "four things and a lizard" in 1999 London, the Doctor and Lena met Sally Sparrow, who seemed to know them, however Martha and the Doctor did not know her yet. Sally gave the Doctor and Martha a folder full of photographs and other documents; claiming that they would need it in the future. (TV: *Blink*)

Shortly afterwards, Lena and the Doctor go involved in an incident involving the Tractites attempting to take humanity's place in the timeline by using a Time Tree to travel to Earth's prehistory. With the Time Tree, the Doctor and Lena travelled thousands of years back in time to stop the Tractites. (TV: *Genocide*)

She returned a handkerchief the Doctor had stolen from Tudor England in an old body, saw the skating rink at Rockefeller Center, ran away from Psionovores. (PROSE: *Placebo Effect*)

The Doctor and Lena were called to Earth by UNIT to help them recapture the Rani. During the briefing, the Silurian 001 attacked, prompting Lena and Brigadier Bambera to pull guns on him. After the tension was relieved by the Doctor, who persuaded 001 of the Rani's true motives, Lena and Kate Lethbridge-Stewart agreed to go with 001 to the Rani's HQ. There, she was captured and taken to the Rani's laboratory, nearly becoming an Aberrant. During the chaos caused by UNIT's arrival, Lena was freed by 001, and used a gun to force the Aberrants restraining the Doctor and Kate to let them go. (TV: *Evolution*)

Lena and the Doctor travelled to an old house in Wester Drumlins in 1998, where Weeping Angels sent them back to London in 1969, with the TARDIS stuck in 1998.

When Billy Shipton was sent back to 1969, he was welcomed by Martha and the Doctor. From there, the Doctor, with Billy's aid, helped Sally Sparrow recover the TARDIS in the future, finally enabling them to leave 1969. She briefly appeared in the video message the Doctor had made for Sally, complaining that the Doctor promised her all of space and time but she had to work in a shop to support him, before apologising for bursting in. (TV: *Blink*)

In 1702, Lena saved Hannah Fry's life, and later helped her in defeating Carthok. (TV: *Phantasmagoria*)

Three months after leaving Ha'olam, the Doctor took Lena to Micawber's World as a treat, but they became caught up in the plans of two separate alien factions - the Wirrn and the Foamasi - to take advantage of the 3999 Galactic Olympics being held on Micawber's World. Lena investigated the Church of the Way Forward and learned that the goddess they worshipped was the Wirrn Queen. With Lena's information, the Doctor was able to stop the Wirrn plot to infect all of the Olympic atheletes. (TV: *Placebo Effect*)

Lena assisted the Doctor and Ruby Duvall in their attempts to stop the Cybermen from sabotaging the FLIPback Project. (TV: *Iceberg*)

The Doctor received a message on his data scanner, calling him to the Library in the 51st century to help a team of archaeologists representing the Felman Lux Corporation to investigate the planet, which had been sealed off a century earlier with the message "4022 saved. No survivors." The group discovered the Library was infested by Vashta Nerada. The Doctor teleported Lena back to the TARDIS with the ship's teleporters, but she never made it to the TARDIS. Donna's consciousness was "saved" to the planet's Data Core hard drive by CAL. Her face was used as the face of an information robot, repeating the warning message "Lena Haigh has left the library. Lena Haigh has been saved." Inside the hard drive, Lena experienced several years of a disjointed, idyllic married life and had two children within the space of less than a day, thanks to the memory alterations of the Doctor Moon virus checker. Miss Evangelista, whose data ghost had been uploaded via the Library's Internet, warned Lena that her world wasn't real. When Mayne sacrificed her life to rescue the "saved" people inside the hard drive, Lena assumed that her husband "Lee McAvoy" was just a part of her simulation like her children. The real "Lee" saw Donna but was teleported away before he could call to her or reach her. (TV: *Silence in the Library*)

After landing on Gallifrey, Lena helped Illistras investigate into the murders of Romana and various other high-profile Time Lords. She was the one to discover the Omega's Bane on Veylon's person, inadvertently implicating him. During her time investiagting, she also formed a bond with K9, with whom she later co-ordinated following the reveal that Illistras had used the Omega's Bane to suspend the Gallifreyan Presidential Election and bring about martial law. She shot Illistras after he threatened the Doctor's life. (TV: *The Council's Reverence*)

The Doctor then took Lena to the marine research submarine *Argus* on Kyrol, to meet Dr. Alison Lavelle, an old friend of the Doctor's. While enjoying a swim in the sea outside the sub, she was the first to encounter the humanised Daleks, and was taken away to their hidden city of Azhra Korr separately from the the *Argus* crew. As tensions escalated between the human crew and the Daleks, the former began to reject her due to her mediatory stance, and when she attempted to retrieve the TARDIS from underwater, one of Kata-Phobus's tentacles stopped her. Following the Daleks' self-destruction to kill the creature, she and the Doctor left, disgusted at how few of the humans were grateful for their sacrifice. (TV: *Children of the Revolution*)

### Meeting Evelyn Webster and leaving the Doctor

Landing in a French château, Lena and the Doctor were arrested near-immediately by German soldiers and taken to SS-Obergruppenführer Deimling, who interrogated them on the purposes of them being here. Lena openly defended the Doctor throughout the interrogation procedure, and insulted Deimling after he threatened the Doctor's life. Considering shooting Lena on the spot, Deimling was only stopped when a soldier came in to reveal the TARDIS' extradimensional nature, prompting Deimling to offer to spare Lena provided the Doctor went through with showing the Nazis how the TARDIS worked. She was escorted to the cells after the Doctor agreed, being placed in a cell with SOE agent Evelyn Webster. The two quickly became firm friends, and Lena spent some time relaying the stories of her travels with the Doctor to her, before coming up with a plan to escape. Once the plan had been agreed to, Evelyn called the guard over and distracted him, whilst Lena stole the keys to their cell and knocked the guard out. After unlocking the door, Lena took the guard's gun, handing it to Evelyn as the two of them escaped.

The pair made their way through the château, attempting to evade guards as often as possible. Upon reaching Deimling's office, Lena asked to look inside, dispatching of the guard inside and taking the incomplete plans for Operation Werewolf to prevent Nazi high command from ever successfully carrying out the plan. Shortly after leaving the room, the two women were spotted by soldiers and forced to flee with Evelyn shooting at the soldiers to dissuade them from following. They hid inside a wardrobe to escape, during which time, Lena managed to steal a gun from one of the pursuing soldiers. Retaking a more stealthy approach, the two managed to ascend the stairs to where the TARDIS was, just in time to find Deimling about to shoot the Doctor for insubordination. Managing to stay out of sight, Lena successfully restrained him, taking his gun and introducing the Doctor to Evelyn. The trio took Deimling to an allied outpost near the château, where she and Evelyn were commended for their work. Before they left, Evelyn asked to join them, something which she responded ecstatically to when the Doctor agreed. As soon as they got into the TARDIS, however, the Doctor received a call from Bernice Summerfield, (TV: *Operation Werewolf*) letting him know about a wormhole that had opened up and connected the Pyramid to Gallifrey. Lena and Evelyn were introduced to Bernice and Norman Manning by the Doctor, with Lena recognising Brigadier Bambera and Kate Lethbridge-Stewart. She stayed with Evelyn and Kate whilst the Doctor was analysing the problem, and saw the wormhole expand to include the deck of an Earth Empire vessel, letting Bambera and Romana know as it appeared where they had been standing. She attempted to warn the Doctor about the wormhole's instability before the TARDIS flew into the middle of the wormhole and disappeared out of sight. Soon after, interdimensional monsters began to emerge, with Lena, Bambera and Romana leading UNIT, the crew of the vessel and the Gallifreyan military against them.

The battle soon began to turn against them, and Lena ordered the troops to fall back whilst she alerted Benny, Kate and Veylon to what was going on, right as they re-established contact with the Doctor and the Tomorrow Men. The Doctor organised the forces to work together and pool their energy into closing the wormhole, with Lena being stationed with Evelyn and Bambera on the Earth Empire vessel. She recognised the vessel's commander as Patroklos, who notified her that she had been gone for days and was wanted by her division once this was over, and assisted him in moving all the ship's energy into the engines. Together with the energy from the Pyramid and the Capitol, and with additional support from the TARDIS, they managed to almost completely close the wormhole, get Bambera back to 20th Century Earth, and allow the TARDIS to safely board. However, the Doctor was unable to move himself safely out of the way, and, seeing that the wormhole was beginning to expand and let more monsters out, reassured his companions before forcing himself to regenerate, successfully closing the wormhole.

Patroklos assumed the Doctor dead and went to take off, however, Lena noticed a glowing object in space, and convinced Patroklos to fly over. They picked up the Doctor as his regeneration finished, and Lena and Evelyn informed the newly-regenerated Tenth Doctor of his success. Lena then told the Doctor that she had to go, as she was needed by the Earth Empire. The Doctor wished her well and departed with Evelyn, with Lena holding back tears as the TARDIS dematerialised. (TV: *Visions of Tomorrow*)

### Alternate timelines

In a timeline created by the Valeyard's use of the Dark Matrix while he was acting as Jack the Ripper, Lena became the Ripper's sixth victim when she and the Doctor went back to try and investigate the Ripper's crimes. This timeline was negated when the Doctor was able to defeat the Valeyard/Ripper and restore history. (TV: *Matrix*)

## Personality

Lena was enthusiastic and, although she was intelligent, she usually acted before thinking things through. She was thought by some of her compatriots to be too quick to trust, though she only trusted newcomers with verifiable identification, (TV: *Subjects of War*) or that were clearly of no harm to her or those in her area. (TV: *Damaged Goods*, *Operation Werewolf*) She could lose her temper if pushed to the limit, however, often doing so if she felt others weren't pulling their weight, (TV: *Blink*) and, especially in a military context, was assertive and forceful, even to those in ranks above her. (TV: *Evolution*, *Operation Werewolf*, *Visions of Tomorrow*)

Lena came from liberal parents. She once said that the only thing that would *really* shock her parents was if she did drugs. She was a vegetarian and a supporter of gay rights. (TV: *Vampire Science*)

Lena was also adept at thinking on her feet, coming up with ideas that, if risky, were capable of swaying near-hopeless situations in her favour if given the chance to put them to work. (TV: *Subjects of War*, *The Dark Path*, *Evolution*) She was a firm believer in following orders, only asking to travel with the Doctor with the permission of her superior, though the Doctor was quick to make it clear to Haigh that she was his equal on his travels. (TV: *Subjects of War*) Indeed, it was her allegiance to her superiors that caused her to cut her travels short. (TV: *Visions of Tomorrow*)

Lena, in stark contrast to the Doctor, was willing to accept the use of firearms in certain circumstances, describing them as "a necessary evil". However, she did share the Doctor's preference for peace, and disposed of her weapons before she stepped on board the TARDIS. She was also unwilling to allow weapons of mass destruction to fall into the wrong hands, and was reluctant to use them as a bargaining tool. (TV: *Subjects of War*) She was occasionally quick to resort to violence, typically in self-defence or as an intimidatory measure, (TV: *Evolution*, *Placebo Effect*, *Operation Werewolf*) and had killed people whilst travelling with the Doctor, namely invading Rutans, a Tractite, an Aberrant and Illistras. (TV: *Subjects of War*, *Genocide*, *Evolution*, *The Council's Reverence*)

Lena admitted to having a fondness for "the classics", reading *Robinson Crusoe* by the time she landed on Darkheart. (TV: *The Dark Path*) She also enjoyed studying Earth history. (TV: *Phantasmagoria*)

Lena was fond of dogs. (TV: *The Council's Reverence*)

## Behind the Scenes

* As revealed by Colin Brake and Steven Moffat, the original draft of *Silence in the Library* would have revealed in his final scene that Lee McAvoy (Donna's husband within the virtual world in the Library's data core) was in actuality a woman in the real world. This would have made Lena the first on-screen companion to enter into a homosexual marriage, albeit unwittingly on her end.

## Appearances

### Season 33

* *Subjects of War*
* *The English Way of Death*
* *Damaged Goods*

### Season 34

* *The Dark Path*
* *Vampire Science*
* *Blink*
* *Genocide*
* *Evolution*
* *Matrix*

### Season 35

* *Phantasmagoria*
* *Placebo Effect*
* *Iceberg*
* *Silence in the Library*
* *The Council's Reverence*
* *Children of the Revolution*
* *Operation Werewolf*
* *Visions of Tomorrow*