Zoe Heriot

Portrayed by: Wendy Padbury
Travelled with: Second Doctor
Series: Classic

Zoe Heriot was a companion of the Second Doctor after meeting him on board the Space Station W3 (also known as the Wheel). Zoe was an astrometricist, first class, and astrophysicist, though she introduced herself as a “astrophysicist, pure mathematics major” though he colleague, Dr Gemma Corwyn added “with honours”. Zoe was referred to by her colleagues as “the librarian” and possessed a photographic memory, however she was bad at history, demonstrated with her lack of knowledge of the Daleks, or the Ice Warriors and the T-Mat fiasco in The Wheel in Space and The Seeds of Death (Classic Series). Zoe’s training taught her the value of logic, rendering her emotionally underdeveloped which led to conflict with her colleagues, however when she met the Doctor, Zoe saw a case where illogical, intuitive, actions and instinct could be successful as well. After feeling that she had learnt all she could aboard the Wheel, and realising that there is more to knowledge that just facts, Zoe chose to hide on the TARDIS, ready to discover the universe and her place within it. However, the Doctor wished to know that she was ready for journeying with him and fellow companion, Jamie McCrimmon, so he showed her a thought projection of his last adventure involving the Daleks before he accepted Zoe. During her travels with the Doctor, Zoe visited the War Museum on Dulkis where she was reminded of “the old atom test islands on Earth”. She was also dismissive of the Quarks, claiming that “they’re only robots” in The Dominators (Classic Series). She also travelled to the White Void, where Zoe was lured from the safety of the TARDIS after seeing her home city on the TARDIS scanner screen. Zoe recognised the Karakus from the Hourly Telepress of the year 2000, where she defeated him in unarmed combat and secured his loyalty in The Mind Robber (Classic Series). However, despite her bravery, Zoe was quick to call for assistance from her fellows if she required it.

Zoe Heriot battling the Cybermen

Zoe would regularly use her programming skills to find solutions to the problems before her, demonstrated during battle with the Cybermen when she gave the computer an insoluble program in ALGOL in The Invasion (Classic Series). Zoe took great delight in watching the computer’s destruction following her determination not to be defeated by a “stupid tin box”. Zoe later programmed the attack pattern for missiles, setting up a chain reaction that was required to destroy the incoming Cyberships. Zoe’s great intelligence was always evident during her adventures with the Doctor, but never more so than the time she was tested on the teaching machines that were used by the Krotons to both indoctrinate and teach the Gonds. After scoring more than twice the score of the best Gond students, Zoe made the declaration that the Doctor would also answer the questions posed in The Krotons (Classic Series). She would again use her computational and logical skills in further travels, working out the trajectory of beacon segments to deduce that the space pirate’s base must be on the planet Ta in The Space Pirates (Classic Series). After numerous travels alongside the Doctor, the Time Lords sent Zoe back to the Wheel, with her memories of her adventures removed (with the exception of her first encounter on board the Wheel) after the Time Lords exiled the Doctor to Earth in The War Games (Classic Series). Following this, Zoe was never aware she had ever been away from the Wheel and went back to work on the space station.