JO GRANT

'Josephine "Jo" Grant' is a fictional character played by Katy Manning in the long-running British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. A junior civilian operative for UNIT ('U'nited 'N'ations 'I'ntelligence 'T'askforce), an international organisation that defends the Earth from alien threats, she was a companion of the Third Doctor and a regular in the programme from 1971 to 1973, and the longest-serving female companion during the Third Doctor's tenure.

Contents

Conception

Character history

Other appearances

List of appearances

Television

Novels

Short stories

Comics

References

Conception

For his first series, producer Barry Letts had primarily worked on stories inherited from the previous production team. When it came to assessing his and script editor Terrance Dicks' approach to the next series, they identified a need to replace the Doctor's assistant, for the purposes of exposition and audience identification. Previous companion Liz Shaw had been conceived of as a brilliant scientist, and so could discuss matters with the Doctor on an equal footing; the replacement would be younger and more naive, someone who could ask, "Doctor, what's all this about?"^[1] Along with the Brigadier's new second in command, Captain Mike Yates, the character of Jo Grant was inspired by the male-female companion pairing of Jamie and Victoria, whom Letts had previously directed, with the intention of a possible romantic subplot for the two.^[2]
Letts and Dicks also intended that Jo Grant would be cast so as to go beyond the stereotype of a "pretty doll... who can just stand there and scream." They settled on young actress Katy Manning, whose personality had impressed in an otherwise shambolic audition.^[3] Like previous companions, Manning's character was coded in contemporaneous fashions and attitudes, providing useful reference points for the audience of a science fiction series which couldn't incorporate events of the day. And similar to Pertwee's Doctor, Jo Grant was an "action-style" character, with the actress performing some of her own stunts — understandably so, given that her diminutive stature could not easily be doubled by a male stunt performer — though it is debatable whether the character fully broke any stereotypes.^[4][5]

Character history

Jo first appears in the 1971 serial ''Terror of the Autons'', having been assigned to the Doctor as a replacement for Liz Shaw. Apparently, she gained the assignment to UNIT because her uncle, a high ranking civil servant, had "pulled some strings". Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart assigns her to the Doctor, who is initially dismayed when he finds out that she is not a scientist, but accepts her because he does not have the heart to tell her otherwise.
An enthusiastic, bubbly and sometimes scatter-brained blonde, Jo soon endears herself to the other members of UNIT, especially Captain Mike Yates and Sergeant Benton. The Third Doctor is also particularly attached to her, and she is devoted to him, refusing to leave his side even where mortal danger was involved.
There is plenty of danger to go around as well, especially after the Time Lords restore the Third Doctor's ability to travel through time and space. Jo faces the hazards and wonders of travel with the Doctor with courage and plucky determination. Together with the Doctor and UNIT, she encounters such perils as killer daffodils, time-eating monsters, renegade Time Lords, is miniaturised, hypnotised, flung through time, nearly aged to death and menaced by giant maggots and ancient dæmons.
Over time, Jo also grows more confident and mature, until she is independent enough to stand up to the Doctor, which she does in her last serial, ''The Green Death''. During the events of that story, Jo falls in love with Professor Clifford Jones, a young, Nobel Prize-winning scientist leading an environmentalist group. At the end, she agrees to marry Jones and go with him to the Amazon to study its vegetation, the news of which the Doctor greets with a mixture of pride and sadness.

Other appearances

Her life after she left the Doctor and UNIT is not explored in the programme. Jo is briefly mentioned in the serial ''Planet of the Spiders'', when she sends a package back to UNIT from the Amazon. A middle-aged Jo is featured in the spin-off novel ''Genocide'', by Paul Leonard, where she and Jones have a son named Matthew and are divorced.
While Manning has not reprised the role of Jo in the series, she has provided the voice for the renegade Time Lady Iris Wildthyme in several audio plays for Big Finish Productions, and provided commentary for some ''Doctor Who'' DVDs, such as ''The Green Death'' and ''Carnival of Monsters''.

List of appearances

Television

;Season 8

★ ''Terror of the Autons''

★ ''The Mind of Evil''

★ ''The Claws of Axos''

★ ''Colony in Space''

★ ''The Dæmons''
;Season 9

★ ''Day of the Daleks''

★ ''The Curse of Peladon''

★ ''The Sea Devils''

★ ''The Mutants''

★ ''The Time Monster''
;Season 10

★ ''The Three Doctors''

★ ''Carnival of Monsters''

★ ''Frontier in Space''

★ ''Planet of the Daleks''

★ ''The Green Death''

Novels

;Virgin New Adventures

★ ''Blood Heat'' by Jim Mortimore (parallel universe version of Jo)
;Virgin Missing Adventures

★ ''Dancing the Code'' by Paul Leonard

★ ''Speed of Flight'' by Paul Leonard
;Past Doctor Adventures

★ ''The Face of the Enemy'' by David A. McIntee (cameo appearance)

★ ''Catastrophea'' by Terrance Dicks

★ ''The Wages of Sin'' by David A. McIntee

★ ''Last of the Gaderene'' by Mark Gatiss

★ ''Verdigris'' by Paul Magrs

★ ''Rags'' by Mick Lewis

★ ''The Suns of Caresh'' by Nick Saint

★ ''Deadly Reunion'' by Terrance Dicks and Barry Letts
;Eighth Doctor Adventures

★ ''Genocide'' by Paul Leonard
;Telos Doctor Who novellas

★ ''Nightdreamers'' by Tom Arden

Short stories

★ "Where the Heart Is" by Andy Lane ('')

★ ". . . And Eternity in an Hour" by Stephen Bowkett ('')

★ "Freedom" by Steve Lyons (''Short Trips'')

★ "Honest Living" by Jason Loborik (''More Short Trips'')

★ "The Switching" by Simon Guerrier ('')

★ "Hidden Talent" by Andrew Spokes ('')

★ "Losing Track of Time" by Juliet E. McKenna ('')

★ "Deep Stretch" by Richard Salter ('')

★ "Come Friendly Bombs..." by Dave Owen ('')

★ "The Seismologist's Story" by Peter Anghelides ('')

★ "The Touch of the Nurazh" by Stephen Hatcher ('')

★ "Categorical Imperative" by Simon Guerrier (''Short Trips: Monsters'')

★ "/Carpenter/Butterfly/Baronet/" by Gareth Wigmore ('')

★ "UNIT Christmas Parties: Christmas Truce" by Terrance Dicks ('')

★ "Angel" by Tara Samms ('')

★ "Morphology" by Phil Pascoe ('')

★ "The Thousand Years of Christmas" by Simon Bucher-Jones ('')

Comics

★ "The Time Thief" by Steve Livesey (''Doctor Who Annual 1974'')

★ "Menace of the Molags" by Steve Livesey (''Doctor Who Annual 1974'')

★ "Dead on Arrival" by Edgar Hodges (''Doctor Who Annual 1975'')

★ "After the Revolution" by Edgar Hodges (''Doctor Who Annual 1975'')

★ "Target Practice" by Gareth Roberts and Adrian Salmon (''Doctor Who Magazine'' 234)

References

1. The Doctors: 30 Years of Time Travel, , Adrian, Rigelsford, Boxtree Limited, ,
2. Serial EEE: Terror Of The Autons
3. Doctor Who: The Unfolding Text, , Manuel, Alvarado, Macmillan Education Ltd., ,
4. Doctor Who: The Unfolding Text, , Manuel, Alvarado, Macmillan Education Ltd., ,
5.