Liz Shaw

Doctorwhocharacter


caption = Liz by the River Thames in a promotional photograph for "Doctor Who".
name=Liz Shaw
series=Doctor Who
affiliation=Third Doctor
UNIT
race=Human
planet=Earth
era=20th century
start= Spearhead from Space
finish= Inferno The Five Doctors (cameo)
portrayed=Caroline John

Liz Shaw, full name Dr. Elizabeth Shaw, is a fictional character played by Caroline John in the long-running British science fiction television series "Doctor Who" and its spin-offs. A civilian member of UNIT (United Nations Intelligence Taskforce), an international organisation that defends the Earth from alien threats, she was a companion of the Third Doctor and a regular in the programme in the 1970 season.

Character history

Liz first appears in "Spearhead from Space", having been drafted from the University of Cambridge by Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart as a scientific advisor to UNIT. Sceptical at first of UNIT's ambit to defend against alien invasion, she changes her mind when she encounters the newly-regenerated Doctor and becomes involved in defeating the plans of the Nestene Consciousness and its animated plastic Autons.

Liz is an accomplished scientist, an expert on meteorites with degrees in several disciplines, including physics and medicine. Her extensive training, however, is still pale in comparison to the Doctor's own knowledge of the universe and scientific principles far beyond that of Earth's.

Liz continues to work with the Doctor and UNIT through encounters with the Silurians, the so-called Ambassadors of Death and the Inferno project. She eventually resigns from UNIT and returns to Cambridge, but there was no "farewell scene" on screen for Liz, her departure simply being announced by the Brigadier at the beginning of "Terror of the Autons". She reportedly told the Brigadier that all the Doctor really needed was someone to pass him his test tubes and tell him how brilliant he was; this feeling probably contributed to her decision to return to her own research.

Uniquely of all the companions, she is never seen to actually travel in the TARDIS, as her time with the Doctor coincides with his exile to Earth imposed by the Time Lords and the removal of his knowledge of time travel.

Liz's life after leaving UNIT is not explored in the series. Caroline John appeared as an illusory image of Liz in the 20th Anniversary television movie "The Five Doctors" (1983), and as Liz herself in the 1993 charity special "Dimensions in Time".

Appearances in other media

John also played Liz Shaw in a series of straight-to-video stories produced by BBV under the umbrella title of "P.R.O.B.E.", in which the character works with a paranormal investigation organization not unlike UNIT, called the "Preternatural Research Bureau". Liz appeared again in "The Blue Tooth", an audio story narrated by the character which deals with the period of Liz's departure from UNIT.

The Virgin Missing Adventures novel "The Scales of Injustice" by Gary Russell also explores the events surrounding Liz's resignation from UNIT. Liz eventually does travel in the TARDIS in the Past Doctor Adventures novel "The Wages of Sin" by David A. McIntee, which takes place after the Doctor regains his knowledge and freedom. A parallel version of her appears in the novel "Blood Heat" where she is still part of UNIT fighting against the Silurians in a world where the Third Doctor died before defeating the reptiles.

According to the 1997 Virgin New Adventures novel "Eternity Weeps" by Jim Mortimore, Liz dies in 2003, the victim of an extraterrestrial terraforming virus contracted while she was part of a UNIT team investigating an alien artefact on the Moon. The canonicity of the novels, like other spin-off media, is uncertain.

List of appearances

Television

;Season 7
*"Spearhead from Space"
*"Doctor Who and the Silurians"
*"The Ambassadors of Death"
*"Inferno";20th anniversary special
*"The Five Doctors" (cameo);30th anniversary special
*"Dimensions in Time"

Video

*""
*"P.R.O.B.E.: The Devil of Winterbourne"
*"P.R.O.B.E.: Unnatural Selection"
*"P.R.O.B.E.: The Ghosts of Winterbourne"

Audio drama

*"The Blue Tooth"

Novels

;Virgin Missing Adventures
*"The Eye of the Giant" by Christopher Bulis
*"The Scales of Injustice" by Gary Russell

;Virgin New Adventures
*"Eternity Weeps" by Jim Mortimore

;Past Doctor Adventures
*"The Devil Goblins from Neptune" by Martin Day and Keith Topping
*"The Wages of Sin" by David A. McIntee

hort stories

*"The Straw that Broke the Camel's Back" by Vanessa Bishop ("Decalog")
*"Prisoners of the Sun" by Tim Robins ("Decalog")
*"Still Lives" by Ian Potter ("")
*"Flashpoint" by Matt Grady ("")
*"UNIT Christmas Parties: First Christmas" by Nick Wallace ("")

Comics

*"The Metal Eaters" by John Canning ("TV Comic 960-964")
*"The Fishmen of Carpantha" by John Canning ("TV Comic 965-969")
*"Doctor Who and the Rocks from Venus" by John Canning ("TV Comic 970-976")
*"Change of Mind" by Kate Orman and Barrie Mitchell ("Doctor Who Magazine" 221–223)

External links

* [http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Elizabeth_Shaw Liz Shaw] at [http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/ "The TARDIS Index File" website]
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/episodeguide/companions/page16.shtml Liz Shaw on the BBC's "Doctor Who" website]