Brave Heart: An Appreciation of Companion Tegan Jovanka

The 11^th Doctor rather unkindly I thought in the Crimson Horror described Tegan Jovanka as “ a gobby Australian” but I’ve always had a soft spot for the airline stewardess who was a regular on a weekly basis for almost all of Peter Davison’s era. The “attractive girl, spirited “that the Brigadier met in Mawdryn Undead is undoubtedly my favourite classic Who companion.

Tegan was in nineteen stories and the longest-serving companion of the 5th Doctor’s era. Donna Noble, my favourite new Who era companion with her no-nonsense kind of attitude very much echoes Tegan and I feel Miss Jovanka’s impact as a companion of the early 1980’s has always been rather underrated. So let’s find out more about the fiery brunette from Brisbane.

Fighting to be a Modern Woman of the 1980’s?

For the 1970’s Sarah Jane Smith had been a flag bearer companion for women’s liberation. Paired with two popular doctors in the protest era for women’s equality and independence Sarah Jane ably, justly cemented her popularity as an inquisitive journalist. By the early eighties, Tegan (who was in the show from 1982- 1984 ) brought her own brand of individuality as women continued to assert more power in the public arena. The Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp was had been established as a protest against US nuclear missiles in Britain. Margaret Thatcher had been in power since 1979 as Britain’s first female Prime Minister. The image of a businesswoman in shoulder pads and high heels was a common 1980’s trope and so there was career woman Tegan ready in her airline uniform with attitude to match.

Janet Fielding has often told on DVD commentaries and interviews the story of why she was hired as Tegan. John Nathan Turner saw how popular Doctor Who was in Australia and hoped by having an Australian assistant would mean invites for the show to film and travel to Australia. Although this never materialised it was a refreshing change that there were people outside of the UK to board the Tardis. I really enjoyed Tegan’s first story Logopolis. Christopher H Bidmead gives the forgetful farmer’s daughter from Brisbane a forceful personality.

“ You have to fend for yourself in the outback” she says trying to change a tyre, which kind of sums up the character so we’ve got someone trying really hard to be self-sufficient. Pairing Dolore Whiteman with Janet Fielding created a lovely dynamic between them and I loved all the interactions of Tegan with her Auntie Vanessa as they discussed whether and where to get help.

Tegan’s arc for the first few stories of series 19 centred mainly around her desire to return to Earth. She had wandered into the Tardis in search of help after her aunt’s car got a flat tyre. A common cry and where Tegan gets a bad reputation is Tegan complained too much about getting back to Heathrow. Yes, she was crabby at times “A broken clock keeps better time than you. At least it’s right twice a day” and it was partly because she didn’t want to lose her job, her means of being independent which is so understandable.

It struck me though there was a slight flaw for Tegan in her career plan as an air stewardess. The role is about playing a nurturing and subservient role aiding passengers on an airplane which does seem a slightly odd occupation for her world view. Then again stuck in the outback on her father’s farm probably didn’t give her the excitement she craved and so her obsession with airplanes took root.

Just What the 5^th Doctor Needed

Peter Davison has asserted in DVD commentaries that he thought Nyssa was the ideal companion for his Doctor. On reflection though in my humble opinion I think he’s wrong. It was always amusing from Monarch’s comments in “Four to Doomsday” and in Black Orchid where Nyssa’s drink becomes a lemonade rather than the cocktail Tegan orders, that Nyssa and Adric were often seen as “the children” of the Tardis crew. Nyssa was an aristocratic logical scientist trained on Traken and she was, to be fair, more on the Doctor’s intellectual level than Tegan and able to converse and quickly understand as the Doctor could on scientific principles.

But Peter Davison’s 5^th Doctor was a more, doubtful “human “style Doctor than his overconfident, even overbearing predecessor. He needed a strong companion to cast a mirror on his actions, bring him to account. Adric as the youngest, a maths prodigy Alzarian from another universe, could be quite petulant. Tegan came from Earth where contact with other lifeforms is in its infancy and so it made sense, she would the one to question this alien, the Doctor, whose ship she had stumbled into. Also as the eldest of the three and not having Adric or Nyssa’s particular abilities, Tegan was the most recognisable figure from an audience point of view to have the role.

Tegan described herself as a “mouth on legs” but when Adric died, it was a grieving Tegan was the person who challenged the Doctor, almost begged him to go back and save Adric. It’s interesting that at that point, unlike the new series where Tennant Doctor’s was persuaded by Donna to save someone, this doctor strictly kept to the fixed-points in history rule. Davison’s Doctor became quite tough at this point, a conformist unwilling, unable to break the rules. Whether we would have wanted Adric back is another story but the 5^th Doctor exploded at his companion telling her to “never ask him to do anything like that again”.

In Warriors of the Deep, the Doctor is torn over a moral dilemma when Icthar is planning to set the missiles off to create a global war. Finding the cylinders of hexachromite gas the Doctor is unsure to use them as it will destroy the Silurians and Sea Devils. Tegan tells the Doctor he has to decide what to do before a global war gets started and time runs out and he acknowledges she’s right. Tegan stated the obvious at times but that made her so human. In the Visitation by trying to protect who the Doctor is, the Terileptil called her a very stupid woman. I think Tegan realised all too well her own faults, she was rash at times, bad-tempered but she wasn’t actually a stupid woman having learnt languages and having some book knowledge ( she was aware of George Cranleigh the explorer ) as well as being a talented draughtswoman.

“Its not exactly dull travelling with the Doctor”

Tegan in Time Flight

Although the Doctor found Tegan initially difficult to cope with when she would “fly off the handle” they both were able to apologise and learn to respect each other. The 5th Doctor perhaps perceiving he also had his own irascible streak at times. He noted Tegan had the making of a “fine co-ordinator” in “Castrovalva “and left Tegan in the Tardis as someone he could rely on in “Enlightenment” rather than Turlough when the White Guardian was trying to get through. Perhaps with the way Janet Fielding and Peter Davison hit it off initially on set and hearing how they banter with each other in the DVD commentaries it would have been interesting to see the dynamic of just their two characters in the Tardis. The Doctor actually became protective of Tegan in quite a few stories as well as learning how to bluff her bad moods.

In the King’s Demons when Tegan is unwelcome of Kamelion joining the crew the Doctor calls Tegan out and offers to take her home, but he doesn’t mean it and really cons her to continue in the Tardis. The Doctor wanted to teach her about the history and the future and there was a growing friendship as time went on especially after Nyssa left. In Earthshock the 5th Doctor described her as an“ An Earthling, no one of consequence” when she was caught by Cybermen and brought into the freighter control deck to prevent her death.

He cared about her and would admit he missed her after she left. Tegan in return was loyal willing to get stuck into the action if she had to, once she got over her initial distrust of the Doctor. She stole an ambulance, shot Cybermen, landed the Tardis, didn’t hesitate to try to help the Doctor when he fell into the water tank in “Warriors of the Deep” or going for help in “Mawdryn Undead” She felt the Doctor was her responsibility and trusted her instincts not believing Turlough automatically like the others and she correctly guessed that Mawdryn wasn’t the Doctor.

The Doctor: “An Earthling, no one of consequence”
Tegan: “Thanks a lot! ”
The Doctor: “Be quiet”

Earthshock

Classic Companion Development

In interviews and the DVD commentaries, Janet Fielding has expressed some frustration over the development of her character. This was nothing to do with the actress herself but more to do with the varying number of companions in the Tardis at any one time. Also, the classic Who structure of the programme is a 23-minute episode action serial with a cliff-hanger leaving thus little time for character development. It is slightly disappointing that after being scared out of her wits by the manipulations of the Master, causing a recursion loop, and that her aunt had been murdered at the hands of the Master that her grief wasn’t really talked about that much after Logopolis.

Some of the writers I’m thinking of Terrance Dudley and Johnny Bryne sometimes fell back on making her quite snippy, sarcastic at times at the Doctor. Maybe that’s the problem with multiple writers in a series where time is short and I not saying it about only one companion but it’s hard to have a consistent growing character. Saying that I did like seeing her start to relax and enjoy herself by “Black Orchid” teaching Nyssa to dance the Charleston and having a ball being at Cranleigh Hall.

There were other writers who took time to give us a deeper insight into an unguarded side of her and I think that’s when Tegan became really interesting. Christopher Bailey wrote the excellent Kinda and Snakedance and Janet Fielding grabbed the opportunity to play a more vulnerable Tegan with both hands. If there was a question why the Mara chose Tegan, rather than Nyssa, it was because it sensed how to exploit her hidden vulnerabilities. I loved the complex child Tegan was at age six in her garden which the Doctor discovers with the device forcing Tegan to go into her dream. I thought Enlightenment by Barbara Clegg was also an excellent story for Tegan.

It was interesting to see how Janet Fielding, dressed as a stunning Edwardian lady, toned down Tegan’s persona to a much more sympathetic level. Straker’s attraction to her where he wanted to live through her thoughts disturbed Tegan so much that it was no wonder she was confused, susceptible and asked the Doctor to take her back to the safety of the Tardis.

A Companion “For the Dads”

Janet Fielding stated she disliked the highly impractical costumes she had to wear due to the vagaries of the British weather. Personally, I loved Tegan’s costumes at the time especially the various dresses including the Edwardian dress and black leather miniskirt. I think she was a heroine for girls too, being a bit feisty but managing to raid the Tardis wardrobe to also become a glamour girl clamouring over hills, streets, walkways, ducting and Janet Fielding did it all in high heels!

I only became aware later more as an adult that Tegan’s appearance was a production decision, a deliberate throwback to an earlier era of thought that female assistants were” there for the dads”. Obviously, in hindsight, there was still a way to go inequality for the female assistant to be dressed in comfortable clothes much like their male counterparts. It could have been a lot worse for Janet Fielding considering that Nicola Bryant had to wear even less for most of her tenure as Peri.

Tegan’s Departure

In Jan 2021 the entertainment website Den of Geek published a ranking of companion goodbyes Doctor Who: Ranking Every Single Companion Departure | Den of Geek and the exit of Miss Tegan Jovanka in Resurrection of the Daleks gained a respectable third place. It’s a subjective list of course and the criteria was whether the departure made sense for the character, how well it was built up to, and the commentary it left about Doctor Who. It’s an unusual exit as leavings go but Tegan makes her own choice to go consistent with her independent character. Her reasons feel valid as there is a high body count in this grim story and it’s all got too much for Tegan. Hostile aliens have been active on her present-day Earth, her home, it becomes real as innocent people are killed who helped her.

Tegan doesn’t blame the Doctor, however. He didn’t seek out getting involved with two factions of Daleks and Davros. When Tegan leaves and the Doctor goes to stop her it feels like the end of something, an era. The Doctor is stunned as he watches her go. John Nathan Turner apparently wanted a tear-jerker ending for her and the suddenness of her decision, the quickness gets me every time I watch it. Yes dear reader I shed a tear all those years ago and wondered what had happened to her in the intervening years.

No don’t leave… not like this – The Doctor ( Resurrection of the Daleks)

There is a Big Finish story called The Gathering by Joseph Lidster which picks up Tegan’s story around 20 years after she left the Doctor. Janet Fielding’s own thoughts on her debut story for Big Finish are available on a recent podcast Sirens of Sound Podcast Episode 35 but I listened to the story and Tegan is absent for most of the early part and felt slightly peripheral to the plot which is a prequel to another Big Finish story called The Reaping.

I won’t spoil the premise but suffice to say as a massive fan of the character I found The Gathering story of Tegan’s life in 2006 depressing and felt she was written contrary to the spirit of the character that became an active part of the Tardis crew for a very long time and was going to miss the Doctor when she left. In my head, I prefer Russell T Davies’s version as per Sarah Jane Smith’s account in “Death of the Doctor “. That upon doing an internet search about Tegan, Sarah found out that the Doctor’s former companion was in Australia fighting for Aboriginal rights. Yes, that’s my girl brave heart, Tegan!

What are your thoughts on Tegan Jovanka? Where does she rank as a companion for you? Post your thoughts on here, the Big Blue Box Podcast Discord Server or on Twitter. Let’s talk.