Here’s who’s who in ‘The Game of Delta’.

THE SEVENTH DOCTOR (Sylvester McCoy)

The TARDIS was attacked by the villainous Time Lady called the Rani in ‘Time and the Rani’. It triggered the Doctor’s next regeneration. His seventh body was a spoon-playing clown and a master of deep dark secrets. He toppled empires in a single night; entertained in the circus of the Gods of Ragnarok and played chess with the ancient and evil Fenric. Despite telling Ace that they still had ‘work to do’ and that they strode off from her hometown of Perivale in ‘Survival’, it was with this incarnation that the ‘Doctor Who’ TV series was rested. The Seventh Doctor went on to have many adventures in books, comics and audios. He returned on the eve of the millennium in ‘The TV Movie’ to transport the remains of the Master back to Gallifrey. Emerging from the TARDIS, he got shot by a street gang and died on the operating table.

ACE (Sophie Aldred)

Originally from 1980s London, troubled teen Ace (real name: Dorothy McShane) met the Doctor on Iceworld in ‘Dragonfire’. She had been transported there as part of a trap set by an ancient evil called Fenric. Favouring homemade explosives; a baseball bat and her ghetto-blaster, she was a marked difference to the previous companion Mel. As well as fighting Cybermen and Daleks, Ace faced the demons of her past and the reality of hating her mother. Righteous and brave, Ace had absolute faith in the Doctor and developed into a bold young woman during her travels. Many conflicting reports exist as to what happened to Ace and how her travels in the TARDIS ended since ‘Survival’. It was revealed by Sarah Jane Smith that a certain Dorothy raised billions through her charity called A Charitable Earth.

© Tim Bradley, 2020