Portrayed by Julie Cox (voice) Home era 19th century Home planet Earth | Affiliated Eighth Doctor Species Human Last appearance Army of Death | |
First appearance Mary's Story (The Company of Friends) Played by Elsa Lanchester, Eileen Ryan Penn, Esther Mulligan Movies Bride of Frankenstein, Conceiving Ada, A Shape of Error Similar Eighth Doctor, Fey Truscott‑Sade, Molly O'Sullivan, Izzy Sinclair, Anji Kapoor | ||
Mary Shelley, the English writer best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus, has been featured in the fictional universe of the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who on a number of occasions, most prominently as a character voiced by Julie Cox in a series of audio plays produced by Big Finish Productions based on the series. In the various audio plays, she is a companion of the Eighth Doctor.
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Character history
Mary Shelley's appearances with the Eighth Doctor were the fruition of a nearly decade-long running gag in the Eighth Doctor's audio adventures. Since his first audio adventure, Storm Warning, the Eighth Doctor had been dropping hints of a friendship with Shelley; in Storm Warning, he had a copy of Shelley's Frankenstein in his TARDIS library, inscribed to him by her, and after he read the preface aloud, he mentioned that what Mary wrote wasn't the entire truth about what happened.
Mary's first appearance is in Mary's Story, a story part of the audio anthology The Company of Friends. Mary initially encountered the Eighth Doctor in Switzerland in June 1816 and witnessed him apparently coming back to life after being dead, providing inspiration for Frankenstein. Mary then left with the Doctor and travelled with him in his journeys.
In The Silver Turk, hours after leaving Lake Geneva, the Doctor took Mary to Vienna on 11 September 1873, where they encountered two Cybermen.
In The Witch from the Well, she visited Lincolnshire in 2011 and in the 1650s, where she encountered some Varaxils who were looking for a human who could channel Odic energy. She also met Aleister Portillon, Earl of Wetstone, who was obsessed with Lord Byron and had a biography on Mary herself.
During her travels with the Doctor, Mary met Axons and King Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066. After their adventure in Army of Death, Mary decided to leave the Doctor's company, as she feared his "other companion", death.