Miranda (Doctor Who)

Miranda is a fictional character from the Eighth Doctor Adventures novel series published by BBC Books; based upon the British science fiction television series, Doctor Who. She was, for a time, the adopted daughter and companion of the Eighth Doctor. Although her last name is never mentioned, some stories imply that Miranda's surname might indeed be "Who" (see also "Doctor who?").

When Miranda first appeared in the Eighth Doctor Adventures novel Father Time by Lance Parkin, she was about nine or ten years old and small for her age. When the amnesiac Eighth Doctor (who had spent most of the last hundred years on Earth) met one of her teachers, Mrs Castle, he was amazed to find that Miranda had two hearts, just as he did. The Doctor also discovered that Miranda was the Last One, the last scion of a corrupt intergalactic empire of the far future; her people's acts drained the universe of energy and caused severe damage to the timelines.

Her father, the Emperor, was a Time Lord who was the last survivor of a catastrophe that had destroyed his race. When the Emperor was deposed, two members of the Imperial staff spirited the infant Miranda away to the 20th century to protect her. However, they were discovered, and when her "parents" were killed by the rebels, the Doctor adopted her. Parkin has hinted that Miranda's father was actually a future incarnation of the Doctor, and in Father Time Miranda is described as looking "just like" her adoptive father.

The Eighth Doctor raised Miranda until she was sixteen (The Gallifrey Chronicles reveals that the two shared at least one adventure during that time), at which point the rebels returned to kill her. However, Miranda ended up killing the leader of the rebels and fled the country. Three years later, she was discovered once again, but managed to reach an understanding with the rebels after she rejected her would-be captor's belief that strength would always prevail. She returned to the future as supreme ruler of the universe, leaving the Doctor just in time for his anticipated meeting with Fitz.

Miranda was featured in her own short-lived comic book, written by Lance Parkin, which chronicled some of her adventures in her own time. She made her last appearance in the novel Sometime Never... by Justin Richards, older and with a daughter named Zezanne. (The name "Zezanne" is a reference to the First Doctor's granddaughter, Susan Foreman; coincidentally, Carole Ann Ford, the actress who played Susan, has a daughter named Miranda). At the end of the novel, Miranda sacrificed her own life to prevent herself being used as a hostage to stop the Doctor taking action.