Favorite Characters: Zoe Heriot (Doctor Who)

Man, I love Zoe.  I think the Two years are really strong for companions overall, and this is such an enjoyable character.  She gives young Hermione Granger a run for her money as “most adorable know-it-all ever,” and she’s one of a pretty select group of companions to prove an intellectual challenge to the Doctor.

We’ll get this out of the way first:  Zoe is from the 21^st century, and though she’s more than 50 years out from our time, it’s still more than a little ridiculous.  When the Doctor and Jamie meet her, she’s living and working on a giant space station with artificial gravity, and her 21^st-century fashions feature the odd (non-ironic) sparkly cat suit.  Still, she’s so much fun that I don’t mind the whole “space age 21^st-century” thing.

Educated in a place that evidently raises children to be human computers, Zoe is a certified genius, initially running calculations for the Wheel with results that are trusted better than the ones their actual computers come up with.  Throughout her time on the show, Zoe’s braininess comes in handy often.  Between her flawless mental equations and her photographic memory, Zoe variously passes an insanely-hard test devised by machines, works out a route through ventilation shafts based on a single trip through the building’s corriders, and talks an obstructive computer into overloading itself – in short, she’s a logical-mathematical badass.  Numerous episodes depend on her quick thinking and awesome adeptness to save the day.

Zoe is supremely confident in her intellectual prowess and not the least bit shy about saying so.  This can annoy Jamie and the Doctor, especially when she’s disparaging the former’s intelligence and seemingly out-thinking the latter.  But while I’d say she is a bit smug, she’s more matter-of-fact than anything else.  It’s a thread that kind of gets dropped early on, but Zoe’s education is known for leaving its students unable to express, or even feel, emotion as other people do.  I wouldn’t go that far with Zoe – her delight at learning something new is infectious, her friends are a frequent source of exasperation, and anyone who travels with the Doctor is going to be well-acquainted with fear.  However, she’s certainly more direct than the average person and generally values honestly-stated facts over more expected niceties.

Although she’s not as openly affectionate as either Two or Jamie, it’s clear that Zoe is very devoted to both her friends.  She’s not really one to suffer fools, but she doesn’t complain much about their goofier tendencies, either.  Instead, they bicker, they tease, they run, they get into and out of trouble together, and while you’re likely to find her standing over the Doctor’s shoulder telling him he miscalculated, I don’t get the impression that she’d have it any other way.  Zoe might have been reared to be a fact-oriented figurer in a relatively sterile environment, but it says a lot about her that, after one meeting with the Doctor and Jamie, she tries to stow away on the TARDIS.  Her first taste of something more has her eager to continue this very different sort of education, and over the course of her time with the Doctor, I’d say she finds it.