Sunday, October 25, 2020

Top (Four) Big Damn Hero Moments: Dr. Grace Holloway (Doctor Who)

Only four Big Damn Hero moments for Grace, not the usual five. But considering that her tenure as a companion has just a 90-minute runtime, four is pretty good. Here are my favorite Grace moments (spoilers.)

 

Getting a Read on Chang Lee (Doctor Who)

Let’s leave aside the fact that Grace is wearing a gown because she came straight from the opera to perform surgery on a man she didn’t know was an alien with an unfamiliar biovascular system, although really, props. She goes out to the waiting room to deliver the bad news of the Doctor’s apparent passing to Chang Lee, but her compassion turns to suspicion as she realizes that Chang Lee isn’t a friend of the Doctor’s like he said, just someone who’s hoping to score the dead guy’s things. She confronts him, and when he bolts, she gives chase (and by the way, when he gets away, it’s because of an unfortunately-timed gurney, not Grace being in an opera dress.)

 

Standing Up to Her Administrator (Doctor Who)

When the (apparently-late) Doctor’s x-rays show up, everyone else is amused at the “double exposure,” but Grace sees it for what it is: proof that the Doctor had two hearts, a fact she couldn’t possibly have known and led to the vital mistakes she made during his operation. She brings it to her administrator, who, she’s surprised to learn, has chalked up the Doctor’s seeming death and the subsequent disappearance of his body (unbeknownst to them, he’s regenerated and left the morgue) as wins. Where Grace sees the x-rays as proof that she wasn’t to blame, her administrator sees them as the only remaining evidence that the Doctor was ever there and burns them, destroying the last remnant of Grace’s “error.” Grace is resolute, both in her insistence that the Doctor really did have two hearts and in her conviction that it’s wrong for her administrator to get rid of the x-rays. Ethically, she argues that it’s wrong, and what’s more, her desire to know more about the Doctor’s unique physiology trumps any concern over how his “death” might affect her career. I really love that.

 

Stopping the Police Officer (Doctor Who)

Desperate to get somewhere fast, the Doctor tries to commandeer a police motorcycle. Grace first runs interference for him with the officer, recognizing the warning signs that the Doctor has no idea how to act safely around an American cop, and she buys the Doctor a little lenience by indicating to the cop that he’s off his head. Then, once the Doctor manages to steal the officer’s gun, Grace takes charge of the situation and fires a warning shot, getting the cop to hand over the bike.

 

Jump-Starting the TARDIS (Doctor Who)

With the Master near victory, the Earth in imminent danger (isn’t it always?), and the Doctor captured, it’s up to Grace to save the day. Falling back on the Doctor’s earlier plan to go back in time in order to undo the damage caused by the Eye of Harmony, she frantically jumpstarts the TARDIS, rerouting power from the Eye to get the boost the TARDIS needs for a jump back in time. Not only does this thwart the Master’s plan and allow her to save the Doctor, it also saves herself: the Master kills Grace in retaliation for her actions, but because she’d put the TARDIS in a temporal orbit at the time, her death is reversed.

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