Tegan Jovanka is a fictional character played by Janet Fielding in the BBC television series Doctor Who. Tegan is a travelling companion of the Doctor from the end of his fourth incarnation (played by Tom Baker) and throughout his fifth incarnations (played by Peter Davison) between seasons 18 and 21.
In the series' narrative, Tegan is an Australian flight attendant who unwittingly joins the Doctor's crew of companions near the end of his fourth incarnation and stays with him almost until the end of his fifth incarnation. She serves as a rational, sardonic counterpoint to the perspectives of the fifth Doctor and his other companions. She first appeared in Logopolis (1981) and then in every serial until Resurrection of the Daleks (1984). While a vision of her was glimpsed in The Caves of Androzani (1984) the character did not return until she encountered the thirteenth Doctor (played by Jodie Whittaker) in "The Power of the Doctor" (2022), before she was reunited with the fifth Doctor in Tales of the Tardis (2023).
Series producer John Nathan-Turner developed the character specifically to generate Australian interest in Doctor Who casting Australian actress Janet Fielding as the first non-British actor to play a companion of the Doctor.
Tegan was devised to be more assertive than previous female companions. Her departure is notable for being motivated by the emotional toll of the Doctor's travels. She is also one of the Doctor's longest-serving companions.
Appearances
Television Tegan first appears in the Fourth Doctor's last serial, Logopolis (1981) where she is shown heading to Heathrow Airport to start a new job as an air steward with Air Australia, until a car breakdown forces her to use the services of a police box. This, she discovers is in fact the Doctor's disguised TARDIS. Inside she meets the Fourth Doctor and Adric, and with them is transported to the planet Logopolis, where they encounter Nyssa, abducted by The Master. With Adric and Nyssa, Tegan is present when the Doctor falls from the Pharos Project radio telescope and regenerates into his fifth incarnation, and she continues to journey with him and his other companions.
Tegan is stubborn, loud and direct, with a no-nonsense manner and is unafraid to speak her mind (in Earthshock she describes herself as "just a mouth on legs"). Her time in the TARDIS coincides with that of Adric, Nyssa, Turlough and Kamelion. While she often bickers with them (particularly with Adric) as well as with the Doctor, her integrity and loyalty are unquestionable. She is close enough to Nyssa to share a room with her aboard the Tardis, and is especially saddened by her leaving. Her initial distrust of Turlough is proven justified when he is revealed to be the Doctor's potential assassin, though they gradually become friends. The Doctor notes that she is a good coordinator, and often encourages her with the words, "Brave heart, Tegan." She is apparently able to speak at least one Indigenous Australian language fluently, and shows an aptitude with firearms.
After being left behind in Heathrow at the end of Time-Flight, she returns to the TARDIS a year later in the next adventure Arc of Infinity (in the interim the Doctor and Nyssa have been travelling together, according to the audio adventures). During the events of The Five Doctors she is summoned to Gallifrey's Death Zone where she meets the First Doctor, Second Doctor. Third Doctor, as well as Susan Foreman, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and Sarah Jane Smith. Despite her strong front, her adventures with the Doctor, both thrilling and terrifying, eventually take a psychological toll. She is deeply upset by the death of Adric in Earthshock. Soon after, she is once again possessed by the alien intelligence known as the Mara. Eventually, the carnage surrounding the events of Resurrection of the Daleks proves too much and she bids an emotional good-bye to both the Doctor and Turlough in the London of 1984.
Tegan is one of the few companions of the classic series whose family are shown on screen. She had an Australian aunt in the UK named Vanessa (Dolore Whiteman). In Logopolis, it is said that Tegan's father owned an Australian farm. Tegan's English maternal grandfather Andrew Verney (Frederick Hall) was a local historian who had a cottage in the English village of Little Hodcombe in The Awakening, and her cousin Colin Frazer (Alastair Cumming) lived in Brisbane but was terrorised by Omega whilst back-packing in Amsterdam during Arc of Infinity.
Between her departure in 1984 and her cameo return in 2022, Tegan is frequently referenced. The Fifth Doctor sees an illusory image of her during his regeneration into the Sixth in The Caves of Androzani (1984). The Sixth Doctor refers to her inThe Twin Dilemma (1985) and Attack of the Cybermen (1985). She is mentioned by Tenth Doctor when he meets the Fifth Doctor in Time Crash. In The Sarah Jane Adventures serial Death of the Doctor (2010), Sarah Jane Smith mentions knowing that Tegan has been a campaigner for the rights of Aboriginal Australians. The twelfth Doctor mentions her in The Crimson Horror (2013).
While investigating the mysterious disappearances of scientists in The Power of the Doctor (2022), Tegan and fellow former companion Ace encounter the Thirteenth Doctor portrayed by Jodie Whittaker as well as current and former companions Ian Chesterton, Jo Grant, Mel Bush, Yasmin Khan, Graham O'Brien and Dan Lewis. Both Tegan and Ace are briefly reunited with their respective incarnations of the Doctor.
Other media Fielding reprised the role in a 1985 sketch ("A Fix with Sontarans") for the children's show Jim'll Fix It, alongside Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor. This sketch suggests that Tegan returned to working as a flight attendant and also frosted her hair blonde, before being accidentally returned to the TARDIS by the Sixth Doctor.
Tegan regularly appeared in the audio drama series Doctor Who: The Monthly Adventures produced by Big Finish Productions. She has also appeared in various short stories, novels and comics.
Tegan's life after journeying with the Doctor is investigated in the Big Finish Productions 2006 audio drama The Gathering. Although she finds it difficult to enter into relationships and is suffering from a terminal illness, she tells the Doctor that she has no regrets about her time with him, and now appreciates her life to the full. The spin-off fiction suggests that she was briefly married to pop star Johnny Chester (also known as Johnny Chess), the son of the First Doctor's companions Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright. In the spin-off short story "Good Companions" by Peter Anghelides, Tegan has suffered a nervous breakdown and convinced herself that her time with the Doctor was a delusion.
Fielding first reprised her role as Tegan in a comedic promotional video for the Blu-ray release of Doctor Who season 19; she parodies a pre-flight safety demonstration for Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton, who appear as themselves.
The online special Farewell, Sarah Jane (2020) is set at Sarah Jane Smith's funeral and describes Tegan and Nyssa as "a nice couple from Australia". This was taken by publications to suggest that the two became romantically involved, however The Power of the Doctor appeared to negate this development, as Tegan mentions having previous husbands but does not refer to Nyssa as a partner.
In the online minisode The Passenger (2023), Tegan reunites with Nyssa, who has returned to Earth via the TARDIS. Tegan enters the TARDIS but finds a dark void where she encounters the Mara. Tegan then wakes, but the Mara's skull is seen in her mirror.
In Tales of the TARDIS (2023), produced to mark Doctor Who's 60th anniversary, Tegan and the Fifth Doctor are reunited aboard a "memory TARDIS" where they recollect the events of Earthshock.
They are again reunited in the mini-episode Destination: Daleks (2025), which serves as a sequel to Resurrection of the Daleks, showing the fifth Doctor returning Tegan to London's docklands, where they receive a distress signal from Turlough on Trion, under occupation by the Daleks
Development Doctor Who producer John Nathan-Turner "thought that it might benefit the show if there were several companions aboard the TARDIS" when Tom Baker's Fourth Doctor regenerated. When Nathan-Turner was thinking of a name for the character, it was either going to be Tegan, after his partner's niece in Australia, or Jovanka, after Jovanka Broz, the widow of Yugoslav president Josip Broz Tito, so he wrote both down on a piece of paper. Script editor Christopher H. Bidmead mistakenly believed that Jovanka was the character's last name rather than an alternative, and so christened her Tegan Jovanka.
References
Citations
Sources
External links
Tegan Jovanka on the BBC's Doctor Who website