Tegan Jovanka

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Tegan Jovanka is a fictional character played by Janet Fielding in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. An Australian airline stewardess and a native of Brisbane who was a of the Fourth and Fifth Doctors, she was a regular in the programme from 1981 to 1984.

According to producer John Nathan-Turner, when he was thinking of a name for the character, it was either going to be Tegan, after a friend's niece in Australia, or Jovanka, after Jovanka Broz, the widow of Yugoslavian 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".

Contents

1 Character history
2 Other appearances
3 Serials
4 References

Character history

Tegan first appeared in the Fourth Doctor's last serial, Logopolis. On her way to Heathrow Airport to start her new job with Air Australia, her car suffered a flat tyre. She entered a roadside police box to seek help, not knowing that it was actually the Doctor's disguised TARDIS. She was present when the Fourth Doctor fell from the Pharos Project radio telescope and regenerated into his fifth incarnation, and continued to journey with the Doctor and his other companions.

Tegan was stubborn, loud, and direct, with a no-nonsense manner and not afraid to speak her mind (in Earthshock she described herself as "just a mouth on legs"). Her time in the TARDIS coincided with that of Adric, Nyssa, Turlough and Kamelion. While she often bickered with them as well as with the Doctor, her strength of character kept them together and her loyalty to her fellow crewmates was unquestionable. She was close with Nyssa, and was especially saddened at her leaving. The Doctor noted that she was a good coordinator, and often encouraged her with the words, "Brave heart, Tegan." She was apparently able to speak one of many Indigenous Australian languages fluently, and showed an ability to use firearms.

[Spoiler warningSpoiler warning]: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Despite her strong front, however, her adventures with the Doctor, both thrilling and terrifying, eventually took a psychological toll. She was also deeply upset by the death of Adric in Earthshock. After being left behind in Heathrow due to a misunderstanding at the end of Time-Flight she returned to the TARDIS in the subsequent adventure Arc of Infinity. Soon after she was once again possessed by the alien intelligence known as the Mara. Nyssa's departure affected her as well, and she was initially suspicious of Turlough's intentions in joining the Doctor. Eventually, the carnage surrounding the events of Resurrection of the Daleks proved too much and she bid an emotional good-bye to the Doctor and Turlough, leaving while they were still in 1984 London.

Janet Fielding returned to play an illusory image of Tegan seen during the Fifth Doctor's regeneration into the Sixth in The Caves of Androzani (1984).

Other appearances

Janet Fielding, left, reprises her role as Tegan in the special mini-episode A Fix with Sontarans alongside Colin Baker, centre, and fan Gareth Jenkins.

Little is known about Tegan's life after leaving the Doctor, although 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 also 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 she returned to the life of a flight attendant and also frosted her hair blonde, before being accidentally returned to the TARDIS by the Sixth Doctor.

Doctor Who Magazine reported that Janet Fielding will be appearing as Tegan in a Big Finish Productions audio play titled The Gathering due out sometime in September 2006. Big Finish producer Jason Haigh-Ellery confirmed at the BBC Doctor Who website that an older Tegan, post-Resurrection of the Daleks, would be appearing alongside Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor.

The canonicity of these stories, as with all spin-offs, is unclear.

Serials

References

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