Jenny (Doctor Who)
Jenny | |
---|---|
Doctor Who character | |
Georgia Moffett | |
In-universe information | |
Species | Time Lord |
Relatives | The Doctor (parent) |
Home | Messaline |
Home era | 60120724 (New Byzantine Calendar) |
Appears in | "The Doctor's Daughter" (2008) |
Jenny, portrayed by
Georgia Tennant (then-Moffett) was cast as Jenny after auditioning for a smaller part in the episode "The Unicorn and the Wasp", and impressing the series producers.[2] The character was generally well received by reviewers, with many speculating that she would return to the franchise.[3][4][5][6] Moffett also expressed an interest in this possibility.[7]
The fictional Doctor's daughter was played by a real Doctor's daughter; actress Georgia Moffett (her father's legal surname) is the daughter of actor Peter Davison, who portrayed the Doctor's fifth incarnation from 1981 to 1984. Moffett met David Tennant – playing the tenth incarnation of the Doctor – on the set; they began a relationship, and married in 2011, when she changed her name to Georgia Tennant.
Appearance
When the Doctor's time travelling
Named "Jenny" by the Doctor's companion Donna (Catherine Tate) as she is a "generated anomaly", she is initially received with ambivalence by the Doctor, whom she reminds of the loss of his previous family. He eventually warms to her, and welcomes her aboard his crew as a companion. Just as peace appears to have been restored between the planet's warring factions, Jenny is shot and apparently killed. The Doctor cradles her dying form in his arms, and is visibly distraught when she does not revive or regenerate from the wound. In the episode's closing scenes after the Doctor leaves, Jenny revives, takes a small spaceship, and takes off into the unknown to become an explorer like her father.[8]
In the accompanying Doctor Who Confidential episode, David Tennant (who portrays the Doctor) refers to her as "another member of that race, or something closely akin to it."[9] In the episode itself the Doctor says to Jenny, "You're an echo, that's all. A Time Lord is so much more. A sum of knowledge, a code, shared history, shared suffering", but later accepts her as his daughter, saying "You're going to be more than great; you're going to be amazing".[8] Jenny's 'death' is shown during "Journey's End" when the Doctor recalls those who have died while helping him, as he did not know she revived.
Characterisation
Character creation
While it is well established within
Regarding the creation of the character Jenny, series producer Phil Collinson explained, "It came out of a desire to keep pushing David, and keep taking him in new directions, and keep challenging him, really. To suddenly find himself with a member of family is kind of one of the biggest challenges you could give him, so I'm chuffed we did it."[9] Moffett has agreed that giving the character a daughter was "an interesting, emotional, dramatic place for the character to go,"[9] while the episode's writer, Stephen Greenhorn, has spoken of the manner in which creating Jenny allowed the show to broach "aspects of the Doctor's past life that we don't often get to discuss, about his previous family that he had and lost in the Time War."[9] Steven Moffat suggested that the character lives in the episode's conclusion.[11]
Casting
Before being cast as Jenny,
Characteristics
Over the course of the episode "The Doctor's Daughter", the character of Jenny undergoes marked change. Tennant explained: "She starts off not being particularly likeable but by the end she's learned a lot from her experiences and from The Doctor. She becomes something that he's very proud of."[15] Initially, Jenny is portrayed as an "action hero" character,[15] described by series producer Phil Collinson as: "a warrior. [...] She's born to fight. She's born to use weapons, she's born to karate chop and kick her feet", and by episode writer Stephen Greenhorn as: "a kind of manufactured soldier, with a kinda pre-programming towards aggression and war."[9] Shortly after her creation within the episode, the character explains that she was born knowing just "How to fight, and how to die."[8]
Learning from the Doctor, Jenny begins to adapt her ideology. Tennant explained that her character: "begins to become much more like the Doctor, and much more like a Time[lord],"[7] describing the episode as "a journey,"[9] over the course of which Jenny learns to use her fighting skills "in the right way," developing morals as she grows on a personal level.[9] Executive producer Russell T Davies has discussed the Doctor's initial reluctance to accept Jenny as his daughter, explaining, "It's awful for him in that this daughter is everything he wouldn't be; she's a soldier, she's got military protocols downloaded into her brain, she can fight, and she wants to fight, that's the important thing, that she thinks killing is fine."[9] Greenhorn asserts that as the character develops, "You can see the Doctorishness in her. And you can see that actually, the reason he would warm to that is because he begins to recognise there are elements in her that are strong in him as well."[9] Concluding the character's development over the course of the episode, Tennant surmised, "By the end of it, they've both realised that they want to be a little bit more like the other one, and admire that in each other."[9]
Reception
Martin Anderson of Den of Geek! has suggested that the creation of a daughter character for the Doctor was a move designed to lay to rest decades long speculation that the Doctor himself might one day regenerate into a female form.
Ian Berriman, writing for
Georges Jeanty, artist of the comic series
Big Finish
In 2008, critics Anderson, Berriman, Wright, and The Times' Andrew Billen all speculated that the character could return to the series in the future,[3][4][5][6] with Anderson assessing that Jenny's episode's ending left "vast scope" for the return of the character in her own spin-off: "Moffett herself has the obvious credentials due to her real-life dad, and she's certainly young, attractive and athletic enough to cross quite a few barriers in viewer demographics."[3] Billen adds: "If Jenny [...] does not spin off into, at least, her own comic books, I shall be surprised." Although the character was not subsequently featured on television, Big Finish Productions released an audio drama in 2018, bringing Georgia Moffett back to the role of Jenny,[20] and another in 2021.[21]
Series 1 (2018)
No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Featuring | Released |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | "Stolen Goods" | Barnaby Edwards | Matt Fitton | Jenny, Noah, COLT-5000, Garundel | June 2018 |
2 | "Prisoner of the Ood" | Barnaby Edwards | John Dorney | Jenny, Noah, Ood | June 2018 |
3 | "Neon Reign" | Barnaby Edwards | Christian Brassington | Jenny, Noah, COLT-5000 | June 2018 |
4 | "Zero Space" | Barnaby Edwards | Adrian Poynton | Jenny, Noah, COLT-5000, Tenth Doctor | June 2018 |
Series 2: Still Running (2021)
No. | Title | Directed by | Written by | Featuring | Released |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | "Inside the Maldovarium" | Barnaby Kay | Adrian Poynton | Jenny, Noah, Dorium Maldovar | November 2021 |
2 | "Altered Status" | Barnaby Kay | Christian Brassington & Matt Fitton | Jenny, Noah | November 2021 |
3 | "Calamity Jenny" | Barnaby Kay | John Dorney | Jenny, Noah | November 2021 |
4 | "Her Own Worst Enemy" | Barnaby Kay | Lisa McMullin | Jenny, Noah | November 2021 |
References
- ^ Writer Stephen Greenhorn, Director Alice Troughton, Producer Phil Collinson (10 May 2008). "The Doctor's Daughter". Doctor Who. Cardiff. BBC. BBC One.
Progenation. Reproduction from a single organism. Means one parent is biological mother and father. You take a sample of diploid cells, split them into haploids, then recombine them in a different arrangement and grow. Very quickly, apparently.
- ^ a b "Doctor's daughter joins Series Four cast". Doctor Who Magazine. No. 390. 9 January 2008. p. 6.
- ^ a b c d Anderson, Martin (10 May 2008). "A new, female Doctor Who?". Den of Geek!. Dennis Publishing. Archived from the original on 12 February 2012. Retrieved 12 May 2008.
- ^ Future Publishing. Retrieved 11 May 2008.
- ^ a b c Wright, Mark (11 May 2008). "Doctor Who 4.6: The Doctor's Daughter". The Stage. Archived from the original on 18 May 2008. Retrieved 11 May 2008.
- ^ a b Billen, Andrew (12 May 2008). "Russia: Journey with Jonathan Dimbleby; Doctor Who; Forbidden City". The Times. London. Retrieved 12 May 2008.
- ^ a b c "Episode 6: The Doctor's Daughter - Georgia Moffett Interview". BBC. Retrieved 13 May 2008.
- ^ a b c d Russell T Davies, Julie Gardner, Stephen Greenhorn, Alice Troughton (10 May 2008). "The Doctor's Daughter". Doctor Who. Season 4. Episode 6. BBC.
- ^ Georgia Moffett, Catherine Tate, Freema Agyeman (10 May 2008). "Sins of the Fathers". Doctor Who Confidential. Season 4. Episode 6. BBC Three.
- ^ "Fear Her". Russell T Davies, David Tennant, Billie Piper, Matthew Graham, Euros Lyn. Doctor Who. BBC. 24 June 2006. No. 11, season 2. (Rose: I've got cousins. Kids can't have it all their own way, that's part of being a family. Doctor: What about trying to understand them? Rose: Easy for you to say, you don't have kids. Doctor: I was a dad, once.)
- ^ David Tennant; Russell T Davies; Alice Troughton (10 May 2008). The Doctor's Daughter (Podcast; MP3). BBC.
- ^ "Georgia Moffett interview - Radio Times, May 2008". Radio Times. Archived from the original on 12 May 2008. Retrieved 13 May 2008.
- ^ a b "Doctor Who visits region + VIDEO". Sunderland Echo. 10 May 2008. Retrieved 12 May 2008.
- ^ Rawson-Jones, Ben (12 May 2008). "Moffett feared 'Doctor Who' role was a joke". Digital Spy. Retrieved 12 May 2008.
- ^ a b "Georgia really is Doctor's daughter". AOL. 8 May 2008. Archived from the original on 10 May 2008. Retrieved 12 May 2008.
- ^ Anderson, Martin (10 May 2008). "Doctor Who Series 4 episode 6 review — The Doctor's Daughter". Den of Geek!. Dennis Publishing. Archived from the original on 12 February 2012. Retrieved 12 May 2008.
- Newsround. BBC. Retrieved 12 May 2008.
- ^ Rawson-Jones, Ben (11 May 2008). "S04E06: 'The Doctor's Daughter'". Digital Spy. Retrieved 12 May 2008.
- ^ Fans Ask Questions of Georges Jeanty, SlayAlive Forums.
- ^ "Jenny: the Doctor's Daughter is coming to Big Finish - News - Big Finish". www.bigfinish.com. Retrieved 1 November 2017.
- ^ "Jenny - The Doctor's Daughter Series 02". www.bigfinish.com. Retrieved 1 November 2017.
External links
- Jenny on Tardis Wiki, the Doctor Who Wiki