Isabelle "Izzy" Sinclair was a human companion of the Eighth Doctor.
Biography
Izzy was born on 12 October 1979. She did not know where she had been born or who her biological parents were. She was adopted by Les and Sandra Sinclair, but because of her unknown ancestry chose to call herself Izzy S (for "Izzy Somebody") instead. (COMIC: Endgame)
At the age of eight Izzy was told that she was adopted. The truth hurt Izzy, and she began to tell herself that she was a lost alien princess, and someday her alien parents would find her. (COMIC: The Glorious Dead)
When she first met the Eighth Doctor, Izzy was a seventeen-year-old science fiction fan and amateur paranormal investigator. She lived in the town of Stockbridge, England. She was a friend of Maxwell Edison. She met the Doctor after Max and she had stolen an artefact being sought by the Doctor's old enemy, the Celestial Toymaker. The Toymaker had put the entire town of Stockbridge into a pocket dimension and turned everyone into dolls save for Izzy and Max. The Doctor arrived in the midst of this, rescued the town, defeated the Toymaker again and took Izzy on board the TARDIS as his newest companion. (COMIC: Endgame)
Izzy left Earth without telling her adoptive parents, but that did not concern her. She was trying to escape what she felt was a too-mundane life. She revelled in travel with the Doctor, even though it was often dangerous. However, her vivacious and trusting nature eventually had tragic consequences.[source needed]
The Doctor once took Izzy to Jora, where all native life forms were affected by the Syntax. Izzy fell under its influence, and saw Jean-Luc Picard whilst hallucinating. (PROSE: Syntax)
Izzy helped the Doctor to discover the mystery behind the disappearance of the 56th issue of Aggrotron!, one of her favourite comics whilst she was growing up. (AUDIO: Izzy's Story)
Izzy and the Doctor defeated Valis after he stole the Crystal of Consciousness by swapping it with a piece of perspex. (COMIC: Death to the Doctor!)
Losing her body
Izzy (left) is held at gun point by Destrii (right) who has just tricked her into swapping bodies. (COMIC: Ophidius)
When the TARDIS was swallowed by a gigantic, snake-like spacecraft called Ophidius, Izzy and the Doctor met Destrii, an amphibious alien who looked like a humanoid fish. Destrii was pursued by the aliens who controlled Ophidius and gained Izzy's confidence, only to switch bodies with her to evade capture. When Destrii (in Izzy's body) was apparently disintegrated, Izzy had to deal with the possibility she would be in an alien body for the rest of her life. Izzy had never learned how to swim before ending up in Destrii's body. (COMIC: Ophidius)
Izzy reacted badly to having a new body, lashing out at the Doctor when he tried to help. Shortly after, Izzy began to suffocate as her new body needed to be submerged in water periodically. The Doctor carried Izzy through the TARDIS to the swimming pool, submerging her in the water. Izzy then learnt how to breathe in her new body, and apologised to the Doctor for pushing him away. (COMIC: Beautiful Freak)
Izzy after the Cyberman invasion of Earth. (COMIC: The Flood)
Just as she was adjusting to her new body, Izzy was kidnapped by operatives of Destrii's mother, the Matriax Scalamanthia of the planet Oblivion, who wanted her "daughter" to prepare for her wedding by fighting a duel to the death. While trying to trace Izzy's whereabouts with the help of his former companion Fey, the Doctor discovered that Destrii was still alive and went to Oblivion to switch their bodies back. Destrii and Izzy saw into each other's minds. Destrii saw how finding out she had been adopted made Izzy withdraw emotionally, unable to trust herself or admit she was a lesbian. Finally coming to terms with who she was, Izzy asked the Doctor to take her back to Stockbridge so she could make amends to her adoptive parents. The Doctor dropped Izzy off at the moment she began travelling with him. From her parents' point of view, she had never left. (COMIC: Oblivion) Izzy survived the Cyberman invasion of Earth in 2005. (COMIC: The Flood, Hunters of the Burning Stone)
By December 2008, Izzy had taken to travelling the world. She found "something amazing" in Kabul. (COMIC: The Stockbridge Child) At some point, she began working for Médecins Sans Frontières: making her a doctor who travelled. (COMIC: The Stockbridge Showdown)
In 2016, she was going to return to Stockbridge for Max's sixtieth birthday when the Twelfth Doctor asked for her help in taking down Josiah W. Dogbolter. Izzy delivered a knockout blow to Dogbolter and watched him get arrested in his own time, before taking a TARDIS trip to Cornucopia for Max's birthday party. She caught up with Destrii there.
When the Doctor asked if she'd made up with her parents, she laughed that she was thirty-six now and that issue had been solved years ago. (COMIC: The Stockbridge Showdown)
Personality
Izzy was brought up watching science fiction on TV and reading books by authors as varied as Iain M. Banks and H.P. Lovecraft. She felt she was ready to travel with the Doctor, but found she was mistaken, and that real life far exceeded fiction in fantastic and terrible ways. During and after the Doctor's abduction by the Master, Izzy was left to cope with a morose Kroton and to deal with a failing resistance to the Ash Wraith invaders. (COMIC: The Glorious Dead)
Izzy frequently watched Star Trek: The Next Generation on VHS before travelling with the Doctor. (AUDIO: Izzy's Story) She had a poster of Darth Vader in her bedroom aboard the Doctor's TARDIS. (COMIC: Beautiful Freak) She was an atheist. (PROSE: Syntax)
After swapping bodies with Destrii, Izzy's burgeoning self-confidence was first shaken and then strengthened when she came to terms with the change and the successful return to her body. The ultimate realisation of that growth was when she could tell the Doctor she was ready to go home and kissing Fey, accepting her own homosexuality. (COMIC: Ophidius, Oblivion)
Behind the scenes
- The revelation that Izzy is a lesbian makes her the first unmistakably LGBT companion, and the first modern-day Earth companion without a heterosexual orientation. Chris Cwej was implied to have had sex with a man in Damaged Goods, but he's from the future and it's written with such subtlety that the sexual act is easily debatable. By contrast, Izzy is fully and clearly shown to passionately kiss Fey, and to have dialogue which confirms her feelings.
- Izzy's birthday is the same as the first publishing date of Doctor Who Weekly, as noted in the comic story TV Action!
- Izzy was the Eighth Doctor's most frequent companion in the comic strip, appearing in nearly all of the Eighth Doctor's appearances between 1996 and 2003. Her time with the Doctor saw the coming and going of both Kroton and Fey as companions. An older Izzy made a cameo appearance in the last regular Eighth Doctor comic strip story, The Flood (DWM 353) and narrated part of the story. She also appears in the short stories Syntax and Illumination by David Bailey, published in the Big Finish Productions Short Trips anthologies Short Trips: Life Science and Short Trips: Christmas Around the World respectively, set during her time with the Doctor.
- Izzy later made a cameo appearance in the comic story Death to the Doctor! in which various aliens recount how different incarnations of the Doctor defeated them. One was bested by the Eighth Doctor, and Izzy is seen in his flashback. She was most recently mentioned in the 2008 comic strip The Stockbridge Child.
- Izzy became one of the few comic strip companions to be given life by an actor when Jemima Rooper portrayed her in the 2009 Big Finish Productions release Izzy's Story. Rooper's performance as Izzy was praised by Alan Barnes, creator of the character and writer of Izzy's Story. Barnes said "she 'got' the character the second she spoke her first line, absolutely - walking the line between 'utterly adorable, give her a hug' and 'slightly irritating nerd' like she was born to play it!" (Vortex issue 5)
