Heather McCrimmon

Heather McCrimmon (born 1990) was a companion of the Tenth Doctor. She was a descendant of the Second Doctor's companion Jamie McCrimmon and his wife Kirsty.

Before the Doctor
Sometime before Heather met the Doctor, Heather received her driving licence. Her dad took her to his company's car park when Heather was learning to drive. So however bad Heather was at driving, she couldn't crash into anything. (COMIC: The Secret Army)

Heather was present at the wedding of her cousin and thought it was a disaster. (COMIC: The Ball and Chain Gang)

Heather had a good relationship with her granny and sometimes got a Christmas tree for her. (COMIC: The Goats of Christmas Past)

In 2009 Heather was studying history at the University of Edinburgh. Her best friends at the University were Suze and Rob. (COMIC: The Chromosome Connection)

Meeting the Tenth Doctor
Heather McCrimmon went ghost hunting in Edinburgh and while there she came face to face with the apparition of her Great-Great-Great-Great-Great Grandmother. and met the Tenth Doctor. Heather and the Doctor travelled to 1815 where they encountered Mozhatta who was attempting to murder Heather's family in the 19th century. The Doctor told Heather's ancestor to fight Mozhatta. She did so and succeeded. (COMIC: The Chromosome Connection)

Adventures with the Doctor
After her first adventure she asked the Tenth Doctor to join him in his travels. The Doctor agreed; this way she would experience historical events first-hand for her history essay. Then they flew away in the TARDIS. (COMIC: The Chromosome Connection)

Heather was later joined in her adventures with the Doctor by Wolfgang Ryter. (COMIC: Flight of the Giurgeax)

Departure
During a visit to the University of Edinburgh to meet her professor, she was led into a trap by the Mozhtratta. Heather was so affected by the Mozhtratta's machine that if she took a single trip in the TARDIS she would be ripped apart by time radiation, from which the TARDIS would normally have protected her. She bade an emotional goodbye to the Doctor, noting that at least she was back at home. (COMIC: Dead-line)

In the years following her travels with the Doctor, Heather pursued a career in archaeology and was a freelance alien hunter by night like Wolfgang, with whom she was reunited in 2013, four years after her travels with the Doctor ended. Heather and Wolfgang saw the Doctor once more when he saved their lives and then left to check on Rose Tyler on 1 January 2005 and face his regeneration. (COMIC: Lucky Heather)

Personality
Heather was a kind, caring young woman who wanted adventure, which eventually led her into the company of the Tenth Doctor. However, she could be ruthless when anyone threatened her close friends or family, refusing to help save a gang of German naval officers in 1944 due to the fact that the Germans had been responsible for the death of her great-grandfather. (COMIC: The Submariners)

She developed a strong friendship with Wolfgang Ryter. She had an even stronger relationship with the Doctor, with whom she travelled for some time alone, both before and after Wolfie's tenure as a companion.

Behind the scenes
Heather McCrimmon has the distinction of appearing in more individual stories — approximately fifty — than any other companion ever featured in Doctor Who comic strips, including those published in DWM and in the 1960s. Based on individual adventure count, she could be considered one of the Doctor's longest-serving companions, TV or spin-off.

Continuity
The World Shapers in Doctor Who Magazine, which featured a much older Jamie McCrimmon, implied that any family that he might have had had long since departed to leave him a village pariah. Jamie stated in the audio story The Glorious Revolution that he and Kirsty McLaren had "more bairns than there are days in the week" and numerous grandchildren by 1788. Heather, who has Vortex radiation in her DNA, is thus a distant descendant of Jamie and Kirsty.

In the order of publication, Heather became the Doctor's companion after Donna Noble and the information given for creating a character in the comic's competition confirms this. Given statements made in the post-Journey's End era regarding the Doctor's refusal to take ongoing companions after Donna, Heather's presence either violates TV continuity or her travels in the TARDIS take place at some point earlier in the Tenth Doctor's life, likely between the television stories Voyage of the Damned and Partners in Crime. Alternatively, it is not definitively stated until the end of the television story The Next Doctor that the Doctor has stopped taking on companions, allowing the argument that Heather and Wolfgang's time on the TARDIS takes place between Journey's End and The Next Doctor.

Creation
Heather was created by eight-year-old Aidan Cross in a competition sponsored by Doctor Who Adventures to create a new companion to appear in the magazine's comics.