Alice Obiefune

Alice Uwaebuka Obiefune was a 21st century British library assistant who travelled with the Eleventh Doctor. Alice's time as a long-term companion of the Doctor saw many other companions coming and going: John Jones, ARC, Abslom Daak, the Squire, and River Song.

Alice helped the Doctor face SERVEYOUinc and the Talent Scout, (COMIC: The Rise and Fall, The Comfort of the Good et al) stop the Voord plot to take over all of time and space, (COMIC: Four Doctors) outrun the the Then and the Now and discover the fate of the Cyclors, (COMIC: The Then and the Now, Physician, Heal Thyself et al) and raise the Sapling. (COMIC: The Scream et al)

Early life
Alice was born to Ada Obiefune (COMIC: After Life) and Ijezie Obiefune. Her father passed away when she was a small child, leaving her to be raised solely by her mother. One year Maddie Potter told Alice that her parents "should go back to where [they] came from." Alice responded that her father was dead and Maddie stated that her father said it was "good riddance." At her father's grave, Alice cried about Maddie and her father's cruel comments and when her mother asked what was wrong, she told her it was nothing. Ada insisted that it's not right to keep things inside and if something is wrong, a person should speak up about it. Alice recounted the story to her mother, as well as the fact that when she told their teacher about Maddie's behaviour, it was dismissed as "teasing" and indicated that the teacher always dismissed similar incidents. Alice declared that it was unfair and expressed a desire to run away to space and never come back. Ada challenged her daughter, asking, "And what happens to the rest of us, then? Who have to stay behind?" (COMIC: Whodunnit?) A few years later, in June 1962, Ada once again reiterated to Alice that a person must always speak up when they think something is wrong. (COMIC: The Infinite Astronaut) She never passed a driving test. (COMIC: What He Wants...)

As an adult she worked as a library assistant, often helping people who had been turned away by the Department for Work and Pensions and reading books to children during storytime. In 2014, prior to August, her mother passed away and gradually her life began to fall apart: she lost her job to cutbacks, her landlord evicted her from her flat, and her friend moved away. (COMIC: After Life) The eviction forced her to hire a solicitor. (COMIC: Whodunnit?)

Meeting the Doctor
Stuck in the depths of depression, Alice received a spark of joy in her life when she encountered a Kharitite while walking down the sidewalk. While Alice was drawn into the Eleventh Doctor's adventure, the Doctor was drawn into Alice's life. After chasing the Kharitite through the House of Commons, the Doctor offered Alice the chance to travel with him and she accepted. (COMIC: After Life)

Travelling with the Eleventh Doctor
Rokhandi was the first planet the Doctor took Alice. However, upon arrival they discovered the planet's stunning natural beauty had been decimated in order to build toxic waste mines and the Rokhandi World theme park. The Doctor and Alice visited the theme park and discovered that the minds of its employees were being affected by an Entity. The Doctor destabilised the Entity, destroying its influence on the people of Rokhandi. Before they left, Alice and the Doctor encountered August Hart, who had already met them both in his past and their future. (COMIC: The Friendly Place)

New companions join
Back at her apartment in 2014, Alice mused over what to do with her mother's belongings, particularly her music collection. Inspired by Ada's favourite musician, John Jones, the Doctor decided to take Alice to 1962 to witness the first of Jones' gigs live. Despite her mother's rhapsodizing of Jones, Alice found him awful and could not believe that he was the same man her mother had praised during her childhood. Alice followed the Doctor back into the TARDIS and he showed her a tarp covered Bessie, which he claimed to be pimping using the TARDIS matrix.

To cheer her up, the Doctor decided to take Alice on a second trip to the past, this time for Delta blues music from another of Ada's favourites and his personal friend, Robert Johnson, in 1931 Mississippi Delta. After walking out of the TARDIS, they were shocked to discover John Jones following them, angry that they insulted his music outside of the Dog & Duck. Although surprised, the Doctor encouraged Jones to join him and Alice for Johnson's performance. Instead, they were shocked to walk in and find a crowd of people with glowing golden eyes and mouths. When the Doctor attempted to disperse the group and was attacked, he instructed Alice to get herself and Jones back to the TARDIS. Shortly after getting back, Johnson joined them with the Doctor's sonic screwdriver, stating that the Doctor used it to cure him from possession and claimed Alice would know what to do with it. Alice decided to plug the sonic into the console panel and assumed the TARDIS would download the sonic's data. Upon hearing Bessie roar to life, Alice came up with a plan using Jones and Johnson's talents: Jones would sneak upon the possessed Mississippians while she would use Bessie, now in the form of a monster truck, as an escape car. They would lure the possessed to the TARDIS, where Johnson would effect the reprogramming on his guitar. After her plan worked, she joined everyone around a campfire. She sensed that the Doctor, though not possessed anymore, is still not his usual self and tried to comfort him. (COMIC: What He Wants...)

After visiting two ice planets and a dinosaur civilisation, the Doctor tried to take Alice back home, but instead of landing in her apartment, the TARDIS landed on the United System Research Base. Upon exiting the ship, Alice and Jones found themselves faced with a barrage of soldiers and guns, headed by younger version of August Hart who was only meeting Alice for the first time. While the Doctor investigated the mystery of the unconscious crew in the sickbay, Alice joined Jones in the canteen. (COMIC: Whodunnit?)

Alice was using the ladies' restroom when she heard a wailing sound from the men's restroom next door and ran in wielding a can of carbon dioxide in defence. She found ARC hovering over Jones, sprayed ARC with the can, and dragged Jones out of the bathroom. On their way down the corridor they were caught by an armed crew member, but managed to escape when ARC absorbed the man and continued chasing them. They ran to the safety of the TARDIS, but discovered it blocked by August Hart. Hart commanded his men to shoot them, beginning with their kneecaps, but the Doctor arrived in time to stop them. When ARC arrived, the Doctor revealed he was the Autonomous Reasoning Centre of a being the crew of the research base had been torturing. Alice realised ARC was not trying to hurt people, but learn from them. Alice was touched by the Doctor's kindness and understanding of ARC and decided to not stop travelling with him after all and joined the Doctor, Jones, and ARC aboard the TARDIS once again. Although the Doctor offered to finally take Alice to her meeting, Alice decided she'd like to have a little more fun before going back home. (COMIC: The Sound of Our Voices)

Adventures with John and ARC
In one version of Alice's timeline, Alice, Jones, ARC and the Doctor visited Datastore 8 to protect it from a Nimon. In saving the planet, the Nimon got loose on the TARDIS and killed Jones. However, time began running backwards in incremental jumps and the Doctor was jostled back and forth between various points of the Nimon's attack. Alice assisted the Doctor by stealing the Nimon's black box, which the Doctor stole from her in a second version of the timeline, thus preventing Jones' death. (COMIC: Space in Dimension Relative and Time)

Alice finally returned to her flat in 2015 with the intention of staying only a few days to sort out her affairs, but discovered Earth skies had been invaded by the Eternal Dogfight between the Amstron and the J'arrodic in her absence. The Doctor left Alice with an old mobile phone and said he would return to her soon and that life on Earth shouldn't change much, despite the aliens. Once panic subsided, most humans became amused by the Eternal Dogfight, but not Alice. She felt alone. The Talent Scout used this as an opportunity to appear to her in the form of a Time Lord and second, as her mother. (COMIC: The Eternal Dogfight)

Alice believed the Doctor would be happy that her mother had been brought back from the dead, but instead fought with the Doctor when he explained that whatever entity had taken her mother's form was not actually Ada Obiefune. When his explanation failed to get to Alice, he gave Alice a thought controlled jet pack and the sonic screwdriver to aid her in a search of the Amstron's sacred library for a book on the Eternal Dogfight. Alice returned just in time to prevent the Amstrons from executing the Doctor by appointing herself a representative of Earth and requesting to send the Infinite Astronaut through the Gate of Creation.

Alice was informed she alone had to pilot the Infinite Astronaut spaceship through the Gate of Creation and return to explain what was on the other side, otherwise Earth would be destroyed. Just before the ship was about to take off, Alice realised that her mother had not recognised Jones upon first meeting him and she finally understood that the being claiming to be Ada was an imposter. The Talent Scout revealed his true form and, heartbroken, Alice drove the Infinite Astronaut into the wormhole. On the other side she found several ships that had been caught inside the wormhole, transfixed by its beauty, but due to Alice's state of mind, she could not see the beauty and piloted the ship back through the Gate where she declared the only thing on the other side were "stupid lights." Alice's discovery finally allowed for a peace treaty to be made, ending the Eternal Dogfight, and Alice rejoined her friends on the TARDIS, this time headed for SERVEYOUinc City. (COMIC: The Infinite Astronaut)

Travelling with just the Doctor
With just the Doctor, Alice visited Philadelphia in 1789 (COMIC: The Long Con) and encountered the Tenth and Twelfth Doctors. (COMIC: Four Doctors)

Running from the Then and the Now
The Doctor and Alice were joined in their travels by the Squire and Abslom Daak. During this time they were chased by the Then and the Now. (COMIC: The Then and the Now et al)

With the War Doctor
Alice entered the Last Great Time War and aided the War Doctor in fighting the Cyclors and the Volatix Cabal. (COMIC: First Rule et al)

Encountering Cyber-Silurians
Alice and the Doctor encountered Cyber-Silurians while trying to find an anniversary gift for Vastra and Jenny Flint. (COMIC: Supremacy of the Cybermen)

The Scream and the Sapling
Alice and the Doctor encountered the Scream and created the Sapling. (COMIC: The Scream et al)

Personality
As a library assistant, Alice had to help a variety of people with a variety of problems and therefore honed skills in kindness and patience. (COMIC: After Life) Despite her patience, she was also forceful if the situation needed her to be. When she noticed the Doctor was being rude to the Rokhandi World employees she called him out on his behaviour and pointed out that they were just trying to do their jobs, most likely for minimum wage like many of the people that she's helped at work, and that he should be more respectful of them and what they do. She was also quick to stand up to the Doctor when she felt he was treating her as an accessory or rudely refusing to acknowledge her job as a library assistant. (COMIC: The Friendly Place)

Age
Alice was not always consistent describing her age. While chiding John Jones for running too slowly, she called herself a "forty-year-old library assistant". (COMIC: The Sound of Our Voices) Later she described herself as being in her 30s. (COMIC: Space in Dimension Relative and Time)

Skills and abilities

 * Alice was very competent with computers because she frequently worked with the general public who needed her help navigating the systems. (COMIC: After Life)
 * Alice was skilled with a gun. She won the Doctor a Customer Service Pig toy at the Rokhandi World Target Happy shooting gallery game and later took one of their guns to use against the men who abducted the Doctor. She shot one man in the backside and threatened to shoot him in the crotch if the Doctor was not released. (COMIC: The Friendly Place)