Rachel Jensen

Professor Rachel Jensen was the scientific advisor for Group Captain Ian Gilmore of the Intrusion Countermeasures Group during the Shoreditch Incident in the relevant area of London in November 1963. Allison Williams served as her assistant. She replaced Gilmore as the head of Counter-Measures in 1964.

Biography
Rachel was Jewish. (AUDIO: Threshold)

During World War II, she had worked with computer pioneer Alan Turing's team of codebreakers, the Cambridge group and then worked in the British Rocket Group with "Bernard". (PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy)


 * Jensen's presence in the group implies that she graduated from the University of Cambridge.

As she was Jewish, Rachel never accepted the presence of Professor Heinrich Schumann in the BRG, given that he was a former Nazi who had worked on Adolf Hitler's advanced weapons research programmes and was rumoured to have used human test subjects as part of his experiments. The British government never charged him with war crimes as they sought to make use of his scientific acumen. (AUDIO: Threshold)

Another of her colleagues at Cambridge was Professor Jeffrey Broderick, whom Allison believed still had feelings for her as late as 1964. Rachel claimed that the idea of a relationship with him made her "skin crawl." (AUDIO: Artificial Intelligence)

When the Seventh Doctor appeared unexpectedly and took charge during the Shoreditch Incident, his superior knowledge left Jensen and Allison as little more than an observers and commentators. She did, however, examine the ruined body of an Imperial Dalek.

Rachel was none too happy about being required to join Counter-Measures, not appreciating Gilmore's having requisitioned her against her will via the Peacetime Emergency Powers Act or his military attitude. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks)

Other than Allison, her students at Cambridge included Anne Travers and Ruth Ingram. (PROSE: The Scales of Injustice)

In 1962, she began researching artificial intelligence at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge. (AUDIO: Threshold)

In 1964, while still a relatively young woman, she followed through on her half-joking threat to retire and raise begonias. (TV: Remembrance of the Daleks, PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy)

However, within a matter of months, she resumed her research into artificial intelligence at Cambridge. After working with Counter-Measures once again as a consultant, Rachel accepted the offer of Sir Toby Kinsella to join the organisation permanently - on the condition that she was supplied with the facilities to continue her research on site and that she would replace Gilmore as its leader. However, she assured him that she would defer to his judgement in all matters of security. (AUDIO: Threshold) While Gilmore was initially bitter that Rachel had replaced him, he eventually came to respect her not only as a scientist but as his superior officer as well. (AUDIO: Artificial Intelligence)

Her Ministry of Defence contract stated that all of her past, present and future research is the intellectual property of the British government. This allowed Professor Broderick to make use of her theories in creating the artificially intelligent Sentient Engine Generator 2 computer (Sen-Gen). Much to Rachel's annoyance, Broderick also programmed Sen-Gen with her voice. After Sen-Gen had tapped into her mind and amplified her subconscious fears, she left a dictation machine into Sir Toby's office in Whitehall which featured a recording of herself tearing up her MoD contract and telling him that she thought that he was scheming and manipulative. She sent a copy of the tape to The Times. However, the Royal Mail train was intercepted by the MoD and the package was recovered. Sir Toby told Rachel that, had the package been delivered, contingency plans were in place and that the MoD would have claimed that the recording had been faked. (AUDIO: Artificial Intelligence)

Her autobiography, The Electrical Dreamer made no mention of the Shoreditch Incident at all. (PROSE: Remembrance of the Daleks, PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy)

She was eventually appointed chief scientific advisor to the Cabinet. She served in that position until 1981, at which time she was succeeded by her former student Anne Travers. (PROSE: Millennial Rites)

Behind the scenes

 * The first mention of The Electrical Dreamer, and an excerpt from it, and of the ICMG occurred in Ben Aaronovitch's novelisation of his Remembrance of the Daleks.