Harriet Jones

Harriet Jones was a politician and elected representative of the United Kingdom. She helped the Ninth Doctor fight the schemes of the alien family known as the Slitheen. Later, as Prime Minister, she and the Tenth Doctor faced the Sycorax. Jones was a modest and intelligent middle-aged woman who had served her community faithfully for years without any real ambition beyond that. However, she was able to adapt quickly to the reality of the Slitheen threat, and took to the role of leadership easily, proceeding to reassure the public at the end that the crisis was over.

Jones always introduced herself by flashing her identity card and saying, "Harriet Jones, MP, Flydale North." She explained that this was because her constituency is a "tiny little place" and people would not know about it. Later, as Prime Minister, she continued to flash her card and say, "Harriet Jones, Prime Minister," to which people (including the Sycorax leader) would invariably respond that they knew who she was.

Biography
Harriet Jones was an unassuming career backbencher, serving the constituency of Flydale North, who happened to be at 10 Downing Street when an alien spacecraft crash-landed in the River Thames in 2006. She was there to discuss plans for the Flydale Infirmary in her "tiny little" constituency. She soon discovered that the Cabinet had been infiltrated, and that the Acting Prime Minister, Joseph Green, was actually an alien in disguise (DW: Aliens of London).

When the Doctor arrived at Downing Street to consult on the crash, she tried to warn his companion Rose Tyler of what was happening, but the two were pursued by the unmasked aliens. Eventually becoming trapped together with the Doctor and Rose in the Cabinet Rooms, she aided the Doctor in determining the Slitheen's weaknesses.

Finally, as the only elected representative present, she gave the Doctor the order to launch a Harpoon missile at Downing Street, killing the Slitheen before they could trigger off a nuclear war (Jones, the Doctor and Rose survived thanks to the reinforced steel walls of the Cabinet Rooms). At story's end, the Doctor told Rose that Jones was destined to be a future Prime Minister, elected for three successive terms, and the architect of Britain's Golden Age. (DW: World War Three)

Some of Harriet Jones's acts as Prime Minister included the launching of the Guinivere Space Probe by the British Rocket Group and the extension of a Cottage Hospital scheme nationwide. It was the space programme that led to her being faced with an alien invasion by the Sycorax. Although the invasion was averted by the Tenth Doctor, Jones ordered the covert Torchwood organisation to shoot down the retreating Sycorax ship.

Furious with Jones, the Doctor warned her he could bring her down with just six words, which he whispered to her aide: "Don't you think she looks tired?" Soon she was fending off rumours of ill-health and was facing a vote of no confidence (DW: The Christmas Invasion).


 * In seemingly bringing Jones down the Doctor appeared to change history, given his earlier statement that she would serve three terms as Prime Minister. This act may have had later, unanticipated consequences for the Doctor, given that there would now be at least one Prime Minister who did not exist in the original history.