Iris Wildthyme

Iris Wildthyme was a renegade Time Lady who encountered the Doctor on a number of occasions.

Profile
There was some contention regarding where precisely she is from, and precisely where her home is. (EDA: The Blue Angel)

Many of the experiences Iris claims as hers are very similar to the Doctor's own. In some cases she vividly remembers the Doctor's first trip to Skaro as being part of her own past rather than his. Among the explanations she has offered for this are the possibility that she is an alternate universe's equivalent of the Doctor or that she is a creation of Faction Paradox. In truth however, Iris has a metafictional awareness of the fact that she is a parody of the Doctor, and is consequently madly in love with him. (DWM: DWM Issue 289) She once proposed to the Doctor, in Venice, when she appeared to be a woman in her 60s with long white hair that reached to the ground. (EDA: The Scarlet Empress)

She and five other of her incarnations faced Morbius in the Death Zone, facing things such as Quarks and Zarbi. (BFA: Excelis Dawns, EDA: The Scarlet Empress)

Iris was part of the Sisterhood of Karn for a couple of years and was one of those present crying 'Death!' when the Doctor paid Karn a visit.

On occasion the Doctor has even participated in adventures of Iris's which have paralleled his own. The efforts of Bianca, her evil future self, to steal her remaining regenerations echo the Doctor's conflict with The Valeyard to such an extent that the Doctor was left outraged by the repeated scenario and plagiarised dialogue. (BFA: The Wormery)

Another characteristic of Iris's interactions with the Doctor is her tenancy to encounter him 'out of sequence'. For example, her adventure with the Doctor's fifth incarnation (BFA: Excelis Dawns) occurs later in her life than her first adventure with his eighth (EDA: The Scarlet Empress). It has been suggested that her very nature makes it impossible to tie her to a linear chronology. (DWM: DWM Issue 289)

Similarly, her TARDIS transports her not through one universe but through the multiverse. Intuitively, and often drunkenly, Iris has been able to discern the soft places where the barriers between realities are weaker and spend her career travelling between them all. (BFIW: Wildthyme at Large)



The Old Woman
Encountered the Doctor and Sam Jones on the planet Hyspero. Prior to this she had eaten a Kaled mutant during a meeting with some Draconians. (EDA: The Scarlet Empress)

The "Barbarella" Version
Was the self following a regeneration she underwent after eating a Kaled mutant. She encountered the Doctor in the Obverse. (EDA: The Blue Angel)


 * See Barbarella.

Brenda Soobie
Iris spent some time in Las Vegas in 1960 as Brenda Soobie, she was their with her companion, Martha from the Poodle Planet. Whilst there she ran into the Doctor (in his eighth incarnation), Fitz Kreiner, Anji Kapoor and Noel Coward (who was, incidentally, using time pinking shears). (EDA: Mad Dogs and Englishmen)

"Gracie Fields" Version
During another incarnation Iris left a handbag on the planet Excelis, then became and nun before finally encountering the Doctor. (BFA: Excelis Dawns)


 * See Gracie Fields.

Iris's TARDIS

 * See separate article.

Iris's Companions

 * Captain Turner, who left Iris after only one trip to marry a sort of weretiger. (ST: Old Flames)
 * Timmy, Iris referred to him as her "glamorous assistant". (EDA: The Scarlet Empress)
 * Iris mentioned Gary as another of her previous companions. (EDA: The Scarlet Empress)
 * Iris refers to one of her former companions as "an obtuse shape-shifter who loved nothing better than to spend much of his time as a lippy and garrulous penguin" (who most likely is Frobisher). (EDA: The Scarlet Empress)
 * Flossie and Fritter joined Iris following the adventure with the Doctor and Noel Coward. (EDA: Mad Dogs and Englishmen)

Jenny
Traffic warden, (suggested she's a lesbian), used to get diarrhoea whenever they went through the vortex.

Martha
Is a poodle from the Poodle planet. (EDA: Mad Dogs and Englishmen)

Tom
Tom (is also gay) and his talking panda travelled with Iris for some time, before he returned to Earth, Iris then came looking for Tom once more. (BFIW: Wildthyme at Large)

Behind the Scenes
Iris Wildthyme can be described as a meta-fictional character, able to comment on the world she is in, and on the Doctor's own adventures from a point of view removed from the normal narrative structures. Iris has also appeared in novels by Paul Magrs outside of the Doctor Who Universe, making her a crossover character. The "old woman" Iris Wildthyme appears like actor Beryl Reid (who has guest-starred on Doctor Who). On audio, Katy Manning supplies the voice for the character.

On 27 November 2008, Stuart Douglas and Paul Magrs announced plans to launch a new series of books featuring Iris in the spring of 2009 under the Obverse Books imprint. The first of these books, a short story collection entitled Iris Wildthyme and the Celestial Omnibus has been announced, to be released on 20th May 2009, and with the following author line-up:

Introduction - Katy Manning A Gamble with Wildthyme - Steve Lyons Sovereign - Mags L Halliday The Unhappy Medium - Mark Wright and Cavan Scott Future Legend - Stuart Douglas Battleship Anathema - Philip Purser-Hallard The Dreadful Flap - Paul Magrs And Not A Drop to Drink - Steven Wickham Iris Wildthyme y Señor Cientocinco contra Los Monstruos del Fiesta - Cody Schell Why, Because We Like You - Jonathan Dennis The Scarlet Shadow - Stewart Sheargold Only Living Girls - Steve Cole

In a followup posting on 9 January 2009, Douglas indicated a second book is also planned for late in 2009.