Melanie Bush

Melanie Jane Bush BSc (Hons), also known as Mel, was a companion of the Sixth and Seventh Doctors.

She hailed from Pease Pottage, West Sussex. Although she was present for the Doctor's sixth regeneration, she did not witness it, as she was unconscious at the time after being exposed to a latent radiation which only knocked her out, but was fatal to Time Lords. As a result, the presence of a new incarnation of the Doctor confused her and made it hard to adjust to the differences in his appearance and personality.

She had a temporally complex relationship with the Sixth Doctor, as she met him in an order different than he met her, as Charley Pollard and River Song later would. Eventually, however, their timelines synchronised, and she had a more-or-less linear relationship to the Doctor, starting in the later period of his sixth incarnation. Her temporal relationship to the Seventh Doctor was considerably more straightforward and linear.

Childhood
Mel was born on 22 July, (PROSE: Spiral Scratch) 1964 (PROSE: Just War, Spiral Scratch) to Alan and Christine Bush. (PROSE: Spiral Scratch) According to one account, she was an only child. (PROSE: Business Unusual) According to another, she lived at 8 Gosling Street in Croxdale, until she accidentally caused her older sister, Anabel, to fall down the stairs when Anabel was 3-years-old. After Anabel's death, the Bushes moved to Pease Pottage to separate themselves from the tragedy. (PROSE: Spiral Scratch)

Mel would often fidget and complain about being sat on something that was hurting her. Her father would sarcastically tell her that she was sitting on a chair and her mother would liken her to the titular character of The Princess and the Pea. (AUDIO: The Devil's Footprints)

Mel took dancing lessons from Miss Fairs, (PROSE: Business Unusual) and did combat training in the Pease Pottage community hall. (AUDIO: Terror of the Sontarans) At the age of 8, she committed the names of 150 different species of dinosaur to memory (AUDIO: The Wrong Doctors) and had read the entire canon of Sherlock Holmes by the age of 9. (AUDIO: Unregenerate!) She also read all of C. P. Snow's works. (TV: Time and the Rani) When she was 10, she was bullied by Andy Ledger. (PROSE: The Best Joke I Ever Told) She was a Girl Guide and once, with her parents, walked through deep snow to their village hall whilst carrying all the props and costumes for a show for pensioners, though the pensioners did not show up. (AUDIO: The One Doctor)

At primary school, Mel made a replica of Mount Vesuvius out of papier mâché. (AUDIO: The Fires of Vulcan) She had a keen interest in science from a young age thanks to her uncle, John Hallam, (AUDIO: Catch-1782) and was talented in mathematics (PROSE: Business Unusual) and computers, becoming adept in the computer languages of BASIC, COBOL and FORTRAN. She regularly used her address - 36 Downview Crescent - as a backdoor when writing code. (AUDIO: The Juggernauts) In secondary school, she discovered vegetarianism. (PROSE: Spiral Scratch)

Studies and career
Mel went to either the University of West London (PROSE: Millennial Rites) or London University for three years and graduated with a degree in computer studies, (PROSE: Business Unusual) for which she would credit her uncle John, (AUDIO: Catch-1782) with whom she used to visit museums. (AUDIO: The Wrong Doctors) She dated Stuart Dale for more than two years whilst at university, and they had a long-distance relationship for a time after they graduated and he moved to the Middle East. The two eventually broke up (AUDIO: The Blood Furnace) and Mel would later say that she had never been in love. (AUDIO: Thicker Than Water)

Following her graduation, Mel received a number of offers from various companies, but chose ACL Services, Ltd, as it looked more rewarding to her, despite I² offering a better financial package. To get the job, she was required to get experience in management and complete a summer placement at a local firm, for which she chose Brighton Information Technologies. She worked in the troubleshooting department under Peter Lovelady. (PROSE: Business Unusual)

Meeting the Doctor
Mel first met the Sixth Doctor in cauterised time in 1987 Pease Pottage, where a time demon possessing Stapleton Petherbridge used her ability for total recall to manipulate time. She sacrificed herself and forced Petherbridge into a temporal cul-de-sac, removing herself from time. The Doctor pieced her together with the right memories and left her behind without any memories of the events. (AUDIO: The Wrong Doctors)

Joining the Doctor
In Brighton in 1989, Mel helped the Sixth Doctor and the Brigadier defeat a Usarian plot and a Nestene invasion. She quit her job at Brighton Information Technologies before stowing away in the TARDIS. The Doctor resigned himself to travelling with her. (PROSE: Business Unusual) According to other accounts, she joined the Doctor in 1986. (PROSE: Head Games; AUDIO: We Are The Daleks)

Early adventures
Mel and the Doctor travelled to Vertipax where they met Mosca Ragazzo and prevented the Vervaloochenen from visiting and designating humans as pollution. (PROSE: The Deal) To celebrate the Doctor's 991st birthday, they went to the Royal Albion Hotel in Brighton where they were reunited with the Brigadier and accidentally introduced him to his future wife, Doris Wilson. (PROSE: A Wee Deoch an ...?) They also went to the Eye of Orion, (PROSE: A Tourist Invasion) 23rd century Andron, (PROSE: Mortal Thoughts) 1975 Hong Kong (PROSE: Old Boys) and an old woman's house where they defeated a giant insect that stole eyes. (PROSE: The Eyes Have It)

In the Generios system, Mel and the Doctor met Banto Zame, whom they exposed and left with the Cylinder, and Sally-Anne Stubbins. (AUDIO: The One Doctor) Mel spent two months apart from the Doctor living as a programmer on Lethe, working for a disguised Davros. She met the Daleks for the first time and, after being reunited with the Doctor, instructed the Juggernauts to kill Davros. (AUDIO: The Juggernauts) She spent a further six months at Hallam Hall as "Eleanor", suffering from amnesia. (AUDIO: Catch-1782) She met the Chelonians (PROSE: Fegovy) and, after finding herself unable to make sense of Dalek technology, decided to make sure to educate herself on future tech. (PROSE: The Best Joke I Ever Told)

Having heard of Evelyn Smythe from the Doctor, Mel and the Doctor went to Világ to visit her per Mel's request. She berated the Doctor for his attitude (AUDIO: Thicker Than Water) and later made him take an anger management class in 1986 Pease Pottage. (PROSE: Loud and Proud) She helped him defeat the Flux Beast (PROSE: Change Management) and the Wishing Beast (AUDIO: The Wishing Beast, The Vanity Box) and visited Switzerland, (AUDIO: Intuition) Hammerston, (PROSE: Swamp of Horrors (1957) - Viewing Notes) New New York (PROSE: Fairy Tale of New New York) and Tantane Spaceport. (AUDIO: Spaceport Fear) Whilst wandering around the TARDIS, she entered the Thrusk dimension within the Time-Space Visualiser and incited rebellion. (AUDIO: Mel-evolent)

On Peladon, Mel became separated from the Doctor after they were caught in a explosion in a mine and was taken to the Citadel of Peladon, where she tried to convince Queen Minaris to take action to help her people. Following Minaris' disastrous visit to the disaster site, she worked with Alpha Centauri to try to get Minaris to do something and discovered Princess Isabelda's secret dealings with the Arcturans. (AUDIO: The Death of Peladon)

Mel wondered what the Doctor was doing on his secret missions, unaware that he was not keeping to the diet that she had set him. (PROSE: The Man Who Wouldn't Give Up) They went to New Year's Eve 1999, after accidentally landing before Christmas, (PROSE: Dr Cadabra) and thwarted Ashley Chapel. By this time, Mel had received some TARDIS training. (PROSE: Millennial Rites) She helped fight the Vervoids aboard the Hyperion III, from which she was almost ejected, (TV: Terror of the Vervoids) and, on Oxyveguramosa, was taken by to give testimony at the Doctor's trial. (PROSE: The Ultimate Foe) She left Zenobia with a younger version of the Sixth Doctor, who left her in Pease Pottage for his future self to pick up (AUDIO: The Wrong Doctors) or returned her to Oxyveguramosa. (PROSE: The Ultimate Foe)

On Maradnias, Mel and the Doctor intervened in a civil war and narrowly escaped nuclear devastation for which the pair both blamed themselves. Mel asked to be dropped home but was instead dropped off in 2003 where they thwarted the Master, after which Mel forgave the Doctor and returned to travelling with him. (PROSE: The Quantum Archangel) According to one account, Mel first met Evelyn some time after, in 1993, and fought the Cylox. Afterwards, she asked the Doctor to invite Evelyn aboard to take her home, with Evelyn adding that she wanted to return via the "scenic route". (PROSE: Instruments of Darkness) Following the defeat of Diamond Sharp, the Doctor suggested that he and Mel reunite with the Brigadier. (PROSE: Sold Out) The two visited the tower of Kalsos, where Mel was almost killed when one of the floor's collapsed, as well as Ridius IV and future Earth. Remembering a poem, she helped Helgert Teveler remember the seed banks on Earth and helped fight the Eminence. (AUDIO: The Seeds of War)

Joined by Hebe
Mel and the Doctor followed an SOS to 21st century Albatross Alpha where they met Hebe Harrison, who felt that Mel was patronising when she was angry on Hebe's behalf that the others on the rig did not help her, a wheelchair user, get around. They investigated the disappearances and Mel and Hebe escaped from aggressive gulls and sea creatures including a lion's mane which stung Mel. After learning that a compound in the water caused the aggression, Mel and the Doctor left with Hebe, whom they realised knew Evelyn Smythe. (AUDIO: The Rotting Deep)

Hebe saved Mel from drowning on the Moon circa 2,000,000,000 BC and, separated from the Doctor, they encountered the Gilleans and the Sheega. At Mel's suggestion, Hebe apologised to Wulk for touching his gills despite her not liking people touching her wheelchair. The three travellers were eventually reunited in Gillean City and were to be sacrificed by the Sheega, but the Doctor got them free and, after proving that the Sheega were the Gilleans affected by the gravity of Earth, they left. (AUDIO: The Tides of the Moon)

Mel went for a walk after the TARDIS landed on Zoda-Kappa in 3895 and was captured by soldiers who took her to Captain Koppenberg for questioning. Upon mentioning that she was a computer programmer, Mel was sent to assist Professor Charles Feige in awakening those who had entered the Dream, but Feige instead injected her with a fungal serum which did the same to her. Mel was able to dictate code for the Doctor to Hebe in order to help combat the Holomorph and awaken everybody. (AUDIO: The Dream Nexus)

On Veludia, Mel was kidnapped by Jom whilst fetching a medical kit for the Doctor to use on a manatee-like creature and possessed by Alef, who impersonated her for a time. Hebe eventually realised the deception and the Doctor managed to restore her from the Mindbank, after which Mel asked the Doctor that Jom and Alef be allowed to live out their last days in the planet's past. (AUDIO: Maelstrom)

Whilst Hebe met up with Elise, Mel and the Doctor followed a strange reading at Sheffield Hallam University to the Mindless Facility where they met Patricia McBride, who told Mel about how a student had changed after visiting the facility. Mel helped the Doctor destroy the Betterment Machine, which she incorrectly deduced was responsible for Elise's change in personality, and they got a takeaway in the TARDIS with Hebe. (AUDIO: The Mindless Ones)

Mel got a job as an analyst in the computer department at the Emit Institute after Patricia contacted the Doctor about having encountered Neanderthals there. She learnt that its profits were funding secret research which, by stealing Tarek Gamal's passcard, she discovered was the creation of a machine to reverse time. She and Hebe evacuated the Emit staff into the TARDIS after the machine was damaged and, following a visit to Stockholm to drop them off, they and the Doctor were joined by Patricia for a trip into the future. (AUDIO: Reverse Engineering)

Neither Mel nor Hebe initially understood why Patricia was horrified by the diverse population of Sheffield in 2569 and Mel later spoke with the Doctor about whether hatred like Patricia's was innate or developed over time. She joined the Doctor, Hebe, Elise and Vallon in thwarting Khavûl, who was assisted by an unwilling Patricia who took Vallon's suit after he was killed and changed time. Hebe disappeared and Mel and the Doctor discovered that, according to the TARDIS, she had never existed. (AUDIO: Chronomancer)

Search for Hebe
Mel and the Doctor searched for temporal distortion in the hopes of locating Hebe and, in New York City in the 1930s, found that a future Mel was starring in the fascist musical Behold America! at the Rivoli Theater. They went back in time five weeks so that Mel could take part in the show, using shoes with psionic relays to help her dance, and put an end to it due to the views it espoused, but they found that an alliance of the Doctor's opponents was behind it. Using her newfound dance abilities, Mel was able to reach one of the Doctor's cat badges so that he could cause a temporal blowback to force their enemies to leave. (AUDIO: Broadway Belongs to Me!)

The Doctor's regeneration
Mel was present during the Doctor's regeneration, although she was unconscious at the time and did not witness it. According to one account, he suffered a fatal head injury whilst Mel was knocked out. (PROSE: Time and the Rani)

Another said that the Doctor had been suffering from chronon energy starvation after a confrontation with the Lamprey. (PROSE: Spiral Scratch)

A third said that Mel was rendered unconscious by radiation which, whilst harmless to her, was deadly to Time Lords and caused the Doctor to regenerate. (AUDIO: The Brink of Death)

The new Doctor
Whilst took the Seventh Doctor from the TARDIS, Mel was left behind and, upon waking, was caught in one of the Rani's traps from which she was saved by Ikona. She was reunited with the Doctor, whom she did not recognise and did not believe was him until he mentioned carrot juice and other memories. With Mel's help, the Doctor overcame his amnesia and they thwarted the Rani, liberating the Lakertyans. Assured by the new Doctor that he would grow on her, they left for adventures new. (TV: Time and the Rani)

The Doctor left Mel in 2007 for a time until she found the empty TARDIS. Following a message to follow Louis, she located the Doctor inside of a CIA laboratory, with the help of a cabbie. She showed Louis the error of his ways and left with the Doctor after the Time Lords' operation was ended. (AUDIO: Unregenerate!)

At some point during her travels with the Seventh Doctor, they visited the planet Nocturne (AUDIO: Nocturne) and Ancient Greece, where Mel corrected Euclid's geometry, much to his annoyance. (AUDIO: Mask of Tragedy) He also took her to 2040 Earth to see how far human technology advanced after she offered to help with his TARDIS repairs (PROSE: Daisy Chain) and to 1999 where she destroyed a Nestene meteor at a Millennium Party. (COMIC: Plastic Millenium) She and the Doctor become separated in the 20th century, with the Doctor in 1995 and Mel in 1935, where she met Michael Gregson. (PROSE: 24 Crawford Street)

In search of a swimming pool, Mel and the Doctor went to Paradise Towers, where she was almost eaten by Rezzies and befriended Pex before he died to kill Kroagnon. (TV: Paradise Towers) Pex's death remained on her mind, thinking about him when Oliver decided to join the British Army to kill Nazis. (PROSE: Special Weapons) In 1978, she sent Ly aboard the Water Carrier to poison the Cnidarians' water with salt, causing them to flee. (PROSE: The Invertebrates of Doom)

Mel infiltrated the Zenos Corporation in 1987 to find out why its head office was shaped like a Dalek. She investigated Warfleet and was transported to Skaro. Once the Daleks were defeated, Brinsley Heaton asked her to stay and work on computer programming together, but she declined. (AUDIO: We Are The Daleks) On the Warehouse she was tricked by the Supervisor into repairing the computer so that he could infect the population of the planet below. (AUDIO: The Warehouse) encountered Sontarans and the Bloom on ERM 4997 (AUDIO: Terror of the Sontarans) and helped broker a peace on Prosper. (AUDIO: Maker of Demons) They also attended the Intergalactic Song Contest where she helped solve a serial killing. (AUDIO: Bang-Bang-a-Boom!)

In search of leptonite crystals, Mel and the Doctor travelled to Puxatornee where they interrogated by Professor Capra before being saved by Reed and Stuart. Their saviours made them go back in time to rewrite history. When their past selves arrived in the new timeline, Mel was surprised at how they were already known. They were saved from Potter by Reed and Stuart who wanted them to change time, eventually changed the timeline back to the original and leaving before their original selves arrived. (AUDIO: Flip-Flop) After they landed at G715, Mel and the Doctor ended up going to Shangri-La and helped Delta. (TV: Delta and the Bannermen)

On a beach, Mel met Emily and wondered if her own children would be so beautiful and well-behaved, watching her and pretending that she was her daughter. (PROSE: Driftwood) She and the Doctor visited Harrow Green, (PROSE: Pulling Strings) 1936 Cairo, (PROSE: Just War) 1850 England, (AUDIO: The Devil's Footprints) Dido, Vyga 3 (AUDIO: Maker of Demons) and Llanfer Ceiriog. (PROSE: Cat's Cradle: Witch Mark)

Deciding to leave
In 4010 Cressida, Mel began to feel alienated by the Doctor. (PROSE: Uranus)

The TARDIS materialised in Pompeii in 79 AD, the day before Vesuvius erupted. She was determined to find a way to stop the TARDIS from being buried in the ash upon learning that it would be dug up in 1980, eventually locating it and allowing the Doctor to realise a way that they could both escape and be dug up in the future. (AUDIO: The Fires of Vulcan)

On Needle, she used her programming skills to reprogram Whitenoise and stop the Red infection. (AUDIO: Red)

Departure
Mel and the Doctor were reunited with Sabalom Glitz on Svartos, where they also met Ace. Following Kane's death, Mel decided to leave the Doctor and suggested that he invite Ace to join him. She chose to continue travelling the universe with Glitz aboard the Nosferatu II, (TV: Dragonfire) although, according to one account, she realised that she was not a traveller and needed somewhere that she could belong. (PROSE: Dragonfire) She intended to keep Glitz on the straight and narrow, keeping him from involving himself in "dodgy deals". (TV: Dragonfire)

During their travels together, Mel and Glitz encountered a Galactic Heritage fleet. The experience led Mel to describe the organisation as "a militarised, space-faring National Trust". (AUDIO: The High Price of Parking)

Return to the TARDIS
Mel's possible futures were sold by Glitz to Speravore Investment Holdings to pay off his debts, leaving Mel on Ricosta. She was reunited with the Doctor and Ace, whom she helped save the planet from the Speravores, after which she joined them in the TARDIS. (AUDIO: A Life of Crime) They accidentally landed in Spain during the Spanish Civil War, where Mel suffered the casual sexism of the time whilst Ace refused to. She became infected by God Seed. (AUDIO: Fiesta of the Damned) They returned to Prosper, where she helped identify and defeat Caliban. (AUDIO: Maker of Demons)

The Doctor and friends landed on Parking where they were arrested. Learning about the Free Parkers from Cowley, she realised that there must be someone inside the Warden's system that helped them. She tried the stop the Free Parker's virus from escaping and when the explosions started she worked a way to save casualties by sending the tourists to Dashrah. She worked a way to stop the infected spaceships from escaping the planet. (AUDIO: The High Price of Parking)

They landed in 1991 Liverpool where Mel was reunited with her former boyfriend of university, Stuart Dale. He asked her if she wanted a job creating an IT system from scratch which she accepted. When in the TARDIS something forced her hands to stay on the console when it blew up, and later she had the same effect o any piece of digital equipment she went near. The Doctor realised that she was infected by a virus and that Carolyn. She later went through the supply gate with Stuart finding enough equipment to build 100 ships. She was cured of the virus and helped the Doctor to create a digital hologram to diminish the Eorgm powers. (AUDIO: The Blood Furnace)

Ace told Mel that the Doctor had changed their course because he wanted to deal with some unfinshed business, and warned her when the Doctor was in this state. In 2085, Mel, the Doctor and Ace prevented the Silurians from provoking war between China and the United States, later helping implement a plan to allow the Silurians to re-establish themselves on Earth in the future. (AUDIO: The Silurian Candidate)

Mel and the Doctor both investigated the Republic of Mokoshia in a timeline in which Mel was a communist, this disconcerted the Doctor. She was helped by Anna to acclimatised, she later went with the Doctor to a base on mars. (AUDIO: Red Planets) She started reading the TARDIS manuals. The Doctor brought her and Ace to a tower block near Manchester. She decided to go with Ace into a lift which Ruck said was a bad idea. The lift took them to another world. They met with Arkallax and learnt about his plans. She helped Isobel to defeat him. Josiah W. Dogbolter manipulated Mel into delivering the TARDIS to him. (AUDIO: The Dispossessed) She wanted to make sure that her debt was clear and had to sign a contract to do this. She was delighted was she discovered that Ace and the Doctor had escaped the cells. She used her technical ability to put a virus on the system to locate the TARDIS, and also could control Hob. She learnt about the Quantum Possibility Engine from Hob and was appalled by it. Having realised that Hob didn't kill her friends and Narvin but had put it in the engine's timelines she was determined to get them out of there to stop Dogbolter. She used the Engine to help the Doctor. Because she read the TARDIS manual, Mel was a better pilot of the TARDIS and knew ways to pilot it that the Doctor didn't even realise were possible. She asked for forgiveness to her actions. (AUDIO: The Quantum Possibility Engine)

Going home
According to one account, Mel travelled with Glitz for about six months before deciding to try to go home, working at Avalonian Resorts, Inc on the way. Her progress stalled and she remained on Avalone for two years before deciding to leave, hacking into computer systems to send a message to Glitz asking to pick her up. She was instead rescued by Dr. Who and Jason, who imprisoned her in the Galactic Prison in the Land of Fiction where she was reunited with the Seventh Doctor.

After the Doctor told Mel that he had manipulated her into leaving him as he knew that he would need another companion, she refused to travel in the TARDIS with him ever again and avoided his company. Although she did not think much of Ace's explanation of why she and the Doctor were the way they were, she accepted a ride from Ace, returning to Pease Pottage in the 1990s on Ace's time hopper. (PROSE: Head Games)

Another account of her return to Pease Pottage existed, but it was unclear whether it described events that followed the angry final encounter with the Seventh Doctor or an entirely different return journey. (PROSE: Missing, Part One: Business as Usual) This second account seemed to indicate her return did not involve the TARDIS. Whatever the truth of her return, she flung a message in a bottle into the universe at a moment near the end of her travels, hoping the Doctor would one day find it. (PROSE: Missing, Part Two: Message in a Bottle)

In 2003, John Hallam invited Mel to the National Foundation for Scientific Research, although her past self and the Doctor went instead, having intercepted the invitation. (AUDIO: Catch-1782) By 2010, she was working with Ace and A Charitable Earth, providing computers to schools in Africa. (PROSE: Death of the Doctor) In 2022, Melanie joined a support group for other people who had travelled with the Doctor, which also included Yasmin Khan, Graham O'Brien, Dan Lewis, Ian Chesterton, Jo Jones, Tegan Jovanka, Ace and Kate Stewart. (TV: The Power of the Doctor)

Undated events
At some point, Mel was taken to the Black Archive by UNIT to have her record as a companion of the Doctor taken. Her memories of the visit were subsequently erased and she was sent on her way. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)

At another point, Mel was abducted by Adam Mitchell as part his plan to get revenge on the Doctor, in collaboration with. She was placed in stasis alongside the Doctors' multiple other companions, before being released by the Doctors first eleven numbered incarnations with the help of Frobisher. (COMIC: The Choice, Endgame)

At a further point, Mel was the head of 24 Carat, a business built upon a once-small carrot juice company, which had expanded to be a technology, health, and lifestyle empire. She once met three investors, Drinking Fountain, Kane, and Derek the Tetrap, in her spacestation headquarters. After they submitted their pitches for items like Mr Melty and bubble-trap bath, all of which she rejected, a hooded figure emerged, revealing himself to be an aged Seventh Doctor, and he and Mel happily reunited. (WC: 24 Carat)

Other realities
Mel knew of at least one other version of herself in an adventure on the planet Puxatornee. (AUDIO: Flip-Flop) Likewise, she could not ignore the potential of thousands of other versions of herself when the Sixth Doctor took her to Library of Carsus to explore the disappearance of parallel universes, which included a Mel who was a slave in a world where the Roman Empire never fell and a world where Mel was a human/Silurian hybrid named Melina Baal. (PROSE: Spiral Scratch) There was an alternate reality in which Mel became the Prime Minister who led the United Kingdom against an invasion of the Cybermen, only to be betrayed by an alternative version of the Third Doctor whose exile on Earth had never ended. (PROSE: The Quantum Archangel)

A timeline existed in which Mel never returned home. She got married to Ben Heyworth and lived on the planet Heritage in the 61st century. They tried to conceive a child, but she was unable since she had gone through menopause. They went to a local geneticist, Wakeling, for help, and he created a clone of Mel. Furious when she found out, she argued with Wakeling, who accidentally killed her. (PROSE: Heritage) These events turned out to be the doing of the Council of Eight. The Council had eliminated the Doctor's companions from the timeline by causing their deaths. This was corrected when the Eighth Doctor defeated the Council. (PROSE: Sometime Never...)

In one history, on the day Mel was supposed to meet the Doctor, she was distracted by Ellie Martin and she never encountered the Doctor. In 2012, Mel was killed by a brain tumour brought on by radiation from a mobile phone. (AUDIO: He Jests at Scars...)

Personality
Mel had a cheery personality. She greeted most situations with a warm smile and good humour. She was an optimist who generally believed the best of people's natures, although she tempered this optimism with a realism and scepticism borne of her scientific education. Her generally perky personality could cool quite quickly if she detected a threat to herself, the Doctor or any friend. (TV: Terror of the Vervoids; AUDIO: The Fires of Vulcan, The Wishing Beast, The Juggernauts) Though she usually went by the informal "Mel", she sometimes insisted on being introduced as "Melanie" to those whom she didn't quite trust. (AUDIO: The Fires of Vulcan) In 1959, she tried to befriend Delta, and could see that she was distressed. (TV: Delta and the Bannermen)

She enjoyed the music of ABBA and the Bee Gees. (PROSE: Business Unusual) She did not drink tea. (AUDIO: The Devil's Footprints) Mel sometimes found it difficult to cope with the mundane. She displayed reluctance at the sight of the rather ordinary Shangri-La holiday camp in Wales in 1959. (TV: Delta and the Bannermen)

Mel prided herself on her innate honesty, (TV: The Ultimate Foe, AUDIO: Red) and was reluctant to lie such as inventing stories to explain away the TARDIS' materialisation to those who witnessed it. (AUDIO: The Fires of Vulcan) In her own words, Mel was "as stubborn as they come". (AUDIO: A Life of Crime)

Mel's reaction to fear was variable. She sometimes met danger with a loud scream. (TV: Terror of the Vervoids, Time and the Rani, Paradise Towers) She was also possessed of an almost steely resolve. She might have cowered in fear upon first meeting the Vervoids and the Tetraps, but she composed herself quickly afterwards. On other occasions, she displayed little fear at all. (TV: Terror of the Vervoids, Time and the Rani) She showed a relatively even temperament when defeating the Valeyard (TV: The Ultimate Foe) and facing down the Bannermen. (TV: Delta and the Bannerman) On still other occasions, she allowed her logic to guide her swift and efficient action, as when she almost single-handedly defeated Davros and then derided the Doctor for not having killed the Daleks and him when given the chance; before realising to her shame she was acting as them. (AUDIO: The Juggernauts) She displayed extraordinary calm when she had to navigate Pompeii on foot during the eruption of Vesuvius in search of the Doctor's TARDIS — when he believed it lost and his life near its end. She could also fight against more internal threats, as when she fought off the effects of having been slowly drugged for six months with laudanum. (AUDIO: The Fires of Vulcan, Catch-1782) Despite the occasional scream, Mel rarely expressed genuine, lasting fear of anything. However, she did once admit to a fear of heights. (AUDIO: Red)

Mel was a health enthusiast and a vegetarian, often encouraging the slightly portly Sixth Doctor to exercise more. (TV: Terror of the Vervoids) Her enthusiasm for healthy living, born of the hard-nosed logic of basic science, manifested itself in other ways. She was flatly dismissive of the supernatural — like ghosts — as scientifically ludicrous. (AUDIO: Catch-1782, Unregenerate!) Neither did she believe in fate. (AUDIO: The Juggernauts)

Relationship with the Doctor
In her dealings with the Doctor, Mel was warmly affectionate. She sometimes found herself separated from him for months on end and always extremely glad to see him return. (AUDIO: The Juggernauts, Catch-1782) She was an especially enthusiastic travelling companion. Once, when asked what she would wish for, if she had the opportunity, she replied: "I was going to wish that things could go on just as they are — for as long as we could manage. I love all this, our lives, racketing about the galaxy." (AUDIO: The Vanity Box) The manner of her departure from the Doctor was also gently affectionate (TV: Dragonfire) and her emotional reaction and tears were genuine when she thought him dead. (AUDIO: The Wishing Beast, The Vanity Box)

However, her proactive lifestyle led her to be bossy to the Doctor. Not only did she try to reform the Sixth Doctor's health standards, she also demanded and apparently got him to abandon his motley outfit for a time. (AUDIO: Catch-1782) Likewise, she often spurred the Doctor to adventure, as when she insisted they stay on the Hyperion III to explore, against the Sixth Doctor's judgement, (TV: Terror of the Vervoids) or when she insisted on staying in Pompeii knowing Vesuvius was about to erupt. Her at times boundless optimism could prove the buoy the Seventh Doctor needed to survive, as when she insisted that there must be a solution to a temporal paradox that the Doctor believed doomed them to death under the volcanic ash of Vesuvius. (AUDIO: The Fires of Vulcan)

When she began to travel with the Doctor and Ace, (AUDIO: A Life of Crime) Ace speculated that the Doctor kept Mel around because she provided someone who genuinely believed that he was doing the right thing, in contrast to Ace's greater scepticism. (AUDIO: The Silurian Candidate)

Skills
Mel possessed an eidetic memory. (TV: Terror of the Vervoids, The Ultimate Foe, AUDIO: Unregenerate!) It was not, however, an absolute photographic memory, as it failed her when her mind was clouded by emotion. (AUDIO: The Wishing Beast) She also wasn't merely qualified in computer science; she was a veritable genius. Perhaps aided by her extraordinary memory, she could quickly assimilate new computer languages, even those in use in the distant future. (AUDIO: The Juggernauts, Red)At the age of eight, she committed the names of 150 different species of dinosaurs to memory and is therefore able to recognise an iguanodon on sight. (AUDIO: The Wrong Doctors)

Mel Bush proved able with martial arts. (TV: Time and the Rani; AUDIO: Terror of the Sontarans)

Appearance
Mel was four foot ten and had curly red hair and brown eyes. (PROSE: Terror of the Vervoids) She cut her hair short after leaving the Nosferatu II. (PROSE: Head Games)

Behind the scenes

 * The Companions, a reference book by John Nathan-Turner, established that Mel joined the Sixth Doctor in 1986 when she helped thwart the Master (presumably ), who planned a dastardly attempt at a massive computer fraud involving all the banking houses on Earth.
 * Mel's last name is never spoken in any televised appearance and the closing credits in her original appearances identify her only by her first name. Her surname is, however, regularly used in novels, Big Finish Productions' audios, and various other stories. Her surname would finally be used onscreen in the closing credits of The Power of the Doctor.
 * According to his book The Companions, John Nathan-Turner planned to begin Season 24 with a storyline explaining how the Sixth Doctor met Mel. This story was never produced due to Colin Baker's removal from the role. An audio story of this nature, The Wrong Doctors, was eventually written by Matt Fitton and released in 2013.
 * Mel was the only character in the original series to be depicted on television as having an asynchronous relationship with the Doctor, unless multi-Doctor stories are taken into account.
 * Mel also appeared in the gag-comic strip How Much For Just The Planet?
 * She and Susan remain the only televised companions without a televised story on how they met the Doctor, aside from Handles.
 * There were plans for her to stay on for Season 25, but Bonnie Langford decided to leave the series, feeling there wasn't much more to be done with her character. So, the ending of Dragonfire was amended to have her leave with Sabalom Glitz while Ace went off with the Doctor.