Penelope Gate

Penelope Gate was the human creator of a time machine.

The first time she successfully used her time machine, she used a lightning strike to charge it up. She travelled to 1996 where she obtained a mutated Tzun battery. She used that to power her machine. Penelope met the Seventh Doctor, who took her back to her own time of 1883. (PROSE: The Room With No Doors)

Later in her life she would meet the Time Lord Ulysses, whom she married. She moved to Gallifrey. Unbeknownst to the High Council, they had a son together. (PROSE: The Gallifrey Chronicles) The Doctor's mother was named Penelope. (PROSE: The Infinity Doctors) Penelope and Ulysses became friends with Mr Saldaamir, whom they frequently went exploring with. The trio also associated themselves with Lady Larna, who was from their future. (PROSE: The Gallifrey Chronicles)

When the Time Lord Marnal threatened to expose Penelope's and Ulysses's activities, they used the telepathic circuits of his TARDIS, which would later belong to the Doctor, to wipe his memory, and they dumped him on Earth in England, 1883, to board with Penelope's mother. (PROSE: The Gallifrey Chronicles)

Appearance
On Gallifrey Penelope wore an ankle-length skirt and prim white blouse, with long red hair that "hung wild to her waist". (PROSE: The Gallifrey Chronicles)

Behind the scenes

 * The description of Penelope Gate in The Gallifrey Chronicles matches the description of the Doctor's mother in the same novel. Furthermore, Penelope's husband Ulysses originated from Philip Segal's proposed late 1990s revival of Doctor Who, where Ulysses was the Doctor's father. Lance Parkin utilised these ideas in The Gallifrey Chronicles, though Penelope and Ulysses' son is never explicitly stated (merely strongly implied) to be the Doctor in that story.