Jenny (Doctor Who)

Jenny, portrayed by Georgia Moffett, is a fictional character in the long-running British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. She appeared in the episode "The Doctor's Daughter", originally broadcast 10 May 2008. Jenny is the daughter of the series protagonist the Doctor, a product of altered DNA extracted from a tissue sample of his hand. The character was created by writer Stephen Greenhorn.

Georgia Moffett was cast as Jenny after auditioning for a smaller part in the episode "The Unicorn and the Wasp", and impressing the series producers. The character was generally well received by reviewers, with many speculating that she would return to the franchise. Moffett also expressed an interest in this possibility.

The actress is the daughter of the actor Peter Davison, who portrayed the Doctor's fifth incarnation from 1981 to 1984. Then named Georgia Moffett (her father's legal surname), she met David Tennant – playing the tenth incarnation of the Doctor – on the set; they began a relationship, and married in 2011.

Appearance

When the Doctor's time travelling TARDIS is drawn to the planet Messaline, his DNA is used by warring human soldiers on the planet in a Progenation Machine, a device that instantly creates a fully grown and educated new person, and the Doctor recognises her as his "daughter". Born a fighter, with combat skills and tactics automatically programmed, she is initially ideologically at odds with the Doctor's pacifism, but after learning she has two hearts and is connected to the near-extinct race of Time Lords, she begins to pattern her behaviour on that of her father.

Named "Jenny" by the Doctor's companion Donna (Catherine Tate) as she is a "generated anomaly", she is initially received with ambivalence by the Doctor, whom she reminds of the loss of his previous family. He eventually warms to her, Jenny somersaults her way through the laser beams. However, and welcomes her aboard his crew as a companion. Just as peace appears to have been restored between the planet's warring factions, Jenny is shot and apparently killed. The Doctor cradles her dying form in his arms, and is visibly distraught when she does not revive or regenerate from the wound. In the episode's closing scenes after the Doctor leaves, Jenny revives, takes a small spaceship, and takes off into the unknown to become an explorer like her father.

In the accompanying ''Doctor Who Confidential'' episode, David Tennant (who portrays the Doctor) refers to her as "another member of that race, or something closely akin to it." In the episode itself the Doctor says to Jenny, "You're an echo, that's all. A Time Lord is so much more. A sum of knowledge, a code, shared history, shared suffering", but later accepts her as his daughter, saying "You're going to be more than great; you're going to be amazing". Jenny's 'death' is shown during "Journey's End" when the Doctor recalls those who have died while helping him, as he did not know she revived.

Characterisation

Character creation

While it is well established within ''Doctor Who'' that the Doctor once had a family—his first incarnation having travelled with his granddaughter, Susan—this fact has been seldom referenced in the show. As executive producer Russell T Davies stated, when discussing the creation of Jenny as the Doctor's newest family member: "In the current series once or twice we've had fleeting little mentions, he said to Rose in the TARDIS in "Fear Her" that he'd been a father once."Fear Her". Russell T Davies, David Tennant, Billie Piper, Matthew Graham, Euros Lyn. ''Doctor Who''. BBC
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