For the next season of Doctor Who, the Doctor will have a new Companion to assist in his quest for the Key to Time. She will be allocated to him by a Guardian of Time, initially against his own will and better judgement. She will, however, as the season progresses, prove her worth.
Romanadvoratrelundar, to give her full name, will not enjoy the full use of that name when she is with the Doctor. She will initially be furious at his insistences on the diminutive 'Romana' and even more furious at his sometimes mischievous further foreshortening to 'Romy.'
This will however provide part of the key to the developing relationship which will form between Romana and the Doctor.
Romana is an acolyte Time Lord (Time Lords still refuse to admit to an official title, Time Lady) who has been brought up to believe entirely in the Time Lords' principles of non-intervention and academic observation. She has been firmly placed in the Gallifreyan Groves of Academe and knows nothing of other worldly matters. She will, at first, be horrified at the Doctor's dismissal of the Codes of Practice which ahve been instilled into her education. As the season progresses, however, she will grow to appreciate the doctor's sense of commitment and his breadth of vision. He, in turn, will be reminded of the youthful approach to problems and situations which, on occasion, will slip by his more sophisticated approach. He will be sometimes surprised, and even annoyed, at her knowledge of later techniques than were available to him during his undergraduate years.
Physically, Romana is a beautiful girl with an earthly appearance of about twenty years - she may, at the end of the season, be due for her first regeneration, which would make her, in Gallifreyan terms, a mere hundred and forty year old slip of a girl. She possesses the virtues of youthful impetuousness, courage, agility - and an agility not only of body, but also of mind. She can therefore be expected to overcome the hidebound nature of her upbringing and slowly adapt to new patterns of thought and behaviour. Hence her selection by the Guardian. She will, for example, eventually see the sense in the Doctor's rather biting criticisms of her wearing the full-length dress as being somewhat impractical and will, to his astonishment, hack it off above the knee to give herself more freedom of movement.
The Doctor will, as always, mistrust anyone's judgement but his own. He may, therefore, not give Romana the full facts of any situation, but try, even, to mislead her. As he grows to know and respect her through her own powers of logic and deduction he will combine his own formidable powers with her latent talents.
Whilst her vulnerability will be born of inexperience, that same inexperience provides her with a freedom of temperament which, when unleashed, makes her actions as unpredictable and mischievous as the Doctor's. She is, in short, the perfect foil to the Doctor in any situation throughout Time and Space.
BBC Character Outline.
Graham Williams, 10 October 1977.
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