Stacy Townsend


Stacy Townsend, or simply Stacy, is a fictional character in the Radio Times comic strips based upon the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The Eighth Doctor first met her in the comic strip Dreadnought by Gary Russell, and she went on to become one of his companions.

Character biography

Stacy was born in 2220. In 2246, at the age of 26, her ship, the Dreadnought, came under attack from the Cybermen. The Eighth Doctor responded to the Dreadnought's distress call and defeated the Cybermen, but not in time to save the ship's crew, except Stacy. She then joined him in his travels.
The TARDIS next materialised on Mars in 3998. There, she met an Ice Warrior named Ssard, who subsequently also joined her and the Doctor in the TARDIS.
At some point after the final Radio Times story, Stacy and Ssard left the TARDIS; eventually their friendship turned into something more. In the Eighth Doctor Adventures novel Placebo Effect by Gary Russell, the Eighth Doctor was invited to attend their wedding, which takes place on Micawber's World in 3999.

Behind the scenes

In Vampire Science, part of the Eighth Doctor Adventures novel range, the Doctor's companion Sam Jones recalls how the Doctor once left her for three years, but returned to collect her from a Greenpeace rally only an hour after he had left her. Placebo Effect would later establish that his adventures with Stacy took place during those three years.
The stories featuring the Eighth Doctor, Stacy and Ssard were terminated prematurely due to a change of management at the Radio Times, resulting in the hurried two-part final story Coda being written to tie up the loose ends and terminate the story.
Stacy was the first companion of the Eighth Doctor created for comic books, predating the Eighth Doctor's adventures with Izzy Sinclair in longtime comics publisher Doctor Who Magazine.