Name:
Helen Sinclair
Species:
Human
Place of Origin:
Earth
Brothers:
George Sinclair
Thomas Sinclair
First Seen In:
Appearances:
Doom Coalition 1
The Red Lady
The Galileo Trap
The Satanic Mill
Doom Coalition 2
Beachhead
Scenes From Her Life
The Gift
The Sonomancer
Doom Coalition 3
Absent Friends
The Eighth Piece
The Doomsday Chronometer
The Crucible of Souls
Doom Coalition 4
Ship in a Bottle
Songs of Love
The Side of the Angels
Stop the Clock
Ravenous 1
World of Damnation
Sweet Salvation
Main Voice Actor:
Hattie Morahan
Helen Sinclair was a companion of the Eighth Doctor.
BEFORE THE DOCTOR
Helen was a language scholar for the British Museum during the 1960s. Her career was stymied by the misogynistic attitudes of the time, and the “old boys” network working against her. Despite being more than qualified for a promotion, she was denied the position by her superior who felt she wouldn’t be able to commit fully due to the “fact” that women were”too emotional.” (The Red Lady)
Helen had never been abroad until she travelled with The Doctor, and carried a box brownie camera with her. (The Galileo Trap)
MEETING THE DOCTOR AND LIV
In 1963, while working as an assistant to Professor Walter Pritchard, she met the Eighth Doctor and Liv Chenka who were in search of a temporal anomaly related to the Eleven. Joining them whilst they investigated a collection of artefacts featuring the Red Lady, she became involved in a mystery involving extraterrestrial elements. Not having seen any of the artefacts featuring the entity, Helen was unaffected by her influence, and was able to help prevent The Doctor and Liv from succumbing to her effects. After they defeated the Red Lady and the artefacts were “disposed of” Helen was dismissed from her position and threatened with being reported for the police, her boss being suspicious that she was behind their theft. Impressed by her help, The Doctor offered her the chance to join him in the TARDIS, which she accepted. (The Red Lady)
Arriving in Florence in 1639, she was immediately fascinated by the opportunity to visit history, so much so that she wished she had brought her camera so she could take pictures of it. She joined Cavalli in investigating Cleaver and saw her first spaceship, helping The Doctor and Galileo to defeat him and Fortuna, his fellow Volkbrood. (The Galileo Trap)
She was used in the Eleven’s game against The Doctor, being captured by an Orb aboard the Eleven’s stellar manipulator and prepared for dissection. However, Paine arrived and stopped it, allowing her and Liv to flee to the TARDIS. (The Satanic Mill)
FREEING THE SONOMANCER
After this ordeal, The Doctor took her and Liv to Stegmoor to recuperate. She wanted to go somewhere a bit more alien. She helped to move The Doctor when he fell unconscious. She told The Doctor about the Voord spaceship on the beach. (Beachhead)
She couldn’t understand the dimensions of the antic TARDIS. Caleera used her powers to empathise with her. (Scenes From Her Life)
When they landed in San Francisco in 1906, Liv trusted her guide her around the city as it was closer to her time then Liv’s. She was taken by Aldo Deluca because he wanted to know about the gift. (The Gift)
On Syra, Ruslan tried to threaten her into the truth and then trapped her with River Song. She helped River to contact Galactic Heritage and promised to keep her secret. (The Sonomancer)
DEFEATING THE DOOM COALITION
When she realised they had landed in Calcot in 1998, she decided to take a train back to London to discover what had happened to her friends and family. In London, she went to herold house and found out that it had been converted into flats. She later went to see her brother George Sinclair. George then told her about how their mother, father and brother had died. After telling The Doctor she could just go back, he told her this was impossible. She was now part of events and could not go back and change her own timeline. (Absent Friends)
She was sent by The Doctor to Rome in 2016 in order to find a piece of the Doomsday Chronometer. She met Rosalia who showed her the collection of clock in the museum she worked with. There she met the Clocksmith. (The Eighth Piece)
Before entering the museum, she met River again, who told her to come with heron a scavenger hunt to help her find the Eighth Piece. She collected many paintings and discovered where the Eighth piece was and took it back to Rome. She was then frozen in time for the Clocksmith’s enjoyment before The Doctor arrived. She managed to escape the collapsing museum and went back to the TARDIS just in time to see Whitley regenerate. (The Doomsday Chronometer)
Liv had to explain to her the effects of regeneration to her after witnessing it. After the Nine told her that Liv had died on Gallifrey, she wanted to leave, before she discovered that he was the Nine. She was appalled at the Nine murdering the Time Lords at the Crucible of Souls. Padrac then revealed he was working with the Eleven, and trapped her, Liv and The Doctor were trapped in a scape capsule careering into the nontime of a murdered future by Padrac. (The Crucible of Souls)
The group tried to head back to the Crucible in an attempt to stop Padrac. After seeing some pressure suits she thought of jumping out and swimming in the other direction. She tried to calm Liv down after she became upset. They jumped out of the pod and rode the shockwave back into normal time. (Ship in a Bottle)
Liv and Helen appeared back in the normal universe with only five minutes of oxygen. They were rescued by a Time Ship which traversed the vortex and started to disintegrate. After Liv managed to get them to Earth she wanted to get to a spaceport to get away from an Earth which was disintegrating. River later told Helen to tell Liv who she was. River managed to get her to Gallifrey where she got to the TARDIS she left with Veklin to find The Doctor. (Songs of Love)
Helen and Liv went exploring New York. When they went to the main museum they saw a picture of the TARDIS and a Weeping Angel which had been bequeathed by them at the museum they started to hear about the Weeping Angels. The Monk projected an angel which then became an angel in front of them. However, they were saved by Veklin. They joined up with The Doctor again, but the Eleven trapped them on top of a skyscraper. The Monk was sent back in time and Ollistra was pushed off the building, causing a regeneration, but The Doctor, Liv and Helen managed to get away to the TARDIS. (The Side of the Angels)
The group headed to Gallifrey. Helen wanted to join The Doctor in the Panopticon but he wouldn’t let her, instead she was tasked in evacuating the Time Lords. When the Eleven escaped from his restraints he stole a Battle TARDIS and kidnapped her. Caleera contacted her via the Matrix and got her to crash the TARDIS into the Resonance Engine into it. Her Battle TARDIS wasn’t destroyed in the blast, so The Doctor and Liv went searching for it. (Stop the Clock)
REUNION WITH THE DOCTOR & LIV
The Battle TARDIS crash landed on Rykerzon, and Helen and the Eleven were taken as prisoners. During that time, Helen cared for the Eleven and tried to help him control his condition and suppress the voices of his other incarnations. When The Doctor and Liv arrived looking for Helen, she was thrilled to see them again, despite The Doctor being skeptical of her. Eventually, the Eleven joined with the Kandyman to take over Colony 23, a plan which was then stopped by The Doctor, Liv and Helen. Helen was then welcomed back on board the TARDIS. (World of Damnation/Sweet Salvation)
After re-joining the TARDIS, Helen continued travelling with The Doctor and Liv. During this time, they took a trip to Liv’s home world, Kaldor. (Escape from Kaldor)
After The Doctor was dragged into hell in an unfavourable trip to Salzburg, Helen spent decades trying to pilot the TARDIS. After bringing a notable saint to Salzburg to save the day, she was on the brink of death, having aged considerably in the time she spent trying to figure out how to control the TARDIS. Liv remembered the Wish Granter’s cryptic quote and realised that she could use his powers to restore Helen to herold self. (Better Watch Out, Fairytale of Salzburg)
STRANDED IN 2020
After escaping the collapsing console room, Helen, Liv and the Doctor moved into 107 Baker Street. As the most familiar with Earth, Helen ended up managing the bills and the Doctor’s new responsibilities as a landlord. Six weeks after arriving on Earth, Helen and Liv encountered The Curator twice, first at the TARDIS and later in a cafe. Helen worked with the letting agent to find residents for the empty flat and asked Liv to get a job to help with their bills. After sighting him again, Helen followed The Curator to the Under Gallery where he told her that she and Liv had to make sure to look after The Doctor. (Lost Property) She gave Robin Bright-Thompson some tuition in history and decided to become a tutor.
Helen witnessed a robber leaving Sanjit’s convenience store and found that Liv had been shot before giving chase. She apologised to DCI Treadwell for The Doctor’s behaviour and involvement in the case and, after the man was caught, she encouraged The Doctor not to give up on the TARDIS noron living his life. (Wild Animals)
Helen helped The Doctor investigate the extraterrestrial surveillance of the house and Mr Bird after they became suspicious of him. (Must-See TV)
After The Doctor won You Either Know It or You Don’t, Helen and Liv convinced him to invest the £80, 000 on the house rather than towards his efforts to restore the TARDIS. She took Robin shopping and attempted to discourage his interest in Divine Intervention, whose representative, Rafaella Hicks, told her that she was unsuited for. They went to meet the others for dinner, however The Doctor and Andy Davidson arrived being pursued by two Rarkelians. She followed the Rarkelians, who had taken Robin hostage to force The Doctor to show them his time machine, to the TARDIS where they triggered a paradox by killing The Doctor, partially-restoring the ship. The revived Doctor told her to come with him into the TARDIS where he explained the TARDIS had saved him and trapped the Rarkelians in two time periods at once, which Helen through was horrible. He agreed and used the TARDIS to send them away instead. Afterwards The Doctor told her that they would soon take it for a test drive. (Divine Intervention)
Helen accompanied The Doctor on a test flight in the TARDIS, along with Liv, Tania and Andy. After they arrived 6 million years in Earth’s future, they found Robin had stowed away so The Doctor told Helen to stay behind to keep an eye on him. She and Robin argued and he ran into the corridors and then slipped outside, with Helen trying to find him amidst the ruins of London. She found The Doctor, Liv, Tania and Andy and explained Robin’s escape. With an army of decontamination robots approaching, The Doctor told her to take Tania and Andy back to the TARDIS however they were unable to get inside. When The Doctor, Liv and Robin returned the ship yielded and the Doctor was able to disable the robots and take them back to 2020. (Dead Time)
When Tony began struggling with his memories, Helen persuaded Liv to help. They helped Tony recollect events in the past with The Doctor and discovered his radio was connected to the past, using their TARDIS keys to interfere with it to try to send a message to The Doctor by morse code. Afterwards Liv asked Helen why she’d been so interested in Tony and Ron’s relationship and Helen told her about her elder brother for the first time. (UNIT Dating)
Helen travelled back in time to 1941 to meet the Baker Street Irregulars along with The Doctor, Akhtar sisters and Liv and Tania. After The Doctor and Zakia went on a mission to France to rescue the sisters’ gran Nisha, Helen and Aisha met their grandfather, Adi, whom they convinced to admit his feelings for Nisha, ensuring Aisha and Zakia’s birth in the future. They reunited with the others after their return to London and went back to 2020. (Baker Street Irregulars)
Helen travelled with The Doctor to 2050 to investigate the altered future, along with Liv, Tania and Andy. They were all immediately captured by forces opposing Divine Intervention and Helen was subsequently interrogated by Gemma Houlbrooke, being shocked to learn about Divine Intervention’s power and rejecting Gemma’s accusations about The Doctor. The Doctor eventually convinced Gemma to release them and they returned to 2020. (The Long Way Round)
PERSONALITY
Helen was intelligent, sceptical and willing to admit when she was wrong. (The Red Lady) She was compassionate, which could sometimes allow her to be manipulated, (The Gift, World of Damnation) and trusting, to the extent that she did not tell Liv or The Doctor about River Song’s identity. (The Sonomancer, songs of Love) She was sensible, except when running from the law. (World of Damnation)
She felt that society had never allowed her to be the best that she could be and was pleased that her strengths were celebrated rather than feared whilst travelling with The Doctor. (Scenes From Her Life) She wanted to be successful to spite her father. (Absent Friends) She sometimes felt redundant next to The Doctor and Liv, but Liv assured her that she had more than proved herself. (Ship in a Bottle)
Above all else, Helen admired lexicology and linguistics. (L.E.G.E.N.D.)
BEHIND THE SCENES
In the BEHIND THE SCENES extras to Doom Coalition 1, producer David Richardson cites Verity Lambert as a source of inspiration for the characterof Helen Sinclair, something acknowledged in her coming from 1963.