| Doctor Who character | |
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Liz by the River Thames in a promotional photograph for Doctor Who. |
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| Liz Shaw | |
| Affiliated | Third Doctor UNIT |
| Species | Human |
| Home planet | Earth |
| Home era | 20th century |
| First appearance | Spearhead from Space |
| Last appearance | Inferno Dimensions in Time (charity special) |
| Portrayed by | Caroline John |
Dr. Elizabeth "Liz" Shaw is a fictional character played by Caroline John in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who and its spin-offs. A civilian member of UNIT - United Nations Intelligence Taskforce (later retitled: UNified Intelligence Taskforce for the new series), an international organisation that defends the Earth from alien threats, she was the companion of the Third Doctor for the 1970 season.
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Liz Shaw first appears in Spearhead from Space, having been drafted from the University of Cambridge by Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart as a scientific advisor to UNIT. Sceptical at first of UNIT's ambit to defend against alien invasion, she changes her mind when she encounters the newly-regenerated Doctor and becomes involved in defeating the plans of the Nestene Consciousness and its animated plastic Autons.
Doctor Elizabeth Shaw is an accomplished scientist, an expert on meteorites with degrees in several disciplines, including physics and medicine. Her extensive training, however, is still pale in comparison to the Doctor's own knowledge of the universe and scientific principles far beyond those of Earth.
Shaw continues to work with the Doctor and UNIT through encounters with the Silurians, the so-called Ambassadors of Death and the Inferno project, where the Doctor also encountered Section Leader Elizabeth Shaw, an alter ego of the scientist in an alternative time stream. She eventually resigns from UNIT and returns to Cambridge; there was no "farewell scene" on screen for Liz, with her departure simply being announced by the Brigadier at the beginning of Terror of the Autons. She reportedly told the Brigadier that all the Doctor really needed was someone to pass him his test tubes and tell him how brilliant he was; this feeling probably contributed to her decision to return to her own research.
Uniquely of all the companions, she never travels in the TARDIS during her time with the Doctor; her secondment to UNIT coincides with the beginning of his exile to Earth imposed by the Time Lords and the removal of his knowledge of time travel.
Shaw's life after leaving UNIT is not explored in the series, though in the 2010 The Sarah Jane Adventures story Death of the Doctor one of the UNIT characters mentions that "Miss Shaw can't get back from Moonbase until Tuesday." Caroline John appeared as an illusory image of Liz in the 20th Anniversary television movie The Five Doctors (1983), and as Liz herself in the 1993 charity special Dimensions in Time.
In the episode Battlefield, the Seventh Doctor gives a UNIT identification pass to Ace, who remarks that she does not even look like the ID photo, and asks "Who's Elizabeth Shaw?"
John also played Liz Shaw in a series of straight-to-video stories produced by BBV under the umbrella title of P.R.O.B.E., in which the character works with a paranormal investigation organisation not unlike UNIT, called the "Preternatural Research Bureau". Liz appeared again in The Blue Tooth, an audio story narrated by the character which deals with the period of Liz's departure from UNIT.
The Virgin Missing Adventures novel The Scales of Injustice by Gary Russell also explores the events surrounding Liz's resignation from UNIT. Liz eventually does travel in the TARDIS in the Past Doctor Adventures novel The Wages of Sin by David A. McIntee, which takes place after the Doctor regains his knowledge and freedom. A parallel version of her appears in the novel Blood Heat where she is still part of UNIT fighting against the Silurians in a world where the Third Doctor died before defeating the reptiles.
According to the 1997 Virgin New Adventures novel Eternity Weeps by Jim Mortimore, Liz dies in 2003, the victim of an extraterrestrial terraforming virus contracted while she was part of a UNIT team investigating an alien artefact on the Moon. The Sarah Jane Adventures story mentioned above contradicts this.
Liz is mentioned by the 5th Doctor and the Brigadier in Mawdryn Undead, by the 7th Doctor in Battlefield and The Curse of Fenric. In 1984's Resurrection of the Daleks, a vision of Liz is seen along with every other companion aside from Leela on the scanner screen. She is mentioned in The Sarah Jane Adventures serial Death of the Doctor; it is said that she is unable to make The Doctor's (fake) funeral because she is stuck on UNIT's moonbase.
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| Companion | Liz | Jo | Sarah Jane → | |||||||||||||||||||||