H is for... Holloway, Grace

Dr Grace Holloway was called away from a night at the opera to perform surgery on an unidentified man who had been brought in to her San Francisco hospital with gunshot wounds. She discovered that the man had unusual anatomy which prevented her from saving his life. The following day she discovered that her superiors had destroyed the patient's medical records for fear of a lawsuit against them - an action which caused her to resign. Taking her belongings to her car, she met a strange man in old fashioned clothes who seemed to recognise her. He mentioned the opera which she had been playing in the theatre when her patient had died. The man followed her to her car, where she was shocked to discover that this was the same man who had died - but looking totally different. He still had a medical probe in his chest, just as she had left one in the dead man. The man is the recently regenerated Eighth Doctor.
Grace took the Doctor home with her to discover that her boyfriend had left her. She became concerned about the Doctor's mental health, until he proved that his predictions of disaster were coming true. The TARDIS had been forced to crashland in San Francisco on the eve of the new millennium after the Master had sabotaged it. The Doctor must repair it before it pulls the planet inside out, and for this he needed a component from an atomic clock. One of these was about to be started up at a ceremony that night at a scientific institute of which Grace was a patron. As such she could get them on the guest list. The Master, in a stolen new body, attempted to stop them.
Escaping with the component, the Master spewed out a toxic substance which infected Grace. After helping the Doctor repair the ship, Grace - now under the mental control of the Master - knocked him out, so that the evil Time Lord could transfer his essence into the Doctor's new body. Her usefulness at an end, the Master then killed Grace. The Doctor escaped and defeated the Master before he could open the Eye of Harmony and destroy the world. The TARDIS then reversed time and brought Grace back to life.
Invited to join him in his travels, Grace decided to decline and remain in San Francisco.

Played by: Daphne Ashbrook. Appearances: Doctor Who: The Movie (1996).

• More of a one-off companion, in the mould of those who joined David Tennant in 2009, or characters like Sara Kingdom who are classed as companions despite only appearing within a single story, Grace was the sole on screen companion for Paul McGann's Eighth Doctor.
• Ashbrook is one of a select group of actors who have appeared in both Doctor Who and one of the TV incarnations of Star Trek - having also appeared in an episode of ST: DS9.
• Copyright issues prevented her from reprising the role on audio, though these issues have now been resolved. She and fellow one-off companion Yee Jee Tso (Chang Lee) were reunited in a Big Finish audio, but playing different roles from the TV Movie.
• Bizarrely, Grace is one of those pictured in UNIT's Black Archive in The Day of the Doctor. What is odd about this is that she is seen in the company of UNIT Major Kilburne. He was really a disguised alien Bane, as seen in SJA 2.6 Enemy of the Bane.