J is for... Jones, Harriet

You know who she is, so I'm not sure she needs an A-Z entry... 

For the sake of complete-ism, she was the MP for Flydale North. In March 2006 she went to Downing Street in order to get the Prime Minister to adopt a policy she had devised concerning cottage hospitals. Her visit coincided with the disappearance of the PM, and the crash-landing of an alien spaceship in the Thames, after striking Big Ben.

Sneaking into the cabinet room to leave her proposal, she witnessed the interim PM Joseph Green and a couple of officials - Margaret Blaine and Oliver Charles - unzip their foreheads. They were alien Slitheen wearing skin suits, and Jones saw them kill General Asquith. His body was taken by the Slitheen who had been posing as Charles. Now trapped in Downing Street, Jones joined forces with the Doctor and Rose Tyler. The Doctor was sure he knew her, and later remembered that she would become Prime Minister herself, ushering in a new golden age for Great Britain.

But first Harriet had to help the Doctor and Rose defeat the Slitheen.

Jones did become PM. That Christmas, Britain sent a space probe to explore Mars, but it was hijacked by the alien Sycorax, who were on their way to invade and enslave the Earth. Jones was one of a group who were beamed up to the Sycorax spaceship, which was hovering above London. They knew who she was. The Doctor had just regenerated, and was unable to help initially. When he did recover, he killed the Sycorax leader and warned the rest of the aliens to flee, as Earth was defended. Jones decided to launch an attack on the retreating spaceship, having Torchwood destroy it with captured alien weaponry. She did this as the Doctor had earlier stated that Earth had drawn attention to itself, and could expect other invasion attempts - and she had seen what might happen if the Doctor was not around to help. Furious, the Doctor took steps to have her deposed by sowing doubts about her health.

Jones redeemed herself when the Daleks transported the Earth through space. She employed a subwave computer network developed by Mr Copper (an alien from the planet Sto, whom the Doctor had met on the spaceship Titanic) to contact all the people associated with the Doctor. The subwave network could not be accessed by the Daleks. In order to locate the Doctor, the network had to be exposed. The Daleks found Harriet Jones - they knew who she was - and exterminated her, but not before she had handed over the network to Torchwood Cardiff.

Played by: Penelope Wilton. Appearances: Aliens of London / World War Three, The Christmas Invasion (2005), The Stolen Earth (2008).

• Jones' golden age can't have lasted very long, if the Doctor helps depose her only a few months after she becomes PM.
• His actions against her actually allow the Master, posing as Harold Saxon, to become the next PM and so help the Toclafane invade and conquer the Earth.