The Doctor In The TARDIS

Leela was a warrior of the savage Sevateem, a tribe of regressed humans. She joined the Fourth Doctor on his travels, and with him fought for good causes. She knew little of technology and was continually amazed by her surroundings and the tasks she faced. Leele never lost her primitive edge and remained quick to take up arms throughout her time with the Doctor.

She left the Doctor after she fell in love with Andred, a member of the Chancellery Guard on Gallifrey, choosing to remain there to live with him. K9 chose to stay with her as well.

Leela was primitive, yet also very smart. Despite the Doctor's efforts to "civilise" and educate her, she kept her savage ways. She translated advanced ideas into terms she could understand. She usually dressed in animal skins and was armed with her knife and Janis thorns, which she did not hesitate to use, despite the Doctor's disapproval. Leela ranks as one of the most violent companions, regularly threatening or using deadly force against other humanoids. Although other companions have killed, Leela remains the only TV companion to be shown killing on a frequent basis.

Leela was first conceived by producer Philip Hinchcliffe and script editor Robert Holmes. They wanted someone in the mould of Eliza Doolittle in George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion: a bright but unsophisticated primitive who would learn from the Doctor. Writer Chris Boucher had submitted a story proposal entitled "The Mentor Conspiracy" which featured a character named Leela which fit Hinchcliffe and Holmes's ideas.

Although The Mentor Conspiracy was not produced, Boucher reused the character of Leela for The Day God Went Mad (later renamed The Face of Evil), seeing her as a mixture of Emma Peel from The Avengers and Leila Khaled. Boucher was asked to write two endings to the story, one where Leela left with the Doctor and one where she stayed behind. The decision to have Leela become a companion was made soon after.

Initially, Leela was to have only appeared in three stories. It was later decided that she would stay for all of Season 15. One consequence of this decision was a plot contrivance being added to Horror of Fang Rock to allow the character's eye colour to change, so that actress Louise Jameson would no longer have to wear uncomfortable coloured contact lenses.

I like her. She was always played well and an interesting departure from what came before but this was probably the last story where she was written well. After this the character, for me, started becoming a bit too normal and samey. This was definitely a good showing for the character.

Just in reply to Ex, I think she was pretty consistent actually. I always liked the fact that they kept her a bit savage. They toned her down but that's what naturally happens to people who change environments. They adapt. I think she was handled well.

I think this is spot on

I think this is spot on

I'm not sure if they intended it to seem like a natural progression of the character or if it just conveniently came across like that because the writers were always quite lazy with the companions I think.

I like the character a lot but the more I think on it, if they had killed her off in this as intended I'm not sure I'd have been that bothered.

Leela's my absolute favourite companion, bar none.  Louise Jameson was a much higher-profile actress at the time than DW usually had, and although most of the others were excellent, even if they were little known, she brought a real class to the role.

I remember her saying at the time that she based the character on a mix of a child she knew and her dog.  What I love about her is that, although she's completely primitive and uneducated, she actually extremely intelligent and doesn't let the Doctor get away with giving her facile answers.  She's still the only companion who's ever got a genuine explanation from him about the bigger-on-the-inside question.

I don't think this is the story I'd choose if I had to recommend one to show Leela at her best, but I still think she's excellent in it.  One little touch I love is how she handles the effects of the PCM - it affects her, but once she learns what's happening, she forces herself to ignore it.

I like Leela and although I didn't get to the end of this story I did like what I saw of her in this. In the character section at the top it mentions how she is like Eliza Doolittle and I can totally see it but what I really like is that she remains rough around the edges and as Nyki says she is by no means stupid even though she isn't well educated. She's a very complex and interesting character. I like that

Leela is my favourite. This is the first story I saw her in and I've loved her ever since. She's strong and brave and bright and I would love to see her on the show again. The audios she has been doing lately have been brilliant

I think this is one of her strongest outings. In that scene where they battle with the guards and she has a little grin on her face and you can see she's really in her element, I think it really sort of sums the character up. She's great