Line #58 Characters/IrisWildthyme


1	Characters appearing in Franchise/IrisWildthyme stories, occasionally -- but not always -- taking place in Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse continuities, but never in the main Franchise/{{Whoniverse}} continuity. For references to ''Series/DoctorWho'', see also [[Characters/DoctorWho the Doctor Who characters pages]].
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3	Recaps of Iris's audio adventures can be found on the [[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho Big Finish recaps page]]; recaps of her written adventures with the Eighth Doctor can be found on the [[Recap/EighthDoctorAdventures Eighth Doctor Adventures]] page.
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5	Pleas note that due to the nature of the character, the tropes described here are continuously warped and overwritten throughout Iris's adventures, even more so than is common in the Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse.
6	----
7
8	[[foldercontrol]]
9
10	[[folder:Iris Wildthyme]]
11	[[quoteright:150:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/iris_2821.png]]
12	--> Voiced by: Creator/KatyManning, [=Maria McErlane=]
13
14	Supposedly another renegade Time Lord, although she's more of a constantly changing canon wildcard: a FourthWallObserver who dashes in and out of plotlines with little regard for the laws of time and space. Her TARDIS looks like a red double-decker London bus, and she has a habit of claiming that many of the Doctor's escapades were really hers. She originated in a series of wildly unrelated novels and immigrated into the ''Doctor Who'' novels a few years later. In Creator/BigFinish, she played a key role in the [[TrilogyCreep four-part]] [[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWhoSpecialsExcelisDawns Excelis trilogy]], met up with Six in the main range, had adventures with Characters/BerniceSummerfield (as well as with the Third Doctor's former companion Jo Grant, [[ActingForTwo who shares the same actress as Iris]]), and eventually got her own proper Creator/BigFinish spinoff series.
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16	* AbhorrentAdmirer: She ''quite'' fancies the Doctor. All Doctors. The feeling isn't mutual, although when she's ArmedWithCanon she can warp it any way she likes.
17	** Three manages to weaponise this -- at one point, when he needs to influence the future while stuck at UNIT, he takes her out to dinner just to manipulate her into doing all the work for him.
18	** Amusingly, Six is a bit taken aback when she says she doesn't actually fancy this version of him as much. Though by the end of ''The Wormery'' he's grown on her.
19	* AccidentalProposal: After [[Recap/DoctorWhoS10E5TheGreenDeath Jo left Three]], he asked Iris to come travel with him for a while. She interpreted it as a marriage proposal. He promptly retracted the offer.
20	** Also counts as a stealthy ActorAllusion, since Jo and Iris are both played by Creator/KatyManning.
21	* AllWomenLoveShoes: Iris keeps an office above a boutique in 1973 and sighs at all the shoes in the window as she goes in.
22	* AndYourRewardIsInfancy: She gets killed and turns into a baby at the end of ''Marked For Life''.
23	* AnguishedDeclarationOfLove: Towards Six in ''[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho051TheWormery The Wormery]]''. The scene even manages to be on the sweet side of {{Yandere}}.
24	* BigDamnKiss: Gets in a good proper snog with Eight in the illustration to [[http://www.iriswildthyme.thiswaydown.org/IrisExplains.html "Iris Explains"]], an {{omake}} story by Lance Parkin.
25	* BootstrappedTheme: Iris's theme tune from her solo series started life as her and Bianca's song from ''[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho051TheWormery The Wormery]]''.
26	* BreakingTheFourthWall: With much glee.
27	* CasualTimeTravel: Iris will casually nip to alternate 1894 Paris to have dinner in her favourite restaurant.
28	* CloudCuckooLander: Bordering on insanity. Five outright calls her dangerous and delusional. (She's quite flattered.)
29	* ComicBookFantasyCasting: Her first three regenerations looked strikingly like Edith Sitwell, Shirley Bassey and Creator/BerylReid, respectively. (Three celebrities who also happened to look quite a bit like DistaffCounterpart versions of Creator/WilliamHartnell, Creator/PatrickTroughton and Creator/JonPertwee.) Her sixth incarnation looks rather a lot like Creator/JaneFonda.
30	* ConsummateLiar: There's very little indication that anything she says is true. Six actually went and checked the record on Gallifrey to see if she's even a Time Lady to begin with. There's no mention of her anywhere.
31	* DistaffCounterpart: To the Doctor.
32	* DoctorWhomage: Was written as a female parody of The Doctor.
33	* ExpyCoexistence: As mentioned, she was written as a female parody of The Doctor but used to interact with a more straight DoctorWhomage called El Jefe who was implied to be the First Doctor. El Jefe was changed to be the First Doctor in reprints after the series was [[CanonWelding Canon Welded]] with ''Doctor Who''.
34	* TheFogOfAges: Panda explains she's been around more years than she'll admit so her memory's unreliable when Simon asks why she can't remember if she's been to Hyspero before.
35	* FourthWallObserver: Especially in {{omake}} material.
36	* FreakyFridayFlip: This happens to Iris in ''The Iris Wildthyme Appreciation Society'' when she unwittingly swaps bodies with an obsessed fan, Wayne Bland III.
37	* FunPersonified: Even when her life comes crashing down around her.
38	* FutureMeScaresMe: In ''The Wormery''.
39	* HandWave: She manages to escape the destruction of Gallifrey and the Time Lords. ''Somehow''.
40	* HardDrinkingPartyGirl: All day, every day.
41	* IntercontinuityCrossover: Apart from coming from a series of novels outside of the Franchise/{{Whoniverse}} altogether, Creator/BigFinish deliberately chooses to ignore the massive ContinuitySnarl that would be caused by her appearances in the novels, the comics ''and'' the audios as though they were all the same timeline. (Episodes starring other companions with similar problems, like Frobisher and Benny, tend to be marked "Side Step" by Creator/BigFinish for this reason. [[BreakingTheFourthWall Which Iris comments on]].) Her unexplained appearances in all of the above are simply considered part of her charm.
42	** At one point Iris became a member of the Sisterhood of Karn, and one of her stories outright stated that in the Fourth Doctor serial ''The Brain of Morbius'', she was one of the members who was chanting "Death".
43	* JuliusBeethovenDaVinci: In ''Marked For Life'', Iris says that she and Peggy were Cleopatra and Anthony in a past life.
44	* LipstickLesbian: The character started out as this. She ''definitely'' isn't gay in later incarnations.
45	* ManicPixieDreamGirl: She ''thinks'' she's one to the Doctor. He has no idea what she's talking about.
46	* MultipleChoicePast: May be a Literature/FactionParadox creation. May be from beyond the FourthWall. May be an aspect of the Doctor in some way. May just be mental. She's sometimes a Time Lady, sometimes belongs to an extradimensional race called The Clockworks.
47	* NewOldFlame: She often claims to be the Doctor's, and he hasn't managed to deny it.
48	* ObfuscatingStupidity: Jenny thinks that Iris only pretends to be a daft old bag because she's trying to hide something terrible.
49	* OddFriendship: With the Doctor. As much as they bicker and complain at each other, he still enjoys spending time with her occasionally. Five even once took Tegan, Nyssa and Adric to celebrate Christmas in her bus.
50	* RefugeeFromTVLand: Has visited a universe where her life is a TV show at least twice. First to threaten a man who insulted her actress and later to attend a FanConvention.
51	* ReincarnationRomance: In ''Marked For Life'' Iris is LongLived but has to find where her lover Peggy reincarnates in each of her new lives.
52	* RememberTheNewGuy: Discussed in-universe. The Doctor can't remember the past adventures she claims they had, concluding she's lying, his memory was erased or she comes from a parallel universe and had adventures with that world's Doctor.
53	* RuleOfFunny: Don't try to make ''too'' much sense of how canonical she is or isn't. The Doctor stopped bothering long ago.
54	* SmokingIsCool: Iris loves to smoke.
55	* SpareBodyParts: An x-ray in ''Iris Wildthyme and the Panda Invasion'' shows that Iris has two livers as a nod to the Doctor having two hearts.
56	* TimePolice: If the work they're in is not contractually allowed to mention Time Lords then Iris and El Hefe will belong to a race from The Clockworks called the Lords Temporal.
57	* WeUsedToBeFriends: She and Four got along quite well, both being merry {{Cloudcuckoolander}}s. Five would prefer not to remember any of it, and Iris laments about how standoffish and sober Five tends to be. (Five explains that the whole "losing Adric" thing is one reason he's not as adventure-happy anymore.)
58	* [[YouLookFamiliar You Look And Sound Familiar]] -- She's voiced in audios by Creator/KatyManning, who played Jo Grant in the TV series, albeit 35 years of age and heavy smoking later. (Though it should be noted that she herself is ''nothing'' like Jo though. And they don't sound ''that'' similar either, thanks to Iris's raspy "years of gin and fags, chuck!" voice). HilarityEnsues in the Creator/BigFinish audio episode ''[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWhoCCS5E3FindAndReplace Find and Replace]]'', when the two characters team up and [[UnusuallyUninterestingSight nobody notices they look the same]].
59	* YourCostumeNeedsWork: She's visited an Iris FanConvention in another universe and ended in being mistaken for a cosplayer.
60	[[/folder]]
61
62	[[folder:The Celestial Omnibus]]
63
64	Iris's TARDIS -- a beaten-down, cluttered double-decker no. 22 to Putney Common. She's smaller on the inside.
65
66	* TheAllegedCar: Even moreso than the Doctor's TARDIS.
67	* BiggerOnTheInside: Parodied with it being slightly smaller on the inside.
68	** ''Verdigris'' says it is Bigger On The Inside but most of its interior is used for water storage but ''Enter Wildthyme'' and ''The Scarlet Empress'' say it gets its water from a spacetime link to a Canadian lake in 1924.
69	* BlindJump: Iris activates its randomiser to evade a Monstron Time Destroyer in ''Iris Rides Out''.
70	* ExtradimensionalShortcut: It travels through a dimension called The Maelstrom and emerges elsewhere in time and space. This was a copyright friendly version of the Time Vortex from ''Franchise/DoctorWho''. When ''First Meetings'' was reprinted in Obverse Books' charity anthology ''A Second Target for Tommy'' as ''When Iris Met Billy'', several phrases were replaced with more Doctor Who-familiar terms and the Maelstrom became the Vortex.
71	* FlyingCar: Can fly through the air as well as time and space.
72	* FutureMeScaresMe: In ''The Wormery'', she [[spoiler: gets cannibalised into a bar. Which is also a nexus point in a massive attempt at transdimensional engineering]].
73	* GroundhogDayLoop: Iris found the bus derelict as a child filled with years of her own diaries implying that the bus might be experiencing Iris' adventures over and over again.
74	* InnBetweenTheWorlds: When it becomes The [[spoiler:Wormery, it's a bar with wormholes linking all over time and space]].
75	* InterdimensionalTravelDevice: Has a dimensional drive that lets it travel the multiverse as well time and space.
76	* AKindOfOne: Celestial Omnibuses were a type of vehicle used by Martian colonists in Paul Magrs' ''Lost On Mars'' trilogy.
77	* LostTechnology: When Iris first found the bus, Dick claimed Omnibuses were a type of vehicle used by the Clockworkers. But when an adult Iris finally reconnects with them, they've lost most of their technology and seem to want to get their hands on the bus.
78	* MagicBus: It's a bus that can go anywhere in time and space.
79	* NewPowersAsThePlotDemands: Iris driving it off a cliff is a credible threat in ''Enter Wildthyme'' but it can fly in ''Wildthyme Beyond''.
80	* PerceptionFilter: Applies it to herself and her travellers wherever they go; Iris and her companions usually can't be detected by sensors.
81	* PortalToThePast: The ground floor has a slash in the fabric of time and space that leads to a toilet beneath the Hammersmith Odeon in 1972 London.
82	* ShapeshifterModeLock: Her chameleon circuit isn't on anyone's list of priorities to fix, considering all the other things that are wrong with her.
83	* StarfishAliens: As are all [=TARDISes=].
84	* ThinkingUpPortals: What it basically does when it enters the Maelstrom/Vortex, drives through a black cyclone that appears in front of it.
85	* TimeAndRelativeDimensionsInSpace: Being a [=TARDIS=] it can go anywhere in the universe as well as time.
86	* {{Tuckerization}}: It seems to be named after a short story by Creator/EMForster about a boy having fantastic adventures on a MagicBus.
87	[[/folder]]
88
89
90	[[folder:Tom]]
91	--> Voiced by: Ortis Deley
92
93	In early November 2000, Tom was kidnapped by Iris when he thought he was catching the bus to Putney Common. He continued to travel with Iris before settling down on earth as an author, but was dragged back onto the bus ten years later.
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95	* DeadpanSnarker: Extremely.
96	* PutOnABus: In ''The Sound Of Fear'', he leaves the bus for someone he's only just met, in a parody of how the Doctor's companions tend to leave him.
97	* TwoferTokenMinority: Black ''and'' gay. His publicist loves it.
98	* StraightGay: Doesn't have much {{camp}} at all.
99	[[/folder]]
100
101	[[folder:Jenny Winterleaf]]
102
103	A butch, snarky traffic warden who joined Tom and Iris on their transtemporal adventures.
104
105	* BadassNormal: Got into quite a few adventures without Iris as well.
106	* ButchLesbian: Very.
107	* HellBentForLeather: Her trademark leather jacket.
108	* HighClassGlass: Wore a dark monocle.
109	* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: She leaves Simon and Barbra to die when she finds out [[spoiler:Barbra has a bomb inside her.]]
110	* TeleportationSickness: She always got the runs from transdimensional travel, which actually became a plot point in ''The Devil in Ms. Wildthyme''.
111	[[/folder]]
112
113
114	[[folder:Panda]]
115	--> Voiced by: David Benson
116
117	A talking stuffed panda. Dislikes being called a bear or being reminded that he's stuffed; likes pretty girls, alcohol and a good book.
118
119	* BerserkButton: He will shout in rage if called a "bear" or a "toy" [[spoiler: Though, technically he's both, being Steven Taylor's old toy panda Hi-Fi.]] He just doesn't like being reminded of it.
120	* BorrowedCatchphrase: Has a habit of -- unintentionally -- sounding a bit like the Doctor, saying things like "oh my giddy aunt!".
121	* TheBusCameBack: A Paul Magrs story for a charity collection revealed Panda was originally... Steven's bear Hi-Fi! He somehow achieved sentience and left the TARDIS circa [[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E7TheWarGames "The War Games"]].
122	* CatchPhrase: His multiple threats to give people "a punch up the hooter!"
123	* CovertPervert: Likes pretending to be a cutesy bear and crawling into girls' laps.
124	* EarlyBirdCameo: Paul Magrs' short story "The Runaway Hi-Fi" says that the stuffed panda, Hi-Fi, owned by the First Doctor's companion Steven Taylor was actually Panda.
125	* FlatEarthAtheist: Used to belong to one of Iris's old companions. Panda didn't believe his stories about Iris but doesn't seem to be bothered by the fact that he's a living toy.
126	* HaveWeMetYet: When he first encountered Iris as a child, he claimed to have had several adventures with her before. When she asks him about it when she's older, he says he doesn't remember and she must have met his future self.
127	* HeroicSacrifice: He got better.
128	* LoveAtFirstSight: He says in ''Enter Wildthyme'' that this was how he felt about Iris when he first saw her
129	* NiceCharacterMeanActor: In the universe in ''Wildthyme Beyond'' where Iris' adventures are a TV show, the actor who voiced panda was a jerkass who made Iris' actress cry. He redeems himself by helping [=MIAOW=] later on.
130	* NonActionSnarker: He does jump into action on occasion, but being only 10 inches tall, there's nothing much he can ''do''.
131	* RefugeeFromTVLand: Two versions of him have simultaneously visited a world where he and Iris are fictional characters.
132	* RightBehindMe: Iris comes up behind him when he's talking about how old she is and her unreliable memory in ''Wildthyme Beyond!''.
133	* ShooOutTheNewGuy: In-universe example. One of Iris's future incarnations starred in a successful television series as well as several films. Panda only appeared in the pilot episode of the series before he was replaced by a kangaroo named Hoppy.
134	* SingleSpecimenSpecies: He likes to think there's a planet full of pandas like him somewhere but Iris tells him to make peace with the idea that he could be unique.
135	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse?: Is in the end of series 4, but doesn't appear in the next box set nor are the circumstances behind his departure addressed.
136	** Iris believes she finds him in "Looking for a Friend". [[spoiler: It's someone who looks, sounds and behaves similarly to Panda, but it's left up to the listener to decide if it's really he.]]
137	* YourCostumeNeedsWork: When visiting an Iris Wildthyme FanConvention, he blends in by being mistaken for a cosplay prop.
138	[[/folder]]
139
140	[[folder:Barbra]]
141	A robotic vending machine from the distant future who was transported to modern day Earth through the [[NegativeSpaceWedgie Dreadful Flap]] and worked for [=MIAOW=] before joining Iris on adventures.
142	* AmbiguousRobots: When she found out there were living wardrobes on Valcea, she wondered if they had a common ancestor.
143	* ApeShallNeverKillApe: In ''Sick Building'' she says the servo robots are programmed not to harm eachother.
144	* BroadStrokes: She debuted in the ''Franchise/DoctorWho'' novel, ''[[Recap/NewSeriesAdventuresSickBuilding Sick Building]]''. Her backstory in ''Enter Wildthyme'' removes The Doctor for copyright reasons.
145	* CanAlwaysSpotACop: [=MIAOW=] used to send her undercover disguised as a regular vending machine but she'd blow it by talking to people.
146	* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Was The Load on their trip to Valcea until she ended up killing a glass rhino that was about to kill the gang.
147	* GivingRadioToTheRomans: Iris had to work hard to persuade [=MIAOW=] not to take Barbra apart to study her future technology.
148	* TheLoad: On the trip to Valcea she was initially slowing everyone down until she defended them from a rhino.
149	* MultipleChoicePast:
150	** She debuted in the ''Franchise/DoctorWho'' novel, ''[[Recap/NewSeriesAdventuresSickBuilding Sick Building]]'' where she was built on Tiermann's World and was brought in the [=TARDIS=] to the SpaceStation Spaceport Antelope Slash Nitelite.
151	** ''Enter Wildthyme'' gave us a BroadStrokes version of the above with the SerialNumbersFiledOff and ''Doctor Who'' references removed for copyright reasons. She now left the planet on an EscapePod called Helen and spent time in multiple space stations and ports before reaching Spaceport Antelope Slash Nitelite.
152	** ''Sick Building'' was an AmbiguousTimePeriod but "The Dreadful Flap" short story says Barbra came from the 35th century and ''Enter Wildthyme'' says she's from the 59th.
153	** ''The Martian Girl'' of the ''The Lora Trilogy'' was a complete AlternateContinuity where Barbra was built on Mars by a man called Dean Swiftnick.
154	* ObfuscatingStupidity: In her time on various space stations, she used to pretend she wasn't intelligent in the hopes that people would leave her alone.
155	* ShockAndAwe: It's implied this how she killed the glass rhino on Valcea.
156	* SuperpoweredRobotMeterMaids: Is capable killing large creatures when her only job is to be a vending machine.
157	* SuperSenses: She claims accute senses somehow comes as part of being a vending machine and can hear Iris from far away when Simon can't.
158	* TimeBomb: [[spoiler: After admitting she has one inside her, she brings up a countdown on her display.]]
159	* UnwantedFalseFaith: The Glass Men on Valcea start worshipping her as a goddess and only help Iris and co. on the promise that Barbra come back to them.
160	* VengefulVendingMachine: Can kill large creatures when her friends are threatened.
161	* WhyAmITicking: Realizes after leaving the inn on Valcea that [[spoiler:the innkeeper put a bomb inside her]].
162	[[/folder]]
163
164	[[folder:Simon]]
165	A companion who meets Iris in ''Enter Wildthyme''. He'd previously appeared "The Great Big Book Exchange" short story and a novel called ''Exchange'' about a boy and the staff of his favourite bookshop.
166	* AuthorAvatar: He's based on Paul Magrs as a teenager, how he used to visit second hand bookshops with his stepfather's mother.
167	* NoFullNameGiven: His last name is never specified.
168	* NoNameGiven: A precursor to him appeared in the "The Great Big Book Exchange" short story where he's only referred to as grandson.
169	* RaisedByGrandparents: He was raised by them after his parents died in a plane crash.
170	* UnexpectedInheritance: He's surprised to find he inherited Terrance's bookshop.
171	%%* UnfazedEveryman
172	[[/folder]]
173

Context Characters / IrisWildthyme