Melanie "Mel" Bush is a fictional character played by Bonnie Langford in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Mel is a computer programmer from the 20th century who is a companion of the Sixth and Seventh Doctors, first appearing on-screen when the Sixth Doctor showed an adventure with her to the Time Lords in order to prove that he would become a better person in the future. Following this, she is shown accompanying the Doctor as a companion, with no further explanation given as to how she met the Doctor.
Melanie "Mel" Bush is a fictional character played by Bonnie Langford in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Mel is a computer programmer from the 20th century who is a companion of the Sixth and Seventh Doctors, first appearing on-screen when the Sixth Doctor showed an adventure with her to the Time Lords in order to prove that he would become a better person in the future. Following this, she is shown accompanying the Doctor as a companion, with no further explanation given as to how she met the Doctor.
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Melanie "Mel" Bush is a fictional character played by Bonnie Langford in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Mel is a computer programmer from the 20th century who is a companion of the Sixth and Seventh Doctors, first appearing on-screen when the Sixth Doctor showed an adventure with her to the Time Lords in order to prove that he would become a better person in the future. Following this, she is shown accompanying the Doctor as a companion, with no further explanation given as to how she met the Doctor.
Despite initial plans for the character's meeting with the Sixth Doctor to be depicted on-screen, the firing of Sixth Doctor actor Colin Baker at the end of 1986 made this unable to happen. Due to changes in script production, Mel's character was altered to adapt to whatever script she was in, resulting in a lack of a character arc. Langford departed the role of Mel in 1987's Dragonfire; following this, Langford reprised the role of Mel in several audio drama productions produced by Big Finish Productions and made a cameo appearance in the 2022 serial "The Power of the Doctor." Mel went on to appear in a recurring role in following episodes of the series, where the character's backstory and personality were fleshed out in these episodes in greater depth than in her prior appearances.
Mel was unpopular in her original appearances due to appearing as a thinly characterized stereotype to audiences. Aspects of her portrayal have been praised, and further reappearances of the character following her departure from the series have been highlighted for broadening the character's depth.
Character biography
Development
According to producer Eric Saward, series producer John Nathan-Turner had told him that he wanted to have a "redhead companion" on the series. Nathan-Turner had immediately suggested Bonnie Langford. Langford at the time was a well-known, veteran actor, which authors at SFX considered to be part of John Nathan-Turner's plans to get Doctor Who talked about in the press. Langford was also known for having a strong scream, which multiple authors believed was a factor in her casting.
Nathan-Turner wished to depict Mel's first meeting with the Doctor on-screen in an episode which would have followed Trial of a Time Lord. However, the subsequent departure of lead actor Colin Baker prior to production of the new season made an in-universe introduction between the Sixth Doctor and Mel impossible. A new script editor was hired to the series following Season 24 who wished to take the series in a different direction. As a result, Mel's character was written to adapt to the episodes as written, and was given no character arc. Due to a lack of clarification regarding her backstory, many writers, including Gary Russell and Craig Hinton, have attempted to give her more detail in spin-off material for the series. Mel's last name "Bush" was never used on-screen, only being used in spin-off audio dramas produced by Big Finish Productions.
Mel is an orphaned computer programmer from the 20th century who originates from the village of Pease Pottage in West Sussex, England. She has an eidetic memory, and a cheery, optimistic personality. She is a health enthusiast and a vegetarian, often encouraging the slightly portly Sixth Doctor to exercise more and drink carrot juice. Mel first appears in the serial Terror of the Vervoids, part of the 14-part story The Trial of a Time Lord. She is called to the Sixth Doctor's (Colin Baker) defence during his trial by his people, the Time Lords. She becomes a companion of the Doctor at a point in the future, with the Doctor displaying an adventure with Mel to show the Time Lords that he would become a better person.
Mel is later seen travelling with the Doctor following this episode, and her first meeting with the Doctor is never elaborated upon within the show itself. She appears in six stories following her debut, eventually departing the series in the episode Dragonfire (1987) alongside the recurring character Sabalom Glitz (Tony Selby). Following this, Mel appears in the 1993 charity episode Dimensions in Time, though the episode's canonicity to the series' events is disputed. The character later appeared in several audio dramas produced by Big Finish Productions.
Mel returns in the 2022 special, "The Power of the Doctor", alongside several other former companions, who gather together as a support group to talk of their experiences with the Doctor. Mel next appears in the 2023 special, "The Giggle", where it is revealed that she was recruited by UNIT, having returned to Earth after Glitz's death. She helps the Fourteenth (David Tennant) and Fifteenth Doctors (Ncuti Gatwa) in defeating the Toymaker (Neil Patrick Harris), who had taken control of the minds of the human race, with Mel being unaffected by the Toymaker's control due to her previous experiences with the Doctor.
Mel reappears in the series fourteen two-part finale "The Legend of Ruby Sunday" and "Empire of Death", where she infiltrates Triad Technology on behalf of UNIT to investigate Susan Triad (Susan Twist), reuniting her with the Doctor once again. After it is revealed that Triad is in fact a minion for Sutekh (Gabriel Woolf), an old enemy of the Doctor's, Mel helps the Doctor escape back to UNIT HQ, where she, the Doctor and Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) use a special machine called a "memory TARDIS" to escape as Sutekh destroys the rest of the universe. Sutekh kills and possesses Mel, and animates Mel's body to return the Doctor and Ruby to the present day. After the Doctor defeats Sutekh and restores the universe, Mel returns to normal. Mel is last seen in The Reality War.
Following the episode, Langford released a book starring Mel and Glitz titled Death in the Stars, which features the pair attempting to solve a murder in which they are the prime suspects.
Langford stated that she had not been happy with her performance in the classic series, with Mel's role in the original series being consi
