, full name '''Josephine Grant''', is a fictional character played by of the
Third Doctor and a regular in the programme from
1971 to
1973 .
Jo first appeared in the
1971 serial ''
Terror Of The Autons '', having been assigned to
The Doctor as a replacement for
Liz Shaw . Apparently, she had gotten the assignment to UNIT because her uncle, a high ranking
Civil Servant , had pulled some strings.
Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart then assigned her to
The Doctor , who was initially dismayed when he found out that she was not a scientist, but accepted her because he did not have the heart to tell her otherwise.
An enthusiastic, bubbly and sometimes scatter-brained blonde, Jo soon endeared herself to the other members of UNIT, especially
Captain Mike Yates and
Sergeant Benton . The Third Doctor was also particularly attached to her, and she was devoted to him, refusing to leave his side even where mortal danger was involved.
There was plenty of danger to go around as well, especially after the
Time Lord s restored the Third Doctor's ability to travel through time and space. Jo faced the hazards and wonders of travel with the Doctor with courage and plucky determination. Together with the Doctor and UNIT, she encountered such perils as
Killer Daffodils ,
Time-eating Monsters ,
Renegade Time Lords , was
Miniaturised ,
Hypnotised , flung
Through Time and menaced by
Giant Maggots and
Ancient Dæmons .
Over time, Jo also grew more confident and mature, until she was independent enough to stand up to the Doctor, which she did in her last serial, ''
The Green Death ''. During the events of that story, Jo fell in love with Professor Clifford Jones, a young,
Nobel Prize -winning scientist leading an environmentalist group. At the end, she agreed to marry Jones and go with him to the
Amazon to study its vegetation, the news of which the Doctor greeted with a mixture of pride and sadness.
Her life after she left the Doctor and UNIT was not explored in the programme. Jo was briefly mentioned in the serial ''
Planet Of The Spiders '', when she sent a package back to UNIT from the Amazon. A middle-aged Jo was featured in the
Spin-off novel ''Genocide'', by Paul Leonard, where she and Jones had a son named Matthew and were divorced.
While Manning has not reprised the role of Jo in the series, she has provided the voice for the renegade Time Lady
Iris Wildthyme in several audio plays for
Big Finish Productions .
