is a fictional character played by of the
Fourth Doctor and a regular in the programme from
1977 to
1978 . Writer
Chris Boucher named her after the Palestinian militant
Leila Khaled , although this fact was not publicised at the time.
Leela first appeared in the
1977 serial, ''
The Face Of Evil '', where she aided
The Doctor against the mad god
Xoanon . The god turned out to be the ship's computer, which had become both sentient and
Schizophrenic due to the Doctor's tampering with it in the past. Although the Doctor at this point was content to travel alone, Leela forced her way into the
TARDIS and continued to accompany the Doctor on his journeys.
Although Leela was a primitive, she was also highly intelligent, grasping advanced concepts easily and translating them into terms she could cope with. Despite the Doctor's attempts at "civilizing" her, however, Leela was strong-willed enough to continue in her savage ways. She usually dressed in animal skins and went around armed with a knife or a set of poisonous Janis thorns which she did not hesitate to use on people who threatened her, much to the Doctor's disapproval.
Although Jameson's eyes are naturally blue, as Leela she initially wore red
Contact Lens es to make them brown. However, the contact lenses severely limited her vision, and producer
Graham Williams promised her she could stop wearing them. To explain the change in-story, writer
Terrance Dicks wrote a scene in the
1977 serial ''
Horror Of Fang Rock '' where Leela's eyes suffered "pigment dispersal" and turned blue after viewing the explosion of the
Rutan ship.
In her travels with the Doctor, Leela faced, among others,
Killer Robots , murderous homunculi, the Rutan Host, and the
Sontaran invasion of the Doctor's home planet of
Gallifrey . It was in that last adventure, ''
The Invasion Of Time '', that she met and fell in love with Andred, a native Gallifreyan, and decided to stay behind to be with him. The first
K-9 also remained with her.
The character of Leela was first conceived by producer had submitted a story proposal titled ''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 to the more politically correct ''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 ''Face'', one where Leela left with the Doctor and one where she stayed behind, and the decision to have Leela become a companion was made soon after.
Leela's subsequent life on Gallifrey was not explored by the television series, although the
Spin-off media have done so to an extent. In the
Virgin New Adventures novel ''
Lungbarrow '', by Marc Platt, Leela and Andred were expecting a child, the first naturally conceived baby on Gallifrey for millennia. Louise Jameson reprised the role of Leela for the
1993 charity special ''
Dimensions In Time '', and has voiced the character in a series of audio plays for
Big Finish Productions taking place on Gallifrey, alongside
Lalla Ward as
Romana .
Leela did not appear in any of the
Virgin Missing Adventures , but has appeared in several of the
Past Doctor Adventures including four pairings of her and the Fourth Doctor written by
Chris Boucher .
