Doctor Who: 10 Huge Questions After The Power Of The Doctor
6. How Did Ace And The Seventh Doctor Part?
The Master goads Ace by reminding her that the Doctor ditched her. But the last time she appeared alongside Sylvester McCoy’s Seventh Doctor, there was no hint that such a split might happen.
In the last episode of the original run (the ironically named Survival), the final scene sees them happily walking off together, arms locked, with the Doctor saying "come on Ace, we’ve got work to do". There is no reference to Ace’s fate in the 1996 TV Movie, which begins with an older Seventh Doctor travelling alone.
Various theories as to what happened between Survival and the TV Movie are out there in spinoff media, but things are left vague enough here to not make any particular version canon. Instead, the Master implies it was down to the Doctor’s Machiavellian ways. This has a ring of truth to it, given how frustrated Ace could get about the Doctor’s secretive behaviour.
In a moving scene between Ace and the Seventh Doctor's hologram later in the episode, her take is quite different from the Master’s, suggesting that it was her fault they parted ways. She apologises for not understanding the burden he carried, and for judging him. For his part, the Doctor claims he was only trying to teach her good habits.
It’s lovely to see a more nuanced approach to those old companion/Doctor relationships. It only takes a few added lines to show that those friendships may have shared similar dynamics to what we’ve become accustomed to in recent years.