Ace

Ace is a teenage misfit from Perivale, thrown far from home by a transporter accident and picked up by the Doctor as his newest companion. She's brash, sharp-tongued, and quick to anger, more comfortable rigging explosives or lobbing a can of Nitro-9 than talking about her feelings. Streetwise and loyal, she treats the universe like something to be tested.

Sophie Aldred plays her with a coiled, restless energy that never softens into cuteness — Ace argues with the Doctor, questions his choices, and carries real anger under the swagger. The scripts of her era finally let a companion have a psychology, hinting at a difficult home life without spelling it out, and Aldred makes every scrap of that count.