Madame Vastra

Madame Vastra is a female television character who features in Doctor Who.

Biography

Madame Vastra was a female member of the reptilian based race known as the Silurians.

In the 1880s, Vastra awoke during the construction of an extension of the London Underground and sought to take revenge on the innocent tunnel workers responsible for the accidental deaths of her 'sisters'. After Vastra had slaughtered five commuters. (Episode: A Good Man Goes to War)

At the behest of Scotland Yard, she tracked down Jack the Ripper in 1888 — and ate him. Immediately thereafter, she was summoned by the Eleventh Doctor to help rescue Amy Pond and her baby, Melody, from Demons Run. Vastra agreed to join him, intent on repaying the Doctor for changing her life when they had first met. Accompanied by Jenny, Vastra arrived at Demons Run with an army of Silurian Hunters. By this point in her life, she referred to the Doctor as an 'old friend', and a mutual respect had developed between the two. When the Doctor began his assault of Demons Run, he gave Vastra and Jenny the task of hijacking the control room. After unveiling himself as a disguised Headless Monk before Colonel Manton and the soldiers of the Church, Vastra and Jenny drew swords on the guards watching the monitors. They then deactivated the lighting to enable the Doctor to slink around in the dark, prompting the Church and the Headless Monks to attack each other in the disarray. This allowed Sontaran nurse Strax, a platoon of Judoon and some of Vastra's Silurian allies to subdue the soldiers. The pair awaited the Doctor in the control room, preventing one of the guards from escaping in the meantime. When their allies finally arrived, she witnessed the enraged Doctor confront Colonel Manton and Kovarian. Shortly after, Vastra and Dorium Maldovar hacked into Kovarian's files and discovered scans of Melody's DNA, noting that Amy's child had been born with traces of Time Lord DNA. Using her knowledge of the Time Lord biology, Vastra and the Doctor were forced to speculate as to when Amy and her husband Rory had conceived their child. The Doctor deduced that their child had been conceived on their wedding night aboard his TARDIS whilst it was traversing the Vortex, resulting in Melody inheriting Time Lord qualities. Realising that their enemies had given up too easily, Vastra and Dorium left for the main hangar to meet up with the remainder of the Doctor's army. At this point, Headless Monks began surreptitiously slaying the Doctor's allies as they made for the TARDIS. Thanks to Lorna Bucket, Vastra and her comrades had some warning about the trap, allowing them to prepare. After Dorium was beheaded, the monks attacked. Vastra wielded both her swords with great skill and precision, effortlessly defeating any Monk who challenged her. (Episode: A Good Man Goes to War)

Later on, the Eleventh Doctor decided to retire to Victorian London losing Amy and Rory. (Episode: The Great Detective) Vastra, Jenny and Strax would summon him multiple times for help, hoping to reignite his passion for adventure. They frequently attempted to do so by presenting him with a variety of mysteries for him to solve, but to no avail. The Doctor refused to deal with the mysteries, solemnly claiming he had 'retired'. (Episode: The Great Detective) By this point, Vastra's investigative exploits were believed by Walter Simeon to have been appropriated by Arthur Conan Doyle for fictionalisation in The Strand, in which he attributed them to his character, Sherlock Holmes. Vastra and Jenny later confronted Walter Simeon about his Institute, with Vastra discovering that Simeon was using snow which possessed a telepathic field. This allowed the snow to build itself into the form of lethal snowmen by mirroring the thoughts of people around it. She noted that it could be utilised as a terrible weapon, with Simeon casually remarking that he had plans of his own and there was nothing she could do to stop it. As he left, Vastra called after him that even if she could not stop him she knew someone who could, and Simeon replied that he was looking forward to meeting him. Vastra was later visited by Clara Oswin Oswald, whom she treated with some suspicion at first. Vastra and Jenny forced Clara to participate in their "one-word test", where she would only be allowed to answer their questions with a single word to prove she was not lying. In doing so, Vastra contradicted herself by explaining in great detail the Doctor's now-sullen exile in London, which Clara noted. After she offered to pass a message to the Doctor, but in one word only, Clara used the word "Pond" — coincidentally the surname of the Doctor's former companion Amy. Impressed that Clara had figured out how to persuade the Doctor to help and convinced of her honesty, Vastra called the Time Lord and told him that Strax knew where he should begin his investigation. She then sent Strax to see if the Doctor needed any help but the Doctor sent the Sontaran away. Arriving at Captain Latimer's house, Vastra quickly informed the Doctor that Simeon was causing the alien snow to spread over Latimer's estate. Meanwhile Jenny used a force field to trap the Ice Governess, who had been created from the drowned governess who had frozen in Latimer's pond a year earlier. Vastra teased the Doctor, noting how much he had missed the thrill and excitement of such adventures during his brooding. (Episode: The Snowmen)

While the Doctor and Clara led the Ice Governess up to the roof, Vastra, Jenny and Strax remained in Latimer's office to protect him and his children. After hearing a loud thump outside, they saw Clara lying in the snow with the shattered remains of the Ice Governess around her. The Doctor arrived in the TARDIS and took Clara's body inside where Strax managed to bring her back to life. Vastra went to the Doctor and told him that Clara's injuries were severe and that she was going to die. He and Vastra then took the TARDIS to Simeon's institute, where they met Simeon in his office. After the Doctor erased the memories of Simeon's adult life with a memory worm, the Great Intelligence took control of Simeon's body and knocked Vastra to the ground before she could strike it with her sword. Simeon then attacked the Doctor but collapsed as the snow inside the giant snow globe in the office turned to rain. Simeon died and the Great Intelligence fled, having learnt to survive without a physical body. Realising that the rain was caused by the grief of the Latimer family and by Clara's tears as she lay dying, the Doctor and Vastra rushed back to the house. Strax sorrowfully informed them that Clara only had a few moments left. At Clara's funeral, and upon learning her full name — Clara Oswin Oswald — the Doctor told Vastra and Jenny that he had met Clara before and that she had died twice, causing him to believe that there was another version of her somewhere in the universe. Leaving the confused Vastra and Jenny in the graveyard, he ran to the TARDIS intending to search for her. (Episode: The Snowmen)

Overview

Powers and abilities

She had the ability to extend her tongue over a long distance. This tongue was laced with a nasty venom, but it was not necessarily fatal. (Episode: A Good Man Goes to War)

Notes

• Madame Vastra was created by Steven Moffat and portrayed by actress Neve McIntosh where she featured in the setting of the Doctor Who universe.

Appearances

• Doctor Who: "A Good Man Goes to War"

External Links

• Doctor Who Wiki Entry

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