Jason Whittaker

Jason Whittaker was a companion of the 14th Doctor, an eighteen-year old homeless teenager, ousted by his parents Wayne and Sheila after they discovered him with his boyfriend, Damien Drake. On the streets of Stockton, he panhandled for money alongside his acquaintances, Tommi Davies, Wilson Stevens and Bernie McTighe. discovering the TARDIS with the former, leading to their first encounter with the Doctor and a whirlwind of travels.

Following the events of Against The Dying Of The Light, Jason chose to leave the TARDIS and live with Damien within student housing, tired of the Doctor’s callous nature and wanting to live a normal life.

Meeting the Doctor
Jason heard the TARDIS crashing to Earth. Following the robbery of a Preacher, he ventured out with Tommi to investigate the box, finding a mysterious room in the ‘building’ behind. Their entrance woke the Doctor, who traced them back to their homeless shelter with questions about the Shadowmen. Assisting in their investigation, the two faced off against the Unknown Shade, Jason watching as she destroyed the Shadowmen. Afterwards, Jason asked to travel with the Doctor, but she refused, citing past traumas. On the way out, he accidentally knocked a lever, triggering the TARDIS into gear, and taking flight. (AUDIO: Open Doors)

Initial travels
The TARDIS took the Doctor and Jason to Popolia, home of the Calaperie and a frequent haunt of the former after every regeneration. Exploring the facility, Jason discovered a plan by Wilbur to harvest the Doctor’s regeneration energy, foiling this with the help of Daisy and Bonnie. (AUDIO: R&R)

The pair later travelled to Georgian London in 1777, a theatre show interrupted by an audience member’s vaporisation. The two identified the murderer as Mon-A, a member of the Arist currently harboured by Lord and Lady Whitehead. After an encounter at the dining table and an encounter with a thief, Sammy, Jason recruited a group of urchins to distract the Artist while he and the Doctor investigated their technology. In the process, Jason exploded Barr-O via profanity, and taunted Mon-A into falling out of a window. As the surviving Arist departed, Jason wondered out loud if any remained. (AUDIO: Mind Your Manners)

Damien
Returning to Stockton to catch up with Bernie, Tommi and Wilson, Jason reunited with Damien, taking the opportunity to vent about his abandonment and betrayal. The two were caught up in a plot to kidnap humans via the use of buses and convert them into Shadow Hosts, spearheaded by the computer Prog/Ram. Jason was taken by the Host, who attempted conversion; however this was foiled by Damien speaking to him, reminding him of their first date and securing his humanity. After escaping the facility on Ansoator, Jason asked the Doctor if Damien could join them, requesting somewhere ‘romantic’. (AUDIO: Out Of Service)

In an attempt to get them to the beach, the Doctor took them to Calder Vale in 3020, on the cusp of a historic peace deal between humanity and the Silurians. Investigating a nearby mineshaft for missing reactor workers, Jason, Damien and Pauline encountered dinosaurs being weaponised by the Silurian Hyrak and Sea Devil Radnor. In an attempt to prevent the Homo Reptilian plot to unleash a tsunami on the surrounding area, he watched in tears as the Doctor redirected the wave onto the nearby megacity. (AUDIO: The Nuclear Option)

Travelling by sea to the Human-Homo Reptilian peace conference, Jason remained uneasy with the Doctor, distracting himself with an investigation into the Calder Vale disaster, speaking to Pandora and Hyrak. He was present when the city prison block was gassed, resulting in Hyrak’s death, following which he reconciled with the Doctor, helping her to expose each delegate for their role in the overall conspiracy. (AUDIO: The Antarctica Accords)

Arriving in 1982, Jason was forced to meet Margaret Thatcher, a woman he hated due to her anti-gay policies having influenced his father’s beliefs, to the point where when Time Agent Mary Windsor attempted to assassinate her, Jason floated the idea of letting it happen. Even after backlash, he disarmed the Doctor, indirectly causing the death of Glenn. Now it was his turn to justify his actions to the Doctor, who forgave him following Damien’s talkdown of Mary. Following the adventure, Damien departed the TARDIS, returning to modern-day Earth and kissing Jason goodbye. Disappointed, Jason knew that he too could one day return, now having a reason not to continue travelling, but for the moment, he still desired adventure. (AUDIO: Love In The Time Of Maggie)

Continuing journeys
Above Sontar amidst a space battle, Jason found himself on a crashing spaceship, its crew held hostage by a Rutan spy. Trekking across the surface with crewmates Cafolla and Bell, fighting off a group of Laser Monkeys, they were caught outside a Sontaran command facility (AUDIO: The Rutan Stowaway), only saved by the Rutans invading the planets’ surface. After Bell’s death and a Rutan impersonating him, Jason reunited with the Doctor and Jonski, the remaining quartet facing off against the Minister of War beneath the planet’s surface. Jonski’s death in this conflict led Jason to once again question the Doctor’s actions, but she made clear that the Minister was still out there, and needed to be defeated. (AUDIO: Conquest Of Sontar)

When the TARDIS was drawn off-course, Jason and the Doctor found themselves trapped in a simulation of The Three Musketeers, presided over by Erudmo, an Ecriv. Jason dueled Jussac, conversed with the Three Musketeers about love, faced off against Milady, and was grazed by a bullet during the siege of La Rochelle, using the memory of Damien—the realest thing he could think of— to break the simulation. (AUDIO: The Fourth Wall)

Back to Stockton
An alert from the TARDIS brought Jason back home, to face the Minister of War once more, him having landed spaceships across the planet’s surface as transmitters to infest humanity with shadow. Accompanied by UNIT Captain O’Donnell and a future version of the Doctor’s current incarnation, the ships were disabled, yet were revealed to be decoys, the real transmitters activating and converting nearly all of the population. With the Doctor transported to an unknown location, the unconverted Jason was left alone, abandoned, with no idea what to do. (AUDIO: Eternal War)

Having rescued Damien after his parents were transformed, the pair, along with Bernie, Tommi and Wilson, sheltered in the TARDIS. The latter two attempted an infiltration of the spaceship under Jason’s guidance, but this dramatically backfired, Tommi converted into a Shadow Host while Wilson became a Shadowman, shortly before his death at the hands of the Minister of War. Once the Doctor returned from her forced excursion to Savanson, Jason protested at her plan to channel regeneration energy through the spaceships, citing the potential damage it could cause, but his concerns were brushed off by the act being supposedly necessary. In the final assault on the spaceship, the world fighting around him, Jason witnessed the death of Bernie to a possessed Tommi’s hands, and saw Damien taunting him as a Shadow Host, ready to die to the Minister of War should it save the world. Instead, he took the Doctor’s place at the controls, speaking to the converted humans to remind them of their individuality, waking them up and shaking off the shadow. (AUDIO: Against The Dying Of The Light)

Departure
Following the Minister of War’s invasion, Damien invited Jason to live with him in student accommodation, alongside housemates Krystian, Martin, Emily and George. While, as the Doctor mentioned, he could have continued his travels for an infinite amount of time before settling, Jason chose the immediate aftermath, scared about the Doctor’s willingness to move on in the face of tragedy and not wanting to suffer the same fate. Emotionally parting ways with the Doctor, one last present of cash to cover rent, Jason soon bonded with his new companions, beginning the story of how he first met the Doctor. (AUDIO: Against The Dying Of The Light)

Personality
Jason was an impulsive figure, acting very much on instinct in the face of danger (AUDIO: R&R). Likewise he was very fixed in his views, not one to consider the nuances of any debate (AUDIO: Love In The Time Of Maggie). His past clearly affected him, it being something he dwelled on quite frequently (AUDIO: Open Doors). His time on the streets had fine-tuned his judgements, to the point where he could read a person’s motives in a single instance (AUDIO: R&R; The Fourth Wall). He remained fiercely loyal to those still around him, constantly willing to throw himself in the firing line if it might save the day (AUDIO: Mind Your Manners; The Antarctica Accords; Love In The Time Of Maggie; Against The Dying Of The Light). This penchant for self-sacrifice was so ingrained, the Doctor was able to use it as an identifying trait when trying to determine the real Jason against a Rutan impersonator (AUDIO: Conquest Of Sontar). Jason was also openly emotional, not afraid to show weakness or hide his reactions to those acting against his beliefs (AUDIO: Open Doors; Out Of Service; The Nuclear Option; Love In the Time of Maggie; Conquest Of Sontar). He also, like most teenagers, had a penchant for innuendo and sexual references (AUDIO: Mind Your Manners; Love In The Time Of Maggie; The Fourth Wall; Against The Dying Of The Light).

His relationship with the Doctor was almost one of convenience; an alternative to dying on the streets when instead he could experience the wonders of the universe in spite of a potentially fatal outcome (AUDIO: Open Doors; Out Of Service; Conquest Of Sontar). This did not mean that he did not care for her; on the contrary, he idolised the Doctor to the point of blindness, only sobering up when her darker potential became clear (AUDIO: The Antarctica Accords). Likewise, they were in tune with one another, to the point where Jason could predict the Doctor’s punchlines (AUDIO: Mind Your Manners).

Meanwhile, his standing with Damien was rocky following their breakup (AUDIO: Out Of Service), however it was clear he truly loved him, utilising the power of time travel to win him back over (AUDIO: The Nuclear Option). Damien leaving the TARDIS clearly left its mark (AUDIO: Love In The Time Of Maggie; The Fourth Wall), making Jason’s decision to depart the Doctor himself for Damen the obvious outcome. It is notable that when addressing the Earth, Jason gave no credit to the Doctor for her role in his personal redemption, instead referring to ‘the boy [he] loved’ who ‘came back’ and ‘saved [his] life’ (AUDIO: Against The Dying Of The Light).