Evelyn Smythe
, who provides the voice for Evelyn Smythe Dr. Evelyn Smythe is a fictional character played by Maggie Stables in a series of audio plays produced by Big Finish Productions based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. A professor of history from the 20th Century, she was a companion of the Sixth Doctor. The canonicity of the audio dramas, like other Doctor Who spin-off media, is unclear. Evelyn first appeared in the play The Marian Conspiracy (2000), when the Sixth Doctor found her while searching for a temporal nexus point. Travelling with the Doctor back to 1554, she became involved with the turmoil surrounding the reign of Queen Mary, which would soon give way to that of her half-sister Elizabeth. At the end of that adventure, she insisted on accompanying the Doctor further, because as an historian, the chance to travel in a time machine was irresistible. Evelyn was fifty-five when she began her travels with the Doctor. Being more mature than most of the Doctor's other companions, she was more than a match for the more abrasive Sixth Doctor, often questioning his decisions and even counselling him on them. In turn, the Sixth Doctor recognized Evelyn's wisdom and ability and respected her advice.
Their relationship was not always smooth. Evelyn had a heart condition which she kept from the Doctor, fearing that he would return her home if he found out. She also blamed the Doctor for his inability to save a young woman named Cassie in Project: Lazarus (2003), something which the Seventh Doctor said that she never forgave him for, "even at the end."
The circumstances of Evelyn's parting of ways with the Doctor have yet to be revealed. In the spin-off novel Instruments of Darkness by Gary Russell, it is stated that the Doctor did eventually bring Evelyn back to Earth, albeit ten years before she actually left, forcing her to lay low so as not to interfere with the life of her younger self. At the end of Instruments, the Doctor (at this point travelling with Mel) agrees to take Evelyn back to her proper time, and to take the "scenic route", implying further adventures.
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