Alice Ashdown was a human companion of the Doctor. Born in Victorian Edinburgh to a wealthy family, she ran away from the repression and abusive environment created by her misogynist father and became a professional thief roaming the streets with her vagrant friends. She met the Doctor while he was investigating mysterious deaths in the city caused by a parasitic alien and claimed the life of her best friend, Jane Saunders. Ridding the city of the alien menace, Alice joined the Doctor because of her desire to distance herself from her old life as much as she could.