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The Fate of Ace Because I don't read the Doctor Who novels and don't accept them as canon (see Canon or Cannot? for my reasons why), I have the luxury of imagining my own future for the Doctor's dear friend, Ace. Most of the Doctor's friends find their way back into some more or less defined "Real World" life. But the series ended with Ace still traveling at the Doctor's side (in "Survival" -- a very satisfying finale which closes with the Doctor urging, "Come on, Ace... we've got work to do.") Indeed, the Doctor spent the entirety of the closing season alternately coaxing and forcing Ace to examine her life, her family, and her dreams. It made for one of the most satisfying sidekick relationships in the whole series history, because for once the Doctor was taking an active interest in the development and well being of a friend. Which makes it doubly offensive to me that writers of the novel series would suggest that the Doctor eventually turned on her, and that she went on to become some sort of "Space Mercinary." How unimaginative! How sad! How emotionally crippled -- and crippling! How wasteful! The suggestion does violence to the last season of the show. The Doctor was teaching Ace. He was trying to show her that building things -- including human friendships -- was infinitely more satisfying than blowing them up. And he was succeeding -- we saw Ace change for the better, and we even saw her spiritual rebirth and baptism. It made for some beautiful moments. Having spent some formative time with the Doctor, I see Ace as eventually following her predecessors back into a more or less "Real World" -- and not as a goddamned mercinary. She would instead have a very bright future, playing some positive, constructive role in whatever community she ends up in, either as a teacher, an artist or diplomat. Ace would not become a Destroyer: after all she has experienced, it would be impossible. Because more than any other sidekick, she leaves the Doctor more capable and more noble than she was when she joined him.