Winter is Coming
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Doctor Who: Hex – his story and the Doctor’s secret

By James Aggas

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Hex first met the Doctor in The Harvest. But what was the Doctor keeping secret from him?

(Image credit: Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions.

Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)

For ten years, Hex was a faithful companion to the Seventh Doctor. But for a great deal of that time, the Doctor kept something secret from him, ever since they first met…

Thomas Hector Schofield, or “Hex” to his friends, has long been one of my favorite non-TV companions in Doctor Who. Ever since he first met the Seventh Doctor in The Harvest, he was an incredibly likable character. He’s brave and loyal, idealistic and an overall decent guy.

In some ways, his journey on the TARDIS is similar to that of many other companions. He just jumps right in, without really thinking about it. He sees some amazing things in the universe.

But he also encounters the most terrifying monsters, too. Not just the ones from outer space, such as the Daleks. But also the worst of mankind, such as Oliver Cromwell.

However, there is one key difference between him and most other companions. Not to do with him specifically, but with his family.

In Project: Twilight, the Sixth Doctor and Evelyn met Cassie Schofield, a young mother who worked for the Dusk Casino. She had left her son, her “little Tommy”, behind with her mother while she tried to find a better life in London, always intending to go back. Unfortunately, that all changed when, during the course of that first Forge story, she became a vampire.

At the end of Project: Twilight, the Doctor had taken her to Norway, promising her that he would find a cure. After many adventures, he eventually made one in Project: Lazarus. But while he kept trying to get back to the exact point in time that he had left her, the TARDIS instead dragged him to Norway two years later.

The Doctor told his old friend Evelyn Smythe what he found out in Thicker Than Water. But it was much, much longer before Hex found out…

(Image credit: Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions.

Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)

A family connection

Those two years had left their mark on Cassie. Now an agent of the Forge after being captured by Nimrod, she was cold, deadly and ruthless. Initially, she was ready to hand the Doctor and Evelyn over to the Forge.

However, she had also been brainwashed to forget that she had even had a son. The moment she remembered, she turned on Nimrod and helped the Doctor and Evelyn to escape. But it came with a terrible price: Nimrod killed her, and the Doctor saw his friend suffer a horrifically violent death.

For a time, things were difficult between the Doctor and Evelyn. But eventually, they got better. And, sometime after Evelyn had left the Doctor, his next incarnation made a very quick visit in Thicker Than Water.

He had some important news to give her. He had just recently met a new companion: Thomas Hector Schofield. It was here, over a year after the release of The Harvest, that the connection was made explicit: Hex was the son of the Doctor’s and Evelyn’s friend Cassie.

The Doctor’s secret

As far as twists go, this was definitely a good one. It seems obvious now, especially as Hex’s full name had already been revealed in his first story. But at the same time, it was something that no one had thought too much about. Many had simply accepted Hex as another companion.

The moment the twist was revealed, however, Hex’s story suddenly changed. He wasn’t just another companion to the Doctor. He was someone who had a connection to him, ever since he was a child, and he didn’t even know about it.

And that was one more crucial thing that was revealed: the Doctor knew, but Hex had no idea. In fact, across many audios, the Doctor never told Hex about his mother. Hex didn’t find out until Project: Destiny in 2010 – six years after he first met the Doctor. As you can probably imagine, he wasn’t too pleased about the Doctor keeping quiet about it for so long.

When Hex met Nimrod in Project: Destiny, it was clear that the Doctor could no longer keep the truth from him a secret…

(Image credit: Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions.

Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)

The long game

I absolutely love Hex’s story for two key reasons. First, while Hex is a great companion in his own right, it’s still refreshing to have a companion with a connection to the Doctor, even before they first meet him. The Doctor being a friend of Hex’s mother gives us something a little different from the start, even when it’s not made explicit until some time later.

The second reason I love Hex’s story is the Doctor keeping what he knows a secret. It wasn’t the first time that he had done that with a companion, as Ace found out in The Curse of Fenric. But the Seventh Doctor hadn’t learned his lesson, and still preferred to keep things to himself.

More from Winter is Coming

So the Doctor keeping what he knew about Hex’s mother a secret for so long suited his incarnation perfectly. And of course, audiences were left eagerly anticipating the story of when Hex would find out.

So it’s quite surprising that Big Finish waited so long to tell that story. To put it into context: when the Doctor met Hex in 2004, Doctor Who wasn’t even back on screen.

When the audience was made aware of what the Doctor knew, Christopher Eccleston’s only season had already been broadcast. By the time Hex found out, not only had the entire Tenth Doctor era passed by during that time. Even Matt Smith’s first season had been broadcast, too!

So like I said, Big Finish really played the long game with this one. But was it worth it? Did Project: Destiny live up to the hype? Well, we’ll get to that later.

For now, we’ll just say that Hex’s story was certainly an intriguing one, and one of the bolder decisions that Big Finish took with their audios.

Next. Review: Thicker Than Water (audio). dark

Have you listened to Hex’s audios? Are you a fan of the character? Or have you yet to check out his stories? Let us know in the comments below.

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