| “ | Are you my mummy? | „ |
| ~ The Child's famous catchphrase. |
Jamie, better known as The Empty Child, is the titular main antagonist of the Doctor Who story of the same name. He is the only son of Nancy, a young woman who lied to him about being his sister instead for his own protection. He later becomes evil after being revived incorrectly by a group of nanogenes, leaving him on an endless search to find his mother, inadvertently causing a plague in the process.
He was portrayed by Albert Valentine, and voiced by Noah Johnson.
Biography[]
Backstory[]
Jamie was born in 1937 to the 16 year old Nancy. To protect them both, she told Jamie and everyone else that he was her younger brother. On one fateful night in January 1941, he followed Nancy on her venture to scavenge food and was mortally injured in the London Blitz. Left with a massive head trauma on the left side, partial collapse of his chest cavity on the right and a gash on the back of his right hand, Jamie would die in Albion Hospital, and Nancy was left heartbroken and traumatised from the events.
The Empty Child[]
Captain Jack Harkness, during an attempt to con The Doctor and Rose Tyler, two time travellers who he mistook for time agents, threw an empty Chula warship towards the two and they chased it into London, 1941. Nanogenes from the crashed Chula ambulance ship found Jamie's body and, unaware of what a human looked like, assuming the gas mask he was wearing was part of his face, revived him, granting him the abilities of a Chula soldier. Jamie, all but mindless, had only one thought, to find his mother. At the hospital, Dr Constantine tried to get though to him. The Nanogenes would go onto spread a "plague" by touch where all the victims would become "zombies", with Jamie's injuries and a Gas Mask face.
The Empty Child[]
The Empty Child would wander the streets of London, searching for his mother, terrifying the homeless children Nancy was looking after. Rose Tyler spotted him on a roof top and got caught up in the Blitz. After calling the TARDIS's fake phone, he tried to enter the house Nancy's gang were looting, but they escaped, and the Doctor tried to talk to him, not knowing his true nature. After finding Nancy, the Empty Child would advance on her, while she tried to get him to recognise her.
After the Doctor ordered the Gas Mask Zombies to go to their room, the Child complied, and headed for his hospital room. He entered his room while the Doctor Rose and Captain Jack Harkness were inside it. After they escaped the Child punched through the wall, with the Gas Mask Zombies holding them in place, until they used the Sonic Blaster aka "The Squareness Gun" to escape through the floor. The Child communicated though a typewriter that the homeless were using, and Jack's radio, telling them that he’s coming to find them.
The Child's "plague" began spreading to become airborne, which would consume the world in hours. After the Doctor, Rose and Jack arrived at the crash site, and opened the ambulance, the emergency protocols were activated, Summoning the Gas Mask Zombies, and the Child as the leader, to the crash site to defend it, surrounding the site. The Doctor, after finding out about Nancy's secret persuaded her to tell the truth to Jamie, and after hugging him, the Nanogenes recognised the superior DNA, and restored Jamie to normal. After the Doctor took off the mask, he joyfully told the human Jamie that he would love pop music in twenty years. Afterwards, Jamie and Nancy were looked after by Dr. Constantine.
Personality[]
Jamie's personality was akin to that of a normal young boy, with him being naïve, easily scared and devoted to his mother. Over the course of the story however as his power grows he becomes more and more frantic and desperate to find his mother, he is returned to a state of normality however when the nanogenes manage to correct their mistake and bring him back to his mother as he once was.
Appearance[]
Jamie was a small boy with fair skin and short blonde hair, he wore traditional 1940s clothing for boy's; i.e grey shorts with a matching blazer, a white shirt and black shoes with high socks. As the empty child he had a gas mask fused into his skull and a distinctive cut on the back of his hand.
Trivia[]
- The Empty Child may have been the loose inspiration for the Peg Dolls who have similar abilities and a childish mind although do appear more malicious than Jamie was.
- During the episode The Poison Sky, David Tennant, who would play the 10th Doctor, adlibbed the iconic "Are you my mummy?" line while wearing a gas mask in reference to The Empty Child. But it was also unscripted due to David Tennant forgetting his lines.
- The Empty Child is probably considered one of the scariest enemies alongside The Weeping Angels, The Clockwork Droids and The Silence.
