Oh and another question

[scifirenegade]

A few months ago, I asked around on Tumblr for the origin of Ray's surname. Since I don't remember it ever being said onscreen, and Archive of Our Own has tagged her as "Rachel "Ray" Defwydd".

Checked the novelisation for Delta and the Bannermen and couldn't find any references to it.

I think it may have been some fanmade thing, but I don't know. Ray fic is so hard to come by.

Any ideas?

Crossposted to seventhdoctor

Comments

[lurking_latinist]

I’ve got no idea. I use it when nominating her for exchanges because it’s in the AO3 tag, but I’ve never seen where it comes from. Maybe it was in promotional materials or specified in the script, just not used on screen? She was supposedly written as a possible new companion, after all…

[scifirenegade]

I decided to check the Complete History volume on Delta and the Bannermen, and there was no mention of a surname for her, on the production section or anywhere else.

However, checking the TARDIS wiki, her page's history mentions deleting "fanfic". There's reference to an unofficial book called Eclectic Gypsy: The Unauthorised Biography of Doctor Who. Which I never heard of, but may hold a clue... maybe?

[romanajo123]

Yeah I’m not sure either. Maybe it was in the original scripts or promos or something? Like how Raine in the audios was apparently going to be Cunnningham or something similar but was changed to Creevey.

My main question is, how do you pronounce her last name?

[scifirenegade]

Read the Complete History volume, no mention of a surname. There's a book that was referenced on her TARDIS wiki page, Eclectic Gypsy: The Unauthorised Biography of Doctor Who. Never heard of it, maybe it has something.

Also, no idea. Welsh DW fans, where are you?

[shivver]

The surname might be in the original script. I have a copy of the script for "Ghost Light" and the dramatis personae has the full names of most of the characters, with the exception of Ace and Gwendoline, so maybe her name is fully listed there? I checked Tardis Wiki and they don't mention her last name in their cast list, but then they don't include full names in the lists, even when the article about the episode mentioned one previously.

On a whim, since there are few fics with Ray in them, I looked through them all and the first one to mention her surname is "Anaml lles o rodio'r nos by john_amend_all, so maybe he knows where it comes from. :)

[scifirenegade]

Oooh I read that one! Maybe, will have to ask :D

I mentioned before, but there's an unofficial book from 2008. Will have to check that one as well. Because it was listed on her wiki page and then deleted (alongside her surname, because yes, they listed her as Ray Defwydd).

[thisbluespirit]

Yeah, I've always wondered that - I always assumed it was some EU thing somewhere, but TARDIS wiki would have that all right if it were. (I peeked behind the scenes at the comments on the AO3 tag to see if someone had left a source for using that, but nothing. My guess would be that maybe at the time it came in, that's how it was on TARDIS Wiki, if there have been deletions since?)

Pronounciation would be sort of "Devwyth/Devouwyth" except probably not exactly quite like that, but near enough. It's not really a typical Welsh surname, either, especially not for South Wales.

[scifirenegade]

Thank you for the pronunciation thing, either way.

That surname was indeed on her wiki page! And then deleted because of lack of sources.