Dorothy “Doc” Starr is an amalgam of many classic pulp heroines, from Dale Arden to Wilma Deering to Marion Ravenwood and Evelyn Carnahan. Her wit comes from Nora Charles, which is fitting, as Myrna Loy was a visual reference for her early in development. In fact, Todd Downing worked Loy into the novels as a young actress cast to play Doc in the movie adaptations of their adventures. She is named after Downing’s grandmother Dorothy Brown, who overcame great personal tragedies in her youth to become an educator for many years.
Dorothy Starr is a steadfast and fearless comrade-in-arms, a competent field surgeon and dedicated occult scholar. The loss of her first husband in the field hardened her somewhat to emotional attachment, but that is changing over time. Doc has a couple of mystical tools in her arsenal which have greatly helped the cause of good over evil: a bronze vambrace from an obscure sect of Greek warrior-priestesses of Athena, which creates a nigh-impenetrable bubble of protection around the wearer; and a crystalline “lodestone” of sorts, which glows and hums in proximity to mystical energies.
Doc is a committed partner in adventure, and in life, to Jack, with whom she shares a home in Southern California and a daughter, Ellen – the product of a brief affair in Paris they shared during the Great War. She is a charter member of AEGIS and the chief architect of their field service.
She is the Nora to Jack’s Nick Charles, the Bacall to his Bogey. Though still unwed for now, the couple is content to build a life and family unit together, and charge forward in defense of innocent lives around the world, no matter the peril.