Evelyn first appeared in the play "The Marian Conspiracy" (2000), when the Sixth Doctor found her while searching for a temporal nexus point. Traveling with the Doctor back to 1554, she became involved with the turmoil surrounding the reign of Queen Mary, which soon gave way to that of her half-sister Elizabeth. At the end of that adventure, Evelyn insisted on accompanying the Doctor further, because as a historian, she saw the chance to travel in a time machine as irresistible.