The savage Leela comes from a jungle planet with a red sky that was originally settled by a group of human colonists from the Mordee expedition. Over time, the descendants of the team members split into two groups. One group stayed on board the ship and in touch with technology, and became known as the Tesh, a linguistic corruption of "technicians". The descendants of Survey Team 6 settled in the jungle and developed into a group of primitive hunters called the Sevateem. The Sevateem worship a god named Xoanon, actually a deranged computer suffering from multiple personalities. Leela is a talented huntress and a warrior of the Sevateem, but her disenchantment with Xoanon led to her exile from the settlement. Her father, Sole, was killed in a pit of Horda - ravenous animals native to the planet - leaving Leela with no real ties. When the Doctor came along to the planet, Leela decided to stow away on board the TARDIS and travel with him.
Leela's years of hunting have led her to develop a finely honed set of instincts. She moves silently and with catlike grace, stalking her prey with precision; the Doctor even comments on her impressive tracking ability. She has highly acute hearing and can accurately read body language. She is very strong, able to carry an unconscious man with little difficulty. Leela also has a mysterious sixth sense that enables her to sense the presence of evil or danger. This has all made Leela very independent and self-reliant, and she has the frequent habit of slipping away from the Doctor unnoticed in order to investigate something she has seen or sensed. Despite this, she has a deep and unswerving, almost touching, faith in the Doctor's abilities.
Leela is also highly skilled in the use of various weapons, such as the crossbow, and when she comes across an unfamiliar weapon - energy weapons, for example - she can quickly work out how to operate it. She constantly carries a knife in a sheath on her hunting leathers, and it seems to be her favorite weapon. If she is too far away for an efficient stab, Leela is able to throw the knife with precise aim. On her native planet, Leela was fond of using poisonous janis thorns, which paralyzed then killed her victims with one scratch, and she still keeps a supply of them, in defiance of the Doctor's express wishes. Leela sometimes carries a blowgun to project the thorns across long distances, and her aim with this device is equally impressive. Her preference is to kill first and ask questions later - the Doctor often has to talk her out of slaughtering her adversaries. To Leela, there is great honor in killing her enemies, and she has no fear of dying as this also brings great honor.
Because Leela was raised in a primitive environment where survival was the most important factor, she is fairly ignorant of anything sophisticated. When she met the Doctor, she believed more in magic than science. The Doctor took it upon himself to educate Leela in technology and science, as well as mundane matters like writing and even manners. After a while, Leela began to put her faith in science rather than magic. And although Leela is intelligent, she is not erudite, and operates more on instinct and intuition than on logic and deduction. In order to remember the instructions that the Doctor sometimes gives her, Leela has to repeat them to herself, and frequently gets his words garbled in the process. Her rather simple mind means that she is fairly vulnerable to mental forms of attack, including hypnosis.
Leela's hair is long and brown; her eyes are also brown until the flash from an exploding spaceship temporarily blinds her and turns them blue. She usually wears a brief but sturdy leather outfit, with which she is always able to carry her knife and a supply of janis thorns. Her arms are decorated with various bracelets, and on her feet she wears a pair of tough leather boots.
Although the Doctor usually disapproved of Leela's violent approach to matters, she greatly enjoyed her travels. Eventually, though, Leela decided it was time to settle down when she fell in love with Andred, the captain of the guards on Gallifrey.
