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Adam Mitchell
(2005) |
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| Bruno Langley |
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| Bruno Langley was born in March 1983 and grew up
in Buxton, Derbyshire. From 2001 to 2004, he played the character
of Todd Grimshaw in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street.
Prior to this
he played the part of Philip 'Fizz' Green in 6 episodes of Linda Green between
2001 and 2002. Shortly after leaving Coronation Street he played
the part of Adam Mitchell in the 2005 season of Doctor Who,
appearing in just
two stories. After Doctor Who, he filmed a small role in
the feature film The League of Gentlemen's "Apocalypse",
released in June 2005 and two episodes of Dalziel and Pascoe in
2006. Bruno Langley has also had several
roles in theatre including; the acclaimed run of Romeo and
Juliet, A Taste of
Honey (which toured the UK extensively in 2006) and the world
premier of Flash Dance The Musical. He also returned to Coronation
Street for
a twelve episode guest stint in 2007. |
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 In the simplest possible terms, Adam Mitchell has been described by Russell T Davies as ‘the Companion that Couldn’t’, having been created to demonstrate why some people are simply not equipped to travel in the TARDIS no matter how skilled they might be otherwise, to the point that he went on to become a highly dangerous villain even if he redeemed himself in his last actions.
A short-term companion,
Adam
joined The Doctor after forming a bond with the Ninth
Doctor’s
current companion Rose Tyler when the TARDIS materialised in the
alien artefacts collection of multi-billionaire Henry Van Statten,
Adam being one of the employees studying alien artefacts Van Statten
had salvaged over the years. With the facility facing closure after
a Dalek broke
free of confinement and killed most of Van Statten’s
men, Rose suggested to The Doctor that Adam accompany them in the
TARDIS, The Doctor agreeing despite his evident scepticism (And possible
slight jealousy) of Adam’s abilities as a companion.
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| The Long Game |
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Described as a computer genius, Adam claims that he successfully
hacked into the United States Department of Defense computers when
he was eight years old, nearly causing World War III and subsequently
attracting a great deal of attention from various intelligence agencies.
His attitude was reflected in an essay he wrote when he was fourteen
where he stated that he would like to meet aliens to talk with them
about advanced technology, regarding it as merely a ‘short-cut’ rather
than actually ‘cheating’. Although he never realised
it, defending his actions as simply fascination with advanced technology,
Adam’s main goal was always to look out for himself, lacking
even the essential basic nobility or desire to improve that had been
displayed by the Fifth
Doctor’s old companion Turlough. Despite this, he apparently proved his worth when the initial trip in the TARDIS led to The Doctor, Rose and Adam being caught in a temporal tsunami that caused the ship to materialise in Birmingham 2012 before The Doctor and Rose were displaced across time by a temporal anomaly ("The Other Side"). Adam was initially unconcerned about The Doctor’s departure, to the extent that he tried to use the opportunity to make a pass at Rose on the grounds that The Doctor might not be coming back, but when Rose was taken as well The Doctor had to use Rose’s phone to call Adam for help as the only one still in the future. Once The Doctor identified their enemy as the Bygone Horde, echoes of species erased during the Time War who sought to return to existence by sacrificing humanity, he was able to give Adam instructions on how to use available technology to simultaneously disrupt the Horde’s temporal wave and draw The Doctor and Rose back into the present.
Despite Adam’s contribution to this victory giving The Doctor some faith in his potential, he only had one further recorded trip in the TARDIS, when The Doctor took him to the year 200 000 ("The
Long Game"), arriving on board the space station Satellite Five,
the central hub of information for the Fourth Great and Bountiful
Human Empire. Swiftly becoming overwhelmed by the wealth of information
and technology available to him, Adam didn’t take long to give
in to temptation, not thinking about his actions beyond what was
necessary to achieve his main goal. He underwent a procedure that installed an advanced computer interface port in his head, the port being activated by a snap of his fingers that caused it to open to allow information to be downloaded directly
into his brain. Adam subsequently attempted to use this to transmit
information back to 21st century Earth using Rose's modified ‘Superphone’ to
call his family’s answering machine, an action that not only
put the Web of Time at risk but also allowed the station’s
masters - a massive slug-like being called the Mighty Jagrafess of
the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe (Apparently nicknamed ‘Max’ by
its human servant, although he may have been being facetious) that
had been manipulating the Empire from behind the scenes (Later revealed
to be working for the Daleks) - to gain access to information about
the TARDIS... as well as Adam’s newly-acquired TARDIS key, which could allow the Jagrafess to erase humanity from existence.
Fortunately, Adam’s actions were cut short when Cathica, another
employee at the space station, managed to hack into the station’s
computers and heat the Jagrafess to death, but The Doctor, outraged
at this breach of his trust, The Doctor returns Adam to his home
despite Adam's apologetic pleading. The Doctor destroyed the answering machine that Adam had transferred the information to, coldly informing Adam that he would have to live a quiet life from now on to prevent the implant being discovered and his brain subsequently dissected to uncover its secrets. The Doctor departed with Rose, leaving Adam to explain the implant’s existence to his shocked mother when she returned home and snapped her fingers.
Adam's post-Doctor life quickly underwent a dramatic shift when his mother died of an unnamed illness, leaving Adam even angrier at The Doctor as he felt that the Time Lord had deprived him of the opportunity to acquire the knowledge that he could have used to save his mother. After spending years reading about The Doctor and Rose's appearances throughout history, Adam decided to use his port to hack various corporate accounts, gaining access to Van Staten's vaults abandoned vaults and luring a Time Agent to him so that he could steal the Agent's Vortex manipulator, allowing him to time travel once more. Having carried out extensive research on The Doctor - aided by an out-of-sequence encounter with The Master when he was using the stolen body of Tremas of Traken ("The Keeper of Traken") before Gallifrey's destruction, The Master presenting himself to Adam as someone else who wanted to make The Doctor suffer -, Adam not only set out to create various dangerous situations to attract the Time Lord's attention across history, but went on to abduct all of The Doctor's companions from all of his incarnations, relying on a memory distorter to prevent The Doctors from registering his presence or recognising him. Although the distortion effect began to wear off the closer Adam came to the Ninth Doctor, he was able to abduct the First to Fourth Doctor's companions without incident, with the Fifth only briefly recalling Adam when he kidnapped Adric, Nyssa and Tegan and the Sixth, Seventh and Eighth helpless to stop Adam taking their own companions even as they began to remember past encounters with him.
As Adam finally 'caught up' with The Doctors he knew, he quickly captured the Ninth, Tenth and Eleventh Doctors' companions - targeting the Ninth Doctor and Rose after they had travelled with him - leaving the Eleventh Doctor to pursue Adam after he captured Clara Oswald. Learning of Adam's plans from the Time Agent he had captured earlier, The Doctor tracked his former companion to the fortress that he had established in Limbo, discovering Adam's alliance with The Master in the process. As the Eleventh Doctor confronted Adam and The Master in Adam's fortress, Adam threatened to kill all of The Doctor's companions while giving The Doctor the chance to choose one companion for Adam to spare, the former companion unconcerned about the potential consequences to reality if he killed The Doctor's friends while angrily proclaiming that The Doctor never cared what happened to his companions after he left them. However, before The Doctor was forced to make a choice, the other ten Doctors appeared, having followed the Eleventh's chronal trail, revealing that they had tricked Adam. When Adam abducted Peri during his encounter with the Sixth Doctor, he had actually captured the shape-shifting Frobisher as part of a plan conceived by the Tenth Doctor contacting his past self's TARDIS, allowing the companions to escape when Frobisher replaced the detonator Adam would have used to kill them.
As Adam released an Auton army against The Doctors, the companions attacked the Autons, but the situation took a turn for the worst when The Master revealed that he intended to destroy The Doctors' TARDISes with a blast of chronal energy, the resulting explosion destroying The Doctors and thus the universe. Horrified at the scale of The Master's evil, Adam had a change of heart, sacrificing himself to destroy his computer and thwart The Master's plan. Moved by his sacrifice, The Doctors buried Adam in his limbo fortress, his tombstone proclaiming him a true companion in the end despite his actions against them as the eleven Doctors and their assembled companions stood at his grave before returning to their own times ("Prisoners of Time").
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