The Doctor's Companions

Ian Vicki Steven
The Rescue - The Myth Makers
Vicki
Vicki
(1965)
Maureen O'Brien
After studying for a teaching diploma Maureen O'Brien became a founder member of the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool. 3 months later she was asked to audition for the part of Vicki. This was here first television role. After leaving Doctor Who she spent sometime working in a girls school before spending 3 years in Canada. After returning to the UK in the mid seventies various theatre, film, television and radio work followed. In 1979 she won the Best Radio Actress Award. She also became a writer of crime fiction.
 Vicki only met The Doctor as a teenage girl, but she had endured a difficult life even before she began to travel with him. Born in the twenty-fifth century, Vicki had an excellent education, possessing several degrees when only in her teens, but her mother had died a few years before she met The Doctor. Seeking to get away from her painful memories, Vicki and her father Newton left Earth and relocate to the planet Astra, but during their travels on the UK-201, escaped prisoner Bennett caused the ship to crash on the planet Dido, subsequently killing the rest of the crew and most of the planet's native population ("The Rescue"). Bennett feigned paralysis from the explosion and accused the natives of the attack, doubling as the masked 'Koquillion' to reinforce the deception, intending to use Vicki as a 'witness' to deflect suspicion from himself, but this plan was interrupted when the TARDIS arrived on Dido, as the First Doctor had visited the planet before and knew that the natives weren't that ruthless. While Barbara Wright and Ian Chesterton befriended Vicki, The Doctor confronted Bennett and exposed his deception, leaving him to be killed by the last Didonians while The Doctor invited Vicki to join them on the TARDIS (partially as a 'replacement' for the recently-departed Susan).

The Web Planet
The Web Planet
 Despite being well educated - to the extent that Ian and Barbara’s teaching skills would have been more appropriate for a nursery class rather than for teenagers in her time of origin - Vicki was nevertheless essentially a regular teenaged girl, and relied constantly on her companions for help and support. Despite this, she was not without her own sense of determination and grew increasingly capable of standing up for herself. From their first meeting, Vicki needed The Doctor for reassurance but The Doctor, in his fondness for her, tended to be overprotective, sometimes taking it for granted that Vicki would accept his authority when he was indulging his own whims, such as when he infiltrated the court of King James VI with Vicki posing as his ward 'Victor' ("The Plotters"). Vicki's relationship with Ian and Barbara though took a bit longer to become established. This was not helped by the fact that her knowledge was obviously superior to that of Barbara and Ian's and this led, on a number of occasions, to a few misunderstandings which she took full advantage of. This is well demonstrated in "The Space Museum" where she was positively smug when she demonstrated that she understood time dimensions, and Ian didn't. However, her knowledge of the fine details of Earth’s history was comparatively limited; during a visit to China in the later 1800s she was uncertain if pandas were still in existence at this time and had to subtly ask Ian if aeroplanes had been invented yet, Ian confirming that they were around forty years early for flight to be an option ("The Eleventh Tiger").

Book - The Plotters
The Plotters
(Gareth Roberts)
 Being from the future Vicki brought to the programme a different point of view to the events and places visited. The character of Vicki was based very much on Susan but without the grandfather/granddaughter relationship. She was a very lively, high spirited and inquisitive companion and was always keen in questioning and seeking information from The Doctor. She was also keen to enjoy herself and took every opportunity to have fun. She was quick in announcing her opinions and was never afraid to let others know what she felt. Despite Ian and Barbara's overshadowing presence, and her tendency to rely on the others to make decisions for her, such as her disguise as Victor in 1605 resulting in her having to fend off the advances of the homosexual James VI ("The Plotters"). Vicki did have her moments to show initiative. This was mainly when the group had become separated from each other, such as when she encouraged the native Xerons to revolt against the ruling Moroks, even managing to outwit the controlling computer of the Morok armoury and provoke a revolution ("The Space Museum").

Galaxy 4
Galaxy 4
 Although the TARDIS crew remained fond of each other, there was never the same bond between Vicki with Ian and Barbara, as there was with Susan. Ironically, this lack of a bond proved an advantage when the alien Jospa attempted to infiltrate the TARDIS by manipulating the crew's memories so that they would believe he was a fifth companion ("The Fifth Traveller"), as while he could influence The Doctor's desire for better control and Ian and Barbara's wish to go home, Vicki just wanted to keep travelling. Eventually, Ian and Barbara used a Dalek time machine to return home to sixties London, leaving The Doctor and Vicki briefly alone until they realised that they had been joined by astronaut Steven Taylor. While Steven had stumbled into the TARDIS by relative chance, Vicki was able to show herself as an experienced time traveller, leading to her establishing a friendly rivalry with Steven based on his greater age versus her superior experience with life in the TARDIS. During this time Vicki was also able to develop her experience with history, such as winning over Pope Leo X when she was accused of planning an assassination by reciting poetry to win his favour, although she then had to walk a careful balance between becoming the Pope's consort and retrieving the TARDIS key from him ("The Ravelli Conspiracy").

Audio - The Crash of the UK-201
The Crash of the UK-201
(Jonathan Morris)
 While Vicki enjoyed her time in the TARDIS, she experienced a particularly difficult event when a temporal anomaly caused her to be sent back along her personal timeline, allowing her to 'relive' the crash of the UK-201 ("The Crash of the UK-201"). Despite Steven warning her against changing history when The Doctor managed to project him after Vicki, Vicki was able to prevent the crash, allowing her to make a new life on Astra with her father, eventually marrying a doctor and having two daughters after her father died in a meteor shower. However, when one of her daughters died in a revolution, Vicki attempted to change history to save her child as she became aware that she was being hunted by strange creatures throughout her life, but this change resulted in her other daughter never pursuing a political career and the revolution escalating into all-out war, and Vicki's attempt to save her father led to her having two different children with her husband. When Steven helped her realise that her actions were endangering his own existence, as the TARDIS wouldn't have come to Mechanus in time to stop him killing himself without her influence, Vicki resigned herself to the fact that she had lost her original life, and went back to the beginning to 're-do' the original crash. While The Doctor assured her that her family with live on in her memory if she wished to remember them after she returned, this event likely contributed to Vicki's later decision to move on from the TARDIS. After it landed in the city of Troy, circumstances led to Vicki adopting the name Cressida, and she eventually decided to stay behind and start a new life with Prince Troilus, as she had fallen in love with him. In doing so Vicki manages to resume her life on Earth some three thousand years before she was born ("The Myth Makers").

Book - The Burning
Short Trips: Companions
 Although she had chosen this life, Vicki sometimes found herself troubled by the fact that so few people in her new time could relate to her experiences. When she realised that she had become a 'host' to the entity known as the phoenix when it possessed her during a confrontation in 1814, she released the fragment of the phoenix into the form of a weak Cinder. Vicki was able to talk with the Cinder about her future, knowing that the Cinder would become the phoenix she had defeated in 1814 and leave it trapped in a time loop. At one point, Vicki was briefly reunited with The Doctor when the Eighth Doctor and Charley Pollard landed in her new home of Asia Minor while The Doctor was taking a temporally-displaced young Will Shakespeare back to his own time ("Apocrypha Bipedium") after Shakespeare was abducted as part of a complex plot by the Daleks ("The Time of the Daleks"). Although this meeting was initially complicated by Vicki's lack of knowledge of regeneration causing her to conclude that the Eighth Doctor was a younger version of the First Doctor - even briefly thinking that he was a Dalek duplicate due to his strange behaviour as he attempted to maintain that illusion - The Doctor eventually explained the truth to her. He subsequently suggested that Vicki and Troilus move to Cornwall due to historical rumours that the Trojans were the first Britons in order to give them an opportunity for a long and happy life together (with Shakespeare explicitly musing that he wouldn't let this knowledge affect the play he would write in his future). Reference of Vicki's life at this time revealed that she had two children that she referred to as 'young heroes' showing that she had found a new family despite her challenges, and resolving to find happiness in her chosen destiny.

Audio - Fugitive of the Daleks
Fugitive of the Daleks
(Jonathan Morris)
 Some years later, following the death of Troilus, Vicki would be reunited with The Doctor when the TARDIS materialised in an olive grove near her current residence, Vicki entering the ship only to find an apparently ill Doctor. Accepting The Doctor’s request to take him to find medical help, Vicki began a new journey, soon realising that the TARDIS was being hunted by the Daleks once again while The Doctor remembered nothing since the events on Mechanus. After visiting a space station populated by androids who believed themselves to be human, escaping a cave of savages who tried to sacrifice them to a giant scorpion, being caught up in the Battle of the Little Bighorn with General Custer, and a clash with Daleks on an ice moon, Vicki realised that The Doctor she had been travelling with was actually the robot Doctor created by the Daleks ("The Chase"), who had become lost in the TARDIS and reactivated after the true Doctor was taken out of time by the Time Lords. Having trapped the robot Doctor on an ice moon when he tried to protect her from his old programming, Vicki returned to the TARDIS and discovered The Doctor’s new companion, Dodo, who had been trapped in her room by the robot Doctor after he reactivated. The two companions were able to invade the Dalek timeship pursuing them, discovering that the ‘Dalek Supreme’ of this ship was the true Doctor, who had hidden inside the casing after the original Dalek Supreme was a casualty of the Time Destructor ("The Daleks' Master Plan"). Dodo was briefly taken as a hostage by the robot Doctor, who travelled to 1911 Brussels to draw The Doctor’s attention by changing history, but Vicki and the original Doctor were able to stop this plan and convince the robot Doctor to stand down. Although Vicki expressed a desire to stay after reprogramming the robot Doctor to find his own identity, The Doctor used the TARDIS telepathic circuits to help Vicki choose her next destination, the ship returning to the olive grove where she had originally encountered the robot Doctor. Accepting that it was time for her to go back to her family when she saw her grandson waiting for her (the ship having returned at basically the moment Vicki left), Vicki chose to thank The Doctor for saving her all those years ago, showing her the wonders of the universe and giving her a new chance of life.
 
Memorable Moment
The Rescue
Vicki calls for assistance
 When the TARDIS arrives on the planet Dido in the late 25th Century, The Doctor, Ian and Barbara come upon a crashed spaceship from Earth. The time travellers discover it has two occupants - a paralysed man named Bennett and a young girl called Vicki.

 It seems that they are living in fear of a creature called Koquillion, which Bennett claims is a native of the planet whose people have apparently killed the other members of the human expedition. However, The Doctor quickly deduces that Koquillion is in fact Bennett in disguise and when The Doctor confronts Bennett falls from a high rock ledge to his death.

  On discovering that Vicki's father was amongst the murdered crewmen, and that consequently she is now an orphan, and because Vicki reminds him his 'granddaughter', Susan who has recently left the TARDIS, The Doctor offers her a place aboard the TARDIS. An offer which she gratefully accepts ("The Rescue").

Television Stories
Format Story Doctor Fellow Companions Season Episodes
Television The Rescue The 1st Doctor Barbara Wright & Ian Chesterton Season 2 2
Television The Romans The 1st Doctor Barbara Wright & Ian Chesterton Season 2 4
Television The Web Planet The 1st Doctor Barbara Wright & Ian Chesterton Season 2 6
Television The Crusade The 1st Doctor Barbara Wright & Ian Chesterton Season 2 4
Television The Space Museum The 1st Doctor Barbara Wright & Ian Chesterton Season 2 4
Television The Chase The 1st Doctor Barbara Wright, Ian Chesterton & Steven Taylor Season 2 6
Television The Time Meddler The 1st Doctor Steven Taylor Season 2 4
Television Galaxy 4 The 1st Doctor Steven Taylor Season 3 4
Television The Myth Makers The 1st Doctor Steven Taylor Season 3 4
Total Stories:   9 Total Episodes:   38
Other Stories
Format Story Doctor Fellow Companions Season Source
Book Romans Cutaway The 1st Doctor Barbara Wright and Ian Chesterton Season 2 More Short Trips
Book Byzantium! The 1st Doctor Barbara Wright and Ian Chesterton Season 2 The Past Doctors Stories
Book The Eleventh Tiger The 1st Doctor Barbara Wright and Ian Chesterton Season 2 The Past Doctors Stories
Book The Plotters The 1st Doctor Barbara Wright and Ian Chesterton Season 2 The Missing Adventures
Book Every Day
The 1st Doctor
Barbara Wright and Ian Chesterton Season 2 The Big Finish Short Trips
Book The Dark Planet
The 1st Doctor
Ian Chesterton Season 2 The Big Finish Short Trips
Book The Schoolboy's Story The 1st Doctor Steven Taylor Season 2 The Big Finish Short Trips
Audio Frostfire The 1st Doctor   Season 2 The Big Finish Audio Stories
Audio Starborn The 1st Doctor   Season 2 The Big Finish Audio Stories
Book The Empire of Glass The 1st Doctor Steven Taylor Season 2 The Missing Adventures
Audio The Suffering The 1st Doctor Steven Taylor Season 2 The Big Finish Audio Stories
Audio Upstairs The 1st Doctor Steven Taylor Season 2 The Big Finish Audio Stories
Book Corridors of Power The 1st Doctor Steven Taylor Season 2 The Big Finish Short Trips
Book Planet of the Bunnoids The 1st Doctor Steven Taylor Season 3 Short Trips and Side Steps
Book Mars The 1st Doctor Steven Taylor Season 3 The Big Finish Short Trips
Book The Long Step Backward The 1st Doctor Steven Taylor Season 3 Short Trips and Side Steps
Book Snowman in Manhattan The 1st Doctor Steven Taylor Season 3 The Big Finish Short Trips
Audio The Doctor’s Tale The 1st Doctor Ian Chesterton
-
The Big Finish Audio Stories
Audio The Bounty of Ceres The 1st Doctor Steven Taylor
-
The Big Finish Audio Stories
Book The Power Supply The 1st Doctor
-
The Big Finish Short Trips
Audio The Secret History The 5th Doctor Steven Taylor
-
The Big Finish Audio Stories
Book Apocrypha Bipedium The 8th Doctor Charley Pollard
-
The Big Finish Short Trips
Total Stories:   22
 
Parts of this article were compiled with the assistance of David Spence who can be contacted by e-mail at djfs@blueyonder.co.uk
 
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Who's Who The 1st Doctor Who Episodes
 

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