The original TARDIS quartet of One, Susan, Ian, and Barbara is so iconic that I think Vicki can sometimes get the short shrift. She’s part of some fun, creative stories in series 2 and 3, but there can sometimes be a tendency to file her away as “New Susan” and “Not Susan” simultaneously. And yet, over the course of her tenure on the show, I love the dynamic she develops with the Doctor.
(Note: I’ll be comparing Vicki with Susan at different points here, not to say that one companion is better than the other, but simply to show how Vicki carves out her own place in the series.)
Susan is the Doctor’s granddaughter. When we meet them in “An Unearthly Child,” we don’t know how long they’ve been traveling together, but it’s been the two of them on their own in a big, wide universe. Susan loves and admires her grandfather and is maybe even a little fawning of him. At the same time, she will speak her mind and go against him when she needs to; whether it’s protesting his decision to take off with Ian and Barbara inside the TARDIS or insisting despite his concerns that she can communicate with the Sensorites, Susan has her own thoughts separate from him.
Ultimately, it’s a very familial relationship, and the relationship between the Doctor and Vicki begins with a similar tenor. It’s understandable—the Doctor has just said goodbye to Susan, and he quickly meets an intelligent girl who reminds him of her. As for Vicki, she’s been able to stay in relatively good spirits, but she recently survived a spaceship crash and lost nearly everyone aboard, including her own father. When a kind, puckish old man rescues her and offers her a place on his ship, it’s only natural that she’d take to him as a safe person in her life.
But almost immediately after she comes aboard the TARDIS, Vicki’s dynamic with the Doctor becomes much more down-to-earth. They quickly become the impish adventuring pair, getting into playful mischief together throughout time and space. Ian and Barbara can adventure with the best of them, but they’re also both pretty upstanding and pragmatic. With Vicki, the Doctor indulges his trickster side; she brings out the twinkle in his eye, and they have plenty of madcap fun together.
The first story that comes to mind is of course “The Romans.” When the Doctor and Vicki grow bored at Ian and Barbara’s lazy enjoyment of their peaceful holiday, they set off to explore Rome together, where the Doctor is accidentally mistaken for a brilliant lyre player, Vicki almost poisons Nero, and the Doctor inadvertently gives Nero the idea of burning Rome. Just two delightful chaos agents in history, and while the Doctor is still serious about his Time Lord edict against changing the past, he’s much more lighthearted as he goes about trying to keep it on course. I also really enjoy the two of them liberating some period-appropriate disguises in “The Crusade,” and they get up to some good fun pretty much wherever they go.
Vicki definitely benefits from the growth and change the Doctor experiences throughout series 1—the stern Doctor of “An Unearthly Child” wouldn’t have had so much fun with her. Though this freer side of him always existed, his brusquer edges were softened during his adventures with Susan, Ian, and Barbara, so when he meets Vicki, he’s better positioned to get along with her. But she brings it out in him even more. The original quartet is my favorite team TARDIS configuration for the First Doctor, but I think I like One best when he’s with Vicki.
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