Top Five Big Damn Hero Moments: Capt. Mike Yates (Doctor Who)

Even though the Three era gave us three main UNIT guys, Capt. Yates is the only one who tends to get framed in a more traditional “soldier/action” manner.  While the Brigadier and Benton both have their badass moments, the Brigadier is often in more of a supervisory position, and Benton, well, bless him, he tries.  Yates, though, is the one who gets the “derring do” role the most often, and so, as per my custom with the more action-oriented companions, I’ve looked through the assorted “Yates shoots at bad guys” scenes to find moments that have a little more individuality (spoilers.)

Tracking the Thunderbolt (Series 8, Episode 8 – “The Mind of Evil:  Episode 4”)

Yates is heading a team moving the deadly Thunderbolt missile to a secure location when their convoy is hijacked by the Master’s goons.  After radioing the Brigadier and taking fire from the baddies, Yates steals a motorcycle and tails them.  While it’s true that he gets captured for his efforts (more on that below,) it’s not until after he finds out where they stash the missile.

Escaping Captivity (Series 8, Episode 9 – “The Mind of Evil:  “Episode 5”)

Yates already gets points for keeping cool under pressure when captured by the baddies, showing the Master a resolute stiff upper lip.  But he also manages to get himself out of his predicament; after sawing through his bindings, he lulls a guard into a false sense of security by pretending to be asleep, then clobbers the guard when he gets too close and steals his gun.  All in a day’s work at UNIT!

Covering for the Doctor (Series 10, Episode 24 – “The Green Death:  Episode 4”)

This is a tiny moment, but I like it all the same.  Yates is working undercover at Global Chemicals, and the Doctor sneaks in for a quick look-around.  When Yates discovers the Doctor – disguised as a cleaning woman – he handily loses the security guard who’s accompanying him, waiting until the elevator doors are already closing on the guard before he (Yates) pops back out, inventing a reason he has to run back to his office.  It’s a nifty little trick, and then Yates gives the Doctor the dirt he needs (after ribbing him for the disguise, of course.)

Returning to Global Chemicals (Series 10, 26 – “The Green Death:  Episode 6”)

When Global Chemicals discovers that Yates is really a UNIT agent, they hypnotize him and send him to kill the Doctor.  Luckily, the Doctor is able to break through the conditioning with a Metebelis crystal, restoring Yates’s mind to him.  What’s noteworthy here is that, after what he’s been through, Yates goes back to Global Chemicals on the Doctor’s instruction, using the crystal to de-condition Mr. James and figure out what the B.O.S.S.’s evil plan is.  We learn later in the series what an effect this whole experience has on Yates, so his ability in that moment to buckle down and return to the belly of the beast is admirable.

Protecting Tommy (Series 11, Episode 26 – “Planet of the Spiders:  Episode 6”)

There’s that Metebilis crystal again, causing trouble this time!  The men at the meditation center are desperate to get it back, and they’ve pooled their psychic energy, heightened by the Metebilis spiders, to blast Tommy with psychic shocks.  He’s buckling under the onslaught when Yates rushes in, taking the blast himself to protect Tommy.  After everything that went down in “Invasion of the Dinosaurs,” it’s good to see Yates working to better himself, and risking his life to save someone else is very in line with the old Yates.

Character Highlight: Capt. Mike Yates (Doctor Who)

I actually like Yates quite a bit, more so than some of the companions for which I’ve opted to go the Character Highlight (rather than Favorite Characters) route.  However, while there’s nothing that bugs me about Yates, I feel it’s a little harder to get a really solid read on both him and Benton as characters just because the UNIT years get a little crowded.  Between the Doctor, the Brigadier, and the main companion (be it Liz, Jo, or Sarah Jane, depending on the season,) there’s not always a lot of room for Yates and Benton (a few series 10 and 11 spoilers.)

It’s fitting that Yates first appears on the show at the same time that Jo does, because their rapport with one another immediately helps me get more of a sense of him beyond “standard-issue UNIT soldier.”  Jo is so warm and bubbly and friendly right from the jump that she makes UNIT feel like equal parts workplace and surrogate family, and a lot of Yates’s personality comes through in their playful back-and-forth.  He has an easy, self-assured way about him, and while he takes his work seriously, he’s not a stick-in-the-mud and isn’t above some good-natured ribbing.

When it comes to his work with UNIT, Yates is sometimes framed as a bit of the anti-Benton.  While Benton can sometimes get saddled with the comic “sad trombone” mishaps, Yates gets more of the honest action.  He’s usually the one leading a daring operation, and if things go south, it’s because he’s been captured or attacked by a powerful enemy and has to keep his wits about him to survive.  He’s cool under pressure, dedicated to the work, and generally quite a competent soldier, although he doesn’t always take the alien factor into consideration as much as he should.

Although Yates, like the Brigadier and Benton, gets less to do as the Third Doctor era goes on and the Doctor is able to use the TARDIS more and more often, he still manages to go through one of the biggest arcs of any companion or pseudo-companion in the classic series, and while I have my doubts about how organic it is to his character specifically, I at least appreciate that there’s some thought into rolling it out from the end of series 10 through series 11.  When we find out that Yates is a follower of the “Golden Age” movement in “Invasion of the Dinosaurs” and has been sabotaging UNIT’s investigation, it’s a shocker, and he’s been enough of a presence of the show that we regret this involvement.  But even if it seems to come out of nowhere, the show does take care to tie to what he went through in “The Green Death” the previous season, having his mind controlled by the BOSS (when you think about it, I suppose a lot of companions brush off being mind-controlled way too easily.)  And better still, it takes the time to redeem him in his next and final appearance on the show in “Planet of the Spiders,” showing that he’s been trying to sort himself out and get back into the good fight on his own.

And because it still feels noteworthy, let’s give a mention to that famous line near the end of “The Daemons,” when the Doctor and Jo, as well as Benton and a local woman, join in the May Day festivities:  “Fancy a dance, [Brigadier]?”  I have no idea what the show was intending with the inclusion of this little exchange, but I thoroughly enjoy its existence and like the thought of Yates being bi.  Whatever the reason behind it, thanks to the show for putting it in.