Top Five Big Damn Hero Moments: Victoria Waterfield (Doctor Who)

Victoria is unlikely to make too many Bravest Companion Lists, but she’s tougher than she sometimes gets credit for, and she has her definite moments.  While she’s most often remembered for her screaming, she brings more than that to the table (spoilers.)

Confronting Maxtible (Series 4, Episode 42 – “The Evil of the Daleks:  Episode 6”)

This is a guy who partnered with the Daleks, which led to her kidnapping and, ultimately, a bunch of people getting transported to Skaro.  When Maxtible gets Victoria to unwittingly play along in making her new friends think the Daleks are torturing her, Victoria has had it, and she lays into the man for all he’s done.  For a rather well-to-do Victorian girl, that can’t have been easy.

Confronting Kaftan (Series 5, Episode 2 – “The Tomb of the Cybermen:  Episode 2”)

Points lost for getting drugged by Kaftan, giving the villainess time to close the hatch, but Victoria makes up for it when she wakes.  She quickly realizes what’s going on and stands up to Kaftan, managing to disarm her when a Cybermat joins them at an opportune moment.  And it may not seem like it, but Victoria is also smart to accept that she doesn’t know how to open the hatch herself.  Instead, she rushes out to find help.

Escaping the Monks’ Custody (Series 5, Episode 8 – “The Abominable Snowmen:  Episode 4”)

I love crafty Victoria – this moment is a favorite of mine.  Having been told that she can’t see the inner sanctum, Victoria finds a way around that to satisfy her curiosity.  She meekly asks for food and drink, then fakes a coughing fit once she gets it.  While the monk who’s supposed to be watching her runs off to get help, she makes a break for it.

Picking the Lock (Series 5, Episode 27 – “Fury from the Deep:  Episode 1”)

This is another great moment.  Our heroes are locked up (as they so often are,) and while the Doctor and Jamie try to mess around with air ducts, Victoria matter-of-factly takes out a hairpin and picks the lock.  It’s the only time we see her do something like this, and we get no explanation as to how she learned it, but I love it – it’s a fun, unexpected skill for her to have.

Repelling the Weed (Series 5, Episode 34 – “Fury from the Deep:  Episode 6”)

Technically, this is the Doctor’s idea, not Victoria’s, but I couldn’t resist including it anyway.  The Doctor realizes that the weed is adversely affected by the pitch and frequency of Victoria’s scream, so he records it and plays it throughout the base to drive the weed back.  I just like that something regarded as so “damselly” actually ends up saving the day.

Favorite Characters: Victoria Waterfield (Doctor Who)

Actress Deborah Watling’s remarkable talent for screaming like the devil was chasing her causes some to dismiss Victoria as a woefully out-of-date companion – just a good-looking, mostly useless girl whose chief contributions are usually getting captured and maybe asking the occasional good question.  While I understand where that perception comes from (her screams really are many and mighty,) I don’t think it paints the whole picture of who Victoria is (a few spoilers for “The Evil of the Daleks.”)

We meet Victoria halfway through her first encounter with aliens – by the time we get our first glimpse of her, she’s already been a Dalek prisoner for quite some time.  As a prisoner of the universe’s shrillest genocidal maniacs, she’s understandably freaked, and as a 19^th-century young woman of at least moderate class, she really has no context in which to understand what’s happening to her.  Furthermore, it means she probably hasn’t been raised to be much more than decorative, so it’s likely that her education is lacking and her experiences of the world are limited.

All of which is to say, Victoria’s been through a lot without having much in the way of means to acquire the tools she needs to handle it.  Not to mention, she comes aboard the TARDIS under far sadder-than-average circumstances – her beloved father, her only family, has just been killed by Daleks.  Joining the Doctor and Jamie is more about survival than a lust for adventure.  So, her mindset going in is very different than what you usually see.

Despite all this, however, Victoria holds her own fairly well.  She regularly demonstrates curiosity and initiative, sometimes urging Jamie to go out with her and explore when he’s feeling much more wary.  She can pick a lock with a hairpin, she often resents being told to stay behind for her own safety, and when she sets her mind to something, almost no one can talk her out of it.

I’ll admit that Victoria’s characterization can feel fairly inconsistent at times.  While she’s usually quick to run into danger (intentionally or otherwise,) she can fall to pieces once she’s there, giving over to screaming and general helplessness.  I’m not sure what all this is about.  One might say it shows that Victoria often has brave intentions but underestimates her resolve, or it could mean that she continually chooses to do the brave thing even when she knows how frightening it is.  It doesn’t really feel as cohesive as that, though.  Unfortunately, it feels more like the writers just making her act as it suits their purpose, even if that means doing a complete 180 multiple times in the same serial.  (Although, I feel the need to point out that being scared isn’t a bad thing – given the typical companion lifestyle, all of them are bound to feel scared out of their wits at least sometimes.)

It doesn’t get a lot of attention, but Victoria also has a pretty lovely relationship with the Doctor.  One of my favorite moments from her entire run on the show comes in “The Tomb of the Cybermen,” when the two of them are keeping watch while the rest of the party is sleeping.  She’s so sweet, fussing over him because she’s recently learned that he’s 450 years old and figures he needs to take it a little easier.  Meanwhile, he empathizes with her just beautifully over the loss of her father, telling her about how he remembers his own loved ones.  Gorgeous – I love it.