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.
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