I’ve
mentioned before, more than once, that Adric is my least favorite classic
series companion. Admittedly, he
improves a bit on rewatch, but my opinion of him started out low enough that
the improvement doesn’t make much difference.
Still, I’m nothing if not a completist, so he needed a write-up. Be advised that nothing I write on here is
all that objective, and this is simply my opinion.
Boy
genius and certified piece of work, Adric first meets the Fourth Doctor, Romana
II, and K9 when they come to Alzarius.
After that adventure, he stows away on the TARDIS and serves as
something of a bridging companion between the Romana years and the new
companions who shortly join him and usher in the Fifth Doctor era.
There are
a few main traits that come to mind when I think of Adric. Obviously, he is unquestionably brilliant,
with a strong mind for mathematics. As
with many brainy companions (see also Zoe, Liz, Romana, and Nyssa,) this means
he sometimes saves the day through his smarts, applying analytical calculations
to the Doctor’s more freewheeling ideas or stepping in to do the heavy mental
lifting because the Doctor is otherwise incapacitated and/or occupied. However, while I like it when these other
companions are confident about/proud of their intellect, seeing Adric do the
same annoys me. I find him to be
irritatingly smug, talking down to his friends (even when, like Nyssa, they’re
also highly intelligent) and generally acting like he’s owed something because
of his brilliance. I don’t even know
what exactly that is – respect, deference, preferential treatment? – but it
does seem like he feels entitled to it at the expense of others, and that it
should be given on principle because he’s Just That Smart.
The other
trait I largely associate with Adric is his self-serving tendencies. There are times watching his episodes when it
feels like you could make a drinking game out of all the times Adric appears to
sell out his friends and join the bad guys.
Sometimes, this is purely a self-preservation exercise, choosing the
side that won’t get him killed.
Sometimes, it’s because they’ve promised him power, wealth, or the
recognition he craves. And sometimes, he
claims it’s because he was just pretending in order to gain the upper hand,
really maintaining his allegiance to team TARDIS all along. As for this last point, there are times when
I buy that and others when it just feels like an excuse he gives when he slinks
back to the Doctor later in the serial; whether he’s putting on an act or not,
the fact of the matter is that it’s always entirely believable that he’s
betrayed his friends.
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