Relationship Spotlight: Vicki Pallister & the Doctor (Doctor Who)

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.

Top Five Big Damn Hero Moments: Vicki Pallister (Doctor Who)

Vicki really popped for me as a companion my second time through classic Who – she’s spunky and smart, and she’s always so pleased with herself when she makes good.  She doesn’t get the big moments as often as some on the show, but the moments I did find for her are all good ones.

Saving Barbara (Series 2, Episode 11 – “The Romans:  Conspiracy”)

Granted, Vicki doesn’t know at the time that it’s Barbara she’s saving, and she very nearly causes a huge paradox, but still, without her, Barbara would likely be dead.  Overhearing Nero’s wife giving instructions for a servant to be poisoned, Vicki secretly switches the goblets.  Though she doesn’t realize it’s Barbara, she’s sure this “servant” doesn’t deserve to die, and she’s not particularly fussed if Nero does.  “Oh, something else I forgot to tell you – I think I’ve poisoned Nero,” is such an awesome line.

Subduing the Zarbi (Series 2, Episode 18 – “The Web Planet:  Escape to Danger”)

Again, this is slightly accidental, but it’s still a solid win.  When Vicki unwittingly discovers that the Zarbi are afraid of spiders (by grabbing a specimen box out of the TARDIS instead of what the Doctor wants her to get,) she uses this knowledge to keep them at bay, brandishing the box whenever they get too close.

Reprogramming the Door Lock (Series 2, Episode 28 – “The Space Museum:  The Search”)

This is my favorite on the list.  Vicki is so great here – even though the rebels have told her that the machine sealing the door to the armory is impossible to get past, she insists on trying anyway.  The machine poses a series of questions to any potential entrant, and all answers have to be both honest and correct.  The rebels she’s with are ready to throw in the towel at every turn, but Vicki shrewdly listens to the whole sequence play out, then reprograms the machine to accept her answers.  Vicki:  1, Machine:  0.

Tricking the Drahvins (Series 3, Episode 3 – “Air Lock”)

Another good one.  When she and her friends get mixed up in the Drahvin/Rill conflict, she cleverly prevents the Drahvins from realizing they’ve switched allegiances.  Thinking fast, she gets one of the Rills’ Chumbley robots to cooperate with her, “proving” that she and the Doctor have captured the Chumbley and can control it.

Saving Troilus (Series 3, Episode 9 – “The Myth Makers:  Horse of Destruction”)

In her last episode, Vicki protects Troilus from the Greek assault on Troy by tricking him away from the city.  She can’t save Troy – they won’t listen to her any more than they will Cassandra – but at least she can save him.

Favorite Characters: Vicki Pallister (Doctor Who)

Before rewatching the First Doctor seasons, I would’ve expected to write a Character Highlight post on Vicki instead of a Favorite Characters.  The second time around, though, she really sneaks up on me.  More than just a replacement for Susan, she’s a fun, engaging character with a lot to recommend her (a few Vicki-related spoilers.)

A human girl from the 25^th century, Vicki was supposed to be part of an off-world colony, but the ship carrying her, her father, and the rest of the colonists crashed on the planet Dido, where some serious crap went down while they were waiting for rescue.  By the time the TARDIS lands on Dido, she and one other colonist are the only ones left from her ship, the rest seemingly killed by the planet’s hostile inhabitants.  Even though, once the Doctor and co. neutralize the danger, a rescue ship is very close, it still makes sense why she agrees to join the TARDIS rather than return home.  There’s nothing left for her there, and despite the rocky start she has with Barbara, it’s only natural for her to want to make her way with people who helped her out of a harrowing situation instead taking her chances on her own.

Like most companions who come to the TARDIS after particularly traumatizing experiences (see also, Victoria and Nyssa,) Vicki adjusts far more quickly than she should, but that’s to be expected.  It’d be hard to depict adventurous romps through time and space with a teenage girl who’s still processing the violent death of her father and the survivor’s guilt of being one of only two people the escape the massacre of the colonists – trying the put the tonally-dissonant elements together, you wouldn’t be able to do either well.  So, I understand why Vicki soon emerges as a clever girl with a curious eye and a bit of a mischievous air about her.

Vicki isn’t a genius like Zoe or Romana, but her 25^th-century upbringing came complete with education in the form of knowledge uploaded directly to her brain, so she’s acquired a huge amount of knowhow without much effort.  As such, she’s blithely intelligent – not really arrogant about it, but she just takes it for granted that everyone ought to know as much as she does and is bemused/surprised when, say, Ian and Barbara don’t know what she’s talking about.  Sometimes she comes through in a brainy way, like when she sneakily reprograms a computer in “The Space Museum,” but more often than not, her smarts come in handy in more everyday-practical ways.  She’s good at improvising solutions and gets herself out of numerous jams with her quick reasoning.

Some companions from TARDIS duos/trios/tetrads are at their best playing off of another companion, but I enjoy Vicki best when she’s paired with the Doctor.  Though he initially brings her onboard with a surrogate-grandfatherly fondness borne out of him missing Susan, they become quite the entertaining twosome.  I love scenes of them getting in and out of trouble together, both using their individual smarts to make it through when they land themselves in inevitable scrapes.  They’re a blast together in “The Romans” (I dare you not to love, “Oh, something else I forgot to tell you:  I think I’ve poisoned Nero,”) and “The Crusade” is another memorable serial for them.

Truly, during Vicki’s brief time on the TARDIS, she carves out her own place that’s distinct from Susan’s despite fulfilling a similar role, and as the first “replacement” companion, she was vital to the show’s long-term sustainability.