Companions: Fifty Years of Doctor Who Assistants (8 page)

The first thing to change about Jamie is his accent, which softens almost immediately. One might attribute this to travel, except it happens too quickly. The harder accent returns, however, when his features are temporarily changed in the Land of Fiction (
The Mind Robber)
but the soft familiar tones continue once his normal features are returned. It is interesting to note that once he is returned to his own time his original accent resurfaces, confirming his travels with the Doctor ‘no longer happened for him’.

A product of the eighteenth century, Jamie’s knowledge base is somewhat lacking, and he is constantly exposed to new things which he can barely understand. To cope he often equates such things with his own time period; calling a plane a ‘flying beastie’ for instance, or in the case of a hovercraft, a fairytale. He is initially fearful of flying in a helicopter in
The Enemy of the World
, despite having previously flown in an aeroplane sometime before in
The Faceless Ones
, but by the time he is next in a helicopter, in
Fury from the Deep
, he is perfectly comfortable – just one instance in which Jamie displays his amazing adaptability to new situations. This lack of knowledge should never be mistaken as stupidity; he shows an amazing level of intelligence, resourcefulness and common sense throughout his travels, quickly learning to read and how to tell the time. Note, for example, how he finds a way onto the Chameleon Tours plane despite previously never having been in an airport.

It seems that at first Jamie doesn’t quite know how to act around women; horrified by the notion of being pampered by a group of women on the leisure colony of
The Macra Terror
, and flustered by the attention of Samantha Briggs in
The Faceless Ones
, but he soon learns to adapt to her bolshie attitude and does his best to charm her. This experience leaves him in good standing, since in the next adventure (
The Evil of the Daleks
) he is quite happy to question the ‘lassies’ in a London cafe, and rather enjoys the experience, getting the required information with ease. When he is later transferred to 1866, he easily charms the Maxtible’s maid, Molly. All these experiences prepare him for the arrival of Victoria.

Jamie’s relationship with his travelling companions tends to be mostly affectionate, especially with the Doctor, Victoria and Zoe. He is competitive with Ben, often responding with bravado and aggression at some perceived insult.

Jamie is disappointed when Ben & Polly leave, since they had taken him under their wing and treated him much like a little brother (possibly it was them, in particular Polly, who encouraged him to learn to read). He promises to look out for the Doctor, a promise he takes very seriously over the course of the next two years. As he and the Doctor become close a strong relationship of trust and respect is built.

This relationship is almost brought to an abrupt end when the Doctor appears to ally himself with the Daleks (
The Evil of the Daleks
)
,
putting Jamie through a series of dangerous tests as the Daleks attempt to define the ‘human factor’. When Jamie discovers the Doctor’s apparent betrayal, he is angry and calls him callous and uncaring. Uncharacteristically he appears to want to leave the TARDIS, but the Doctor manages to win him over. Jamie is later devastated when he believes the Doctor to be infected by the ‘Dalek factor’. He is not entirely convinced by the Doctor’s insistence that he is still actually himself. This presents a shift in their previous dynamic and Jamie continues to display a willingness to call the Doctor out when he believes the Doctor wrong. Nonetheless, despite that shift they still remain close, with Jamie considering himself responsible for the Doctor’s safety.

Outwardly he treats new companion Victoria as a little sister, adopting the role of protective big brother. Jamie seems to hold a torch for her, as most clearly seen in
The Enemy of the World
after Victoria makes a disparaging remark about the future fashion of women’s clothing, and Jamie suggests that she would look good in such garb herself with a solicitous smirk. This on its own could just be a case of Jamie’s typical playfulness with those he is close to, but when coupled with his sadness when Victoria elects to remain on Earth in the 1970s it suggests something a little more. He tries to convince her to remain, and has a difficult time expressing his sadness to the Doctor, instead appearing gruff, until the Doctor points out that he too will miss her.

After leaving Victoria behind, the Doctor and Jamie find themselves in the twenty-first century (
The Wheel in Space
). It is in this story that Jamie first attributes the name ‘John Smith’ to the Doctor, having read it on a piece of medical equipment. While the Doctor is rendered unconscious Jamie is introduced to astrophysicist Zoe Herriot. It takes Jamie a while to warm to Zoe. He finds her too intelligent for her own good; with her ‘big brain’ she often laughs at his lesser intelligence, calling his kilt a ‘skirt’ and making snide comments. Zoe and Jamie soon settle into a friendly bickering relationship characterised by Jamie’s usual protectiveness and Zoe’s bossiness. His more simple thinking often wins out over Zoe’s logic.

During his travels with the Doctor, Jamie grows a lot, both emotionally and intellectually. By the time of
The War Games,
Jamie is quite willing to work with a redcoat to escape the prisoners’ camp, the one-time sworn enemy of the highlanders. After some years travelling together, Jamie remains convinced that the Doctor hasn’t betrayed the rebels, even though he appears to have allied himself with the War Chief, an old Time Lord acquaintance in
The War Games
. At the end of this adventure, the Doctor is left with no choice but to call his own people, and is ready to part company with Jamie and Zoe, fearing for their safety if the Time Lords catch up with them. Jamie doesn’t care about the danger – he will not leave the Doctor’s side.

Such is his loyalty to the Doctor that Jamie insists they attempt an escape from the Time Lords. He is angered by the Time Lord’s insistence that he and Zoe must leave. It is only the Doctor’s sad certainty that convinces Jamie that his adventures truly must end. A sad farewell follows, in which Jamie states that he will never forget the Doctor – not knowing that his memory is soon to be wiped by the Time Lords.

Jamie appears to return in
The Five Doctors
in 1983, although he, like Zoe, is only a phantom, an illusion created by the force of Rassilon’s will. His appearance serves to help the Doctor solve a problem, since Jamie remembers the Brigadier, which is clearly impossible since his memory was wiped. How the Doctor could remember this wasn’t going to be explored for some time, although the 1986 adventure
The Two Doctors
would provide clues. Although Jamie is returned to his own time, with only the memory of his first adventure with the Doctor remaining, he does return –
sixteen
years later! In
The Two Doctors
, Jamie and the Doctor appear to still be travelling together, both having aged considerably. The Doctor is seen to be working for the Time Lords, a fact fully known to Jamie. The familiar loyalty is evident, but now they have become very firm friends, much more so than they ever were when they were originally travelling together. There is no indication of how long they have been travelling together or indeed why (such explanations are bountiful in the Expanded Universe material). It is, however, clear that the Sixth Doctor remembers his extra journeys with Jamie since he shows no surprise at his older appearance, or at the fact that his own second incarnation has grey hair. While stranded on Station Camera, believing the Doctor to be dead, Jamie reverts to a feral state, to the point where he attacks Peri – like an animal protecting its lair. He accepts the Sixth Doctor with ease. Even though the explanation makes little sense to Jamie he doesn’t question it any further. He enjoys a good rapport with the Sixth Doctor, and becomes a little protective of Peri, much like he had once had been with Victoria and Zoe. He is last seen departing in the TARDIS with the Second Doctor, but not before giving Peri a quick peck on the cheek.

The teenage daughter of wealthy scientist, Edward Waterfield, Victoria was from 1866 and was very much a girl of her time. Well educated both academically and in the subject of manners and propriety.

Victoria Waterfield – Deborah Watling
(
The Evil of the Daleks
to
Fury from the Deep
)

Victoria first meets Jamie while being held captive by the Daleks (
The Evil of the Daleks
), to ensure the continued assistance of her father and his associate Theodore Maxtible. She is understandably almost hysterical with fear, isolated with only the occasional appearance of a Dalek for company (it comes in barking orders at her, asking her to repeat her name constantly; an abject lesson in creating terror in a person). Even through her fear she continues to feed the birds that land on the sill of her cell window, despite repeated orders not to do so. It is as if she considers them the only contact she still has with a world she
does
understand. Her fear is not helped once Jamie and Kemel rescue her, since they are, for a time, barricaded in the cell. Later she and Kemel are transferred to Skaro in the distant future which Victoria has some difficulty accepting, but not as much as when Kemel is later killed. Death seems to follow her a lot and her father is also killed by the Daleks on Skaro, but not before he asks the Doctor to take care of Victoria for him.

Victoria accepts the Doctor’s offer to join the TARDIS crew, with little other choice, since she is now an orphan, cut off and far from home. She is somewhat surprised by the TARDIS, and laughs at the idea that it is a time machine, having no knowledge of the experiments in time travel her own father conducted. Her laughter soon turns to concern when she realises just how old the Doctor is. This concern becomes even more evident when she tells him he probably needs rest being ‘so old’. The Doctor, however, rebuffs this as he is quite sprightly really.

Victoria changes into clothes she considers far too short, until the Doctor points out that Jamie’s kilt is not much different (although by
The Enemy of the World
she dons an even shorter skirt and calls it ‘elegant’, showing her acceptance of the new life she is living). This nineteenth century mindset continues with her for some time, but she still maintains an inquisitive mind, no doubt as encouraged by her father (as witnessed by her knowledge of science in
The Abominable Snowmen
) and evident in her dealings with the crew of the rocket that brings the archaeological team to Telos (
The Tomb of the Cybermen
)
.
She talks down to them a lot, probably in the same manner she would have adopted speaking to servants back home – it is telling that she doesn’t show the same attitude to the archaeologists themselves.

Although a product of her time, Victoria does show a surprising level of bravery, even when being held at gunpoint she holds her own and later stands up to Donald Bruce, the thuggish head of security for the World Zone Authority in
The Enemy of the World
. It appears she has been trained in firearms, or she is a very lucky shot, since she manages to hit a Cybermat with her first shot.

She often demonstrates a wide knowledge of academic subjects, including the sciences and geology, but she hasn’t heard of the London Underground even though it existed in her native time. She is not afraid to lie if the situation requires it, for example when she professes knowledge of cooking, when it is clear she has never cooked in her life, spouting ingredients which she has most likely heard being mentioned before.

Victoria draws a great comfort from the Doctor’s presence, looking upon him in almost a fatherly way. She learns how to cope with her own loss following his advice. With Jamie she develops a sibling-like relationship, and is often amused by his lack of knowledge and view on women, in particular the way they dress.

Victoria is known for her screaming – indeed her reaction to any monster she meets is to scream. However, in
Fury from the Deep
it is discovered that the weed creatures are susceptible to high-pitched noise and so the survivors on the oil refinery hit on the idea of recording Victoria’s screams and using them as a weapon. Ironically she discovers she simply cannot scream on command, but upon seeing a weed creature again scream she does.

She becomes resigned to the random travels early on, but by the time of
Fury from the Deep
she comes to realise that she is tired of the endless travelling and longs for peace and happiness. She decides to remain behind in the 1970s with the Harris family, a decision the Doctor completely understands, although he does insist he remain for another night just so she can be sure. Jamie has a harder time letting go, to the point where he tries to convince her to continue to travel with him and the Doctor, but she knows she cannot. Leaving them is hard, but she knows she must do it. The last we see is an image of her on the TARDIS scanner waving goodbye.

We never hear of Victoria again, save for a mention in
The Two Doctors
when an older Doctor explains to Jamie that she is off studying graphology for a short time, implying that somehow she resumed her travels with the Doctor and Jamie for almost another twenty years.