Companions: Fifty Years of Doctor Who Assistants by Andy Frankham-Allen Read Free Book Online
Authors: Andy Frankham-Allen
knowledge of him. Eventually the Doctor explains things to Vicki and advises her and Troilus to move to Cornwall, as he is worried that she may end up becoming one of her own ancestors.
In the second of these stories, we come across an older Lady Cressida in 1164BC (confusingly twenty years before the traditional date of the Fall of Troy) in the 2007 audio book, Frostfire . She is living in Carthage, and tells a story of when she, Steven and the Doctor meet Jane Austen during the frost fair of 1814. During this adventure she witnesses the death of a phoenix, a cinder from which finds its way into Vicki’s eye – and there it remains until Cressida and Troilus settle in Carthage many years later. One day, missing her old life and feeling so alone Cressida cries and the cinder escapes her eye. It is still alive and able to communicate with her. She keeps the cinder in an oil lamp and often talks to it, since it is the only thing that knows anything of her life with the Doctor.
Steven has managed a much better Expanded Universe life, with many appearances in short stories and audio books, but he has only been in three novels. However, surprisingly, not much new information has been given about his past, or his life post-Doctor.
We discover in the short story Ash that he was given learning pills as part of his education, and in The Empire of Glass we are told that he spent most of his adult career in cramped quarters, with the first new smell for him being the burning forest on Mechanus at the end of The Chase . Also in The Empire of Glass Steven is seen to be flirting with Christopher Marlowe, inferring perhaps that Steven may have been the first gay companion in Doctor Who . During his time in space Steven pilots a streamlined Terran ship made of modified Dalek technology, and at one point, while on shore leave on Roylus Prime, he witnesses a woman being savagely beaten yet does not lift a hand to help. This guilt tortures him for some time, and resurfaces in the novel Salvation , compounded by the recent deaths of Katarina and Sara.
In the novel Bunker Soldiers , Steven is still smarting from the conclusion of the television story The Massacre and initially sides against the Doctor, in favour of interceding and saving lives, but the Doctor convinces him why it would be wrong to do so. We also learn that he does not believe in heaven, despite claiming to be a Protestant in The Massacre , since in all his travels he has seen nothing to convince himself of such a place. Indeed, he has learned to expect a rational explanation for everything he sees, even if he cannot understand the explanation.
In one touching short story, Steven and the Doctor accidentally ruin the future of a young boy called Bobby Zierath, and with more than a little guilt for his own part in events, Steven gives Bobby his panda, Hi-Fi – which, of course, is never seen on TV after The Time Meddler .
It is not until the audio adventure, The Five Companions , that we meet Steven again. Many long years have passed since he has left the Doctor. At first he is reunited with Ian, followed by the Fifth Doctor, who like Ian, he believes to be a younger version of the Doctor he knew, until the Doctor explains about regeneration. Steven is very surprised to encounter an older Sara in this story, having witnessed her death many years previously while still with the Doctor. Sara never really explains to him the reason for her survival, only that even the Doctor never could quite understand it, either. Nonetheless he is happy to see Ian, Sara and the Doctor again and, like the others, is convinced that the Doctor will not return to look them up, despite his promises to the contrary.
Since Katarina literally went from Troy to Kembel and then sacrificed herself there is no time for other adventures. Regardless of this, the short story Scribbles in Chalk tells of a ‘missing adventure’. There is not much that can be added to Katarina really – but this story does
In the second of these stories, we come across an older Lady Cressida in 1164BC (confusingly twenty years before the traditional date of the Fall of Troy) in the 2007 audio book, Frostfire . She is living in Carthage, and tells a story of when she, Steven and the Doctor meet Jane Austen during the frost fair of 1814. During this adventure she witnesses the death of a phoenix, a cinder from which finds its way into Vicki’s eye – and there it remains until Cressida and Troilus settle in Carthage many years later. One day, missing her old life and feeling so alone Cressida cries and the cinder escapes her eye. It is still alive and able to communicate with her. She keeps the cinder in an oil lamp and often talks to it, since it is the only thing that knows anything of her life with the Doctor.
Steven has managed a much better Expanded Universe life, with many appearances in short stories and audio books, but he has only been in three novels. However, surprisingly, not much new information has been given about his past, or his life post-Doctor.
We discover in the short story Ash that he was given learning pills as part of his education, and in The Empire of Glass we are told that he spent most of his adult career in cramped quarters, with the first new smell for him being the burning forest on Mechanus at the end of The Chase . Also in The Empire of Glass Steven is seen to be flirting with Christopher Marlowe, inferring perhaps that Steven may have been the first gay companion in Doctor Who . During his time in space Steven pilots a streamlined Terran ship made of modified Dalek technology, and at one point, while on shore leave on Roylus Prime, he witnesses a woman being savagely beaten yet does not lift a hand to help. This guilt tortures him for some time, and resurfaces in the novel Salvation , compounded by the recent deaths of Katarina and Sara.
In the novel Bunker Soldiers , Steven is still smarting from the conclusion of the television story The Massacre and initially sides against the Doctor, in favour of interceding and saving lives, but the Doctor convinces him why it would be wrong to do so. We also learn that he does not believe in heaven, despite claiming to be a Protestant in The Massacre , since in all his travels he has seen nothing to convince himself of such a place. Indeed, he has learned to expect a rational explanation for everything he sees, even if he cannot understand the explanation.
In one touching short story, Steven and the Doctor accidentally ruin the future of a young boy called Bobby Zierath, and with more than a little guilt for his own part in events, Steven gives Bobby his panda, Hi-Fi – which, of course, is never seen on TV after The Time Meddler .
It is not until the audio adventure, The Five Companions , that we meet Steven again. Many long years have passed since he has left the Doctor. At first he is reunited with Ian, followed by the Fifth Doctor, who like Ian, he believes to be a younger version of the Doctor he knew, until the Doctor explains about regeneration. Steven is very surprised to encounter an older Sara in this story, having witnessed her death many years previously while still with the Doctor. Sara never really explains to him the reason for her survival, only that even the Doctor never could quite understand it, either. Nonetheless he is happy to see Ian, Sara and the Doctor again and, like the others, is convinced that the Doctor will not return to look them up, despite his promises to the contrary.
Since Katarina literally went from Troy to Kembel and then sacrificed herself there is no time for other adventures. Regardless of this, the short story Scribbles in Chalk tells of a ‘missing adventure’. There is not much that can be added to Katarina really – but this story does
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