Shadow of the West

 A VERY big bank for a town with  81 people

The last time Doctor Who visited the Wild West on tv, it was with a toothache forty-six years ago ( when the BBC had more horses than just the one called Susan). Last night's episode A Town Called Mercy was a handsome, expensive-looking Spaghetti Western pastiche. Unfortunately, I felt it was as two-dimensional and hackneyed as the Tombstone set in 1966.
After a jaunty opening, the episode retold a tale of alien war criminals I recall from Star Trek Voyager ("Jetrel", actually). Besides a solid guest performance from Farscape's Ben Browder, there was little to engage me in this cinematic homage. I feel Who has done the Old West better in the Big Finish/ Sixth Doctor audio drama A Town Called Fortune and the Tenth Doctor novel Peacemaker, for example. The Doctor threatening the villain with a gun just felt very wrong too. Did anyone else thing River Song was the saloon girl? Would that have been better? What's the deal with the lightbulbs?

Anyway, here's the final part of my Companion Chronicle. If you've enjoyed it, I've edited the previous entries with updates for the characters I'd forgotten. If you didn't- it's almost over.

Rachel "Silver" Silverstein : Wiccan teen companion to the alternative Eighth and Ninth Doctors in The Doctor Who Project. Had some psionic "spell-casting" ability.

Steven Taylor: downed space pilot Steven escaped the destruction of the Mechonoid city with the First Doctor by stowing away (with his panda mascot Hi-Fi). Headstrong Steven was an excellent foil for the crochety one but witnessed more tragedy than most 60s companions. Peter Purves wanted to see the Doctor reunited with a corrupt Steven who had ultimately made a worse leader of the Elders and Savages than Jano.

Stacy Townsend and Ssard: comic strip companions of the Eighth Doctor in the Radio Times. A future Earth-girl space freighter worker and an Ice Warrior in love! The Doctor and Sam attend their wedding in the BBC Book Placebo Effect.

Sugar MacAuley: flight attendant on the ITV space cruiser in the audiobook The Last Voyage. Sugar helped the Tenth Doctor fight the ghastly aliens preying on the passengers. She sounds a lot like Sandra Dickinson.

Susan Foreman: the First Doctor's granddaughter, the original Unearthly Child. Mildly telepathic and prone to hysterics, Susan settled on Earth after the Dalek Invasion, marrying David Campbell and having a son called Alex. Returning during the Death Zone conspiracy, she was reunited with the Eighth Doctor on audio over 25 years later. In the BBC Book Legacy of the Daleks, she fatally injures the Master (hence his cadaverous appearance in The Deadly Assassin.)

Susie: Dr. Who's young granddaughter in two Sixties movies. Clever, level-headed Susie is brave and capable beyond her years. I find her a lot more likeable than Susan Foreman.

Tamara Scott: black British secret service agent in The Doctor Who Project. Resourceful and dangerous but wiped from the timelines by the Section Thirteen conspiracy.

Tamsin Drew: a resting actress who auditioned to join the Eighth Doctor in the audio Situation Vacant, playing the part of a go-getting businesswoman, Juliet Walsh. Tamsin became disgusted with the Doctor's methods and joined the Meddling Monk. Tragically, although she finally saw the Monk in his true colours, she was killed by the Daleks, as was Alex Campbell, the Doctor's great-grandson.

Taryn Fisher: science officer on the spaceship Cheyenne II despite her sketchy medical training. Bold and tactless, Taryn travelled with the alternate Eighth Doctor in The Doctor Who Project.

Tegan Jovanka: the quintessentially 80s companion. Brash Australian air stewardess Tegan was initially unhappy about the Fifth Doctor's inability to get her back to Heathrow Airport. After an adventure in Amsterdam she chose to rejoin him but, like Tamsin Drew, she found her experiences taking their toll. In later life, a hardened and rather unlikeable Tegan revealed to the Fifth Doctor that she had an inoperable brain tumour. Rabbits, indeed. Happily, Sarah Jane Smith said she was still fighting for aboriginal rights four years later.

Thomas Brewster: a Victorian urchin and "mudlark" who led a tragic life as depicted in the audio drama The Haunting of Thomas Brewster. Stole the Tardis from the Fifth Doctor on one occasion then enlisted the Sixth Doctor to return him to his own time, where Brewster promptly took up with an alien entrepreneur.

Tom Brooker: Geordie software engineer and hacker from the 2020s. Brooksy travelled with the alternate Ninth and Tenth Doctors and his landlady Val Rossi in The Doctor Who Project.

Tom Campbell: Sixties police constable Tom was involved in a jewellery robbery when the Tardis whisked him to 2150 AD and a Dalek Invasion of Earth. A bit of a bumbler, Tom was nonetheless a brave bloke and had an eye for Dr. Who's niece Louise. Possibly also a cousin of Wilf Mott.

Trix MacMillan: con artist Trix joined the Eighth Doctor in the final EDAs. A disguise expert, she stowed away like Zoe and Adric but there was something more elusive and unsettling about her. In The Gallfrey Chronicles, Trix was now  in a relationship with Fitz Kreiner, despite being implicated in a murder. Her name seems to be a reference to Trillian in The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Frustratingly unresolved. 

Truman Crouch:colonial foreman Truman was a longtime companion of the Audio Visuals/Nick Briggs Doctor aka "The Wanderer". As the first gay companion ( although never "outed" as such), Truman prefigures Oliver Harper.


Valentina "Val" Rossi: editor of a paranormal quarterly in the 2020s. Sceptical Val travels with the alternate Ninth and Tenth Doctors and her lodger Tom in The Doctor Who Project.

Vislor Turlough: shifty public schoolboy Turlough was an exiled alien dissident. Trapped in a Faustian pact by the Black Guardian, he was supposed to kill the Fifth Doctor. Once he had seen the error of his ways, there was nowhere for his story to go.A high-concept companion who rather overstayed his welcome.

Vicki Pallister: ethereal orphan and castaway Vicki was the alibi of a psychotic killer and replaced Susan to an extent in the First Doctor's affections. When Steven joined the Doctor, it meant he had two companions from the future, an interesting inversion of the gimmick with Jamie and Victoria. Vicki could be somewhat accident-prone and foolish. She became the legendary Cressida after the Trojan War.

Victoria Waterfield: timid and hysterical orphan from 1866. Victoria's father was killed by the Daleks. Jamie and the Second Doctor were extremely fond and protective of her but she elected to remain with Frank Harris and his wife Maggie at the ESGO gas refinery. The book Downtime saw Victoria as a University principal but under the influence of the Great Intelligence. The Sixth Doctor recently met a middle-aged Victoria, now an environmental campaigner.She was a pretty wee thing but very shrill.

Mrs. Fenella Wibbsey: the Fourth Doctor's formidable housekeeper from Hornet's Nest onwards. Wibbsey is practical, sceptical and down-to-earth. However, she's exactly the kind of companion Tom Baker would have created, given half a chance: whimsical, inauthentic and thin on charm.

Wilfred Mott: Donna Noble's beloved granddad, a stargazer and former soldier. Brave, funny and wise, Wilfred joined the Tenth Doctor in his final battle against the Master. Ironically, the Doctor had to regenerate after saving Wilfred's life in The End of Time. Possibly a cousin of PC Tom Campbell.

Zoe Heriot: space-age brainbox Zoe stowed away from The Wheel in Space with the Second Doctor. Jamie initially found her priggish and haughty but they quickly developed a gentle sibling rivalry. Zoe was the last surrogate child on board the Tardis (although Jo and Sarah sometimes fell into that role). It's implied that librarian Zoe is a product of  technological/ educational procedures that have increased her cognitive abilities at the expense of emotional development. It's ironic therefore that the Time Lords rob both Zoe and Jamie of all their memories of the Doctor. Big Finish depicted an older Zoe controlling the Land of Fiction.

Next: The Top Ten Companions of all Time (and Space)
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