Moderator's Note: This is Mike's original Turlough summary:
Turlough was so obviously a sneak that I can't believe the Doctor didn't see right through him. Even after the Black Guardian storyline was over he acted like a shifty little weed. Mark Strickson also had no problem with taking it completely over the top, as he showed in snivelling scene in "Enlightenment" and his slobbering fit in "Frontios."
All I have to say is that he is so sexy and that him in Planet Of Fire turned me on.
Oi! Someone type back. I didn't mean to scare anyone. I just spoke my mind. It's true. Better with Strawberry youghurt mind.
I always thought H was a male member of Steps (don`t worry, I don`t like them - I just have a sad friend who does). So, H, are you male? I find this most confusing.
Zorro you are very nosey aren't you? Well for your information I happen to be male yes. have you got a problem with this? Oi! What's wrong with STEPS? One more thing I bet your friend is very sexy. Can he and I go on a date with turlough?
Oh, I have no problems with it - I was just confused. Thanks for clearing it up.
AND WHAT DO YOU MEAN MY FRIEND IS SEXY!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
And this is not the place to be disvcussing how good or bad Steps are.
Soz Zoz. Anyway I'm glad to hear you don't have any problems. Anyway I don't know your friend do I? Pity I'm sure we'd get on like a house on fire. Okay back to Turlough. Is it just me who finds his school uniform type thing kinky?
Yes.
But I suppose there must be some reason for Turlough sticking with that uniform for planet after planet, despite loathing the school.
Brings up a good point, Emily does, as that hardly anyone changes clothes in the series. I can understand a favourite shirt or pants (or scarf), but day after day? They must have some awesome deoderant.
That is all due to JNT's wondeful policy. "Hmm, people can't cope if the characters just wear normal clothes, they might cry and turn over to ITV. I know let's put all the characters in •••••• costumes."
Now, if only they could 're-master' Colin Baker's stories, and remove his coat, everyone's opinion of the stories might go up. Maybe that's why a lot of people look upon 'The Two Doctors' as his best story.
Grr. I like the uniform and he wasnt it all the time. Like in PLANET OF FIRE when he was all wet! How can you forget that?
It's interesting that Planet of Fire is the one story he gets out of the Brendon school uniform - presumably the authorities on Trion know where he was exiled to yet the story when we find out everything about Turlough he just happens to have a change of clothes.
Besides which, Peter Davison was in Planet of Fire, and I find his outfit vastly superior to that of Colin Baker's.
Yes, well, much as I hate, loathe and despise cricket, I'd have to agree with you there, Luiner.
Never mind Turlough not changing his clothes till Planet of Fire - we don't even learn his NAME till Planet of Fire!! And I'm still traumatised from the discovery. His name is Turlough - everyone knows that! Then suddenly it's - shudder - VISLOR.
How do you know it's not surname first, like some Asian names? Is there anything to indicate that couldn't be the case?
Is his brother Malkon Turlough or Vislor Malkon? How did Turlough cope at school - did he use both names?
I never thought of that. All aliens have English accents, so I suppose I assumed they all had English customs as well. But it is definitely the norm to call boys at English public schools by their surnames.
The school must have known Turlough's first name (unless he changed it, and I doubt the Trion authorities, when registering him at the school after murdering his mother and exiling his father and brother, bothered thinking 'He'll get teased for having a name like that, let's change it.') Had the Brigadier not lost his memory, he'd have been onto him like a shot: ‘Funny name...no parents...very odd solicitor...weird eyebrows...refuses to join the CCF...OH MY GOD! He’s an alien from outer space!!!’
I liked Turlough most of the time except for that one time. What was it? Uh, oh, yea......
'TRACTATORS!! TRACTATORS!!! WAAAAAAAAAAHH!"
Has anyone read Turlough and the Earthlink Dilemma? I did about 10 years ago and it left little impression; I haven't been bold enough to try it again.
Yes, I read it...oh, well over ten years
ago...probably nearer 13. Well, I was too young
to notice that the female dictator was 'Thatcher'
spelt backwards. And the only things I remember
are that Turlough's girlfriend turns out to be
evil and gets killed and he falls down a pit but
luckily this all turns out to be an alternative
universe, so he survives and so does his
girlfriend, who is not evil.
I think the message is clear enough, but just in
case it isn't: do NOT bother reading this book
again.
My lasting memory is a Time Lord called the Magician and the fact Turlough makes his own time machine.
Another renegade Time Lord? Wow, that's original. How could I possibly have forgotten?
Just because a Time Lord leaves Gallifrey, does that make him/her a renegade? Can't remember but he may been acting on behalf of the Time Lords if time travel experiments were involved.
I don't think that the Doctor was as blissfully unaware of Turlough's 'sneakiness' as it seems. There are subtle hints to the contrary in 'Enlightenment' and 'Planet of Fire'.
Well, yes, but then by Enlightenment even the Davison Doctor has to notice that SOMETHING is up, what with Turlough screaming 'No! No!' and hurling himself suicidally into space. The Doctor's anger in Planet of Fire is an interesting indication that, even with the Black Guardian business long behind them, he doesn't trust Turlough. But then he must be used to hanging around with people he can't rely on. Even the brightest of them can make mistakes (Romana giving Scaroth time travel), the bravest disobey him (Brigadier blowing up the Silurian caves) and the most faithful can thoroughly mess things up (Jamie 'rescuing' him in Web of Fear).
Now that I've seen the whole Turlough tenure, I feel I can comment a little -- I liked him. Although his input in his middle stories was a bit weak, his character showed some actual growth during his time with the Doctor, unlike most of the others who are simply along for the ride. He started out small and sniveling, greedy for whatever he could sneak off with, and ended up almost noble, managing to save the Doctor from being executed on Frontios (with a hatstand, no less) and saving him again from the fire cave on Planet of Fire.
In an earlier fit of growth, he even manages to turn down that enormous hunk of diamond to save the Doc's life yet again (although how the Black Guardian could've legitimately claimed it is still a mystery).
And as for the Doctor's supposed ignorance, I can't think of anything further from the truth. He knew Turlough was linked with the BG the moment he saw that crystal in Turlough's bedroom and gave it back to him in the transmat capsule. His little smile when Turlough announces, in a later episode, that he wants to stay in the TARDIS, that he can learn more from the Doctor than going back home, leads me to believe the Doc was acknowledging progress in re-educating the little swine.
That's mostly what I meant when I said Turlough is one of the most complex companions I've seen so far. His adventures actually change him rather than just providing good drama.
Hear, hear. Though the constant emphasis on Turlough's cowardice always makes his acts of heroism a bit surprising - chucking the diamond at the Black Guardian, holding the Seabase hostage to save the Doctor and Tegan's lives, etc.
I'm not sure why Turlough shouldn't just be thought of as realistic. After all, how would you react if some omnipotent being kept threatening you with total obliteration if you didn't do as he ordered? I think I'd whine and whimper a bit myself.
The trouble is, if Companions were realistic they'd ALL be huddled in a corner, cringing and sobbing and developing severe mental health problems. Or (preferably) just refusing to step outside the TARDIS...ever.
Either that, on (indrustrial) dosages of medication/drugs, or carrying enough "Heavy Weapons", on their persons to stop a army...
(Leela, in the first scene of Robots Of Death comes to mind, of the latter, intending to carry a Tesh "Blaster" along with the "cutlery" & Janis thorns, until the Doctor stops her !)
Re: Big Finish
It seems that Turlough now has gone down the Companion Chronicle route, with Mark Strickson narrating a number called Ringpullworld...
In addition, this month's Doctor Who magazine is offering a download of another chronicle, featuring Turlough, called Freakshow...
Well, it's not surprising, Turlough's done two or three Fifth Doctor audios, and it's not as if Big Finish have allowed being wind-wiped (Zoe and Jamie) or DEAD (Sara Kingdom) to prevent them haulling back Companions and making 'em do stupid Companion Chronicles.
Turlough was, let's not forget, one of the very first companion to have a spin-off of sorts in the novels.
I thought that was Harry Sullivan. Or did the Turlough book come out first?
Re: Spin off books
It was Turlough & The Earthlink Dilemma that came out first, followed by Harry Sullivan's War, written by Ian Marter...
(There was a proposed 3rd Companion "Spinoff" novel, involving Tegan, (Title Unknown) that Janet Fielding was intended to write...
However due to poor sales figures, the line was discontinued, & the 3rd title never came out...)
I wasn't sure since I think they both hit American shores at the same time, so I covered my tracks by saying 'one of the...' :-)
I've read the Harry Sullivan book (and enjoyed it). However, I never saw the Turlough one.
Y'know...there is a Harry Sullivan's War and a Turlough and the Earthlink Dilemma in the 'Novels: Miscellaneous Who Fiction' section that are in desperate need of reviews...I have both books on my shelves, I just can't face reading 'em. I've never quite recovered from the trauma of reading Earthlink Dilemma as a kid, and while I've never had the (dis)pleasure of the Harry one, the excruciating tedium of Ian Marter's Targets were enough to flash great big red, sorry, mauve, warning lights at me.
Re: Spin off books
It was Turlough & The Earthlink Dilemma that came out first, followed by Harry Sullivan's War, written by Ian Marter...
(There was a proposed 3rd Companion "Spinoff" novel, involving Tegan, (Title Unknown) that Janet Fielding was intended to write...
However due to poor sales figures, the line was discontinued, & the 3rd title never came out...)
Actually, from what Wikipedia says, the two Companion books sold rather well (I guess some people out there like the Turlough one).
The reason the line was discontinued was for legal reasons over rights.
the two Companion books sold rather well (I guess some people out there like the Turlough one).
It doesn't mean they LIKED it. It means they were understandably lured by the magic words 'Doctor' and 'Who' on the cover into buying something they had no way of knowing (this being the pre-internet-review era) would be the worst experience of their life.
Emily:It doesn't mean they LIKED it. It means they were understandably lured by the magic words 'Doctor' and 'Who' on the cover into buying something they had no way of knowing (this being the pre-internet-review era) would be the worst experience of their life.
Please Emily-don't hold back,tell us what you really think!!!!
Mark Strickson on Turlough in DWM 419:
'He has his own spaceship, he's quite independent...he's got a pretty big brain, and the Doctor has enormous respect for that. Sometimes, the Doctor treats his assistants as just assistants; he doesn't treat Turlough like that...you've got a character who's an equal to the Doctor.'
Ah, bless, the DELUSIONS of some people...
No kidding. I'd say Nyssa was more of an intellectual match for the Doctor, but not Turlough.
NOBODY is an intellectual match for the Doctor.
Not even his other incarnations.
And was Turlough's spaceship INVISIBLE or what??
Why does Turlough keep trying to summon the Black Guardian? It's not as if his 'Follow and kill the Doctor!' instructions were in any way unclear. Does he LIKE being yelled at and tortured? (NB: I doubt it - if he DID he'd probably have enjoyed his British public school a lot more.)
'"Originally, John [Nathan-Turner] wanted Mark to shave his head," Eric [Saward] reveals, "which Mark agreed to, but his agent called an hour or two later saying, "Erm...does he have to?"' - DWM. Since when did they have BALD boys in public schools?
He needn't necessarily have been bald. They might have been going for an Eccleston-style 'do for him.
Turlough being an alien, it could have been a way to mark him as such without making him TOO much different. There ARE bald men who are that young, and being bald in an english public school, (or any school for that matter) would have made him the target of endless mockery and jokes, making his hatred of the place and his desire to leave it by any means possible even stronger and more plausible.
You're quite right, and anyway, there SHOULD have been a baldie in the TARDIS by now*. Even Wilf had hair.
*No I DON'T count Kamelion as a Companion.
Kamelion was fully intended as a Companion - they just didn't expect his creator to die in a boating accident.
They were already planning a way to get rid of the thing when they were recording 'The King's Demons'. Even if its creator had lived it was a massively impractical thing to include given Doctor Who's production schedule.
One of the biggest problems with Kamelion was syncing the tape of Gerald Flood's voice with the other actors.
Going by a dream I had last night, how would things have been if Turlough had joined in Logopolis rather than Tegan?
I didn't realise until I heard Strickson waffling on about it at the end of Ringpullworld, but Hippo is the only friend that 'Turlough No-Mates' has ever had. SOME Companions are actually FRIENDS with their Doctors (Donna, Sarah, Romana II), or with their fellow Companions (Ian and Barbara, Nyssa and Tegan), some strike up an instant and almost creepy rapport with the first female they meet whenever they land (Rose, Ace) but poor old Turlough was liked by precisely one person in his entire on-screen existence.
Mark Strickson DWM interview: 'When I first started on Doctor Who, I'd go into the supermarket and little children would run away screaming!' - blimey, who'd find TURLOUGH scary?
'Frequently, all the assistant does is say, "What's that blob on the screen, Doctor?" There are actually two ways you can say a line like that. You can say it like a question, but if you want to show that you've got a brain, you can imply that you know what the blob on the screen is. I got into terrible trouble because I kept doing the second one...we basically had two Doctors, and then Janet cottoned on, and she thought, my goodness, we could all be intelligent in the TARDIS!...John...said, '"Look, I know what you're doing, but we've got three Doctors. We cannot function like that"...So I had to become terminally stupid and so did Janet' - did anyone notice ANY of this going on...?
'I'm not sure that Doctor Who is the place to examine the part of the police in the Wapping crisis, which is what [Resurrection of the Daleks] was examining.' - It WAS?
'He had some input into the novel Turlough and the EarthLink Dilemma. "Tony Attwood rang me up and spoke to me a lot. Basically, I'd say, 'I don't think he'd do that, that doesn't feel right to me,' that sort of thing, and Tony could take it or leave it' - so...er...what bits of that particular abomination felt RIGHT, Mark?
'He had some input into the novel Turlough and the EarthLink Dilemma. "Tony Attwood rang me up and spoke to me a lot. Basically, I'd say, 'I don't think he'd do that, that doesn't feel right to me,' that sort of thing, and Tony could take it or leave it' - so...er...what bits of that particular abomination felt RIGHT, Mark?
I guess you'll be hunting him down, Emily, to punish him for this.
Well, if not to PUNISH him (tempting as it is), then at least to discover what was originally written that was SO MUCH WORSE than what we actually GOT in the book that even ATTWOOD cut it out.
Queers Dig Time Lords: 'Vislor Turlough, with his secrets and his repression and his intensity and his fetish-like school uniform. Turlough wasn't a companion; he was a relationship' - I have to admit, I've always wondered what he was doing in that uniform, post-Mawdryn...
Turlough was so bland that they could have cast anyone. Especially someone younger who didn't look like he was Matthew McConaughey in Dazed and Confused.
I looked throughout my school photos to see if there was anyone who looked as old as him. There was one. But he'd been left back a year and had a follicular gland condition!
TARDIS Eruditorum:
'Turlough is the first companion who is overwhelmingly easier to read as homosexual than not...from the top down conceptualized in gay tropes. It's not...a subtext...He is overtly "cowardly," deliberately played as an unmasculine character. He's repeatedly shown to be delicate and fragile. He's introduced in the context of an all-boys school, and seen leading another boy to temptation and ruin...[In Enlightenment] he's thrown to the ground by strapping young men and told to "crawl."...Yes, it's never explicitly stated. But that doesn't mean it's not completely explicit - homosexuality, in the culture of the time, always existed in code and subtext' - ah. That all sounds rather convincing, even if the only thing I noticed was his look of distaste at wet, bikini-ed Peri after he rescued her...
Planet of Fire:
How come Malkon's eyebrows are so...normal? Also that Trion-military-bloke at the end? Does this mean Turlough styles his especially to look weird? Or is a genetic freak? Or what?
Jeez, Turough's stuck with THIS Malkon-loser-guy for rest of his life?
Turlough knows how to programme an alpha rhythm on the TARDIS computer?!
Ah BLESS, Turlough obviously can't quite remember what the symbol ON HIS OWN ARM looks like, so he pulls up his sleeve to compare it with the Trion...thingamijig that's turned up on Earth for, um, some reason.
Turlough's suddenly starting talking about Trion an awful lot for someone who was SABOTAGING THE TARDIS (after TERMINUS? ARE YOU ••••••• INSANE? DO YOU WANT TO SPEND A FEW MORE EPISODES UNDER THE FLOORBOARDS?) to try to hide his Trion origins a few minutes ago.
DOCTOR: Why have you never mentioned your home planet before? - He has. 'Take me to my home planet!' he said at the end of Enlightenment. YOU just couldn't be bothered to ask basics like WHAT HOME PLANET?
TURLOUGH: No particular reason.
DOCTOR: Are you in trouble?
TURLOUGH: What makes you think that?
DOCTOR: Instinct. And the fact I've never seen you so nervous before - Isn't Turlough in a state of perpetual terror? Why is Turlough being so cagey when he's already spilled the 'Trion' beans? Was his side in the civil war REALLY EVIL or something? (Not that the Doc ever bothered asking about said civil war - did the two of them never relax in the TARDIS together over a well-cooked meal, ask each other where they came from/what their name is/what in hell's name they were doing in an English boarding-school being taught maths by THE BRIG?)
'If this is an abandoned planet, what was your father doing here?' - Turlough remains stubbornly silent for zero reason - 'All right. But if you're holding back anything that will aid the Master, our friendship is at an end. Is that understood?' - wow, that's the Davisonian equivalent of chucking someone in an acid bath but STILL Turlough won't crack. Utterly determined to take his secret to his grave (or at least string the episode out for another ten minutes before revealing that - big deal - mummy and daddy were on the losing side of a civil war).
I cab see Jodie threatening Team TARDIS should any of them be seeming to help the Master...
Well, I would certainly hope so - though JODIE!'s idea of threatening someone seems to entail permitting him to grab her by the throat/eat her sonic/shoot her favourite spider etc - but Turlough WASN'T helping the Master and didn't have anything remotely useful to tell the Doctor anyway, was just keeping quiet cos skulking sinisterly around is his THING.
Well the Sixth Doctor's alien spy outburst would have been more justified were Turlough the victim.
Mark Strickson said on his Myth Maker interview tape that he partly regretted not staying on with Colin and Nicola. If Turlough's humour had been increased, I think they could have worked well. Peri needed an ally against the Sixth Doctor's moodiness.
Dammit, it never once crossed my mind that, had Turlough stayed on another couple of stories he'd've had to put up with...*shudders*.
Actually, that would have been a vast improvement (well, ANYTHING about that TARDIS team would have been a vast improvement. Except, as it transpires, replacing Peri with Mel). Having another person about the place - one who was certainly prepared to rescue Peri even as he looks at her in complete contempt - would have taken the edge off that hideous abusive throttling relationship.
How about replacing Peri with Dodo or Adric? That would'nt be much better either.
Also: I usually see Turlough as older than Nyssa but I think he might be younger because Nyssa propably born 1963 and Turlough might be born in 1964 and Malkon in 1967. Oh man, Companion aging is weird.
I suppose there must be some reason for Turlough sticking with that uniform for planet after planet, despite loathing the school.
Aaaand Big Finish have of course finally made Turlough speak up on this issue. Unfortunately it entirely consists of him claiming it's 'practical' (Forty 2). Even though it's clearly impractical to tie a noose around your neck.
Practical for an human doesn’t mean practical for a Trion. This is the species that dresses like Lomand on their home planet but in Arabic tribal clothing when exiled on Sarn.
I’ve seen stuff that said turloughs uniform was like a battle scar to him.
Practical for an human doesn’t mean practical for a Trion.
Surely tying a noose round your neck every morning is impractical for ANY species that actually, y'know, has a neck and breathes and suchlike.
I’ve seen stuff that said turloughs uniform was like a battle scar to him
That would make a lot more sense than any 'practicality' claim.
The presence of most Doctors should cure you of your trauma in no time (or...at least overlay it with numerous other near-death trauma experiences) but when you're talking DAVISON, no wonder it took till Turlough's last story for him to actually feel comfortable enough to not flaunt his public-school wounds to the universe...
Emily - Surely tying a noose round your neck every morning is impractical for ANY species that actually, y'know, has a neck and breathes and suchlike.
As I understand it the tie began as a 'blood and sweat' rag that the Huns would wear to wipe the blood and sweat off their forehead and out of their eyes. It was Beau Brummel who looked at it and thought, "That would be a lovely accessory in non-war settings!"
It started as the Cravat, which was worn by the Croat Hussars (Croatia’s name is recent and comes from them). They weren’t ethnically Hun, as they were born 1000 years after the hunnic language went extinct.
Racially they were only hunnic by a small part. As Huns are Turkic speaking siberians as Turkic was mostly spoken in Siberia back then.
Well they had Cossacks and some of those Cossacks might have been Turkic speaking but of middle eastern, ural (really Eastern European) or central asian origin.
A lot of dw alien garb isn’t completely practical either. Robes and stuff.