Moderator's Note: This is Mike's original Harry summary:

I have to restrain myself with Harry. I mean, it's not his fault the writers came up with a walking sack of doorknobs for a character. Harry might have worked with a Hartnell type character, but he was completely overwhelmed by Tom Baker. Why couldn't they have added Yates or Benton to the TARDIS crew?



Harry was okay. As for Yates and Benton not going instead, maybe the actors didn't want to?
Harry wasn't as irritating as Adric or Mel, he seemed to be able to get into things and help out and do it convincingly.
Sure he bumbled out but hey - Barclay was worse in ST:TNG - and everyone has some folly. Maybe Harry's is just being clumsy. And he worked OK with Tom Baker, let the Doctor to rave about himself and look good.

I'm just a confirmed Harry basher.

'Harry wasn't as irritating as Adric or Mel'. Is this supposed to be a compliment?

More of a yardstick. If 10=Ace and 0=Mel, Harry is, on average, a 1 (starting at .05 in "Robot", and rising to a 2.2 in "Terror of the Zygons"). Please allow for a statistical error of +/- 2.

Well, I am interested in how the non-fan reacts to the show and they usually hate Adric and Mel, get annoyed with Jamie blundering, don't like Peri's whining but haven't had too many bad things to say about Harry.
Of course, they like Ace and Sarah Jane the best and Romana II scores highly with them as well.

Harry always seemed to be a bit out of touch with the universe, bless 'im - and his constant use of "old girl" when talking to Sarah used to set my teeth on edge. Nevertheless I found something appealing about him - I got the impression that he was one of life's Nice People. From a very young age I'd loathed my own name and desperately wanted to change it - I'd chosen 'Callie' (short for Caroline) as a new first name when I was 11 but couldn't come up with a surname to go with it. At the age of 15 and after realising what a nice person Harry seemed to be, I thought to myself that if ever I'd had a brother, he was the sort of guy I'd like to have as one. Presto! Callie Sullivan was born.

(It took me another 21 years to change my name officially, but from 1975 I was Callie Sullivan in my own mind, thanks to Harry!)

Don't leave us in suspense? What was your original surname?
I wonder if any other fans have done this?
What do you reckon: Chris Foreman, Chris Chesterton, Chris Wright, Chris Taylor, Chris Kingdom, Chris Jackson, Chris Chaplet, Chris McCrimmon, Chris Waterfield, Chris Herriot, Chris Shaw, Chris Lethbridge-Stewart - OK you get the ideas.

Chris Cwej, of course!

Chris - ohh pleeease don't ask! It took me 35 years to get rid of that name, so I sure ain't revealing it here!

I actually changed every part of my name - first, middle and surname, but only the latter was Who-inspired!

OK, won't ask again.
Chris Cwej? Do you think anyone would be able to pronounce it?

Myself, I would either pronouce it 'Swej' or more European Spanish like 'Thwej'. Though from the spelling it looks Serbo-Croat. Not that it matters since I have no idea who this guy is. Must be some novel character.

Apparently, it's suppoed to be pronounced "Shvay" but most people say Kwedge.

I thought it was pronounced "Throat-Warbler Mangrove." ;-)

So, how do you pronounce your own last name?

Surely not Luxury Yacht?

Kun-chess-key.

No one's said anything about Harry Sullivan for a year!

So it's time to say something about him, whether it's true or not. Thing is, we know so little about the man. So I'm going to say that, I dunno, Harry Sullivan has webbed feet.

Discuss.

Nah. UNIT may not be the most professional of organisations, but if it's battling alien invasions every other week, it probably has a physical examination to check that none of its staff (bar the obvious) are aliens themselves. Plus Harry was in the Navy, and no doubt they have strict physical criteria to be met, though come to think of it, having webbed feet would be a positive advantage in the Navy.

I can't help thinking of the landmine scene in episode one of Genesis Of The Daleks...STOP! STARE!
"Harry, I'm standing on a landmine".
"Well Doctor, I'm standing on three, as I've got webbed feet".

That isn't funny.

I really like Harry, but I'm not sure why. Can anyone help? I suspect I should find him irritating...potentially irritating ingredients are certainly present: the stiff upper lip scenario, the blatant sexism shown towards the (mostly) brave Sarah, the quasi-Coward voice timbre...but I love him. I once had a dream (literally..as in "asleep"), where it was Tom, Lalla and Harry together. Afterwards I was "Hey! That would be like Tom, Lalla and Duggan all the time!". Hurrah, possibly.

Acutally, it is funny.

I'd give anything (yes, even a copy of the Mona Lisa! Even SEVEN copies!) to have the Doc #4, Romana and Duggan team for a season. Unfortunately Harry isn't (quite) thick enough to be Duggan mark II, and neither is he at all funny.

Trying to think of things to say about Harry (as PJW insists on rescuing him from well-deserved obscurity) it occurred to me that he's one of the very few Companions the Doctor actually admits to being fond of. Though I suppose, in the circumstances, he couldn't really say 'ONE person very dear to me and one who I couldn't care less about, frankly.'

He's also one of the very few companions the Doctor calls an 'imbecile'.

Harry's got some great lines 'Ark in Space'.

Is that Harry done for another year then, my friends?!

One can but hope...

I'd just like to raise a glass of '47 to Harry until next time. Needless to say, I'm fond of him and, well, see you on this board this time next year guys!

Well let me add my two cents here to say that I liked Harry! It was just too bad that his character wasn't given more time in the TARDIS. True Harry was a bit behind the times when it came to women, but Sarah Jane just shrugged it off. She and Harry became good friends.

Harry was certainly a better companion than that moron, Adric!

Sadly, the actor who played Harry, Ian Marter, died about 15 years ago.

Well, not THAT sadly, for anyone who's ever tried to read The Sontaran Experiment.

I didn't notice Sarah and Harry becoming good friends. (And mercifully Justin Richards' plans to marry them off in Millennium Shock (or was it System Shock?) was vetoed by the then editor.) They didn't even bother saying GOODBYE to each other, for heaven's sake. Harry just seemed to get on Sarah's nerves, and who can blame her, with comments like 'Oooh, look, a woman at the top of the totem pole.'

Hi Emily, I guess you're not a Harry Sullivan fan. Oh well, to each their own.

BTW: I read that one person who did like the character of Harry Sullivan was John Nathan-Turner. Apparently plans were made for the character to make a return appearence on Doctor Who in the mid-80's. Unfortunately, Mr. Marter's untimely death ended that idea.

I wonder what Harry is doing now? Probably the British equivalent of Surgeon General. Or maybe he retired from the Royal Navy and is now head of NHS.

If it's anything like Brigadier's career change, he could well be anything.

Well it is known that Harry went on to NATO (the Brigadier mentioned this to the Doctor in Mawdryn Undead). As for what Harry is doing today, it's possible that he has retired from military service and is now working as a GP somewhere.

I wonder if he and Sarah Jane still get together on occasions.

PJW, you BAD person! You obviously haven't read the Damaged Goods Graham so kindly gave you. There's something at the end of that which makes it clear what Harry's doing in about 20 years time - STILL writing medical reports for UNIT. At the moment though, if Millennium Shock is to be believed, 'Harold' is working for MI5.

Well if the UNIT stories really WERE set in the 80s, he could still be there. Based on most of the UNIT stories, they weren't smart enough to get rid of him. In fact, he kind of blended in.

From what I understand, Harry was conceived to as a possible character to handle most of the action. This was considered if the actor chosen to replace Jon Pertwee was an elderly gentleman, such as William Hartnell.

Of course, when Tom Baker was cast, Harry was not needed as much as the writers had anticipated, so that is why he kind of faded into the background at times. Still they did like him enough to keep him on the show for a while, and I mentioned before that, had Ian Marter not tragically passed away, John Nathan-Turner would have had Harry on the show again. As to what might have been, we can only guess.

Once again, no one has said anything about Harry Sullivan in almost a year, so I think I'll say a few more things about him.

As I said in my post above, it seems the writers just didn't know what to do with Harry once Tom Baker was cast. Since the Doctor was capable of handling the action himself, poor Harry got the short end of the stick, character wise. The writers made him out to be somewhat of an idiot and a buffoon, which he clearly could not have been. After all, I don't think that UNIT (and later NATO and MI5), would let idiots into their ranks, so Harry did have brains, even if the writers didn't show it. Instead they tended to use Harry as comic relief a lot, and made him out to be a somewhat old fashioned gentleman, always looking out for Sarah Jane. While this would have fitted in with a companion from the 1800's, it only irritated the modern liberated Sarah. Still she saw Harry as a loyal friend, despite his flaws.

Ironically, it was not until Harry was put into books that we really saw what potential he had. Ian Marter himself started this with his book, Harry Sullivan's War, in which Harry was seen as a capable action hero. Mr. Marter was comissioned to write a sequel, but he tragically died before he had a chance to do so.

It was not until the Virgin (and the later BBC) books of Past Doctor adventures that we saw that Harry had come a long way from the restricted character he was on the show. He was now a capable character, able to handle the dangerous situations he was placed into. While he still had his somewhat old fashioned ideas about women, he was clearly not an idiot or a buffoon.

So I think that the novels have really done justice to Harry's character, and I look forward to seeing his further adventures in print.

In closing, let me say that it is too bad that they didn't let the characters and Sarah and Harry be married. I think it would have been a nice ironic twist for the liberated Sarah to end up married to an old fashioned gentleman such as Harry

An "ironic twist"? More a lapse of reason! The writers finally presented a somewhat liberated woman character and you'd like to see that all go down the drain and male-dominance reassert itself.

What Pertwee story was it in which the Brig calls Harry but he is never shown? Planet of SPiders? Whatever it was, that was my favorite Harry story.

Visiting my parents' house, I found a copy of "The Rebel's Gamble" in an old box down in the basement. It featured the sixth Doctor, Peri, and Harry. Strange combination! (Plus, try saying "Peri and Harry" aloud.)

Let me guess, you are another member of the anti-Harry camp.

I never said anything about male domination reasserting itself. Believe it or not, two people with vastly different political beliefs can get married. Look at Arnold Schwartzenegger (sp?) and Maria Shriver, he's a Republican, she's a Democrat, yet they have been happly married for almost twenty years now. Neither have changed their political stance, and the marriage has lasted a lot longer than many celebrety marriages.

So if this marraige can work, I can easily see Harry and Sarah married, yet both still maintaining their stances.

And yes, the story in which Harry is mentioned but not see is Planet Of The Spiders.

Tragically, eh? Well, I haven't read Harry Sullivan's War (Turlough and the Earthlink Dilemma was more than sufficient to put me off original Who books for several decades) but judging by Ian Marter's excruciatingly boring Target books, maybe his death wasn't such a tragedy after all.

Goog, you should have more faith in Sarah. I'd trust her to, if not change Harry's disgusting views, at least teach him the benefits of keeping his gob shut about them.

So I clicked on "Last Day" and there were no Doctor Who discussions. Totally unaceptable. Then I thought I'd check and see if it's been a year again since the last Harry post. And, if you spot me a week or two, it has.

Time for the annual Nitcentral Harry Thread Revival.

Ummm, where to start. The actor has now been dead an additional year. He hasn't done much else in this past year apart from being dead, so Harry hasn't done much either. No DVDs of Harry stories released in the past year. (I think Ark in Space came out a little over a year ago.)

Ah nevermind. See you next year.

I just read the Target novelization of "The Massacre", written by late Mr. Marter. Typically of his writing, he managed to find some torture scene to focus his limited imagination upon.

Does that help?

Don't you mean 'The Reign of Terror'? 'The Massacre' novelisation was by John Lucarotti.

Hey come on, people, show a little respect here. Regardless of how you all felt about the character of Harry Sullivan, please show some respect for Ian Marter. He had family, friends, and many fans, me among them. It's tragic when someone talented like Mr. Marter is taken from us before his time (and more recently we lost another talented actor whose work I enjoyed, John Ritter).

Furthermore, Ian Marter was one of Doctor Who's biggest supporters. At every convention he attended, he always made sure to promote the show. So even though his role was limited, he still enjoyed his time there.

I still maintain that Harry Sullivan had potential to grow as a character, but the shows writers just were not prepared for the impact of the Fourth Doctor. Like another companion I enjoyed, Nyssa, Harry just got eclipsed by other characters.

So in closing let me say that even if you totally loathe the character of Harry Sullivan, please show respect to the memory of Ian Marter.

I don't think this is asking too much.

Speaking for myself, I quite enjoyed the character of Harry Sullivan. Admittedly this was mainly because he knew his place (as second fiddle to Sarah Jane) and he proved that the male Companions (even the ones who inexplicably acquired medical degrees) were just as s tupid as the female ones (none of whom actually had the Doctor roaring about their imbecility at the top of his voice). It's the character of _Ian Marter_ I have the problems with. Sorry if you see this as disrespect, but just cos a man's dead doesn't in any way affect my distaste for his Target novelisations - if you write sado-masochistic (and, more importantly, excruciatingly boring) children's books, you've got to be prepared for some flak.

I have to second that. I was really startled when I read the novelization of "The Sontaran Experiment." Here is a really simple, straight-forward 2-parter, which Mr. Marter turns into pages of description of pain and gratuitous torture. And at the time, the Target novelizations were aimed directly at young children, which I think is reprehensible. It wasn't a one time occurance; Mr. Marter did the same thing in the novelizations of "The Rescue" and "The Dominators."

Not to mention the use of a certain word in the book of The Enemy Of The Word.

"Not to mention the use of a certain word in the book of The Enemy Of The World."


I take it you're referring to the use of the word "bastard" in that book. Yeah, I heard about all the uproar that it caused.

Funny, compared to what goes on in the current books, that incident now seems pretty tame. How times have changed!

And the Harry discussion has slept for another year.

Well, what IS there to say about Harry? It's not as if there can be any spin-off audios based around him, and the books thoroughly neglect him.

Are you kidding me? He was in at least 4 MAs, and I rather liked him in his most recent PDA "Wolfsbane", despite the rather questionable ending.

And don't forget the Companions of Doctor Who book "Harry Sullivan's War".

He was in at least 4 MAs

He was? Oh. I must have just...not noticed him.

and I rather liked him in his most recent PDA "Wolfsbane"

Ooh yes, he was great in Wolfsbane, completely overshadowed the Doctor. And, given that there were TWO Doctors around, that's quite an achievement.

And don't forget the Companions of Doctor Who book "Harry Sullivan's War"

Mercifully I've never had the pleasure.

Who's bright idea was it to produce those godawful (I read Earthlink Dilemma) books about Companions? And to choose HARRY and TURLOUGH of all people as the eponymous heroes?

HARRY SULLIVAN IS AN IMBICILE!

From my understanding, The Companions of Doctor Who books were, in part, due to the realisation in the mid-80s they were rapidly running out of old stories to novelise - they had a schedule of 12 a year and TV was only making 6 new stories a year (and then it became even less).

Apparently they sold OK, although not as well as the other Doctor Who books. The books editor at the time felt it was crucial the Doctor be *in* them and novelisations of non-TV stories (Slipback, The Ultimate Evil, The Nightmare Fair etc) apparently sold just as well.

As Ian Marter was also novelising stories at the same time, it probably seemed logical he do a Harry Sullivan book. I quite liked it, from memory - he turned Harry into something of an international spy or some such.

Unlike the Turlough bok, which was very boring. You can't compare the Turlough book with the Harry one.

And you didn't notice Harry in the MAs? I'm sure he was on the cover of at least one - probably the Christopher Bulis one.

Let's see, he was in "Face of the Enemy", "System Shock", "Millenium Shock" and "A Device of Death", as well as the aforementioned "Wolfsbane." I thought he acquited himself rather well in DoD. And he wasn't too bad in FotE, though it was more of a cameo.

If Ian Marter was still alive, I'm certain he'd be in every other Big Finish Audio.

he turned Harry into something of an international spy

Huh. You'd think his unsuccessful career as a spy in Robot would've put him off.

You can't compare the Turlough book with the Harry one.

If you say so.

And you didn't notice Harry in the MAs?

It's not that I wasn't vaguely aware he was around SOMEWHERE, I just had him down in the 'massively unpopular book Companion' category with Dodo, Adric, Kamelion, Ben, Polly, Vicki, etc. About the only thing I remember vis-a-vis Sullivanesque revelations is that appalling claim his name is 'Harold'.

And I'm STILL not convinced he was in 'at least 4' MAs. (Face of the Enemy and Millennium Shock being PDAs.)

If Ian Marter was still alive, I'm certain he'd be in every other Big Finish Audio.

Given that 'his' Doctor took one look at Big Finish scripts, chucked them in the bin, and refused to have anything to do with the audios ever (a cruel* but more than understandable reaction) Ian Marter would have had to have his own series. Of course, that's quite likely - so far the Daleks, the Cybermen, UNIT, Sarah Jane, Romana n'Leela, and Benny all have their own series.

*Cruel to me and others who yearn to spend their lives listening to his dulcet tones, obviously. Not cruel to Big Finish - the bin's too good for most of their stuff.

I don't know why Big Finish don't at least let Tom Baker *try* doing one audio his way, scripted by himself. From past interviews, he doesn't seem averse to that. Big Finish have so much output now a one-off experiment would be worth the risk - if it doesn't work, OK fair enough, if it does, then great. What have they got to lose?

THAT is a TERRIFIC idea. Even if a) he couldn't write (and he can - see Who on Earth is Tom Baker? and The Boy Who Kicked Pigs) and b) hordes of fans wouldn't pay a fortune just to hear that Voice even if he was reading out the telephone directory (and we would - even those of us who have treacherously abandoned his altar for Eccleston's) and c) there wasn't a ready-made uncanonical series in which anything he wrote would fit perfectly (the Unbounds) and d) an evil Fourth Doctor talking to a cabbage Companion isn't a marvellous idea (and it is) then...as you say...what have Big Finish got to lose? How could it POSSIBLY be worse than 90% of the stuff that they're churning out? I defy anyone, even Mick Lewis, to write more of an abomination than 'Master'.

Okay, it's 2 MAs, 3 PDAs, one Companions of Doctor Who novel, and 2 Short Trips. Considering that he only appeared in 6 televised stories, that's pretty good.

"Ian Marter would have had to have his own series. Of course, that's quite likely - so far the Daleks, the Cybermen, UNIT, Sarah Jane, Romana n'Leela, and Benny all have their own series."


I imagine Big Finish probably would have paired Harry off with Sarah Jane, or had him working with UNIT. I agree that Ian Marter would have done it, he was one of Who's biggest supporters.

The character of Harry Sullivan was the victim of bad timing. He was brought in to be part of the UNIT team at a time when UNIT was on the way out. Not only did they have a new Doctor (Tom Baker), but they had new blood behind the scenes (Philip Hincliffe and Robert Holmes). Both felt it was time to dump UNIT and get the show back into space more often. They only made three UNIT shows in the Tom Baker era: Robot, Terror Of The Zygons, and Android Invasion (I don't count Seeds Of Doom because none of the UNIT regulars showed up in that story).

Had Harry been brought in during the Jon Pertwee era, he probably would have been on the show longer.

Yeah, but he'd've had even less of a role. Harry's only purpose seemed to be to do physical action stuff (UNIT had an abundance of men capable of punching people), to be gormless (UNIT had Benton, AND seemed happy to turn the Brigadier into a thicko whenever extra stupidity was needed), and to gawp at strange planets and space-stations (not particularly applicable during the Pertwee era).

The original plan when casting for the 4th Doctor was to have someone fairly old, & have a companian to deal with the action scenes. Richard Herne was a favourite, along with Leslie French & Graham Cowden. During auditions it decided Tom Baker had been the most impressive. Jim Dale was another younger performer who tried for the part.

Nearly three years have passed since anyone has said anything about Harry, so here goes. I liked him. Okay, the guy made some mistakes, but he just had this charm about him. He was an old fashioned gentlemen living in the wrong century (he would have been right at home in Victorian times). Still, I did enjoy his brief time on the show.

It's a shame that Ian Marter is no longer with us. I'm sure he would have jumped to take part in the DVD commentaries (Mr. Marter often promoted the show whenever he could). His insights into his character and the stories he appeared in would have been interesting.

My mind is wandering. We never see Harry inside the TARDIS. What other companions is this true of? Liz, I think (I'm not really familiar with Ambassadors of Death, but I don't believe there were any TARDIS interior shots.) Yates if you want to count him. That's it, isn't it?

Well, we don't actually SEE Charley, C'rizz, Roz, Chris, Benny, Sam, Evelyn, Fitz, Anji, Compassion, and Hex in the TARDIS...

No, Liz was never in the TARDIS. Mind you, the whole time she knew the Doctor, he was stuck on Earth.

I would think she made it in though, just that we didn't see her. She had too much scientific curiosity not to. And someone had to help the Doctor get the console out.

When did Liz ever display any scientific curiosity? Spearhead she spent sniggering at the idea of aliens, Silurians passing the Doc his test tubes as he discovered a cure for the virus, Ambassadors getting kidnapped, and Inferno getting computer figures for the Doctor that he didn't actually need. Then she swanned off back to Cambridge. Even I've got more scientific curiosity than Liz Shaw.

I was giving her the benefit of the doubt. She was a scientist; she must have had some scientific curiosity. I blame the sexist writers for not allowing us to see it on screen.

Spearhead she spent sniggering at the idea of aliens
The Brig made a claim without any evidence. She should snigger.
And apparently she just didn't notice Cybermen marching around London, Yeti in the underground, Daleks at Coal Hill School, etc.

Silurians passing the Doc his test tubes as he discovered a cure for the virus
By this time she realised she hadn't a chance of finding a cure before he did, and it's to her credit that she acted like a laboratory assistant rather than let someone like the Brig try. At least she could get the right test tube to the Doctor.

Ambassadors getting kidnapped
Nothing to do with scientific curiosity really. Plus Who has a long tradition of kidnapping scientists, with Kerensky in City of Death, that myopic guy in Time Warrior, Watkins in The Invasion and many more, including the Doctor on several occasions.

I was giving her the benefit of the doubt.

Oh, THAT. Yeah, not something I practice myself.

Spearhead she spent sniggering at the idea of aliens
The Brig made a claim without any evidence. She should snigger.
And apparently she just didn't notice Cybermen marching around London, Yeti in the underground, Daleks at Coal Hill School, etc.

Well, QUITE. It's not quite up there with the amnesia/lobotomy required by the Great British Public in these happy new series days, but she'd have to be pretty thick/incurious not to notice ANY of these.

Silurians passing the Doc his test tubes as he discovered a cure for the virus
By this time she realised she hadn't a chance of finding a cure before he did, and it's to her credit that she acted like a laboratory assistant rather than let someone like the Brig try. At least she could get the right test tube to the Doctor.

Nonsense, the Brig or even Benton could have managed the test tubes just fine. (I mean, if JO GRANT can fulfil this purpose 'admirably'...) Come to think of it, I remember Liz wandering around dressed as a nurse giving people useless antibiotics a lot, so maybe I was exaggerating her test tube skills.

Ambassadors getting kidnapped
Nothing to do with scientific curiosity really.

True, but this was - goddess help us - SEVEN EPISODES LONG. You'd think Liz would have had time to do SOMETHING vaguely scientific in-between all the kidnapping.

(To be fair, she might actually have done so, I have immense difficulty remembering what happens in Ambassadors even while I'm watching it.)

Honestly, science-illiterate, new-flavour-of-Pringles-is-the-height-of-excitement DONNA NOBLE displays more scientific curiosity in ANY five minutes of season 4/30 than 'Dr' Shaw does in her entire on-screen life.

To get back to the original question, Liz did get a trip in the TARDIS in the PDA Wages of Sin. Though sadly it didn't actually give a REASON for the Doc and Jo to bother with her.

Anyway, back to Harry (Liz Shaw has her own forum here, after all).

As for not seeing the inside of the TARDIS at this time, don't forget that for most of the time Harry travlled with the Doctor and Sarah, they were separated from the TARDIS. They left it in Ark In Space and didn't return to it until the end of Revenge Of The Cybermen, three stories later. Then it was back to Earth, and Harry decided to stay there.

So, there really wasn't any post of using the TARDIS interior sets in this season.

To get back to the original question, Liz did get a trip in the TARDIS in the PDA Wages of Sin. Though sadly it didn't actually give a REASON for the Doc and Jo to bother with her.

It was originally a first Doctor story but was re-written for the third.

Not sure who the companions were originally: Ben & Polly, Dodo & Steven, or Vicki & Steven. Either way, a man's part was re-written for a woman, and a non-scientist's for a scientist.

THAT explains a lot.

I wonder, if Ian Marter were still with us, would he have appeared on the New Series. He always was one of Who's biggest supporters (even though he was on the show very briefly).

Or perhaps he would have appeared on the Sarah Jane Adventures.

I guess we'll never know, but it would have been nice to see Harry Sullivan again.

Given that the Brig himself didn't rate more than a mention from the new series, it's hardly likely that Harry the imbecilic nonentity would turn up. But yeah, would've been great to see him in the SJA...wonder if he'd still dare call Sarah and 'old girl' now that she actually IS an old girl...I can't help remembering that Justin Richards wanted to have them married in System Shock (or was it Millennium Shock? SO unmemorable) and that Harry was half in love with Sarah in Wolfsbane. Wonder if the SJA could cope with any romance...

I don't think they'd have gone that far, rather I just saw Harry and Sarah as good friends. It would have been nice to see them team up again. Alas, Ian Marter's sad passing (he was only 43, I'm almost that age now) prevented that.

I guess if they start making SJA original novels, they can have Harry in one.

Ian Marter was born and died on the same day, October 28, today. The man died on his birthday.

October 28 is also my birthday. I'm now older than he got to be.

Wherever you are now, Mr. Marter, in the Great Who Celebrities Convention in the sky, Happy Birthday.

There, there. Just think of what the Doc said in Lazarus Experiment about some people living more in twenty years than others do in eighty and it's not the time that counts, it's the person.

Frankly I'd be astonished if any part of him was capable of having a happy birthday right now, but he lives on in our DVDs, videos, novelisations, happy memories, and of course the immortal line 'Harry Sullivan is an imbecile!'

Frankly I'd be astonished if any part of him was capable of having a happy birthday right now

Well, there really isn't any way to know for certain now. The Doctor might know, but he's not telling.

Anyway, you're right that we have all the DVD's and such to remember him by.

Well, there really isn't any way to know for certain now. The Doctor might know, but he's not telling.

Captain Jack, on the other hand, DOES know and DID tell. NOTHING! Eternal blackness! (Alright, admittedly with monsters moving in it, which is kinda confusing...)

Didn't Owen run into the monsters as well?

Actually I THINK it was only Suzie who spotted the monsters - but as she SAID they were after Jack, presumably he does too, on those numerous occasions he snuffs it.

I wonder if that is the Whoniverse's answer to Hell. To me, it sounds more scary than the Christian one. A dark place, being stalked by monsters. Brrrr...

Versus being eternally burned? I'll take stalking.

To each their own. Happy Halloween

Moderator's Note: Moved from the Terror of the Zygons section:

Harry got his tan coat back somehow. He took it off on Skaro when the Kaleds first captured him and the Doctor. He didn't have it when they left Skaro and returned to Nerva. He didn't have it when they piled into the TARDIS when the Doctor told them about the Brigadier signalling them.

Yet somehow he got it back. I guess the Doctor whipped up a new coat for Harry. Nice chap, that Doctor.

Oh, Harry's coat would be even more beneath the Doctor's notice than Harry himself. No doubt it was the TARDIS wardrobe who took care of this without any instructions from HIM.

Harry is not beneath the Doctors notice.

Always remember-Harry Sullivan is an imbocile(?)!!!(and with my spelling skills-I'm not too far behind ).

OK, so Harry is beneath the Doctor's notice (they didn't even get to say GOODBYE!) EXCEPT when he's inadvertently attempting to blow the Doctor to smithereens, bless his (lack of) brains...

Hey-be fair. He was trying to free the Doctor-he had no way of knowing it would set off a bomb(sorry about that Chief).

Did it not OCCUR to Harry that the Doctor was, on the whole, QUITE A BRAINY BLOKE and that if it had been as easy as UNDOING A BUCKLE to rid himself of being a walking bomb, HE'D'VE BLOODY DONE IT ALREADY?

He's also seen that the Doctor can be both easily distracted and forgetful--so no I don't think he can assume that.

Oh, there the posts are!

He's also seen that the Doctor can be both easily distracted and forgetful--so no I don't think he can assume that.

Harry has (presumably, though it's utterly impossible to picture - they're just different eras) met Pertwee, not the remotely distracted and forgetful type. Then he had three weeks of an unconscious Tom. (Again, not exactly distracted and forgetful.) Then, OK, so the Doc behaved in an extremely bizarre and erratic manner but no doubt the Brig explained the whole 'post-regenerative trauma' thing - and the Doctor DID still save humanity from being fried in a nuke war. Then he saved humanity from being eaten by the Wirrn before saving Earth from being conquered by the Sontarans before having big moral dilemmas about whether to save the universe from the Daleks. I doubt 'distracted and forgetful' are exactly the first words that spring to mind when Harry thinks about the Doctor. (Exactly WHY he doesn't prostrate himself before the Time Lord and worship him as a God I just don't know. Well, maybe it was being locked in a cupboard or kidnapped to alien planets and things. Though Harry didn't seem the narrow-minded, grudge-holding type).

Anyway, how could ANYONE forget a bomb that's strapped to your own back...even if they had Alzheimer's?

The Doctor was knocked out at the time. Harry didn't know it was a bomb. It was Lester that tipped Harry off.

Hmm. That's a point. He just saw the Doc had something buckled on and tried to remove it? OK, I can live with that. At least until I can face a re-watch.

If Harry was in his thirties when he met the Doctor, he was raised during the fifties - not exactly an enlightened time when it came to sexual equality. The kind of family that produces a Naval officer wouldn't be conducive to "modern" thinking either.
I know i shouldn't defend MCP's like Harry but he was a product of his time.

Yeah, fair point, and at least he was a MCP in a 'charming and old-fashioned' way rather than a 'total git' way. And he may even have been designed like that - to contrast with Sarah's OOH LOOK I'M ALL WOMEN'S LIB! persona - rather than, as with several other male Companions AND DOCTORS I could mention, just being that way because the production team were appallingly sexist.

Happy Birthday to fellow October 28th born Ian Marter.

You share a birthday with Ian Marter? That's bad luck. I got WILLIAM HARTNELL.

Well, I don't consider it bad luck.

I'm sorry, I can't get over the Sontaran Experiment novelisation, I just CAN'T.

Well, that's your opinion and you're welcome to it. I, however, liked the man.

I haven't read any of this books so he's cool with me.

Harry Sullivan and Ian Marter are two separate people, who can't be blamed for each other's faults. Even if we discovered one of the characters had been played by a child-killing sadist, that shouldn't affect our view of the character one bit. After all, the script writers wouldn't have known, so they couldn't have incorporated the actors vices into the character.

I haven't read any of this books so he's cool with me.

And if you take my advice you'll continue to steer WELL clear of them.

Harry Sullivan and Ian Marter are two separate people, who can't be blamed for each other's faults.

But they look so alike!

AND so does that bloke in Carnival who tries to give our Doctor a •••• good hiding!

Even if we discovered one of the characters had been played by a child-killing sadist, that shouldn't affect our view of the character one bit.

It shouldn't but it does. I haven't felt quite the same about Captain Yates since meeting someone at Tavern who'd encountered the actor. Obviously I can't go into detail for libel-related reasons but honestly, if you think him getting dinosaurs to rampage around central London was bad...

Harry Sullivan would have made a good radio DJ. Oldies music format, obviously.

Bloody, selfish, ruthless, diabetes. It didn't care that we wanted to know Ian Marter for a long time yet. One of life's true gentlemen and a decent, honest, humble man who seemingly didn't have a bad word to say about anybody.

Yeah, I hadn't realised how much he and Tom Baker absolutely adored each other till I read Elisabeth Sladen's autobiography. Still, those WERE staggeringly bad Target novelisations...

Bloody, selfish, ruthless, diabetes. It didn't care that we wanted to know Ian Marter for a long time yet. One of life's true gentlemen and a decent, honest, humble man who seemingly didn't have a bad word to say about anybody.

I can relate. Not only do I share a birthday with Mr. Marter (October 28th), but I also have the same illness that he had (I was diagnosed in 2001). Thankfully, I've had no serious health issues because of it.

Happy Birthday to fellow October 28 born Ian Marter, wherever you are.

I hope you, Lis Sladen, and Nick Courteney are happily swapping stories of the best times you all had on Doctor Who.

Ian Marter would have been 69 this year. He should have been a part of the 50th Anniversary.

There are a LOT of people who SHOULD have been a part of the 50th Anniversary. Some of 'em are even ALIVE.

Yeah, I wish he were still around too. He was one of Doctor Who's biggest supporters.

There's being ADORABLY thick, like bringing rocks crashing down on the Doctor's skull and then nearly blowing him up. (Let's face it...we'd ALL have been there if only we'd been blessed with Companionship.) And then there's 'Do you expect me to believe that that old police box is just going to materialise out of nothing' - in REVENGE OF THE CYBERMEN, which sorely tempts one to have Harry put down before he can contaminate our gene-pool further by breeding. He KNOWS said box can travel in space and time, appear out of thin air, is bigger-on-the-inside etc etc...why is the concept of it being steered by remote control so utterly beyond his comprehension?

Harry wants to buy his way out of the Navy and have a quiet practice in the country since WHEN! If he hates the Navy, he should be glad to be in UNIT instead. If he hates UNIT, he should be glad to be in the TARDIS instead. If he hates the military life in general, why the hell did he join up in the first place?

Why does Harry suggest to Sarah that she single-handedly makes her way back to the Beacon to warn the Doc? Maybe he's thick enough to be blissfully unaware that it's full of Cybermen, or that the Doc's smart enough to spot a rocket if it's approaching at high speed but still, since when has he volunteered a member of the Fair Sex to make her way alone through a warzone before teleporting off round the universe?

'Kellman - he's dead, by the way' - and, er, Harry...you did NOTICE that YOU KILLED HIM, right? I'm not expecting you to go into paroxysms of grief and guilt over the double-dealing murderer but...take a moment to consider that your stupidity has slaughtered a fellow human, and one who, whatever his faults (like mass-murder) does SEEM to be single-mindedly devoted to keeping humanity (and Voganity) safe from the Cybermen.

Happy Birthday to fellow October 28th born Ian Marter. Mr. Marter would have turned 70 today.

As for me, I'm now 47, three years away from the half-century mark.

wasn't he born in 1944?

One time U.S. vice-president Levi P. Morton also had the misfortune of dying on his birthday - his 96th in his case.

Why would dying on one's birthday be a misfortune?

Cause you'd be dead.

Well for Ian Marter, dying on his birthday can't have been fun.

Yeah, that just sucks.

What I was actually asking was why would dying on one's birthday be a greater misfortune than dying on any other day?

'You remember Harry Sullivan? He went off to do good works with the UN. I visited him in Eritrea' - No Future. Great. ANOTHER claim about What Harry Did Next. Though I suppose he COULD have fitted in a few aid convoys before working for MI5 (System/Millennium Shock), NATO (Mawdryn Undead), making chemical/biological weapons (Harry Sullivan's War), curing diseases (SJA: Death of the Doctor, Damaged Goods)...

So (conspiracy theory), did Harry have Doctor Sweetman (originally intended for PotS) bumped off so he could become UNIT's medical officer?

Certainly not. Face of the Enemy explains how Harry accidentally became involved with UNIT. Revenge of the Cybermen explains that all he really wants is to retire from all the excitement and have a little GP's practice in the country. Numerous UNIT stories reveal what a high mortality race that organisation has - no doubt Sweetman was bumped off by that week's alien invasion. And Revenge also explains that HARRY SULLIVAN IS AN IMBECILE who could NEVER get away with murder or, indeed, anything.

Happy Birthday to fellow October 28th born Ian Marter.

Hope you're having a blast on your side of the Veil. You have enough of your former co-stars there with you now.

Happy 48th, Tim.

Happy Birthday, Tim.

Thank you both

Like Jackie Tyler, Tim will be 49 for a while.

Robot:

So how stupid do you have to be to work at a top-secret alien-fighting military organisation and NOT hear any rumours about your Chief Scientific Advisor's bigger-on-the-inside space-and-time machine?

Or to have a guy as your patient for weeks and NOT NOTICE his two hearts...?

'We've done it Harry, we've done it' - so sweet of the Doc to share the credit with HARRY of all people.

'Thank you Harry' – and it's interesting that he NEVER gets to be 'Lieutenant' to the Doctor the way the OTHER UNIT guys get addressed by their titles. Had the Fourth Doctor had his eye on him for a Spare Companion from the start? (And if so, WHY? What's wrong with Sarah?)

Seemed a bit useless to me, didnt really add anything to the stories, Always wrong, saying that all the humans in The Ark In Space are dead, easily gets captured in Robot.

Spends The Sontaran Experiment falling down, spends most of Terror Of The Zygons in hospital apart from the clone scene.

It was the very fact he managed to be bumbling-and-useless that made Harry so...useful. At last, SOMEONE could fulfil the True Role of a Companion - to progress the plot/pad out the stories by getting into trouble - WITHOUT it being sexist.

And, whilst the Fourth Doctor and Sarah didn't really NEED an addition to their perfect team, Harry DID add something. I just can't put my finger on WHAT.

It's not sexist to show a female as bumbling or stupid - it makes them human to show them as flawed, rather than as goddesses.

True, but when you've basically got twenty-six years-worth of some MAN saving the world while a scantily-clad ankle-twisting GIRL clutches him squealing 'What's happening Doctor' the net result is...not entirely positive for the female of the species.

I get the feeling that if Ian Marter had lived, Harry Sullivan would have turned up on the Sarah Jane Adventures.

Hell, yeah, they dragged in Jo and the Brig (even though he was on his last legs), they WERE gonna drag in Ace...Harry would have been a shoo-in.

I wouldn't mind a spoof called Sullivan, M.D. showing Harry's bumbling attempts at being a G.P.

Bumbling? The Brigadier assures us that Harry is a first-rate Doctor (Robot). Sarah assures us that Harry's medical research saved loads of lives (SJA: Death of the Doctor). Ian Marter himself assures us that Harry is a top-notch inventor of biological warfare (Harry Sullivan's War). The evidence of our own eyes (viz, Harry spectacularly failing to notice that his patient of several weeks HAS TWO HEARTS) is neither here nor there...

He was the last interesting male companion the classic Doctor ever had. In NuWho, Rory comes close, but Ian was more jovial. Of course Jamie and Ian are the tops in that category, with Steven getting an honourable mention.

Harry is mildly adorable, but 'interesting' in what possible sense of the word...?

Come to think of it, is there a single male Companion who IS 'interesting'?

They can try to smash the Doc's head in with a rock, or die and die again, or be an omnisexual Time Agent with two years of their lives missing, or be a toy-panda-obsessed astronaut, or bark 'Chap with the wings there! Five rounds rapid!' but in the end Our Hero is some sort of black hole that just sucks the interest right out of 'em...

Wilf was an interesting, if short lived male companion.

Oh, WILF. Of course I didn't mean to insult WILF.

Emily in the Benton thread:

Harry's is Henry or (according to some stupid novel or other) HAROLD...

It could also be Harrison.

In which case it's pretty odd that TomDoc didn't deliver a sweet little reminiscence about Harry whilst being mulched by Harrison Chase...

...Oh, who do I think I'm fooling. It's Old Who. He'll've totally forgotten that poor old Dr Sullivan ever existed by Seeds of Doom...

For anyone who thinks diabetes is not a serious disease, you just have to look at Ian Marter, dead of a diabetes-induced heart attack at just 42. Or 1980s American actress Dana Hill, dead of a diabetic stroke at only 32.

I hear you, Judi.

As I said, I not only share a birthday with Mr. Marter, but I also have the same illness that killed him.

Mary Tyler Moore is often thrown at us as an example of the so-called "good" diabetic, but she has a lot of diabetic damage, including the loss of most of her vision.

Ian Marter was shafted by how things turned out. Two people i wish had lived long enough to produce an NA/MA/BBCNA/PDA are David Whitaker and Ian Marter.

As i said, whenever people try to tell me that diabetes is not a serious disease, I tell them about Ian Marter, dead at only 42 from diabetes.

Frankly I've suffered enough from his excruciatingly boring and thoroughly unpleasant Target novelisations - not to mention the jaw-dropping awfulness of Harry Sullivan's War - not to mourn overmuch on THAT account but of course I'm sorry he's not around to do audios with Tom.

(And of course that someone who gave millions so much pleasure as Harry Sullivan was robbed of their life so young.)

As i said, whenever people try to tell me that diabetes is not a serious disease, I tell them about Ian Marter, dead at only 42 from diabetes.

As a diabetic myself, I say amen to that, Judi.

Now Dick van Patten ("Eight is Enough", "Spaceballs") has died from diabetes complications. If Ian Marter were still here, he'd be fighting on the barricades for a cure.

True. However, Mr. Van Patten was 86 years old.

Poor Mr. Marter didn't even make it to 45.

Yes but Van Patten probably developed it later in life - Marter did not so he had complications earlier and they killed him earlier.

Could be. I didn't get it until 2001 (when I was 34).

Happy Birthday to fellow October 28th born Ian Marter. Hope you're having a good one in whatever realm you now inhabit.

I plan to have a nice birthday here on Planet Earth.

Would they re-cast Harry?

Big Finish have just recast THE THIRD DOCTOR, no blasphemy is beyond them.

On-screen, I wouldn't think so for a moment, or we'd've had an elderly man bearing a vague resemblance to Harry turning up in SJA: Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith and Death of the Doctor.

OK, so HOW did our Imbecile manage to create a gas that turned Zygons inside-out without having any effect on humans? It's not like he had any living Zygons to experiment on (one hopes). It's not like he had many brains, either. It's also not like NATO to bother creating a specific weapon against a specific monster - took UNIT long enough to think of gold-tipped bullets.

Still, such matters are of little importance when set against the heartwarming fact that - at least 1,250 years and nine lifetimes later...the Doctor STILL remembers Harry Sullivan. As an imbecile.

I think the reason that fandom thinks fondly and uncynically of Ian Marter and Roger Delgado is that they died before the convention circuit/organised fandom got into full swing. They never repeated the same old anecdotes. Fans never heard a cross word from them when they were tired or stressed. Fans never saw them closing the drinks bar with their fellow actors.

Ian Marter and Roger Delgado remained untouched, unsullied.

That's a good excuse for Delgado to be canonised, but hasn't fandom READ Ian Marter's Target novelisations?! Unsullied? The man was a sadist, and what's infinitely worse, a REALLY BORING sadist.

How disappointed and angry the Doctor must be towards Harry for creating Sullivan's Gas. And i can only imagine how Sarah Jane feels.

By the way he called it 'the Imbecile's Gas' he's probably not so much disappointed and angry as resigned to the fact that an Imbecile's gotta do what an Imbecile's gotta do.

Sarah - if she knew about the gas - obviously didn't have an enormous problem with it, given the way she said 'I loved Harry' on her wedding day. Maybe - unlike the Doctor - after fighting off her fifty-ninth alien invasion she started to feel (all lectures to the kiddies to the contrary) that honestly, sometimes you've just gotta GENOCIDE the gits.

'He has the lowest-drama entrance and exit ever, chumping amiably into the story and back out of it again without too much in between aside from his titanic battle with a giant clam' - Companion Piece. Hadn't quite thought of it like that, but its TRUE. And just a little heart-breaking that Harry didn't even reluctantly offer to stay if the Doctor needed him, as Ben did...

Tom Baker mentioned Ian having hypos while they were filming and Tom and Lis having to keep Mars Bars on hand to feed Ian to raise his blood sugar back up.

I was thinking how TOTALLY it would be worth having diabetes if it meant getting fed Mars Bars by Tom Baker when I remembered that he DIED of it, so...no.

Harry never got a fair chance. I'd rather have had him than Sarah Jane. I made up a song about how much i dislike Sarah - "Sarah Jane, She's Such a Pain! Sarah Jane, Does She Snort Cocaine?"

Um...no. She doesn't.

And there's no reason they couldn't have kept the Imbecile AND Sarah on. Tom obviously adored Ian Marter and he complemented the sublime Sarah/Four line-up rather well, if not to the extent that adding Captain Jack impossibly managed to make the already-perfect Rose/Nine line-up EVEN BETTER.

Happy Birthday to fellow October 28th born Ian Marter.

He would have been 73 now. As for me, I'm now 50.

That's SO OLD!

My condolences.

Ian Marter: "Dying Young Retroactively Makes You More Talented"

Not necessarily.

His Target novelisations are RIGHT THERE for anyone to judge his writing talent, or lack thereof...

(Of course, as an ACTOR he's either sublime or (like Tom Baker) just not NEEDING to bother to act, a natural-born Harry Sullivan...but he didn't need to go and DIE for us to relish Season Twelve of blessed memory...)

Once again I raise my glass to say Happy Birthday to fellow October 28th born Ian Marter.

Imagine if Ian had been cast as Vince Hawkins? he made a good lighthouse keeper in that advert, after all.

It looked like Harry Sullivan had quit UNIT and had become a lighthouse keeper.

Well, stranger things have happened.

Like the Brig becoming a maths teacher.

Good point.

Of course, by the time this commercial was made, lighthouses were all more or less automated. This commercial was anachronistic.

Must have been a timey-wimey thing

Tim: anachronism is common on TV. television sets on screen still use static long after tv sets stopped working that way in the real world.

Wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey!

the retconning of Harry Sullivan as a man who would make a toxic nerve gas capable of murdering Zygons. The real Harry was neither cruel or smart enough to do something like that.

Seems they did that so they could make the joke about the "Imbecile's gas".

the retconning of Harry Sullivan as a man who would make a toxic nerve gas capable of murdering Zygons. The real Harry was neither cruel or smart enough to do something like that.

How cruel IS it to make a deadly weapon against a race that invaded your planet and tried to wipe out your species and will probably try again?

I mean, it's not gonna win any Nobel Peace Prizes but I'd view it as somewhat less evil than, say, the UK's nuclear arsenal.

Have to admit I'm with you on the 'not smart enough' front, but the guy's GOT to be smarter than he looks, after all, Sarah Jane said he created vaccines that saved thousands.

And as Tom Baker once memorably remarked, 'Your mind is beginning to work. It's entirely due my influence, of course. You mustn't take any credit.'

Seems they did that so they could make the joke about the "Imbecile's gas".

Which is fine by me, gave me SUCH a warm fuzzy nostalgic glow, unlike the REST of the Zygon two-parter.

Yeah, since we can never see Harry again, it's nice that he's mentioned.

Though it's probably just as well they cut those lines from Knock Knock where that student Harry was revealed to be THE Harry's grandson, you can take fanwank too far...

They should have left it in. It would have been a nice tip of the hat to Classic Who.

Dunno about nice, having talked about his gay Great-Wall-of-China-robbing granddad for no readily apparent reason, for Young Harry to launch into an discussion of his Imbecile's-Gas-granddad as well would be a bit much.

having talked about his gay Great-Wall-of-China-robbing granddad for no readily apparent reason

They could have cut that bit out and just had him talk about our Harry.

Harry seems too "British" to spawn any sprogs.

The British manage to breed, all too well.

(I mean, gods know HOW or WHY, but believe me, this island is OVERPOPULATED.)

I wonder what Harry would smell of? Probably lavender.

Probably sweat after running round various planets for days without a bath or change of clothing.

Yeah, he had no access to the TARDIS for his entire run with the Doctor, except at the beginning and end.

TomDoc: "Oh, Harry, you really should wear cologne".

Since when have the Doctor or even Companions ever commented on the stench of, say, a crowd of medieval peasants? Alright, so maybe Tom was hinting at SOMETHING when he bizarrely passed Sarah that uniform to change into in Genesis. And Tennant gleefully mentioned 'The ripe old smell of humans' in Utopia. And of course Rose tactfully told Mickey-the-Idiot 'You're stinking' in Rose but BASICALLY the Doc NEVER indelicately raises such matters, as I realised when the Iron Bright audio had Six complain of 'nasal offences'.

My mother liked to say that women didn't smell as bad as men so you'd think Tom would be more worried about Harry smelling like a sewer.

Blimey, that's one hell of a u-turn from 'lavender' to 'sewer'...

Well, you are the one who said Harry would smell of BO...!

Well, Harry was wearing the same clothes throughout. He had no access to the TARIS.

Unless he grabbed a shower on Nerva or Skaro, when we weren't looking.

Happy Birthday to Ian Marter.

You've got enough Who talent with you over there now that you can make your own series.

Ian would be 74. Even if his diabetes had been less severe, it might have killed him by now anyway.

You've got enough Who talent with you over there now that you can make your own series.

That would be breaking the Second Commandment - Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods Before Me. (Of course, they've only got the first three Doctors up there plus Hurt and they're NEVER getting their hands on Tom so maybe Jehovah won't see it as QUITE such a challenge to his godhood, though mind you, they're all better at doing the 'god' thing than a golden calf and he got pretty pissy about THAT.)

Though once you're in heaven it's a done deal, isn't it? You can presumably break all the commandments you like without fear of being hurled down to the Other Place.

Though actually making Doctor Who Meets Scratchman would turn heaven to hell in record time...

I wonder if Marter ever told anyone what his ideas for his planned sequel to Harry Sullivan's War were?

Let's hope to god not or you just KNOW it will be inflicted on us like Scratchman...

If any notes for a sequel to Harry Sullivan's War exist, no doubt the Marter estate have them.

Yes, and unless the ransom is paid, they'll release them. ;-)

Well, that is technically correct. The Marter estate would have to be paid for those notes, if said notes exist.

Although I'm not sure if Ian Marter owned the rights to the character itself.

"I'm no regressive, I'm a naval officer!"

That's an oxymoron, Harry. Just look at Commander Millington...

Seemingly, a photo of Harry is one of those photos that you often see in newspapers accompanied by a caption which ends with the words " ... before turning the gun on himself."

I assume you have documentation to back this claim up.

It's meant to be a ludicrously tragic joke about Harry.

Well, it's not funny.

Bad enough Ian Marter was cut down in the prime of his life, leave his character alone.

Today would have been Ian Marter's 75th birthday.

I sometimes wonder what-if: Ian Marter had lived just a few more months and achieved what he was planning: the sequel to "Harry Sullivan's War" and his novelisation of "Doctor Who Meets Scratchman". A "Scratchman" published during the Classic Who era would have been very different to the one from Goss.

Yeah, it would have been a LOT more faithful to the original, i.e. an abomination.

I hope Marter's children kept his notes for HSW 2 etc.

One Harry Sullivan's War is quite as much as humanity needs, thank you.

Better than another EarthLink Dilemma.

True, and also the faintest praise you can possibly •••• someone with.

Wonder what the planned Tegan original novel in the W.H. Allan/Target Books era of the late eighties would have been like.

Janet Fielding once said that when JNT or BBC Enterprises wanted her, they were all over her like fleas on a blanket...

I think the problem some had with Harry Sullivan's War is that it's not really Doctor Who. Rather Harry was inserted into a spy thriller, more along the lines of James Bond and/or Jason Bourne (did the Bourne novels even exist back then).

However, that did not stop me from enjoying it.

I wish Ian Marter had gotten the chance to take the character further, before his untimely death.

Spyfall also shows how attempting to turn Doctor Who into James Bond turns the programme to ••••

Um, aside from the fact that Spyfall is brilliant.

Ian Marter was the first Classic Who Companion to pass away, I believe.

If original Doctor Who novels had been done by W.H. Allen/Target Books in the mid to late seventies, David Whitaker and Malcolm Hulke would have been two of the writers.

A much more interesting and Classic Doctor Who tinged approach than we got with the Prime timeline's NAs?

In his book, The Companions, JNT said that he wanted to bring Harry Sullivan back.

Of course, it never happened.

Harry's rank in the Royal Navy is Lieutenant-Surgeon but isn't Lieutenant a fairly low rank? Also what does seconded to UNIT mean?

DWM:

---

quote:

the key to Harry Sullivan is that you shouldn't let the fact that he's a blithering idiot make you underestimate him.

---

what does seconded to UNIT mean?

I think they confused "seconded" with "secondment":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secondment

But the caption to the Wikipedia page you linked to reads, "The warrant officer in the khaki shirt is an instructor who has been seconded from the Royal Anglian Regiment to the Bermuda Regiment to provide training".

So seconded is a term that can be used to refer to secondment.

So I guess both are used.

Of course, they could have just said Harry was transferred.

Big Finish has cast its Harry:
https://www.bigfinish.com/news/v/sadie-miller-is-sarah-jane-smith

Why the hell would anyone need another Revenge of the Cybermen? One is enough. Some may argue, MORE than enough.

Well, at least Sadie Miller sounds a bit more Sarah-ish than I was expecting after her turn as Nat in the Sarah Jane Smith audios.

So we finally got a fake Harry.

Happy Birthday to fellow October 28th born Ian Marter.

I s'pose there's absolutely no point in debating the - point? Philosophy? - of wishing a DEAD PERSON happy birthday.

The Moffat Era has rendered 'death', if not entirely meaningless, at least...negotiable.

If Ian Marter still exists somewhere, and can see this site, I just want him to know that he's appreciated.

And - not that I believe in people reading Nitcentral from the afterlife - I just want him to know he's appreciated as Harry Sullivan.

Do not mention the novelisations...

Do not mention the novelisations...

Well, it's almost Halloween, when the barriers between worlds go down.

If he's gonna come back to haunt you because you don like his novelizations, it would be now.

And how cool would that be.

It WOULD be pretty cool, yeah.

If he ever does put in an appearance, Emily, be sure to let us know.

Once more, Happy Birthday to Ian Marter. You would have turned 77 today.

Harry's latest adventures on Big Finish has him having adventures with someone called Naomi Cross (who I don't know anything about).


I can only imagine of what the late Ian Marter would have thought of how far Harry has come without him.

Naomi Cross is an UNIT member and Companion to the Fourth and Seventh Doctors. Originally from the 1980's but Four left her and Harry in the 2010's instead. From then, she joined UNIT and eventually travelled with Seven.

https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/Naomi_Cross

Unfortunately BF haven't got round to releasing her Fourth Doctor audios yet so she appears annoyingly out-of-time and annoyingly characterless alongside Harry in UNIT and Seventh Doc CDs with zero explanation. (Alright, it's not hard to guess the Doc 'accidentally' dumped 'em in the wrong time, but that's not the POINT.)

Well, Harry's EPs were of course alongside Sarah Jane, so if Four was travelling with Harry and Naomi, Sarah would also be there.

I would have made it a bit differently. I'd have started it right after Android Invasion. He meets a Seven that's somewhere between Ace&Hex and Benny. He stows away. They end up somewhere, maybe 51st century, or maybe a superadvanced alien planet. They meet Naomi Cross here. They get away from the Doctor and somehow end up on 2010 Earth, where they join UNIT.

79 years ago, October 28th, 1944, Ian Marter was born.

He sadly died on October 28th, 1986, on his 42nd birthday.

Happy Heavenly Birthday, Ian.

At least Harry lives on, in Big Finish, and the fake-replacement isn't actually too bad, so Ian Marter can RIP instead of spinning in his grave as poor Barbara no doubt is...

I suppose so.