Captain Mike Yates is a
fictional character in the
British
science fiction television series
Doctor Who, played by Richard Franklin. He was adjutant of
the British contingent of
UNIT
(
United
Nations
Intelligence
Taskforce, later
retitled:
UNified
Intelligence
Taskforce for the new series), an international
organisation that defends the Earth from
alien threats.
Character history
Yates first appeared in the
Third
Doctor serial
Terror of the
Autons, the latest in a line of Captains assisting
Brigadier
Lethbridge-Stewart, although the Doctor implies that he was
around for previous stories. He proved more durable than his
predecessors, appearing semi-regularly in the programme from 1971
to 1974 alongside the Brigadier and
Sergeant Benton. Together with
the Doctor and his
companions, Yates fought off alien
invasions, the machinations of the renegade
Time Lord known as
the Master, rogue computers and mutated
maggots.
Yates was a fairly non-descript character, typical of the
British Army officer class, and little is known
of him outside of his time with UNIT. He was cool under fire,
efficient, and both gave and carried out his orders with a minimum
of fuss. He appeared to have a relatively good rapport with his
men, although he did remind Benton on occasion that "rank hath its
privileges". He was attracted to the Third Doctor's assistant
Jo Grant and they may have dated for a time
- Jo was dressed up to go on a date with Mike at the start of
The Curse of Peladon
only to be taken on a trip in the
TARDIS by
the Doctor.
Yates's fall from grace started when he was brainwashed by the
artificial intelligence BOSS
in the 1973 serial
The Green
Death. The brush with ecological disaster apparently made
Yates very concerned about the future of the planet, and he was
easily recruited by Sir Charles Grover into a conspiracy to reverse
time and return
Earth to a "golden age"
(
Invasion of the
Dinosaurs). The conspiracy was thwarted by the Doctor, and
in return for his past service to UNIT, the Brigadier allowed Yates
to take medical leave and then quietly resign (actor Richard
Franklin believes the initial plan for this story was to kill off
Yates).
Trying to recover, Yates attended a meditation centre but uncovered
strange goings-on, which he reported to
Sarah Jane Smith, since he felt that UNIT
would find him untrustworthy. Sarah communicated this back to the
Doctor, leading into the rest of the events of the Third Doctor's
last serial,
Planet of the
Spiders. It is not known if Yates returned to UNIT after
that, or if he went on to other things.
Planet of the Spiders was Yates's last appearance in the
series. Richard Franklin returned as an illusory image of Yates in
the 20th Anniversary special
The
Five Doctors and reprised the role of Yates in the 1993
charity special
Dimensions in
Time.
As one of the more prominent
recurring supporting
characters in the television series, Yates is often listed as a
companion of the Doctor and
indeed is listed as such on the official BBC
Doctor Who
website. However, he is not always listed as such - the
John Nathan-Turner penned book of
companions, for instance, excludes Yates.
Other appearances
Mike Yates has appeared in the
spin-off novels taking place during his
time with UNIT. In the
Virgin
Missing Adventures novels
The Eye of the Giant by
Christopher Bulis and
The Scales of Injustice by
Gary Russell, Yates began as a sergeant
in UNIT together with Benton and was promoted to Captain at the end
of
Scales, which took place between the television stories
Inferno and
Terror
of the Autons. The novel implies that he was promoted directly
from Sergeant to Captain, which would be unusual if possible at all
in most real-world militaries.
In the
Past Doctor Adventures
novel
The Devil
Goblins from Neptune by
Keith
Topping and
Martin Day it was
established that his full name was Michael Alexander Raymond
Yates.
In the Past Doctor Adventures novel
Verdigris by
Paul Magrs, Yates is rendered
amnesiac and subsequently turned two-dimensional.
The Third Doctor later arranges for Yates to be restored to
normal.
It is hinted that Yates is a homosexual in the
Virgin New Adventures, most notably in
Happy Endings by
Paul Cornell. In this book we were told
that, in 2010, Yates is apparently living with a man named Tom
(intended to be the character Tommy from
Planet of the
Spiders), and he discusses Benton in
Palare with Alexander Shuttleworth (a gay character
from one of Cornell's earlier novels) and two
Silurians based on
Round the Horne's
Julian and Sandy. However,
The Devil
Goblins from Neptune portrays Yates as promiscuously straight,
and very "laddish". The two portrayals are not necessarily
inconsistent, as they show the character at very different points
in his life.
Stories written as in-universe articles in
Doctor Who Magazine Winter Special
1991, (subtitled "UNIT Exposed") described significant post-UNIT
activity for Yates. He had founded an organization called the
Cosmic Earth Society, written a book called
Help From the
Stars which detailed the revelations of past extra-terrestrial
involvement in human evolution discovered by UNIT at Devil's End,
and revealed other UNIT-operations information to a reporter from
the
Metropolitan. His claim that the actual cause of
central London's evacuation was dinosaurs having been brought
forward in time (part of a plan that he admitted to have been
involved in and which was, he claimed, the real reason for his
discharge from UNIT) dovetailed with
Day of the Dinosaurs.
This was one entry in a series of science fiction novels written by
former UNIT associate
Sarah Jane
Smith, which featured an organization called WIN (World
Investigative Network) commanded by General Lutwidge-Douglas,
leading another
Metropolitan reporter to doubt that Yates
was a crackpot as generally believed.
Richard Franklin also wrote an unpublished novel featuring Mike
Yates,
The Killing Stone, set after the events of
Spiders. It was released as an audio book, read by
Franklin, by
BBV in 2002.
In 2009, Franklin reprised the role of Mike Yates for a series of
five audio dramas produced by BBC Audio under the umbrella title
Hornets' Nest.
The series saw Yates partnered with the
Fourth Doctor, played by
Tom Baker.
List of appearances
Television
- Season 8
- Season 9
- Season 10
- Season 11
- 20th anniversary special
- 30th anniversary special
Audio drama
Novels
- Virgin Missing
Adventures
- Virgin New Adventures
- Virgin sidestep novel
- Past Doctor
Adventures
- Unpublished novel, released on CD
- The Killing Stone by Richard Franklin
Short stories
References
- Lyons, Steve and Chris
Howarth, "Captain's Log', Doctor Who
Magazine, #222, 15 February 1995, Marvel Comics UK Ltd., p. 7 (interview with
Richard Franklin).
- Wedding Notes - Happy Endings
annotations page. Retrieved 2008-12-1.
- Leith, Tim,
"Yates Speaks Out", Doctor Who Magazine Winter Special,
1991, Marvel Comics
Ltd., pp. 19-21.
- Parker,
Kevin W., untitled sidebar, Doctor Who
Magazine Winter Special, 1991, Marvel Comics Ltd., p. 7.
- BBC Press Release: Tom Baker returns as the Fourth
Doctor in new audio dramas, July 27, 2009; accessed August 23,
2009.
- BBC Press Release: Tom Baker returns as the Fourth
Doctor in new audio dramas, July 27, 2009; accessed August 23,
2009.
See also
External links
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