Harry Sullivan
Today I made a lucky little find in my local Oxfam bookshop: the novelisation of Terror of the Zygons (although yeah, I know, it's called Doctor Who and the Loch Ness Monster). And on page 9 it has this delightful description of one of my favourite companions:
"The first was a brawny young man, conventionally dressed in blazer and flannels. His handsome face with its square jaw, frank blue eyes, and curly hair, made him look like the hero of an old-fashioned adventure story."
Yes, my dear fellow fans, those are the effusive terms used to describe the lovely Harry Sullivan, who is definitely in my shortlist of Top 5 favourite companions (the others are Sarah Jane, Barbara, Jamie and K-9.) Even though he didn't appear in very many stories, and even though of those stories I've only ever seen The Ark In Space and Genesis of the Daleks, and read Loch Ness Monster.
Now why do I like him? I like Sarah Jane because she's all spunky and cool and brave (and after seeing the post-TCI spoiler trailer, I'm convinced Elisabeth Sladen drinks of the elixir of life because she looks so young!); I like Barbara because she runs Daleks over and his hairstyle is obviously so big to disguise a massive brain; I like Jamie because he almost makes me drop my knitting; and I like K9 because in my opinion dogs which can't talk and shoot lasers out of their noses are pretty useless.
I think I like Harry because he's such a gentleman (and according to the Ark in Space commentary, so was Ian Marter. He pulled down Elisabeth Sladen's dress on purpose so that 10 million people wouldn't see her knickers.) Imagine going out on a date with Harry. Wouldn't it be sublime, at least until he made some unwittingly sexist remark and got clocked with a handbag? And now I've mentioned Ian Marter, yes, maybe part of the reason I like Harry is because Ian Marter is dead and throughout my teenage years (which end in, oh, two months) I've always had a fondness for the dead, if that doesn't sound too morbid. Must be that cultural necrophilia concept. If, say, Tom Baker fell off the perch and it was on TV (not his actual death, just the news of it), I'd probably cry my eyes out and dress in all black for a week - wouldn't you? - but my admiration for him would be elevated to near-veneration. Thirdly... he balances out the sex-ratio in the TARDIS: I always thought there was a slight bit of sexism. The Doctor is male and he Knows Everything. The companion is often female and more vulnerable. She knows less, or she gets frightened more easily, and that does annoy me occasionally. Maybe having a male companion who the Doctor clearly doesn't like as much as the female companion isn't the right way to redress the balance, but... Oh, point four, yes he was rather good-looking now wasn't he? He didn't have googly eyes and he didn't look bonkers. Point five - it's pretty near impossible not to like Harry, unless you own every feminist text ever written and you never forget anything anyone says ever. He's a nice, polite, kind, brave chap, maybe not the most imaginitive in the world, nor most adaptable, but he can't be thick - he's a Surgeon Lieutenant. And he's a doctor, which implies a deep desire to help people who need it.
Problems with the character? As is well-known, he was written in as Ian Chesterton mk II, in order to do all the spiffy action bits, like firing guns and stuff, that a Doctor played by a 55-year-old man couldn't. But they cast Tom Baker as the Doctor instead, who proved to be exemplary at running down the same corridor a zillion times in a row without buggering his knees up, confronting dangerous aliens with gooey slime tendrils, et cetera. So Harry was just another bloke hanging round who happened to know a bit about medicine, which came in sort of useful when he was reviving frozen people in The Ark In Space (why did the writers think "Oh, people'll still be wearing flares in thousands of years' time!"?) but otherwise he was left as the bloke the Doctor could shout at for doing stuff wrong.
His character is also a little unrealistic. He reminds me emotionally of one of my A-level physics teachers, a wonderful man who had the slightly alien characteristic of never getting angry. But even though Sarah Jane and the Doctor frequently insult him (Harry, not my physics teacher), he doesn't ever seem to get more than mildly put out. In three seconds he's normal nice Harry again. The most negative emotion, if it can be called that, that I've seen him display, is "This alien technology is making a noise which gives me a headache so I'll screw my face up." Mind you, he never seems to be particularly elated, either. He's never particularly anything; he's totally on an even keel and unless he's secretly smoking a large stash (unlikely) this doesn't really make him a well-rounded character.
And dear goodness, the clothes... did he ever change them during Season 12? Was he stuck in the same blazer, shirt and trousers for five or six contiguous adventures?
So what do you think of Harry Sullivan? As this post isn't a spoiler for the new series or anything juicy, more like my thoughts on a rather elusive character, I don't expect many comments; if anyone knows a really apposite place to post this, comment and tell me.
Oh, and I'll do a little poll, a question I want you to answer if you comment just to check if you read the whole thing - do you think Harry & Sarah 'shipping is/was feasible? Me: Nice idea but come on, he calls her "old girl".
PS The first cut-text should read "Cut just in case!" but I made an honest typo which I liked too much to delete.
"The first was a brawny young man, conventionally dressed in blazer and flannels. His handsome face with its square jaw, frank blue eyes, and curly hair, made him look like the hero of an old-fashioned adventure story."
Yes, my dear fellow fans, those are the effusive terms used to describe the lovely Harry Sullivan, who is definitely in my shortlist of Top 5 favourite companions (the others are Sarah Jane, Barbara, Jamie and K-9.) Even though he didn't appear in very many stories, and even though of those stories I've only ever seen The Ark In Space and Genesis of the Daleks, and read Loch Ness Monster.
Now why do I like him? I like Sarah Jane because she's all spunky and cool and brave (and after seeing the post-TCI spoiler trailer, I'm convinced Elisabeth Sladen drinks of the elixir of life because she looks so young!); I like Barbara because she runs Daleks over and his hairstyle is obviously so big to disguise a massive brain; I like Jamie because he almost makes me drop my knitting; and I like K9 because in my opinion dogs which can't talk and shoot lasers out of their noses are pretty useless.
I think I like Harry because he's such a gentleman (and according to the Ark in Space commentary, so was Ian Marter. He pulled down Elisabeth Sladen's dress on purpose so that 10 million people wouldn't see her knickers.) Imagine going out on a date with Harry. Wouldn't it be sublime, at least until he made some unwittingly sexist remark and got clocked with a handbag? And now I've mentioned Ian Marter, yes, maybe part of the reason I like Harry is because Ian Marter is dead and throughout my teenage years (which end in, oh, two months) I've always had a fondness for the dead, if that doesn't sound too morbid. Must be that cultural necrophilia concept. If, say, Tom Baker fell off the perch and it was on TV (not his actual death, just the news of it), I'd probably cry my eyes out and dress in all black for a week - wouldn't you? - but my admiration for him would be elevated to near-veneration. Thirdly... he balances out the sex-ratio in the TARDIS: I always thought there was a slight bit of sexism. The Doctor is male and he Knows Everything. The companion is often female and more vulnerable. She knows less, or she gets frightened more easily, and that does annoy me occasionally. Maybe having a male companion who the Doctor clearly doesn't like as much as the female companion isn't the right way to redress the balance, but... Oh, point four, yes he was rather good-looking now wasn't he? He didn't have googly eyes and he didn't look bonkers. Point five - it's pretty near impossible not to like Harry, unless you own every feminist text ever written and you never forget anything anyone says ever. He's a nice, polite, kind, brave chap, maybe not the most imaginitive in the world, nor most adaptable, but he can't be thick - he's a Surgeon Lieutenant. And he's a doctor, which implies a deep desire to help people who need it.
Problems with the character? As is well-known, he was written in as Ian Chesterton mk II, in order to do all the spiffy action bits, like firing guns and stuff, that a Doctor played by a 55-year-old man couldn't. But they cast Tom Baker as the Doctor instead, who proved to be exemplary at running down the same corridor a zillion times in a row without buggering his knees up, confronting dangerous aliens with gooey slime tendrils, et cetera. So Harry was just another bloke hanging round who happened to know a bit about medicine, which came in sort of useful when he was reviving frozen people in The Ark In Space (why did the writers think "Oh, people'll still be wearing flares in thousands of years' time!"?) but otherwise he was left as the bloke the Doctor could shout at for doing stuff wrong.
His character is also a little unrealistic. He reminds me emotionally of one of my A-level physics teachers, a wonderful man who had the slightly alien characteristic of never getting angry. But even though Sarah Jane and the Doctor frequently insult him (Harry, not my physics teacher), he doesn't ever seem to get more than mildly put out. In three seconds he's normal nice Harry again. The most negative emotion, if it can be called that, that I've seen him display, is "This alien technology is making a noise which gives me a headache so I'll screw my face up." Mind you, he never seems to be particularly elated, either. He's never particularly anything; he's totally on an even keel and unless he's secretly smoking a large stash (unlikely) this doesn't really make him a well-rounded character.
And dear goodness, the clothes... did he ever change them during Season 12? Was he stuck in the same blazer, shirt and trousers for five or six contiguous adventures?
So what do you think of Harry Sullivan? As this post isn't a spoiler for the new series or anything juicy, more like my thoughts on a rather elusive character, I don't expect many comments; if anyone knows a really apposite place to post this, comment and tell me.
Oh, and I'll do a little poll, a question I want you to answer if you comment just to check if you read the whole thing - do you think Harry & Sarah 'shipping is/was feasible? Me: Nice idea but come on, he calls her "old girl".
PS The first cut-text should read "Cut just in case!" but I made an honest typo which I liked too much to delete.