Steven Taylor

Steven Taylor was a former solo spaceship pilot turned companion of the Doctor.

=Profile=

Prior to meeting the Doctor
Steven seems to have lived a grim life. He grew up in during a war (DW: The Chase) on a Hiveblock on Earth ([MA]]: The Empire of Glass) during the middle part of the 23rd century. After visiting the ruins of New York City (a legacy of the 22nd century Dalek Invasion) he decided to enlist in the military. He served as a helsman on a battleship and later as a solo combat pilot, going from one spaceship or space station to another. He had the latter post as a form of reprisal for reporting the killing of a homeless person on Roylus Prime, which visiting there on shore leave (PDA: Salvation).


 * By the time Steven met the Doctor, the war, with unspecified combatants, had stretched on for fifty years.

On a mission, Steven crash landed on the planet Mechanus. Having crashed in the jungle, Steven wandered around for days trying to avoid the hostile plant life. Eventually he was captured by the Mechanoids, and taken to their city. He spent two years as a prisoner, alone but for a panda mascot named [[HiFi].

Adventures
In that time, Steven built a wooden construction rather like a climbing frame to keep himself active. It allowed him to climb up to the roof of the city for fresh air. It is here, in his room in the Mechanoid city, that Steven met the Doctor and his companions, shortly followed by the Daleks. Upon seeing them, he asked, "Who won the war?" and introduced himself as, "Steven Taylor, Flight Red Fifty". Steven helped the others escape from the city though returned to retrieve HiFi. Steven was thrown from a great height when the Mechanoid City was destroyed by Daleks. Through luck, he stumbled through the jungle found the the TARDIS. Steven stumbled into it, whilst the Dotor and Vicki were saying goodbye to their former companions Ian and Barbara. Before the Doctor and Vicki returned to the TARDIS, Steven passed out in a dead faint. (DW: The Chase)

When Steven recovered, he discovered that the TARDIS had re-materialised in England, in 1066. The Doctor explained, briefly, how the TARDIS works, and that the TARDIS would blend in with its surroundings. Steven's natural sarcasm showed as he commented, "That rock over there looks just like a blue box". Despite his sharp wit, Steven was good-humoured. He was also independent, and had good leadership skills. He had also brought HiFi with him but left it in the TARDIS. (DW: The Time Meddler)

In the city of Troy, Steven, who temporarily adopted the name Diomede, was wounded in the shoulder by a sword thrust, and suffered blood poisoning. A temple handmaiden called Katarina, who the travellers have met earlier, tended to Steven and nursed him back to health and helped him return to the TARDIS. (DW: ''The Myth Makers) Once he had recovered, Steven faced some of the worst experiences of his life in 4000, thousands of years into his personal future. Katarina and two new allies, Sara Kingdom and her brother Bret Vyon all died violently. Minutes after the death of Sara Kingdom, Steven asked the Doctor, in the barren waste that the Time Destructor had made of Kembel if he considered it worthwhile that so many lives to defeat the Daleks. (DW: The Daleks' Master Plan)

When the travellers arrived in Paris, in 1572, Steven was disgusted at the Doctor's abandonment of his Huguenot friends, in particular the young Anne Chaplet. He became so disillusioned that he left the TARDIS when it had arrived in 1966 London, but returned to warn the Doctor that some Police Constables were approaching. He met Dodo Chaplet, possibly, he thought, a descendant of Anne Chaplet's proving she had lived (DW: The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve) When Dodo Chaplet joined the Doctor and Steven, he picked up her cold virus, as he had no immunity to it. (DW: The Ark)

Leaving the Doctor
Eventually, the experiences that Steven has had on his travels lead him to decide to use his skills, and training, to help rebuild a civilisation. When Chal invited him to help the Elders and the Savages live together, he decided to accept the challenge, and left the TARDIS. (DW: The Savages)

Other information

 * During most of their time together the Doctor didn't give Steven a TARDIS key, and this may be due to Steven's disillusionment, though the Doctor did eventually give him one. (MA: The Empire of Glass)


 * The Doctor also had to ensure that Steven didn't draw undue attention to himself. When the TARDIS materialized in the American Wild West, in contrast to the clothes of those native to that era, Steven wore a flashy, inaccurate recreation of western dress and fancied himself as "Dead-eye Steve, the fastest, meanest gun in the west", whereas the Doctor introduced him as "Steven Regret, tenor." Fortunately Steven really could sing, and play piano, or this cover would have been almost as eye-catching as Steven's own idea. (DW: The Gunfighters)

=Quotes=
 * Steven Taylor - Quotes

=Key Life Events=
 * Steven Taylor joins Earth's military. (Mentioned PDA: Salvation)
 * Steven is strayed for two years on the planet Mechanus (Mentioned DW: The Chase)
 * Finding the Doctor and his craft, Steven leavs in it. (DW: The Chase)
 * Steven and the Doctor fight the Daleks at the cost of many lives. (DW: The Daleks' Master Plan)
 * Steven leaves the Doctor to adopt a leadership role reconciling the two cultures of the Elders and the Savages. (DW: The Savages)