Vicki Pallister

Vicki — infrequently known as Vicki Pallister (PDA: Byzantium!) and never as Victoria (DW: "The Powerful Enemy", BFA: 1963) — was a young woman the First Doctor, Ian and Barbara met soon after Susan was left behind on Earth. Having lost both her parents in relatively quick succession, she decided to join the three time travellers on their adventures. Once the two teachers left the TARDIS, she travelled for an extended period with Steven Taylor, before leaving the Doctor's side to marry Troilus and to take the married name, Cressida.

Early life
Vicki was born on Earth. (DW: The Rescue) Her mother wanted to name her Tanni, but her father preferred Vicki. As a girl she lived in Liddell Towers on the South Circular Road in New London, where she enjoyed looking at the stars at night, even though they were so faint they could hardly be seen. (PDA: Byzantium!) As the product of a 25th century school system, she studied medicine one hour a week, and by the age of ten had obtained a certificate in medicine, physics, computers, chemistry, and other disciplines. (DW: The Web Planet) Vicki was also skilled at cutting hair. (DW: Galaxy 4) Vicki's mother had died when Vicki was very young. Vicki's father took a job in a new colony on the planet Astra, leaving Earth in 2493. The ship transporting the colonists, the UK-201, crashlanded on Dido. Most of the passengers lived, but one night Bennett, unknown to her, murdered all the survivors other than Vicki as well as all but two of native Dido people. (DW: The Rescue)

Joining the TARDIS
When the TARDIS landed on Dido, Barbara Wright used a flare gun to kill Vicki's "pet" Sandy, a Didonian Sand Beast, thinking it a threat to Vicki. It took some effort on the part of Vicki to forgive Barbara for this act. Bennett pretended he could not move his legs, while Vicki took care of him. When the Doctor discovered the truth and the Didonians appeared to take revenge on Bennett, she was left with nobody. The Doctor, perhaps because he missed his recently-departed grand-daughter, asked Vicki to come with him and the others, thus making her the first companion that the Doctor was seen to willingly invite to travel in the TARDIS. (DW: The Rescue)

Travels
Once Vicki left Dido with the others, she was keen for adventure. Vicki was often bored with the travelling to their destinations, and the less adventurous moments of their lives. When the travellers were staying at a villa near Rome she quickly became bored, and disappointed that there was no adventure. Vicki's innate sense of adventure was teamed with a sense of awe and wonder, and these never diminished during her travels. She was bursting with excitement when she first saw Nero, and the sight of Rome burning excited her. (DW: The Romans) It is no doubt these characteristics which reminded the Doctor of Susan. Whether teasing, or merely undiplomatic, Vicki had a knack of saying the wrong thing to Barbara, despite their having a close relationship. Firstly, she said that Barbara Wright must be "about five hundred and fifty years old" as she came from 1963. (DW: The Rescue)

On Vortis, Vicki said that aspirin tablets were old fashioned – until she saw some in the Doctor's First Aid kit she had never heard of them. She also offended Barbara by responding to her statement that the main subjects taught at her school were the 3 R's by asking if Barbara's school had been a nursery. (DW: The Web Planet)

On Xeros, Vicki helped the Xerons stage a revolution. She broke into the Morok armoury for them by programming the door controls to not check for correct answers. (DW: The Space Museum) Vicki didn't know The Beatles played "classical music", and called 1960s New York City "ancient". (DW: The Chase)

Vicki's youth and spirit of adventure enabled her to save the travellers from danger by inciting the Xeron rebels to action whilst at the Space Museum. Using her considerable analytical and technical skills, Vicki reprogrammed the Morok armoury's computer to allow the rebels access to it, enabling them to fight. (DW: The Space Museum)

Despite her bravado, Vicki was terrified of heights. Escaping from the Mechanoid City, the Doctor had to blindfold her, and the travellers, with Steven Taylor's assistance, had to lower her the 1,500 feet by rope. (DW: The Chase)

Leaving the Doctor
It would appear that most of Vicki's skills and knowledge were based in science, but she also had some historical knowledge. When the travellers materialised on Earth during the Trojan War, she displayed her knowledge of Greek heroes and the Trojan Horse. While in Troy, Vicki called herself Cressida and met Troilus, a young Trojan. They fell in love, and Vicki left the Doctor to be with him. Their tale would later be written as a poem by Geoffrey Chaucer and as a play by William Shakespeare. (DW: The Myth Makers)

Behind the scenes

 * The production team had originally considered the older and more independent Jenny, from The Dalek Invasion of Earth, as Susan Foreman's replacement in the cast. Originally, Vicki had the more futuristic-sounding name Tanni. Before settling on Vicki, the production team thought of several other names, including Valerie, Millie, Tanni and Lukki. Earlier drafts of The Rescue bore the title Doctor Who and Tanni due to this.
 * A letter shown on the Mounting the Rescue documentary included with the DVD release of The Rescue says that two girls from Liverpool - Maureen O'Brien and Denise Upson - were screen tested for the role of Vicki on Monday, September 14th, 1964.
 * The Past Doctors Adventure novel Byzantium! revealed Vicki's previously unknown last name which was never mentioned on screen in any televised episodes.
 * Vicki is one of several human characters featured in the series whose last names were never revealed on screen. Others include Ace, Polly and Mel, though, like Vicki, spin-off media provided last names.

How old is Vicki?
Vicki's age is a matter of speculation. If we were to believe PDA: Byzantium!, then she's very young indeed. That book explicitly calls her 14. But Byzantium! also says that she was 11 when her mother died, and that she had boarded the doomed UK-201 just after that death.

This presents us with a problem. Does this mean — in concert with her statement in "Desperate Measures" that she's been marooned for "a long time" — that she's actually spent around three years on Dido by the time she meets the First Doctor? If so, then this means that The Rescue actually happesn in about 2496. Or is this three year "gap" just an error that got past the book's editor?

Either way, Maureen O'Brien simply doesn't pass for an 11-year-old or a 14-year-old. If the character was actually intended by the production team to be that young, then they failed spectacularly with their casting.

And if she's a tween by the time of her journeys with the Doctor, is she really old enough to marry Troilus in The Myth Makers?

Moreover, though we do understand from The Web Planet that the educational system is advanced in the 25th century, hers, according to Byzantium!, would have ended at age 11. Could she really have already learnt the time mechanics theory and advanced computer programming that she displayed in The Space Museum by such a young age?

It's all just on the edge of possibility, but plausibility may be another matter.

A few things are certain, though. Neither "Desperate Measures", nor any other episode of televised Doctor Who gives us any solid age for Vicki. The only hard fact we know about her timeline is that she boarded the ship bound for Astra in 2493. Many Doctor Who scholars interpret that as meaning that The Rescue itself takes place in the same year. They then take other relative dates and calculate backwards from 2493. For instance, it is sometimes asserted that Vicki was born in 2479. This, they say, comes from Byzantium!, but it really doesn't. What it comes from is a combination of believing The Rescue happened in 2493, and that Byzantium! says she was fourteen. So they take fourteen years from 2493 and end up with 2479, but it's nowhere asserted in DWU fiction that she was born in 2479.