Vislor Turlough

Junior Ensign Commander Vislor Turlough was a companion of the Fifth Doctor.

He travelled principally alongside Tegan Jovanka, but also had a few adventures with Nyssa and Kamelion. He briefly met and saved the life of Peri Brown in Lanzarote on 8 May 1984 before leaving the Doctor's company. He also had significant interaction with Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, the First Doctor and Susan Foreman. He encountered but did not speak with the Second and Third Doctors and Sarah Jane Smith. After leaving the TARDIS, he also met the Tenth Doctor and Emily Winter.

Turlough was a complex individual. His motivations were often unclear to those around him. He was for a time willingly under the influence of the Black Guardian. During this period, he tried to kill the Doctor. After overcoming the Black Guardian, he was a mostly-trusted member of the TARDIS crew, but there were still moments where his actions were questioned. It was only at the end of his time on the TARDIS that the Doctor finally discovered the truth about how Turlough ended up on Earth and why he was susceptible to the Black Guardian in the first place.

The Doctor once indicated that what made Turlough such an interesting travelling companion was that he never knew what Turlough was thinking.

Life on Trion
Turlough, known in his youth as "Vis", (AUDIO: Kiss of Death) was born on Trion to a rich family who owned several planets (AUDIO: Kiss of Death) and grew up in a house deep within a forest. (PROSE: Turlough and the Earthlink Dilemma) As a child, he did not keep a diary as he did not want to risk others finding out his secrets. (AUDIO: Ringpullworld) He remembered a time before the Trion Civil War, when he was fascinated by the neon and plasticity of Trion. (PROSE: The King of Terror)

When he was still young, the Civil War began and his mother was killed. (TV: Planet of Fire, PROSE: The King of Terror) He fell in love with Deela, whose father was on the opposite side to Turlough's family. Once their families found out, they were forbidden from seeing one another. (AUDIO: Kiss of Death)

As part of his education, Turlough was taken around the factories on Regal where he was overwhelmed by the size of the operation and did a compulsory six month primary logic course at his first grade school. He studied with Juras Maateh before they both chose to go to institutes thousands of kilometres apart, Turlough electing to study astrophysics whilst she chose to study physical engineering. They continued to visit one another thanks to the VT system until their differing political opinions on the Civil War got in the way of their friendship. (PROSE: Turlough and the Earthlink Dilemma)

Turlough went on to join the military, holding the rank and serial number of "Junior Ensign Commander Vislor Turlough, VTEC9/12/44". He and his family were on the losing side of the war, resulting in his father and infant brother, Malkon, being exiled to Sarn. Due to his outspokenness, Turlough was exiled to Earth, watched over by an eccentric solicitor, where he could learn humility. (TV: Planet of Fire, PROSE: Turlough and the Earthlink Dilemma)

Life on Earth
Turlough was enrolled at Brendon Public School in England, with the solicitor sorting things with Mr Sellick. (TV: Mawdryn Undead) Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart was told that Turlough came from Coventry. (PROSE: The King of Terror) Unbeknownst to Turlough, fellow student Charlie Gibbs was also a Trion. (AUDIO: Eldrad Must Die!) The two had once scaled the wall of the girls' school, causing the girls to scream and Gibbs to fall and break his collarbone. (AUDIO: The Memory Bank) The atmosphere of Earth made him asthmatic and prone to nausea and migraine, meaning that he often abstained from PE.

His peers included Bolam, Matthewson, McMullen, Pradie, Rogerson, Shaw major, Shaw minor and Watt, (PROSE: The King of Terror) as well as his best friend Ibbotson, whom he nicknamed Hippo. (AUDIO: Devil in the Mist) He spent half-term with the Ibbotsons in Weston-super-Mare (AUDIO: The Memory Bank) and once watched a film about Zulu warriors with Hippo on a wet Sunday afternoon. (PROSE: Deep Blue)

Turlough was far more intelligent than any of his peers, for which he was bullied and had his head plunged down the toilet. He tried to run away a number of times but was always brought back and beaten with shoes, straps and canes. (PROSE: The King of Terror) On one occasion, he and Peter Smythe took the trophies from the sports cabinet and dumped them in the school pond. (AUDIO: The Memory Bank)

Although Turlough did not like living on Earth and especially hated reading the works of William Shakespeare, (AUDIO: The Emerald Tiger) he did enjoy learning History (AUDIO: Phantasmagoria) and had a fondness for America, enjoying American football, although he did not understand the rules, (PROSE: The King of Terror) and wanting to visit New York. (AUDIO: Black Thursday)

Meeting the Doctor
He was eventually contacted by the Black Guardian, who offered him his freedom in exchange for the death of the Fifth Doctor. Turlough ingratiated himself with the Doctor and his companions Nyssa and Tegan Jovanka. He helped resolve a time paradox, after which he asked to join the Doctor in his travels. (TV: Mawdryn Undead)

Initial travels
In subsequent adventures, Turlough received several messages from the Black Guardian, reminding him of his obligation to kill the Doctor — an act he became loath to carry out as he grew fonder of the Time Lord. Finally, he destroyed a prize that would have guaranteed his freedom and his pact with the Black Guardian rather than kill the Doctor, ending his association with the Black Guardian and becoming a loyal member of the Doctor's team. (TV: Enlightenment)

His first adventures free of the Black Guardian's control involved exploring Arizona when the TARDIS landed there, making his way to Buzzard Creek where he told the locals he had been attacked by bandits. Whilst there he encountered Thaddeus P. Winklemeyer's freakshow, which he became part of after being kidnapped. From one of his fellow inmates he discovered that Thaddeus sold the locals a liquid which contained an organism that would digest all who drunk it. (AUDIO: Freakshow)

Adventures with the Doctor, Tegan and an older Nyssa
Two days later, Turlough, Tegan and the Doctor arrived on Helheim, where they were reunited with Nyssa (although it had been fifty years for her). Upon seeing their apparent deaths, Turlough convinced Tegan to find a way to stop this when the Doctor took them back in the past. He was used as a hostage to make sure that Tegan and the Doctor would comply with Bragg's demands. He found a way to flush out the Cractids before Nyssa told him of a better way. (AUDIO: Cobwebs)

The Doctor, Turlough, Tegan and Nyssa then arrived on Chodor in the 28th century, where they found a society which was obsessed with cleanliness, and lived under the menace of the Takers, for which Turlough was mistaken. After discovering the truth behind the origins of the corrupt society, the TARDIS crew returned to the TARDIS, but discovered that Tegan was still possessed by the Mara. (AUDIO: The Whispering Forest)

They then arrived on Manussa during the Manussan Empire where they fought against the Mara. (AUDIO: The Cradle of the Snake)

While travelling with the Doctor, Nyssa, and Tegan, Turlough reunited with his old love Deela. They had a special place that they'd spent time together and Turlough recalled that they'd last been there together "three years, nine months, and seventeen days" ago. (AUDIO: The Kiss of Death)

When a trip to Brisbane went wrong after the TARDIS was caught in a time corridor, Turlough and Nyssa ended up arriving in the fiftieth century. During the two years they had to wait for the TARDIS to arrive, Nyssa participated in an investigation of the ruthless Magnus Greel, with Turlough officially acting as her secretary (AUDIO: The Butcher of Brisbane).

Turlough with the Doctor & Tegan
At one point, he, the Doctor and Tegan visited England in 1215 to stop the Master from altering history, where the robot Kamelion joined the TARDIS. (TV: The King's Demons) He then visited the Eye of Orion with the Doctor and Tegan and was sent to the Death Zone shortly after and helped stop Borusa's plan of immortality along with four incarnations of the Doctor. (TV: The Five Doctors)

Huxley, a novelisor from Verbatim Six, had latched on to Turlough and started to novelise his life, and had been doing this for the last three weeks before he came to the Ringpull. When he heard that there was a race sealed off in a pocket universe in the Ringpull he decided to free them which was a mistake as they were a warlike race. Whilst stuck in a prison cell he asked Huxley to tell him the future in order to find a way out. (AUDIO: Ringpullworld)

After receiving damage from Sentinel Six, the Doctor landed the TARDIS inside Sea Base 4 in the year 2084, at a time where two power blocs were on the brink of nuclear war. When the Doctor and Tegan were trapped in an airlock with the Myrka, Turlough forced Nilson at gunpoint to open the bulkhead door and ensure their safety. He also defended the base from attacking Sea Devils, which three Silurians awoke from hibernation. After Preston told the Doctor to kill the Silurians and the Sea Devils, Turlough watched like Tegan as the Doctor criticised the humans, going into a rant about how the Silurians and the Sea Devils were an ancient and noble people, but Turlough was the one to point out the Silurians and the Sea Devils planned to trigger a global war that would wipe out humanity. The Doctor accepted the argument but kept looking for an alternative but was forced to use hexachromite. When the Doctor released hexachromite gas into the base to stop the Silurians and Sea Devils from attacking, he asked Tegan and Turlough to give the Silurians oxygen. When one Silurian reached for its gun, Turlough was forced to shoot it. The Doctor stopped the Silurians from starting a nuclear war between the two human power blocs, but was unable to save any of the humans or reptilian life forms inside the base. (TV: Warriors of the Deep) The trio's next adventure took them to Little Hodcombe, where Turlough was locked up in a barn along with Andrew Verney as part of George Hutchinson's Civil War recreations done to power the Malus. Turlough later escaped along with everyone else when the Malus was defeated (TV: The Awakening)

Turlough faced the demons of his own people when he confronted the Tractators, the experience triggering dormant racial memories of a past encounter between the Tractators and his people. However, this experience helped Turlough provide the Doctor with the key to defeating the Tractators, his memories helping Turlough determine that the Tractators could be defeated if they were cut off from the Gravis. (TV: Frontios)

He subsequently spent some time forced to wander a Dalek ship to escape capture after he was trapped on the wrong side of the Dalek Time corridor, until the Doctor managed to defeat the Daleks' latest plan by infecting them with a Movellan virus. After that he said goodbye to Tegan who wanted to stay again on Earth. (TV: Resurrection of the Daleks)

Travelling with just the Doctor
A trip to 2144 Reykjavik resulted in Turlough and the Doctor almost being arrested for the crimes of the Bratanian Shroud. Turlough managed to escape the crime scene only to be possessed by the Shroud. The Shroud forced Turlough to return to the Doctor and try to kill him, but the Doctor purged the Shroud from Turlough's mind with a wave disruptor. (AUDIO: Repeat Offender)

Attempting to examine himself during a trip to the Moon and a meeting with the British Imperial Spacefleet, Turlough found himself uncomfortable with the view of his personality presented by his reading of Richard Haliwell's diary, feeling uncomfortably selfish after contrasting his actions with Haliwell's Victorian nobility. He briefly fell in love with Lytalia, apparently a Phiadoran prisoner on the Moon, but she was soon revealed to actually be possessed by a Vrall. (PROSE: Imperial Moon)

His other solo adventures with the Doctor involved taking down Nikolas Valentine in 1702 (AUDIO: Phantasmagoria), meeting werewolves in Brazil (AUDIO: Loups-Garoux) and defeating the Somnus Foundation in Russia. (AUDIO: Singularity) He and the Doctor also visited the Memory Bank, Vadhoc, and the Pandana system. (AUDIO: The Memory Bank and Other Stories)

Now fearing a return home, Turlough destroyed a distress beacon from a Trion ship, attempted to disable Kamelion who he believed was reacting to the beacon and was reluctant to contact his people. Despite his initial fear, he eventually accepted personal responsibility, potentially trading his freedom for the lives of the population of Sarn as he called Trion for help. (TV: Planet of Fire)

After discovering that his younger brother was still alive and the persecution of political prisoners had long been abandoned on Trion, Turlough finally left the TARDIS to return home, after effectively putting the Doctor ("who gets into the most terrible trouble") in the hands of new companion Peri Brown. (TV: Planet of Fire) Later, as he regenerated, the Doctor had visions of several of his past companions, including Turlough. (TV: The Caves of Androzani)

Life after the Doctor
Soon after his return to Trion, Turlough helped save his homeworld and Earth from Rehctaht and the Gardsormr. (PROSE: Turlough and the Earthlink Dilemma)

At one point an enemy of the Doctor's tenth incarnation produced a diary purporting to be Turlough's, though the Doctor had no recollection of Turlough keeping one. (COMIC: Tesseract, Don't Step on the Grass) The Doctor and Emily Winter then travelled to Trion, where they met with Turlough to confirm that the diary was not his. (COMIC: Final Sacrifice)

Undated events
At some point, Turlough was taken to the Black Archive by UNIT to have his record as a companion of the Doctor taken. His memories of the visit were subsequently erased and he was sent on his way. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)

At another point, Turlough was abducted by Adam Mitchell as part his plan to get revenge on the Doctor, in collaboration with. He was placed in stasis alongside the Doctors' multiple other companions, before being released by the Doctors first eleven numbered incarnations with the help of Frobisher. (COMIC: The Choice, Endgame)

Personality
Turlough was selfish, always shielding himself from blame. (TV: Mawdryn Undead) He could lie convincingly to most; some, such as Tegan Jovanka and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, were not fooled. (TV: Mawdryn Undead, Terminus)

Although usually quick to retreat, Turlough was not so much a coward as a survivalist, preferring to avoid danger and situations he felt he couldn't change. (TV: Warriors of the Deep, Resurrection of the Daleks)

Tegan did not like Turlough at first, finding him untrustworthy and with the manners of a pig. She did not approve of the Doctor letting Turlough consider the Black Guardian's offer, believing Turlough would choose the crystal. However, the Doctor was confident in Turlough's morals. Nevertheless, Tegan often tried to persuade him to banish Turlough from the TARDIS. (TV: Terminus, Enlightenment; AUDIO: Cobwebs)

He saved a Phiadoran female to whom he was attracted from a large drop. He appeared to fall in love with Lytalia, but this was later revealed to be a complex deception on the part of the Phiadorans, as the species were currently serving as 'hosts' to the ruthless Vrall and had manipulated men to do their bidding even on their own. Despite this, his experience during this encounter encouraged him to take a closer look at himself and determine who he wanted to be compared to his past actions. (PROSE: Imperial Moon)

Despite the Black Guardian's attempts to vilify the Doctor, he recognised the Doctor's good intentions. On numerous occasions, he tried to make the Black Guardian reconsider his order to kill the Time Lord. (TV: Terminus, Enlightenment) Although he initially expressed a desire to return to his homeworld and at one point asked the Doctor to take him home, (TV: Enlightenment) after he had spent more time travelling with the Doctor he grew reluctant to return. Turlough used the tranquillity felt at the Eye of Orion to draw. (TV: The Five Doctors) On another occasion, the Doctor took him to medieval Europe as he believed that the scenery would inspire him to draw. (AUDIO: The Last Fairy Tale) He also liked to paint. (AUDIO: The Memory Bank) He understood the TARDIS systems well enough to run a diagnostic (TV: The Five Doctors) and programmed the TARDIS to rescue the Doctor and Peri. (TV: Planet of Fire)

The Doctor once compared Turlough and Tegan to bickering siblings. (AUDIO: Freakshow)

He claimed not to be a people person. (AUDIO: The Memory Bank)

Appearance
Turlough was as thin as a willow and had an unworldly, pre-Raphaelite appearance thanks to his auburn hair, blue eyes and thin, sharp-boned face. (PROSE: Mawdryn Undead, Warriors of the Deep) He had a hint of the shifty and unreliable about him, making him look like he could be a school bully or school sneak, but was still attractive. (PROSE: The Eight Doctors) He wore a dark blazer, flannels and straggly striped tie. (PROSE: Warriors of the Deep)

Behind the scenes

 * Turlough was the last male companion to travel with the Doctor on-screen until Adam Mitchell, who joined in the episode Dalek in 2005.
 * Turlough was the last in a seven-year run of non-human televised companions who inhabited the TARDIS, beginning in 1977 with K9 Mark I. Others included K9 Mark II, Romana I, Romana II, Adric, Nyssa and, nominally, Kamelion.
 * When he was introduced in 1983, Turlough became the first televised companion since Jo Grant not to have travelled with the Fourth Doctor.
 * Mark Strickson himself did not have red hair. He dyed his hair for the role, as his natural fair hair was seen by John Nathan-Turner as too similar to Peter Davison's Fifth Doctor hairstyle.
 * Turlough's serial number, VTEC9/12/44, was derived from the date of birth of Eric Saward.

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