The Magician's Oath

Some strange weather patterns attract the attention of UNIT and the Doctor; out of nowhere there are patches of London covered with frost and snow. The Doctor notices strange energy fluctuations that coincide with the weather shifts, and while he researches, Mike Yates and Jo Grant go out looking for trouble. They find it in the form of a charismatic magician who goes by Diamond Jack, and Jack is not a normal trickster; his illusions and tricks leave people cold, and others become attached to his mind. With his unspoken love for Jo burning within him, is Mike going to make the right decision when the time comes?

Mike Yates was actually the second UNIT officer to get the Companion Chronicles treatment, leaving Benton to the end, but in this continuity his stories have to wait until after the Doctor's regeneration as they are told in hindsight. In this instance, Mike looks back at the encounter with Diamond Jack after a long time away from UNIT, long after his nervous breakdown and his attempt to meditate his way back to stable mental health. In the audio extras actor Richard Franklin rightly points out that Yates really has been the only character to be shown to have this happen to him, although revisionists and retconners have now included Dodo Chaplet in that number (Who Killed Kennedy). Regardless of how limited the number of PTSD sufferers there are in Doctor Who (and really, it's a surprise there are not more considering the things they see) it is always interesting to see the characters in more than just their scripted aspects, to see a bit deeper behind what they say and do on the screen.

There's also that bit about Mike and Jo and their on again off again relationship. Over the last several adventures across all media it has been hinted at here and there, they have gone on - or tried to go on - dates and there's been a quick snog here and there, but the idea was quietly dropped by the television production team with the reasons only to be guessed at by fans, and when Jo decides to marry Cliff Jones after a few hours of knowing him there's not really any consideration for Mike Yates and how he might react. Years later in The Magician's Oath it is obvious that Mike was hurt by the collapse of the relationship, or worse by it's casual decline into nothingness, and he's pretty much just a lonely old man now, turning up at UNIT functions and talking the ear off younger privates about the old days.

And, of course, about the Doctor.

Mike was and is still in awe of the Doctor and he carries the guilt of his betrayal of his friend in Invasion of the Dinosaurs right into his old age. The story is written to take place around the time the Doctor has become involved with UNIT once more in the new series, and Mike makes a last hopeful ask of the private he speaks with, that should he meet the Doctor that he say hello from Captain Mike Yates. Yates hasn't been a captain since forever; we never saw him again in the televised series after Planet of the Spiders but we do see UNIT for a while, and he's not there anymore.

The Magician's Oath is a very different story in the range; the whole threat posed by Diamond Jack is really all background to the real story, which is that of Mike Yates' depression and guilt, and how he has not really ever recovered from his UNIT days. Intentional comment on soldiers and PTSD? Maybe. It's certainly a relevant issue these days. And it's not like Doctor Who never had its moments with political issues and commentaries. Unlike the third (or is it fourth?) wave feminism that has led to stunt casting of the current series, this isn't a big hammer over the head diatribe, it's just there plain for all to see that Mike Yates, former career officer at UNIT, is a broken man, and his struggle for wellness never ended with a simple stay at a spider-infested monastery.

NEXT EPISODE: THE RINGS OF IKIRIA