Vislor Turlough

Doctorwhocharacter


caption=Turlough in a promotional photograph for "Doctor Who".
name=Vislor Turlough
series=Doctor Who
affiliation=Fifth Doctor
race=Trion
planet=Trion
era=1983
start= Mawdryn Undead
finish= Planet of Fire The Caves of Androzani (cameo)
portrayed=Mark Strickson

Vislor Turlough (also spelled Vizlor Turlough) or simply Turlough was a fictional character played by Mark Strickson in the long-running British science fiction television series "Doctor Who". He was a companion of the Fifth Doctor, being a regular in the programme from 1983 to 1984.

Character history

When Turlough first appears in the serial "Mawdryn Undead", he is a student at the Brendon Public School, but it becomes apparent that he is not what he seems. He is contacted by the malevolent Black Guardian, who offers to take him home if he kills the Doctor. He also appears familiar with concepts of time travel and matter transmission. At the end of the serial, Turlough asks to accompany the Doctor. Despite Tegan and Nyssa's suspicions, the Doctor accepts Turlough as part of the TARDIS crew.

During the course of the next two serials, "Terminus" and "Enlightenment" (collectively known, together with "Mawdryn Undead", as the Black Guardian Trilogy), Turlough finds himself unable to decide whether or not to carry out his assignment from the Black Guardian, but eventually rejects him in favour of loyalty to the Doctor. Although always slightly cowardly, with excellent instincts of self-preservation and a streak of ruthlessness, his relationship with the Doctor and Tegan improves with time (Nyssa having departed at the end of "Terminus"). He is one of the few companions capable of operating many of the TARDIS's systems, being able to run a diagnostic in "The Five Doctors" and program the TARDIS to retrieve the Doctor in "Planet of Fire". Initially expressing a desire to return home, he continues travelling with the Doctor and Tegan until Tegan leaves at the end of "Resurrection of the Daleks".

In the very next serial, "Planet of Fire", it is revealed that Turlough is a native of the planet Trion, having become a political exile to Earth following a civil war. Also revealed for the first time in this serial is Turlough's first name, Vislor. At the end of the serial, Turlough discovers that political prisoners are no longer mistreated on Trion and decides it is time to return home. His experiences after his return to Trion are chronicled in a spin-off novel by Tony Attwood, "Turlough and the Earthlink Dilemma" (1986).

An image of Turlough appears during the Fifth Doctor's regeneration scene in "The Caves of Androzani". Strickson has also voiced the character of Turlough alongside Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor in the audio plays produced by Big Finish Productions. Strickson has humorously commented that, not knowing what to do with him, the writers of the television series would often have the villains capture or lock him up, leading to Turlough ending up in various "states of bondage".

Turlough was the Doctor's last male on-screen companion until Adam Mitchell in the 2005 series episode "Dalek" and the last non-human on-screen companion until Astrid Peth in the 2007 Christmas Special " Voyage of the Damned".

List of appearances

Television

;Season 20
*"Mawdryn Undead"
*"Terminus"
*"Enlightenment"
*"The King's Demons";20th anniversary special
*"The Five Doctors" ;Season 21
*"Warriors of the Deep"
*"The Awakening"
*"Frontios"
*"Resurrection of the Daleks"
*"Planet of Fire"
*"The Caves of Androzani" (cameo)

Audio dramas

* "Phantasmagoria"
* "Loups-Garoux"
* "Singularity"

Novels

;The Companions of Doctor Who
* "Turlough and the Earthlink Dilemma" by Tony Attwood;Virgin Missing Adventures
* "The Crystal Bucephalus" by Craig Hinton
* "Lords of the Storm" by David A. McIntee;Past Doctor Adventures
* "Deep Blue" by Mark Morris
* "Imperial Moon" by Christopher Bulis
* "The King of Terror" by Keith Topping

hort stories

*"Birth of a Renegade" by Eric Saward ("Radio Times Doctor Who 20th Anniversary Special")
*"Zeitgeist" by Craig Hinton ("")
*"Qualia" by Stephen Fewell ("")
*"Rome" by Marcus Flavin ("")
*"Comforts of Home" by Pete Kempshall ("Short Trips: The History of Christmas")
*"One Wednesday Afternoon" by Alison Jacobs ("")
*"The Assassin's Story" by Andrew Collins ("")
*"Observation" by Ian Farrington ("")
*"Lant Land" by Jonathan Morris ("Short Trips: Life Science")
*"White Man's Burden" by John Binns ("")
*"Last Minute Shopping" by Neil Perryman ("")
*"The Misadventure of Mark Thorne" by Andy Frankham ("")
*"Piecemeal" by James Swallow ("Short Trips: Snapshots")
*"Do You Believe in the Krampus?" by Xanna Eve Chown ("")
*"One Step Forward, Two Steps Back" by Chris Thomas ("")
*"Gudok" by Mags L Halliday ("")

Comics

*"The Lunar Strangers" by Gareth Roberts and Martin Geraghty ("Doctor Who Magazine" 215–217)

External links

* [http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Vislor_Turlough Vislor Turlough] at [http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/ "The TARDIS Index File" website]
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/episodeguide/companions/page27.shtml Vislor Turlough on the BBC's "Doctor Who" website]