Adam Mitchell

Doctorwhocharacter


name = Adam Mitchell
series = Doctor Who
affiliation = Ninth Doctor
race = Human
planet = Earth
era = 2012
start = "Dalek"
finish = "The Long Game"
portrayed = Bruno Langley

Adam Mitchell is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series "Doctor Who", played by Bruno Langley. A young English researcher in the employ of American billionaire Henry van Statten from the year 2012, he is the second known companion of the Ninth Doctor. He appeared in only two episodes: "Dalek" and "The Long Game", joining the TARDIS crew at the end of the former and expelled for bad behaviour at the end of the latter.

Conceptual history

The character of Adam Mitchell was first conceived, along with Henry van Statten, during Davies' 2003 pitch to the BBC, in a story heavily based up Robert Shearman's novel "Jubilee" called "Return of the Daleks" (which would later form the base for the episode "Dalek"). It was always the intention of the production team for Adam to join the TARDIS after Rose developed a liking for him. To play this role, Langley was chosen, mostly for his role on "Coronation Street" as Todd Grimshaw. However, Adam was not meant to be a long-term companion; indeed, Davies intended to show that not everyone is suitable to join the TARDIS crew and dubbed him "the Companion That Couldn't". "I always wanted to do a show with someone who was a rubbish companion," Davies explains in the book "Doctor Who: The Inside Story"." [http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/doctorwho/ram/confidential7?size=16x9&bgc=CC0000&nbram=1&bbram=1&nbwm=1&bbwm=1 Doctor Who Confidential] " — Episode 7: The Dark Side. Cut Down version on Doctor Who Series One DVD set.]

Originally, there were several aspects of the character that were cut before appearing on screen: in early drafts, he was the son of Henry van Statten, and Adam's reason for his duplicity in "The Long Game" was his father's ill-health. (In the DVD commentary for "The Long Game", director Brian Grant and actor Bruno Langley discuss Adam's scripted motive of bringing future medical knowledge back home to cure his father.) Adam was also supposed to reside in Nottingham, until the casting of Langley made the production team relocate his house to Manchester.

Character history

Adam first appears in "Dalek", cataloguing extraterrestrial artefacts in an underground bunker in Utah called the Vault. Henry van Statten has been collecting these artefacts for years, reverse engineering them to create technologies such as broadband Internet which he then sold. Adam is also a genius, having successfully into the United States Department of Defense computers when he was eight years old, nearly causing, in his own words, World War III. He is eventually recruited by van Statten.

Van Statten has one living specimen in his museum, which he terms a "metaltron", but is actually a Dalek. The Dalek manages to break free and slaughter its way through the base, and Adam finds himself fleeing from it along with Rose, the Doctor's companion. At the end of the episode, Rose asks the Doctor to take Adam along with them in the TARDIS as Adam has told her earlier that he has always wanted to see the stars. Despite the Doctor's skepticism about Adam as a potential fellow traveller, he agrees.

Adam's travels with the Doctor and Rose do not last long. During "The Long Game", taking place in the year 200,000, Adam is overwhelmed by the wealth of information and technology available to him and very quickly gives in to temptation. He has an advanced computer interface port (activated by a snap of the fingers) installed in his head that partially reveals his brain so he could access the future's computer systems, and attempts to transmit information back to 21st century Earth using Rose's modified mobile phone, dubbed the "Superphone".

Discovering this breach of his trust, the Doctor returns Adam to his home despite Adam's apologetic pleading, leaving him there after destroying the answering machine which had received the information. The Doctor observes that Adam will have to live a quiet life from now on, lest someone discover the implant in his head and dissect him to uncover its secrets. The ease at which this could happen is demonstrated when Adam's mother returned home and snaps her fingers, inadvertently activating the implant. What happens to Adam next is, as yet, unchronicled.

Other appearances

In the week in which "The Long Game" was first broadcast, the tie-in website "Who is Doctor Who?" announced that "14 year-old Adam Mitchell from Nottingham" had won a competition arranged by van Statten the previous week. Adam's winning essay on "Why I Want To Meet An Alien" focuses on acquiring advanced knowledge from them ("I don't think it's cheating, really. It's just a shortcut"). The canonicity of the material on the website is unclear.

Episodes

* "Dalek"
* "The Long Game"

References

*Brief | id=2005f | title=Dalek | quotes=y
*Brief | id=2005g | title=The Long Game | quotes=y

External links

* [http://www.whoisdoctorwho.co.uk/index8.shtml Adam's essay on "Who Is Doctor Who?"]