Steven Taylor

Doctor Who character
Steven in The Time Meddler.
Steven
Affiliated with	First Doctor
Race	Human
Home planet	Earth
Home era	Unspecified future
First appearance	The Chase
Last appearance	The Savages
Portrayed by	Peter Purves

Steven Taylor is a fictional character played by Peter Purves in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. A space pilot from Earth in the future, he was a companion of the First Doctor and a regular in the programme from 1965 to 1966.

Character history

Steven first appears in the serial The Chase, when the Doctor and his companions, Ian, Barbara and Vicki, find him on the planet Mechanus where he crash-landed two years before. He joins the Doctor and Vicki as a companion in the following serial, The Time Meddler, when they discover that he stowed-away in the TARDIS after having escaped the burning Mechanoid. Steven is a strong-willed individual, who is more capable when there is something physical to do than when there is thinking to be done. He has a finely developed sense of right and wrong, and places a high value on human life.

Steven follows the Doctor through The Daleks' Master Plan, a dark and dangerous adventure that takes the lives of Sara Kingdom and Katarina. He argues with the Doctor when he refuses to prevent the events of The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve. Steven is ready to part company with the Doctor over the deaths that happened, in particular that of a woman named Anne Chaplet. He rejoins the Doctor, however, at the same time that they acquired a new travelling companion, a young woman by the name of Dorothea "Dodo" Chaplet, who is apparently a descendant of Anne's.

Steven's journey eventually ends during the The Savages, when he decides to accept the responsibility of leading the combined society of Savages and Elders that is attempting a lasting peace. His life beyond that is not explored in the series.

The exact time period that Steven originally came from is not specified in the television series. However, in The Daleks' Master Plan, set in the year 4000, Steven states that he comes from "thousands of years" before that period.

Steven Moffat, a Doctor Who fan and writer of several episodes of the revived series, named the lead character in his sitcom Coupling (BBC Two, 2000–04) "Steve Taylor", although this was apparently a coincidence. Moffat later explained that although he was aware of the Doctor Who companion, the "Steve" was chosen because the character was based upon himself, and the "Taylor" to suggest a thematic link to the character of Mark Taylor in his earlier sitcom Joking Apart.^[1]

Other mentions

Steven is mentioned by the 7th Doctor in The Curse of Fenric and a vision of Steven is seen along with every other companion aside from Leela on the scanner screen in Resurrection of the Daleks.

List of appearances

Television

Season 2

• The Chase
• The Time Meddler

Season 3

• Galaxy 4
• The Myth Makers
• The Daleks' Master Plan
• The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve
• The Ark
• The Celestial Toymaker
• The Gunfighters
• The Savages

Audio dramas

• Frostfire (an adventure related by Vicki)
• Mother Russia
• Home Truths (an adventure related by Sara Kingdom)
• The Suffering

Novels

Virgin Missing Adventures

• The Empire of Glass by Andy Lane

Past Doctor Adventures

• Salvation by Steve Lyons
• Bunker Soldiers by Martin Day

Short stories

• "The Golden Door" by David Auger (Decalog)
• "64 Carlysle Street" by Gary Russell (More Short Trips)
• "Planet of the Bunnoids" by Harriet Green (Short Trips and Sidesteps)
• "The Little Drummer Boy" by Eddie Robson (Short Trips: Companions)
• "Ash" by Trevor Baxendale (Short Trips: A Universe of Terrors)
• "The Glass Princess" by Justin Richards (Short Trips: The Muses)
• "Corridors of Power" by Matthew Griffiths (Short Trips: Steel Skies)
• "Scribbles in Chalk" by Gareth Wigmore (Short Trips: Life Science)
• "The Schoolboy's Story" by Trey Korte (Short Trips: Repercussions)
• "Making History" by Trevor Baxendale (Short Trips: A Day in the Life)
• "Waiting for Jeremy" by Richard Salter (Short Trips: A Day in the Life)
• "Mars" by Trevor Baxendale (Short Trips: The Solar System)
• "Snowman in Manhattan" by John Binns (Short Trips: The Ghosts of Christmas)

Comics

• "Are You Listening?" by Warwick Gray and Colin Andrew (Doctor Who Summer Special 1994)

References

External links

• Steven Taylor on TARDIS Index File, an external wiki
• Steven Taylor on the BBC's Doctor Who website