The Doctor In The TARDIS

Those of you who follow me on Twitter may well know of my liking for Adric. So I thought I'd take a little while and explain what it is about the little Alzurian fella that I find so endearing. First up (and this may sound a little incredible but bear with me) I actually think the idea behind the character is a real. He was an annoying, precocious smart kid. Tons of ability but no common sense. Well actually, I was a bit like that, and I've met people like that. I needed a Doctor figure when I was an adolescent. The relationship also echoed (apparently) that of the actors. Adric needed the Doctor but the Doctor also needed Adric, to remind him of who he once was because actually its not hard to imagine that back on Gallifrey there was more than a little of Adric in the young Dr.

There are two main problems with Adric. Firstly I think people mix him up in their mind with Wesley Crusher off Star Trek - they get lumped into the 'annoying brat' pile. Secondly and far more significantly was the so called crowded TARDIS. Very difficult to have a serious arc when there are two other strong companions. Nyssa & Tegan would have graced any incarnation so to shine through them was extremely tough. When he did get a good story (Earthshock) he put in a great performance. There is very little love for Adric in Fandom but as one last thing, he was part of the final season of Tom Baker which was (IMHO) absolutely awesome. A mathematical genius from another universe who died in the explosion creating life on Earth - that isn't a bad idea for a companion!

:D I was waiting for this. Surprised it took you this long :P

Well, i thought i'd run it up the time column see who salutes it!

Well I am with you anyways. Although he isnt one of my favourite companions, he doesnt deserve the negativity he gets by a long shot

I think it probably showed the mind of JNT. He had a brilliant idea. Then he forgot about it and had another brilliant idea. Meanwhile Adric was left shuffling round the corridors of the TARDIS with no one quite sure how to deal with him. But honestly I really thought his performances in Keeper of Traken, Logopolis and (especially) Castrovalva were very good.

Another member of the cult of Adric here, you cannot overestimate the effect of a companion death on a viewer of a similar age.  Much maligned, but I love him!

Who put that wonderful little picture at the top of the thread. That has actually made me do a little giggle *not a euphemism* :) Fantastic! The Cult of Adric is small but powerful! And, as usual, Sleekituk has made an excellent point. Not for Adric the "Thanks for my time in the TARDIS but i'm off to...write for a newspaper and return with my own RTD children's show/marry a welsh scientist/lose my mind in a metacrisis/get locked out of the TARDIS and help rebuild Earth after Dalek Invasions." (delete as applicable). No - he died on prime time TV and there was a broken badge and no music. You actually cannot beat it!

The picture was my doing. I was prettying up some of the threads in here :D

 ;D I saw this and instantly knew who would be involved in this thread. Ha!  8)

I thank you :) I've thought of some other reasons why he's great if you want them...

I was an absolutely massive Adric fan when I was younger, his death was probably the most traumatic thing that happened in my childhood.  I can remember weeping for hours after Earthshock, and writing stories on how he could have really been saved by a future Doctor :-[

As an adult I have to say that I find him a tad irritating, but I can still see why my younger self thought he was a hero.  He questioned people rather than just accepting what he was told, and he tried to solve problems in a different ways.  I just wish that he had learnt more by his mistakes, I think he would be a more popular companion if he had shown more growth during his time in the TARDIS.

I am still waiting for my Matthew Waterhouse autobiog but rest assured fellow Adric fans, I will place a review here for your delectation. I'm reading his book - so you don't have to!

Bravo! Well said!!

Im never sure why I love Adric but I always have done and I think you just managed to explain wonderfully :)

Ive been convinced to get his new book after Chris told me it was quite funny and good. I was always going to read it, but never going to rush. Think I will order it soon now though :)

I promise it is worth every penny. I read it in 36 hours flat - i didn't sleep one night it was the un-putdownable. To give you a little spoiler, he doesn't like Kenny Ball (out of Kenny Ball and the Jazzmen). THAT is the quality of tittle tattle we are treated to. It is a spectacular read!

Haha brilliant! Its my birthday very soon, so it is on my 'you must buy me nice things if you want to stay in my life' list :P

*Gulp* Showing how unknowledgable I am here but, who's Adric? :S

;D

I cant wait to see the steam coming out of a certain members ears :P

Its not unknowledgeable merely (in the words of Michael Buble) 'He just hasn't met you yet' :)

He was a companion in the end of the fourth/start of the fifth Doctor era in the early eighties. Very controversial because some peeps didn't like either the actor or the character. I thought he was brilliant.

He also has his own cult which is, you know, cool :P

Adric got a lot more stick than he deserved but he is worth watching. Ignore what you may have heard or read and try him out fir yourself. You may be pleasantly surprised :)

First I've heard of him is on this forum and he's been praised here so I think I'll end up liking him. *Shrugs* :)

finally found other people woh love adric!!!! hate it when people keep putting him down just because he was young!!!! argh ever since i first watched him in the keeper of traken i fell in love with him, yeah he can be cheesey at times but in a cute way haha, i even went round all my digital names and renamed myself missadric2 its like my second name now everyone calls me it, even in college sometimes haha. So proud of myself hehe anyway youre completely right in the character ideas if Adric had been left on his own with the Doctor maybe more people would have liked him oh but no he's young, arrogant and naive we dont like him, come on guys we were all like that at some point in our lives grow up!!!! sorry rant over *coughs*

I've read some truly awful things about Adric, but I've seen him in a few episodes now and I think he's alright. Not the most easy to warm to, but not as bad as people have indicated. I also think his acting is fine, too, despite what many have said.

I've always liked the character of Adric and I've never fully understood why so many people don't. I mean, everyone has their tastes of course, but the amount of negativity aimed at this one character is overwhelming. As character arcs go, he had a pretty interesting one, and though at times the acting for the character was a little off centre, for the most part I'd argue that he was played as well as, or even better than some of his castmates.

I think the biggest problem for the character was behind the scenes. Tom Baker didn't like Matthew Waterhouse (though has said in the years since that he was far too hard on him and that he was a nice guy and better than he gets credit for, which is nice), Janet Fielding and Peter Davison seemed to hate the poor guy too, even now rarely having a nice word to say about him, and the writers didn't seem all too keen on having a male companion around, especially once he had been joined by two attractive young women and the TARDIS started getting crowded. The whole thing seemed doomed to fail and I think possibly many fans have latched on to that.

I'd heard bad things about Adric, so I was skeptical to say the least. But I had also heard bad things about the 6th Doctor, and I ended up liking him pretty well.

After watching...I freaking LOVED Adric. I wish he'd stuck around longer, but he also got the exit of all exits. Nobody's going to forget The Companion That Died. Really, truly dead. I cried, and I cried quite a bit.

I completely agree 100% with your assessment here. In fact, I prefer Adric to Tegan, who I've always found annoying, and your Adric/ Wesley analogy was spot-on. Of course, that may be because I like Wil Wheaton's characterization and portrayal too. Hey, he's better than Deanna Troi! ("I can sense you're feeling upset, Captain." So can I! Patrick Stewart is a mater emoter!)
PS: If you don't get what I said about Troi above, immediately, don't bother to figure it out. You won't understand it.

Tegan is very hard to like and I go through waves with her. For the most part she is ok but she is horribly written in some stories and I think my view is slightly tainted because I've also come to hear a lot that the actress isn't particularly nice either.