Day 588: Mawdryn Undead Part 1

A new companion is introduced in this story, by the name of Turlough. His introduction is actually really interesing, on the grounds that he's clearly introduced as a villain. He steals a car, blames it all on his unwitting accomplice, gets a call from the Black Guardian to give him a mission of killing the Doctor, which he clearly accepts, as by the end of the episode he's holding a rock over the Doctor's head, ready to crush his skull. It's a nice change-up from normal companion introductions, as we're used to characters being introduced as allies of the Doctor, and for them to fall naturally into the role of travelling aboard the TARDIS, not for the characters to be introduced as slightly more nefarious than we're used to.

There's other elements of Turlough's introduction that are interesting as well. Looking back on previous companion introductions, such as those for Romana, Adric or Tegan, they seem to have all of their basic character and backstory introduced within a couple of scenes, be it a Time Lady who's a little bit pompous and knows far more than the Doctor, or an Australian air stewardess who's prone to getting a little bit cross from time to time. Turlough, on the other hand, clearly has far more depth as a character. We see him as a public school boy, and characterise him thusly, but it's slowly hinted at throughout the episode that he may not actually be human. Strange guardians, a strong desire to leave Earth, and familiarity with complex technology all shows that Turlough is slightly different from what his surroundings would suggest, and thus piques the audience's interest into watching the character more and more.