• The beaten down boy... by Joe Ford

The beaten down boy... by Joe Ford 29/5/03

Anyone who has read any of my reviews must know that I am particularly impressed with the current companions, Fitz and Anji. Together with the spanking new idealist 8th Doctor they make one hell of a combination, dramatic, humorous and packing a right punch. Original, well written stories are a good reason to follow the books right now but to follow this combustible team is just as strong a reason. The Doctor and Anji are the clever ones, who foil plots with their sophisticated minds, they often team up and crack master together and stuff... but where does this leave poor Fitz?

Fitz was introduced way back when the EDA's were still struggling to find an identity of their own. The 20 books before he joined were of extremely variable quality (from the jaw droopingly intense to the mind numbingly obscene) and were sabotaged from the word go by a woman who fans seemed to point all their frustration at. Sam Jones, that greenpeace veggie anti-everything tart who spent most of her stories spreading her never ending opinions on everything. In short, she was annoying as shit and it was a problem.

What we needed was somebody to relate, someone who was a bit like us, somebody we could actually care about on these adventures. What we needed was Fitz. The poor guy was introduced in possibly one of the worst ever Doctor Who books, The Taint, but his story alone made the book bearable. He is introduced as a pathetic no-hoper with not much of a life (basically he works at a garden centre) and some extremely bad habits (an overactive libido and cravings for smokes and booze). He was in short, a complete loser. God I loved him to pieces.

As if inspired by this scruffy loser the books suddenly took an incredible upswing in quality, Steve Cole producing a far more consistent level of quality. It was clear, even from his first batch of books (say The Taint to Interference) that Fitz was going to be something special. Let's just take a look at some of the unfortunate things he manages to do. He stormed around in Demontage trying to act like James Bond. He fell in love in Revolution Man, left the Doctor for a few years and came back older and wiser. Well no, older. He shacked up with Dark Sam in Unnatural History. And unlike Sam Fitz was written with a real sense of humour, he was always looked down upon and treated like a second class citizen and quite delightfully he took to this role with aplomb.

Then Compassion came along to strengthen up the mix even more. And what a cow she was, cold, callous and a murderer, she had no qualms about putting Fitz in his place. Their on the run adventure together in Frontier Worlds contains some of the best writing for both characters, it is quite hysterical to watch Fitz tip toe around Compassion so, especially after she cold bloodedly slaughters somebody. It is actually quite sweet that during their twelve or so books together they build a strong rapport and Compassion even starts to have a begrudging respect for Fitz. Even a cold hearted TARDIS can't resist him.

It is true that a lot of Fitz's early stories consist of him falling in love in some way or another and whilst this did get a little repetitive at times it was infinitely preferable to Sam Jones' crush on the Doctor (yuck!). Indeed, in Parallel 59 the Fitz in love story turns on its head and ends up being surprisingly touching.

The Fall of Yquatine and The Banquo Legacy are both sterling Fitz pieces, one where he gets to take centre stage and prove just what an asset he is to the book range and another where he is used to comic effect in a way only Fitz can.

And then he disappears... for five books he's just gone while the Doctor spends 100 years trapped on Earth without his memory. But he soon returns in the not-so-great Escape Velocity. With Anji introduced also and the TARDIS back in action we have a 'proper' team again but this team feel better written and prepared for than the two Fitz was previously bolstered into. Instantly Fitz is making me laugh my head off again, his antics with the three psychotic triplets in EarthWorld are gorgeously written and his battle with Elvis had me in tears of laughter. If there was one thing the caught on Earth arc lacked it was the likable rogue character atmosphere that Fitz brings, he's just so normal, so damned pathetic at times you really miss him when he's gone.

Which brings me back to my earlier question of what on earth average, scruffbag Fitz could possibly bring to the Doctor/Anji line up. A real sense of humour for a start... who could ever forget his hapless mis-adventures in Grimm Reality or his pathetic attempts to impersonate the Doctor in Trading Futures or even his hysterical attempts to get into bed with a CARTOON CHARACTER in The Crooked World! Tee hee. In my mind Fitz is the real backbone of the three, the one who is there to remind us this is family (okay a wildly dysfunctional one), the one who will sacrifice anything and everything to help his two friends. The one who is always there for you no matter what. And I love how the Doctor trusts him explicitly, it makes scenes such as his violent behaviour towards the boy in Camera Obscura all the more shocking.

With Fitz and Anji we get a real chance to watch a relationship blossom in the EDA's. So differently outwardly but always after the same goal (to survive!) they go from being barely disguised enemies to the best of friends. It is gorgeous to watch Anji's attitude change towards Fitz, her initial hatred of everything he says soon peters away and she soon comes to recognise him as the one solid thing in their travels together. There is a lovely moment in City of the Dead where they consider how romantic it could be in New Orleans with different partners. That is why she suddenly starts defending him and protecting him. In the end she cares for him so much she bursts into tears in Time Zero by the thought that he could possibly be dead. This is real character growth folks and it's great to see.

Fitz will never be known as the best companion ever because he simply has no major quality that defines him. But for me, I think that he brings the best out in the writers, we get to see a fragment of their true personality shine in Fitz. More often than not he's written entertainingly with a good SOH but more importantly as I follow his adventures I find that I've really started to care about him a lot. So much so that when I see him being tortured so brutally (such as The Domino Effect) it breaks my heart.

Enjoyably Fitz hasn't changed a whole bunch since he started, he's been to hell and back but he's still the same old Fitz. Mad about women, ciggies and drink. When you read about Fitz you read about somebody who is quite realistic. A bit like you and me.

I would mention the major Fitz-life changing decisions made in Interference and The Ancestor Cell but frankly I wish they never happened as they almost threatened to sabotage the wonderful every-dayness about the character.

Ladies and gentlemen I give you Fitz Kreiner, the beaten down boy. What a champion!!!