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Capt. Mike YatesRichard Franklin |
A Review by John Riordan 3/8/97
Captain Mike Yates is one of the most interesting and underrated of all Doctor Who's regulars. He often seemed to me to have many of the qualities of the third Doctor himself: dashing, yet sensitive; brave, yet compassionate. Did you ever notice how he was the only member of the UNIT family who ever got hurt?
The fact that he ultimately supported the wrong cause for the right reasons makes him about the only companion who might be called a tragic figure. His subsequent search for spirituality and redemption in Planet of the Spiders gives him a depth that is unusual for supporting characters. He was probably a little too fragile and introverted for the army in the first place.
A Review by Stuart Gutteridge 19/8/02
Second in command to the Brigadier, Mike Yates is the most interesting of the UNIT regulars. Richard Franklin played him as a regular guy, the type who would try his luck with Jo (although we never saw much evidence of this) or as someone who`d try and throw his weight around (notably in Day Of The Daleks, to con a bit of time off). This was perhaps the first real sign that Mike Yates had any real depth as a character, someone who believed in what he thought was right and this to me is what makes him interesting, where we find out what makes him tick. Despite his discharge from UNIT, it`s a shame he couldn`t`ve been used as an undercover agent, which would seemed to have been the next logical development in his character.
GREATEST MOMENT: Invasion Of The Dinosaurs. Here we meet the true Mike Yates, and he is allowed some sort of dignity as he leaves UNIT.