Vislor Turlough

Vislor Turlough (also spelled Vizlor Turlough) or simply Turlough is a fictional character played by Mark Strickson in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. He was a companion of the Fifth Doctor, being a regular in the programme from 1983 to 1984.

When Turlough first appeared in the serial Mawdryn Undead, he was a student at the Brendon Public School, but it became apparent that he was not what he seemed. He was contacted by the malevolent Black Guardian, who offered to take him home if he killed the Doctor. He also appeared familiar with concepts of time travel and matter transmission. At the end of the serial, Turlough asked to accompany the Doctor. Despite Tegan and Nyssa's suspicions, the Doctor accepted Turlough as part of the TARDIS crew.

During the course of the next two serials, Terminus and Enlightenment (collectively known, together with Mawdryn Undead, as the Black Guardian Trilogy), Turlough struggled with whether or not to carry out his assignment from the Black Guardian, but eventually rejected him in favour of loyalty to the Doctor. Although always slightly cowardly, with excellent instincts of self-preservation and a streak of ruthlessness, his relationship with the Doctor and Tegan improved with time (Nyssa had departed at the end of Terminus). Turlough continued travelling with the Doctor when Tegan left them at the end of Resurrection of the Daleks .

In the very next serial, Planet of Fire , it was revealed that Turlough was a native of the planet Trion, having become a political exile to Earth following a civil war. At the end of the serial, Turlough discovered that political prisoners were no longer mistreated on Trion and decided it was time to return home. His experiences after his return to Trion were chronicled in a spin-off novel by Tony Attwood, Turlough and the Earthlink Dilemma (1986).

Mark Strickton reappeared as an image of Turlough during the Fifth Doctor's regeneration scene in The Caves of Androzani. Strickson has also voiced the character of Turlough alongside Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor in two audio plays produced by Big Finish Productions. The canonicity of the audio dramas, like other Doctor Who spin-off media, is unclear.

• Travelled from: Mawdryn Undead to Planet of Fire