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Captain Mike Yates is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, played by Richard Franklin. He was adjutant of the British contingent of UNIT, an international organization that defends Earth from alien threats.
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- Overview
- Biography
- Personality
- Appearance
- Behind the scenes
Captain Michael Alexander Raymond Yates, also known as Mike, worked alongside Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, Sergeant Benton and the Third Doctor in UNIT. Years later, he also had a series of adventures with the Fourth Doctor and Mrs. Wibbsey.
Early life
Michael Alexander Raymond Yates (PROSE: The Devil Goblins from Neptune) had family links to Aberdeen on his mother's side. He gained a knowledge of northeast Scotland due to spending much of his childhood there. (AUDIO: Vengeance of the Stones) In his childhood, Yates attended prep school before being sent to public school and joining the British Army. (AUDIO: The Rings of Ikiria) He played rugby. (AUDIO: Terror of the Master) Yates had three brothers, and his mother thought he was the most sensitive. (PROSE: Deep Blue) Yates also had a sister. (AUDIO: Starfall) He spent two years posted at Fort George in Inverness. (AUDIO: Vengeance of the Stones)
Aftermath
Mike later decided to go to a Buddhist meditation centre to find solace. Here, he uncovered strange events, which he reported to Sarah Jane Smith, since he felt that UNIT would consider him untrustworthy. Sarah communicated this to the Doctor. Through it all, the Doctor still considered him an ally. (TV: Planet of the Spiders) He briefly met the Fourth Doctor at the Brigadier's Christmas party. (AUDIO: The Stuff of Nightmares) In 1976, he helped the Seventh Doctor defeat the Vardans while acting undercover in the terrorist organisation Black Star. However, Yates noted that he would resign from UNIT once this crisis was over, as he had come to sympathise with Black Star's motives regarding their anger at government manipulation even if he disagreed with their methods. He and Kevin Doyle decided to start up a co-operative food shop, a booksellers with a printing press. (PROSE: No Future) In October 1983 Yates attended the UNIT reunion with Lethbridge-Stewart. By that time Yates and Tom Osgood had set up tiny tea-rooms just outside Reading. (PROSE: Business Unusual) For a while, he was on the council for Upper Wardleswick, Kent. According to another Michael Yates, he was an environmentalist and a vegetarian. (COMIC: The Warkeeper's Crown) In 2005, Mr. Yates left a message on whoisdoctorwho.co.uk, warning others not to involve themselves with the Doctor, as he felt the Doctor wasn't how "[they thought] he is", and was protected by friends in high places. (PROSE: Have You Seen This Man?) In 2009, Mike Yates was running an ecology project in San Francisco with Brendan Richards. He was invited to Sarah Jane Smith's aborted wedding with Peter Dalton, but couldn't make it in time. (PROSE: The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith)
Rejoining UNIT
By 2010, Yates was friends with a man named Tom. Yates told the Brigadier about him, and he gave the Brig a jar of honey that he and Tom made. (PROSE: Happy Endings) Sometime afterwards the transportation of Hexford (AUDIO: Survivors in Space) or Happenstance Village, Tish Madoc wrote a novel, Romance in the Milky Way, which revealed classified information which was protected under the Official Secrets Act, which Mike had signed after the lizard men were found under Wenley Moor. Upon the book's launch, Mike left Happenstance Village for good. (PROSE: Mrs Frimbly's Festive Diary) Yates rejoined UNIT on a permanent basis, regaining his rank of Captain. He was sent on a mission to recruit Charlie Sato and Ruth Matheson for a mission to enter the Vault. Inside the Vault they found that Rees had animated the corpses of several aliens, as well as controlled the minds of previous UNIT soldiers who had been sent into the Vault. Rees escaped the Vault and Yates, Matheson and Sato pursued him. After realising that Rees had escaped their clutches, Yates sent word to Geneva for UNIT to call in the Doctor to help. (AUDIO: The Screaming Skull)
Yates was cool under fire, efficient, and both gave and carried out orders with a minimum of fuss. Despite his somewhat aristocratic demeanour, he had a good rapport with his men, although he did remind Benton on occasion that "rank has its privileges". (TV: Day of the Daleks) He was attracted to the Doctor's assistant Jo Grant. (TV: The Curse of Peladon)
As a young man he presented himself as straight and very "laddish". (PROSE: The Devil Goblins from Neptune)
Captain Yates was thin and sensitive-looking, his appearance betraying how tough he really was. (PROSE: The Mind of Evil) He was thin of face (PROSE: The Five Doctors) and had fair hair (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Claws of Axos) which, by 2010, he wore long and under a fedora to hide a bald spot. (PROSE: Happy Endings)
•Richard Franklin wrote a play featuring Franklin both as himself and as Yates (alongside Benton) called Recall UNIT: The Great Tea-Bag Mystery. He also wrote an unpublished novel featuring Mike Yates, The Killing Stone, set after the events of Planet of the Spiders. It was released as an audio book, read by Franklin, by BBV in 2002. It is unknown if the characters used were licensed by the BBC.
•His romantic life was barely explored in the TV series, but it was assumed[by whom?] he was straight. Episode one of The Curse of Peladon implied that he was about to go on a date with Jo Grant before the Doctor took her to Peladon. And other dates were mentioned in Big Finish's Companion Chronicles, and the first Issue of Titan Comics Third Doctor comic series.
•In The Dæmons, he jokingly asks the Brigadier if he "fanc[ies] a dance." This comment, and the Brig's response, are a humorous rejoinder to the fact that, after the white witch had lassoed Benton for a dance, and Jo had dragged the Doctor off for a dance, there were no women left for either Yates or the Brig to dance with. Instead, the two went off to the pub for a pint. According to Richard Franklin, directly after shooting the scene Nicholas Courtney commented that Yates was clearly gay and the Brigadier was clearly an alcoholic.
•Terrance Dicks thought that Yates might be killed off in Invasion of the Dinosaurs, but Barry Letts felt they might revisit the character in a forthcoming serial.
•Franklin reprised the role of Yates for a series of five BBC Audio dramas under the umbrella title Hornets' Nest which were released during the second half of 2009, alongside Tom Baker. He continued this performance in the two sequel series Demon Quest (2010) and Serpent Crest (2011).
•Richard Franklin was unable to appear in The Three Doctors, so Sergeant Benton took on the majority of the role written for Captain Yates and a new character, Corporal Palmer, took on most of the lines originally written for Benton.
Right-hand man to Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart throughout some of UNIT’s most fearsome alien encounters, Captain Mike Yates was a cool-headed, easy-going soldier.
After an encounter with the Eighth Doctor and Charley Pollard, Yates is assigned as a liaison to UNIT as they investigate a missing fighter jet, leading into Vengeance of the Stones. RAF Lieutenant Mike Yates is asked to join UNIT, with a promotion from lieutenant to captain.
Captain Mike Yates appeared in several episodes from Terror of the Autons to Planet of the Spiders. He works for UNIT. Yates first appeared in the Third Doctor serial Terror of the Autons, the latest in a line of Captains assisting Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, although the Doctor implies that...
Mike Yates worked alongside Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, Sgt Benton and the Third Doctor in UNIT. Years later, he also had a series of adventures with the Fourth Doctor and Mrs Wibbsey.
Jul 13, 2024 · Played by Richard Franklin, Captain Mike Yates was a key member of the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce, or UNIT, and part of what became known as the UNIT family. In the 70s, the eponymous Time Lord had been exiled to Earth by his own people and lost all knowledge of how to pilot the TARDIS.
