Harry Sullivan (Doctor Who)
Harry Sullivan is a fictional character from the British science-fiction television series Doctor Who. He was a companion of the Fourth Doctor. Harry Sullivan was played by Ian Marter, the character appears as a regular during the programme's twelfth season in 1974–1975.
| Doctor Who universe character | |
|---|---|
| Dr. Harry Sullivan | |
| With | Fourth Doctor UNIT |
| Race | Human |
| Home planet | Earth |
| Home era | 20th century |
| First appearance | Robot |
| Last appearance | The Android Invasion |
| Actor | Ian Marter |
Character history
Harry is a doctor in the Royal Navy, who is also a medical officer to the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce, the military organisation to which the Doctor works for as a scientific advisor. He is first mentioned (though not seen) in Planet of the Spiders, when the Brigadier thinks the Third Doctor has gone into a coma. The Brigadier calls "Doctor Sullivan" and asks him to come to the Doctor's laboratory, but tells him not to bother when Sergeant Benton wakes the Doctor by offering him a cup of coffee. In the next serial, Robot, after the Doctor's third regeneration, Sullivan is called in to help him, and ends up travelling aboard the TARDIS with the Fourth Doctor and Sarah-Jane Smith (played by Elisabeth Sladen) for several adventures.
The character was originally devised by the production team to do any action scenes required in episodes when they had envisioned that the new Doctor would be played by an older actor (Sarah-Jane even jokingly compares Harry to James Bond at one point). When forty year-old Tom Baker was cast, however, this was no longer a concern and the decision was taken to write Harry out — something producer Philip Hinchcliffe later admitted was probably a mistake, as Harry was a likeable and popular character who worked well with both of his fellow leads.
Harry's last regular appearance is in the season thirteen opener Terror of the Zygons, which had actually been made at the conclusion of the twelfth production block and held over to start the following season. At the conclusion of this story he chooses to return to London by train rather than by TARDIS with the Doctor and Sarah-Jane, who continue their adventures without him. He does, however, reappear three stories later in The Android Invasion, both as the original Harry and an android double. This is the character's final appearance in the programme.
A photo of Harry can be seen in Sarah-Jane Smith's attic in The Sarah-Jane Adventures and in "Invasion of the Bane", Sarah-Jane thought of naming her newly adopted son after him before deciding on Luke.
Television
- Season 12
- Robot
- The Ark in Space
- The Sontaran Experiment
- Genesis of the Daleks
- Revenge of the Cybermen
- Season 13
- Terror of the Zygons
- The Android Invasion
Novels
- The Companions of Doctor Who
- Harry Sullivan's War by Ian Marter
- Virgin New Adventures
- Blood Heat by Jim Mortimore (parallel universe version of Harry)
- Damaged Goods by Russell T. Davies
- Virgin Missing Adventures
- System Shock by Justin Richards
- A Device of Death by Christopher Bulis
- Past Doctor Adventures
- The Face of the Enemy by David A. McIntee
- Millennium Shock by Justin Richards
- Wolfsbane by Jacqueline Rayner
Short stories
- "The Man From DOCTO(R)" by Andrew Collins (Short Trips: Companions)
- "To Kill a Nandi Bear" by Paul Williams (Short Trips: Past Tense)
- "UNIT Christmas Parties: Ships That Pass" by Karen Dunn (Short Trips: A Christmas Treasury)
- "Suitors, Inc." by Paul Magrs (Short Trips: Seven Deadly Sins)
- "The Last Broadcast" by Matthew Griffiths (Short Trips: A Day in the Life)
- "Mutiny" by Robert Dick (Short Trips: Defining Patterns)
Comics
- "The Psychic Jungle" by Paul Crompton (Doctor Who Annual 1976)
- "Neuronic Nightmare" by Paul Crompton (Doctor Who Annual 1976)
- "The Body Snatcher" by Paul Crompton (Doctor Who Annual 1977)
- "Menace on Metalupiter" by Paul Crompton (Doctor Who Annual 1977)
- "Black Destiny" by Gary Russell, Martin Geraghty and Bambos Georgiou (Doctor Who Magazine 235–237)