The Doctor had just said farewell to his granddaughter Susan in The Dalek Invasion Of Earth when The Rescue first opens, and he is clearly feeling the loss quite keenly. He puts on a brave face for Ian and Barbara, but his companions aren't stupid; they know how deeply Susan's departure affected him. Enter Vicki, a teenage orphan who was stranded on the planet Dido when the ship she was traveling on with her father crashed there. Ever since the crash, she has been looking after Bennett, a fellow passenger who lacks the use of his legs... or appears to, anyway. Bennett, it turns out, was responsible for the crash to cover up a murder he committed on the ship, and he later terrorized and murdered the other surviving passengers disguised as a creature called Koquillion. When Bennett dies after a confrontation with two of Dido's natives, Vicki accepts the Doctor's invitation to travel aboard the TARDIS. The Rescue served as an exemplary companion introduction for two reasons. Firstly, it gave us an intriguing, suspenseful mystery episode and shared some details about the Doctor's previous travels, namely that he had visited Dido before. Secondly, it introduced Vicki in a way that made sense and taught us more about the Doctor. Yes, it was obvious that Vicki needed the Doctor - she had no family left and nowhere in her own time to go. But the Doctor also needed Vicki. With Susan gone, he missed having a young person around whom he could teach and who would look up to him in a way that Ian and Barbara didn't. Vicki's presence meant that he could slowly begin to heal because he had a companion who needed him.
Paula Luther hails from Pennsylvania and has been an avid Whovian since 2008. She enjoys writing (obviously), reading, dancing, video editing, and building websites. She has also self-published two books on Amazon, "Bart the Bard" and "Android Mae and Other Stories".
