Steven Taylor (Doctor Who)

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Doctor Who character
Steven Taylor
Steven
Affiliated with	First Doctor
Race	Human
Home planet	Earth
Home era	Unspecified future
First appearance	The Chase
Last appearance	The Savages
Portrayed by	Peter Purves

Steven Taylor is a fictional character played by Peter Purves in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. A space pilot from Earth in the future, he was a companion of the First Doctor and a regular in the programme from 1965 to 1966.

1 Character history
2 List of appearances
3 References

[edit] Character history

Steven first appeared in the serial The Chase, when the Doctor and his companions found him on the planet Mechanus where he had crash-landed two years before. He joined the TARDIS crew and continued to travel with the Doctor and Vicki after the conclusion of the story. Steven was a strong-willed individual, who was more capable when there was something physical to do than when there was thinking to be done. Steven had a finely developed sense of right and wrong, and placed a high value on human life.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Steven followed the Doctor through The Daleks' Master Plan, a dark and dangerous adventure that took the lives of Sara Kingdom and Katarina. He argued with the Doctor when he refused to prevent the events of The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve. Steven was ready to part company with the Doctor over the deaths that happened, in particular that of a woman named Anne Chaplet. He rejoined the Doctor, however, at the same time that they acquired a new travelling companion, a young woman by the name of Dorothea "Dodo" Chaplet, who was apparently a descendant of Anne's.

Steven's journey eventually ended during the The Savages, when he decided to accept the responsibility of leading the combined society of Savages and Elders that was attempting a lasting peace. His life beyond that was not explored in the series.

The exact time period that Steven originally came from was not specified in the television series. However, in The Daleks' Master Plan, set in the year 4000, Steven states that he comes from "thousands of years" before that period. The Past Doctor Adventures novel Salvation by Steve Lyons states that he came from the mid-23rd century. The Virgin Missing Adventures novel The Empire of Glass by Andy Lane states that Steven was raised in a Hiveblock on Earth. As with the other spin-off media, the canonicity of the novels is uncertain.

Steven Moffat, a Doctor Who fan and writer of several episodes of the revived series, named the lead character in his sitcom Coupling (BBC Two, 2000–04) "Steve Taylor", although this was apparently a coincidence. Moffat later explained that although he was aware of the Doctor Who companion, the "Steve" was chosen because the character was based upon himself, and the "Taylor" to suggest a thematic link to the character of Mark Taylor in his earlier sitcom Joking Apart.^[1]