VICKI PALLISTER - A FIRST LOOK

When I began to explore the earlier stories of the Doctor's adventures (I began with the Fourth Incarnation), I was sorry to see the First Incarnation of the Doctor leave his "granddaughter" behind on Earth after the Daleks were defeated in 2174.  ("The Dalek Invasion Of Earth")

But I quickly took to the next Companion, Vicki, whom we first met in "The Rescue".  (Of course part of that was due to her being played Maureen O'Brien.

Here are the basics which led up to Vicki's introduction.  (All of the information... information... information... comes from the TARDIS Data Core wiki, an invaluable source.)

These basic truths are derived from the TV adventure "The Rescue".  We'll deal with outside "facts" which I think can still be applied in the TV Universe.

• Vicki was born on Earth in 2479.
  
• Her father took a job in a new colony on the planet Astra and left Earth in 2493. The ship carrying the colonists, the UK-201, crash-landed on Dido. Most of the passengers survived the crash, but one night, unbeknownst to Vicki, Bennett murdered all the survivors other than her, as well as most of the native Dido people. 

And now for Kelly-Anne Conway's favorite - the alternative facts.  As this post is only dealing with Vicki's life before her introduction, let's take a look at Vicki's name....

1]  VICKI'S FIRST NAME

From the TARDIS Data Core:

• Originally, Vicki had the more futuristic-sounding name Tanni. Before settling on Vicki, the production team thought of several other possible names, including Valerie, Millie, and Lukki. Earlier drafts of "The Rescue" bore the working title "Doctor Who and Tanni".
• Vicki was not short for Victoria.

I'm rather taken with the name "Tanni"; I may even give it a shot in my Toobworld adventures since the Cooper family did like to give their children names beginning with "T".  Most of the Coopers who have children will follow this tradition but give their children names beginning with other letters.  (In the Real World, Thom and Maggie break with tradition and give their children the names Riley and Elodie.)

I think Thom's "twin" brother Toob will eventually have children of his own, twin daughters.  I already knew I'd use another favorite "T" name - Teenya from 'The Twilight Zone' - and I think "Tanni" would complement that nicely.

But as for Vicki, I'd like to think that even though "Vicki" may not be short for "Victoria", but perhaps she had a more futuristic name which incorporates "Tanni".  Perhaps her name was "Victannia".  My fanficcish background on this would be that Vicki's mother shortened it to "Tanni". But after her mother died, Vicki renounced the nickname because it was a painful reminder.  Ever after, she was known as "Vicki".

2]  VICKI'S SURNAME

Again from the TARDIS Data Core:

The Past Doctors Adventure novel "Byzantium!" revealed Vicki's previously unknown surname, Pallister, which was never mentioned on-screen in any televised episodes. This was reinforced in another novel, The Eleventh Tiger, in which Vicki thinks about Lieutenant Commander Pallister, her father.

As far as BookWorld is concerned, this last name was repeated again in another 'Doctor Who' novel.  In Toobworld, Vicki''s surname was never revealed, but I don't think it throws a monkey Zonk into the works if we consider it her last name in the main Toobworld.  So I'm accepting it.

Besides, it could be a corruption of the name "Pallisers", not only to be found in BookWorld, thanks to the Victorian novels of Anthony Trollope, but in a 1974-75 adaptation starring Susan Hampshie and 'Doctor Who' alumni Antony Ainley, Martin Jarvis, June Whitfield, and Sir Derek Jacobi.  

I will revisit the Toobworld relevance of Vicki Pallister at a later point today.....

BCnU!