I was never much of a fan of Victoria, but I've found her rather fun in the novelisations. That's no criticism of Deborah Watling, who brought an almost superhuman charisma to the part, but of the fact she seemed to get little to do onscreen except simper or scream.
She comes across better in the books. I don't know if this is actually a sign that I should really rewatch what's left of Season Five or simply that the books were written quite a while later and the writers just realised they couldn't get away with what they had in the 60s, but here's a few extra tidbits that didn't fit anywhere on the main page.
Victoria was dressed as any proper mid-Victorian miss in a thick overskirt, an underskirt and three layers of petticoats. Her skirts were held out from her body by means of a basketlike cage and took up a great deal of room in the confined space aboard the TARDIS
It's probably just me but I do find the idea of her dress taking up a considerable chunk of the console room quite funny.
She came from a lively Victorian family, brought up by an unconventional, scientist father, and it didn't really surprise her to find there were fuddy-duddies in future centuries as well, who thought women always needed men to protect them. What they needed were brains, and, if necessary, weapons
I like the fact she clearly shared her father's scientific enthusiasms and seems to have had considerable understanding of them - something I don't remember from the TV episodes. I also like the easy way she's so dismissive of sexism and absolutely certain it'll be a casual victim to progress (remember, this is her first Tardis trip and so her first experience of 'future centuries'). And 'weapons' is a great punchline
Victoria stopped him, placing her finger on his lips—she was quicker than Jamie in understanding when the Doctor was speaking ironically
Again, I'm not sure how often her having a quicker mind than Jamie came across on TV.
It's not all great though. She makes a big deal of the fact that ‘The Doctor had not told her what to wear—he believed in letting people make up their own minds’ but skirts over the fact that he none-the-less ‘insisted she change her clothes for something less hampering for adventures in space’.
It's also very early in her run to assert ‘Victoria was ready to go anywhere the Doctor went’.
Anyway, for an attempt to tease some actual meaning out of Doctor Who and the Tomb of the Cybermen, click here.
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