Harry Sullivan is the tritagonist of Season 12 and a supporting protagonist in Season 13 of Doctor Who. Harry is a dashing naval officer in the mould of a classical hero, even if be could be occasionally clumsy.
He was portrayed by the late Ian Marter. For Big Finish, he is voiced by Christopher Naylor.
Biography[]
Harry was a naval lieutenant and doctor assigned to UNIT as medical officer around the time of the Doctor's third regeneration. He was asked by Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart to look after the newly regenerated Doctor. Afterwards, he became caught up in UNIT's investigation into the Scientific Reform Society, an extremist group hoping to take over the world by using the K1 Robot to gain control of all nuclear missiles. Harry went undercover at the Think Tank facility and managed to alert the Brigadier to the fact they had a nuclear fallout bunker before being captured. He escaped with Sarah Jane Smith, overpowering senior SRS member Arnold Jellicoe, and later helped the Doctor destroy the K1 with a metal virus. Afterwards, Harry expressed doubts at the Doctor's claim to be able to travel in a police box, prompting the Doctor and Sarah to take him for a trip in the TARDIS.
Harry's tampering with the TARDIS controls saw them end up on Space Station Nerva in the far future, preventing a group of humans in suspended animation from being consumed by the Wirrn. A dazzling array of adventures saw Harry quickly encounter three of the Doctor's deadliest foes, as he helped defeat the Sontaran Styre who was running an experiment to come up with a strategy to conquer Earth (Harry was responsible for Styre's death by sabotaging his ship), travelled back to the creation of the Daleks and encountered their creator Davros, and prevented the Cybermen from destroying the last fragment of Voga, the Planet of Gold.
Finally returning to Earth, Harry joined UNIT in their investigation into the sinking of North Sea oil rigs. He was captured by the alien Zygons, one of whom impersonated him, but escaped to help defeat their scheme. When the Doctor and Sarah left in the TARDIS, Harry elected to stay behind on Earth. He met the pair again some months later when they defeated the Kraal invasion.
Harry was later mentioned as doing research work for NATO. The novel Harry Sullivan's War saw him involved in espionage. The later novels System Shock and Millennium Shock saw an older Harry work alongside the Doctor as an assistant chief of staff at MI5. Harry was mentioned to have gone "missing in action" by the 2000's in the Sarah Jane Smith audio series, and in The Sarah Jane Adventures: Death of the Doctor, Sarah remembered that Harry had been responsible for vaccines that saved thousands of lives.
Trivia[]
- In the story before his introduction, Planet of the Spiders, it includes a foreshadowing reference to "Dr Sullivan" when the Third Doctor seems to be in a trance, however the Doctor manages to awaken without his assistance being necessary.
- Harry's audio adventures with Naomi Cross are told out of chronological order: they first appear together in UNIT: Nemesis, released from 2021-23, where they assist Kate Stewart's UNIT after their travels with the Fourth Doctor, their adventures with the Seventh Doctor are set after UNIT: Nemesis, but began releasing in 2022. Finally, their Fourth Doctor Adventures would only start releasing in 2024.
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