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James Robert "Jamie" McCrimmon (also spelt Macrimon and Macrimmon) was a companion of the Second Doctor.
- You may be looking for the version of Jamie created by Zoe Heriot.
He was a Highland Scot from the mid-18th century who travelled with the Doctor, Polly Wright, Ben Jackson, Victoria Waterfield and Zoe Heriot. He also had a couple of adventures with Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, as well as the Sixth Doctor and Peri Brown.
Jamie travelled in the TARDIS for most of the Doctor's second incarnation's life. His journeys through time and space began when he left 18th century Scotland and continued until the Time Lords sentenced the Doctor to exile on Earth. Jamie was returned to 18th century Scotland by the Time Lords at the exact moment before he went away with the Doctor, thus erasing his memory of all but his first adventure with him.
As an old man, Jamie revealed he had overcome the mind-wipe, as the Time Lords held an imperfect understanding of the human mind. This was prior to having an adventure with the Sixth Doctor in which he gave his life saving the universe from Cybermen.
Biography
Early life
James Robert McCrimmon, alternatively spelt Macrimon (PROSE: Doctor Who and the War Games) or Macrimmon, (PROSE: The Indestructible Man) was born in 1724. (AUDIO: Shadow of Death) He was the son of Donald McCrimmon.
Jamie learned to play the chanter at his father's knee from an early age and became a talented piper like his father and grandfather before him. (TV: The Highlanders) He grew up with his father and brothers, and they did some farming. He idolised Scottish heroes such as William Wallace. (PROSE: On a Pedestal)
Jamie and his father used to go grouse hunting in the Highlands. (PROSE: The Nameless City) He was trained in knife-fighting by the stern Fulton McKay. (PROSE: The Two Doctors)
By the 18th century, Jamie's family had been making haggis for hundreds of years. (AUDIO: Echoes of Grey)
Travels
Travelling with the Doctor, Ben and Polly
Jamie, then 22 years old, (AUDIO: Shadow of Death) first met the Second Doctor in the aftermath of the English defeat of the Jacobite Rebellion at the Battle of Culloden on 16 April 1746, when he was a piper for the Clan McLaren. Jamie and his fellow Highlanders faced being hanged, butchered by the Duke of Cumberland or sold into unsurvivable seven-year servitude on the plantations in the West Indies. After escaping the gallows, an unsure Jamie was urged to follow the Doctor, Ben Jackson and Polly Wright into the mysterious TARDIS. (TV: The Highlanders)
When he and the others visited Atlantis, Jamie and Ben were sent to the mines, but they escaped with the help of fellow prisoners Sean and Jacko. When Jacko called him "Jock", Jamie retorted that his name was Jamie, not "Jock". (TV: The Underwater Menace)
Jamie tried to understand his new experiences in terms of his life in 1746. When he encountered a Cyberman whilst on his sick bed on the Moonbase, he believed that it was his clan's legend of the Phantom Piper and that he was dying. (TV: The Moonbase)
Separated from the Doctor in 71 BC, Jamie, Polly and Ben found themselves in the company of Spartacus in Bruttium. Jamie, having early on blocked Polly's view of corpses in a torched villa, reacted with weariness to the cause to free slaves from the Roman Empire (a cause which similarly ended in defeat with the rebels being crucified by Pompey). Surprisingly, he simply wanted to get back to the TARDIS. However, he helped against Marcus Licinius Crassus and protected his fellow companions. (PROSE: The Slave War)
He encountered a train when the TARDIS was hit by one in 1920s. He was intrigued by the train. He started to see the soldiers that Ben saw, though they appeared to him as highland soldiers not navy officers. (AUDIO: The Mouthless Dead)
After the TARDIS faltered in the vortex they landed in New Houston. Staying with Ben at Meg Carvossa's house he was kidnapped by a Yes Man. He was taken to an underground city of Yes Men. Jamie was then made to wait on the Yes Men in the city. The Yes Men could see that he was different from the other humans so they put him in a machine to analyse his brain. This machine made him see Scotland again. (AUDIO: The Yes Men)
When the TARDIS landed on a planet that resembled an English Village. the Master brainwashed Jamie to believe he was married to Polly. They both joined the home guard, believing that there was a war on. The Master told them that they needed to defeat the Doctor as part of the war effort. Jamie was almost shot for entering the Doctor's office. (AUDIO: The Home Guard)
He found the workings of the Galacti-Bank interesting before the Selachians arrived. He tried to stop a Selachian by covering it in glue and he later saved the Doctor and the other bankers by smothering a bomb in glue. (AUDIO: The Selachian Gambit) At the casino he visited and chased a woman when an alarm went off to detect time travellers and she vanished. He was chased by the Sidewinder Syndicate for apparently creating mayhem. (AUDIO: House of Cards)
Polly, Ben, Jamie and the Doctor landed in Kenga, Singapore during World War II. When Clive Freeman brought them to the local hotel, he went searching for the kitchen where he found a vision of the Grim Reaper. He later found Andrews dead. With Lawson's help he devised a warning system to tell if something was about. He started to act nervously and suspiciously during a search through the Jungle for the Forsaken. (AUDIO: The Forsaken)
Shortly after arriving in the USSR, he and the Doctor were arrested by Nadia Vasney. He went with the Doctor to find the TARDIS, but Nadia wanted them killed and shot at them, igniting the fuel she had placed on the truck they were using. (AUDIO: The Night Witches)
On an asteroid in 7691, Jamie was the first to realise that they had landed underground. He helped to investigate the disappearances with Ben and Polly and went to look for the Doctor when he disappeared. He volunteered to go into the lake nearest the centre of the asteroid to help search for the Doctor but was attacked by a creature. The Doctor and his friends were taken to a cell deep under water. (AUDIO: The Outliers)
Planning to take Ben and Polly home, the Doctor landed the TARDIS in the 1860s instead of the 1960s. Jamie met Jemma Morton and had a crush on her, which Ben teased him about. He went with Jemma to learn more about one of the artefacts that was sold to her father's museum. (AUDIO: The Morton Legacy)
He and Ben became separated from the Doctor and Polly when they landed in Vichy France as they were captured by the Milice. (AUDIO: Resistance)
The natural acceptance and a desire to rationalise things helped Jamie grasp the worlds he saw. Aeroplanes at Gatwick Airport were "flying beasties" to him. He was fascinated by them and stole a ticket from Samantha Briggs so he could take a flight. Unfortunately, having never experienced anything like it, he got airsick. A Chameleon, who spoke with an English rather than Scots accent, assumed Jamie's form during this adventure. (TV: The Faceless Ones)
In his investigation of reports of a series of agent provocateurs known as "the Doctor" who had been involved in unusual incidents, the journalist James Stevens interviewed Samantha Briggs about the Gatwick Incident. She told him about the Doctor and Jamie's involvement in the investigation of holiday fraud. (PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy)
Travelling with Victoria
Shortly after, in an adventure involving the Daleks and their quest for the Human Factor, the Second Doctor's manipulation of those around him caused Jamie to decide to have nothing more to do with him; he thought the Doctor was working with the Daleks to save his own skin. However, it was really manipulation by the Doctor to anger Jamie so that he'd stop at nothing to rescue the young Victoria Waterfield from her captivity by the Daleks. When the humanised Daleks and regular Daleks had destroyed each other, and with her father, a Dalek collaborator, having sacrificed himself to save the Doctor, the Doctor and Jamie "adopted" the orphaned Victoria. (TV: The Evil of the Daleks)
The Doctor, Jamie and Victoria landed on Telos, where an archaeological expedition was breaking into the Cyber-tombs. Jamie and Peter Haydon explored the Weapons Testing Room, where Jamie found a dormant Cybermat, which he thought was a caterpillar. (TV: The Tomb of the Cybermen) In the original timeline, he was covered in nanites, which would have later infected the TARDIS. The Fourth Doctor managed to remove these particles before they could cause any harm. (AUDIO: Return to Telos)
The Doctor accused Jamie of leaving a mess by the food machine, but he said someone else did this and stayed behind when Victoria and the Doctor went exploring. He was attacked by Leela who thought he had done something to her Doctor. When Leela stabbed the Doctor he defended her. He went with Mrs De Winter to what they thought was controlling their perception. (AUDIO: Dumb Waiter)
The Doctor, Jamie and Victoria landed on a human spaceship where they aided a Gallifreyan calling himself "Constable Pavo" of Chapter 9 (who was actually the Doctor's old enemy, the Monk), with his investigation of a nearby artificial black hole. (AUDIO: The Black Hole)
According to one account, the Monk then sent the Doctor and Jamie on a diplomatic mission to Space Station Camera. (AUDIO: The Black Hole) Here, the Doctor and Jamie intended to have Joinson Dastari stop Professors Kartz and Reimer's experiments into time travel. Jamie believed he saw the Doctor killed in a massacre by Sontarans. After Jamie spent ten or twelve days hiding in the service ducts, he was found by the Sixth Doctor and Peri Brown. After letting Jamie rest, the Sixth Doctor deduced that the Second Doctor's supposed death was an illusion created by the Sontarans. The Sixth Doctor used telepathy to track the Second Doctor to a hacienda near Seville, where he was being held captive while Dastari tried to isolate the symbiotic nuclei in a Time Lord's cells so that the Sontarans could be given the secret to time travel. While Peri distracted the hacienda's occupants, a local woman called Anita helped the Sixth Doctor and Jamie find a secret passageway into the cellars.
The Sixth Doctor sabotaged a TARDIS copy that was being developed on the space station, and lied to Jamie about its workings while he knew the Sontaran Group Marshal Stike was listening in on them. Jamie wounded Stike, and the two of them escaped. Knowing there was another Time Lord present, the technologically augmented Androgum Chessene changed the plan into having Dastari alter the Second Doctor into Chessene's Androgum consort. Chessene also betrayed the Sontarans. The effect on the Second Doctor was not permanent, however, as the condition was not stabilised. The Sixth Doctor, Peri, and Jamie followed the Second Doctor to Las Cadenas restaurant in Seville. Dastari and Chessene had the Doctors and their companions brought back to the hacienda. The Sixth Doctor saved Jamie from being butchered and eaten by the Androgum Shockeye. Dastari then freed the Second Doctor upon realising his mistake in augmenting a primitive Androgum, and was shot by Chessene for betraying her. Jamie disarmed Chessene before she could shoot the Second Doctor and Peri. With Peri's help, the Sixth Doctor deceived Chessene into using the faulty prototype TARDIS, and she was killed by molecular disintegration. The Second Doctor used his Stattenheim remote control to return his TARDIS to him, and the Doctor and Jamie left the hacienda in the TARDIS. (TV: The Two Doctors) According to another account, this mission happened later, when the Doctor was working for the CIA. (PROSE: World Game)
Before returning to Victoria and "Pavo", the Doctor and Jamie then had further adventures, and returned to the ship they departed from before they actually first arrived on the ship, and found the real Pavo, helping her defeat the Monk, for which Pavo agreed not to arrest the Doctor. (AUDIO: The Black Hole)
He was worried that he would meet Yeti when they landed in China. He was also suspicious of a monk that appeared in the village where they were staying. (AUDIO: The Emperor of Eternity)
He said that he liked the smells of the new worlds he visited. He was starting to learn how to read and was confused at the book the Doctor was given by Selsey. Whilst the Doctor helped the scientist he and Victoria were sent on supply duty. When they looked for the Doctor they were attacked by the electronic parchment that was used for books in this time. (AUDIO: The Story of Extinction)
Jamie and Victoria seemed to have unrequited feelings for one another. While undercover in Salamander's guard, Jamie and Victoria posed as boyfriend and girlfriend. (TV: The Enemy of the World) He showed bursts of bravery and bravado directed at anyone who would harm her. When thinking something had happened to the unconscious Victoria, he worriedly exclaimed that he'd never forgive himself if anything happened to her. He got angry when he thought she had tricked him and had heard his emotional outburst. Jamie was upset when Victoria stated her intention to stay with the Harrises and tried to get her to change her mind and stay with the Doctor and him. Although he never admitted his feelings for her, because he didn't have them, during their goodbye, he left her with a kiss. When the Doctor and Jamie left in the TARDIS, he watched Victoria waving goodbye on the scanner and said that he couldn't care less about where they went next. (TV: Fury from the Deep)
Travels alone with the Doctor
Info from Twin Piques, The Revolutionaries, Seven to One & One Step Forward, Two Steps Back needs to be added
He was temporarily left in 1967, where he began working at a Scottish radar station. During the Quark invasion, Jamie reunited with the Doctor. Coming up with a plan, the Doctor and Jamie commandeered the flying saucer and opened fire on the Quark invasion force, causing the Quarks to destroy themselves in the confusion. Returning to destroy the Quarks at the castle, Jamie and the Doctor both agreed to accompany each other in the TARDIS again. (COMIC: Invasion of the Quarks)
Jamie and the Doctor were involved in a battle with the Terrible Zodin that involved multiple incarnations of the Doctor, though he lost his memory of the adventure after Zodin used "mind rubbers" on them. (PROSE: The Colony of Lies, Cold Fusion)
While he repaired the TARDIS' time rotor, the Doctor sent Jamie out to find gold, mercury and Zeiton-7. Jamie helped an old man against some bullies, and in return, the old man gave him a book. When he returned, Jamie discovered that he had been given the Necronomicon by the Master, which transported the Doctor and Jamie to the Great Desolation after the Doctor handled it. There, the duo discovered that the Master had been working with the Archon, who wanted to seize a TARDIS to attack the Time Lords. After they repaired the TARDIS, the Doctor defeated the Archon by playing his recorder whilst Jamie played the bagpipes, which confused and destroyed them. (PROSE: The Nameless City)
Landing on Gano after a war on the planet was lost, the Doctor and Jamie were attacked by giant wasps, but were able to evade them in a trench. Utilising a discarded anti-aircraft gun, they were able to shoot down a wasp, until the swarm changed formation and tackled the gun over, but exposed an underground city to the Doctor and Jamie in the process. Escaping into the city, the duo were confronted by the Quarks, but were able to avoid them by using some old scooters, until they came upon a dead end. However, the wasps arrived to attack the Quarks and the battle between them enabled the Doctor and Jamie to make a break for the exit. After a close encounter with a wasp near the exit, which resulted in the creature's demise, the Doctor and Jamie made it to the TARDIS and left. (COMIC: The Killer Wasps)
After the TARDIS was forced to materialise by an explosion in 1970 Antarctica, the Doctor and Jamie discovered that aliens were threatening to detonate explosives to throw Earth off its axis. After evading a group of Ice Apes, the Doctor and Jamie followed the aliens' craft down a cave, and, after using dynamite to damage the craft, manoeuvred the aliens into a fight with the Ice Apes. After the Ice Apes emerged victorious, the Doctor disarmed the aliens' explosives and, from within the TARDIS, hacked into the world television networks to announce the aliens' defeat to the world. (COMIC: Ice Cap Terror)
Landing on the edge of a jungle, the TARDIS was buried in a rockslide caused by the Quarks, and the Doctor and Jamie were forced to seek shelter from their flying saucer in the jungle. Outrunning the Quarks to a jungle clearing operation, the Doctor and Jamie took control of a bulldozer and an excavator to battle the Quarks directly. Winning the duel with the bulldozer, the Doctor and Jamie made to leave, but were ambushed by the jungle natives enslaved by the Quarks. Forced behind the bulldozer's shovel, the Doctor removed the machine's silencer to frighten the jungle animals into stampeding onto the Quarks. Using the bulldozer to free the TARDIS, which had sustained no damage, the Doctor and Jamie departed the jungle. (COMIC: Jungle of Doom)
When the TARDIS landed in the Time Temple, the Doctor and Jamie were greeted by Father Time, who decided they needed to be punished for their time travel, and rendered them unconscious. Jamie awoke to find himself sealed within a giant hourglass. Noticing a loose bolt, the Doctor freed Jamie. With Father Time after them, the Doctor took shelter in a cuckoo clock, but Father Time cornered him there. The Doctor was saved by Jamie's intervention, but broke his ankle in the process. Whilst Father Time summoned robots after them, the Doctor was defended by Jamie, who inadvertently damaged the robots enough to set them on Father Time, giving him and the Doctor the chance to escape the Time Temple. (COMIC: Father Time)
After the Doctor completed constructing a mechanical housemaid named Martha, the TARDIS landed in 1971 New York City, where the Doctor and Jamie went to see C. G. Slattery of the Inventions International Company, who was impressed enough with Martha to put the Doctor on nation-wide television to sell hundreds of thousands of Marthas. After a few weeks of successful business, however, the Marthas were taken over by the Quarks to be used as an invasion force. Though the Doctor was able to bring the Marthas back under his control, the Quarks soon arrived to take New York City by force, but the Doctor was able to turn the Marthas savage again to fight back against the Quarks. (COMIC: Martha the Mechanical Housemaid)
Jamie and the Doctor were present in London during the coronation of Elizabeth II on 2 June 1953; in order to hide from what Jamie called a "devil beastie", the pair dressed as royal guards outside Buckingham Palace only to be caught by the beastie, who was itself dressed as a guard. They were saved when the beastie was subdued by Eva De Ville; unbeknownst to them, Eva had been instructed to clean up extraterrestrial activity as she pursued the Thirteenth Doctor. (COMIC: Where's the Doctor?)
Travelling with Zoe
While on Space Station W3 in the 21st century, which was being attacked by Cybermen and Cybermats, Jamie gave the Doctor his oft-used "John Smith" alias. At the conclusion of this adventure, a young scientist named Zoe Heriot joined the Doctor and Jamie. (TV: The Wheel in Space)
In 2724, two beams of energy from a pulsar hit the TARDIS, causing it to forcibly land on a nearby planet. The TARDIS had landed in a human base where humans in the Fifth Galactic Surveyor Corps could observe an ancient city on the planet orbiting the pulsar. The base was under attack by a force that had killed some of the crew. The Doctor stayed behind to open the door to the surface for the rest of them to escape to, as the outside door could only be opened from the control room. The Doctor eventually left the base, and explained he had made contact with the force, the Quiet Ones, and agreed to a truce in which Sophie's team could continue to safely learn about and communicate with the Quiet Ones, if they did it more quietly. While minutes had passed outside, for the Doctor it was a few years. (AUDIO: Shadow of Death)
Jamie got along with Zoe very well, despite her teasing him for his intelligence, even though Zoe came from a 21st century background very much unlike his own. The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe later landed on Dulkis which was being attacked by the Dominators and the robotic Quarks. Jamie and the Dulcian Cully destroyed several of the Quarks, delaying the Dominators' plan. (TV: The Dominators)
In the Land of Fiction, Jamie temporarily changed into a different youth of the same age when the Doctor failed to put together his facial features correctly in a test. (TV: The Mind Robber)
When Zoe and Isobel Watkins were abducted by Tobias Vaughn, the Doctor and Jamie investigated him and evaded Packer, whom Jamie tackled to the ground. Jamie was pleased to have been given a small radio and didn't want the Doctor to break it when he suspected the gift. The Doctor and Jamie reunited with Lethbridge-Stewart, now a Brigadier. Jamie was later convinced by Zoe and Isobel to go into the sewers to photograph the Cybermen, but were soon cornered by three of them. While escaping the sewers after Captain Turner rescued them, the surviving Cyberman grabbed Jamie's leg, but was destroyed by a grenade. Jamie's leg was later injured by after being shot by one of Vaughn's men. After a stay in the hospital, Jamie left with the Doctor and Zoe to stunned surprise at the sight of the appearing and disappearing TARDIS. (TV: The Invasion)
After the Doctor tracked a Cybership to Isos II, he became trapped in the nearby city after the escalators started working and he slid down them. Looking through the city he saw empty cyberpods. Jamie watched one of the Slugs kill a Cyberman before it was killed. He was later rescued by Enab in the bowels of the city. He had to keep defending him wearing a kilt. Eventually, he managed to tell the Doctor what he found. He sensed that something was coming towards them on the monorail track. The Cyber-Controller ordered his conversion. As Hislee was the one to put him in the pod he didn't fasten him in which allowed him to escape. (AUDIO: The Isos Network)
Jamie was annoyed when Zoe was sent outside the TARDIS to repair it, and was angry when she went missing after they collided with the World. He went searching for Zoe with the Doctor on the ship, where they found a room full of dead bodies. Jamie was thrown across the World's corridors after aggravating Porthintus, and later had to manually create power for the Doctor. (AUDIO: The Wreck of the World)
When Zoe reattached the Time path indicator, Jamie helped her to try and avoid a collision in the Vortex. The Doctor blamed him as well for the resulting collision that happened. On Urbinia, he was separated when a crowd rushed towards him. Piril and Varx tried to attack him for discovering them looting. He encountered Katarina, who took him to the First Doctor's TARDIS, but argued with him about why the TARDIS was moved. He went with her to find Zoe and Steven Taylor. He escaped the effects of the Time Destructor by making it to the TARDIS. (AUDIO: Daughter of the Gods)
When Iolas Blue trapped them in a cell, he became anxious. Jamie wanted to know why they weren't tied up if Iolas was going to kill him. (PROSE: Lepidoptery for Beginners)
Jamie and Zoe had an argument about there being no peaceful aliens in the universe. He decided to exit the TARDIS in a humph because of this to try and prove Zoe wrong. When he entered Aspen Base he initially became calm, but this soon wore off. This was due to the Integral's suppression field. Because his anger was suppressed he started to feel bad because he couldn't use it to help protect Zoe if needed. When Elm was killed he had to fight to protect Zoe but was almost killed but Zoe helped him. After this adventure he had some proof that aliens were good. (AUDIO: The Integral)
He found the city of Sanctuary which was carved out of a mountain. In a cave he met Quadrigger Stoyn who knew of his travels. When a ship crashed near the city he went with the locals to save the crew. (AUDIO: The Dying Light)
After fighting the Krotons, where Jamie nearly died to save the Doctor and Zoe, (TV: The Krotons) he battled the Ice Warriors again, helping prevent them from turning Earth into their new home through spores, saving the Doctor from Slaar while on the Moon. (TV: The Seeds of Death)
Jamie asked Zoe to make him some Haggis, but she cut her hand. They went to the Whitaker Institute, where they encountered the Achromatics. (AUDIO: Echoes of Grey)
When they landed in Tromesis, he immediately sprang to motion to protect the Doctor when he was attacked by a local. He had to explain to the locals of the city about the two version of the city and how to get to the version of the city where they could be saved. (AUDIO: The Apocalypse Mirror)
He later helped defeat Maurice Caven and his argonite pirates after he, the Doctor and Zoe were almost killed when the pirates destroyed Space Beacon Alpha 4, which they had landed on. (TV: The Space Pirates)
At some point during his travels with the Doctor and Zoe, they investigated some mysterious robberies. This was helped by the fact that he was unconscious when the Doctor and Zoe was involved the robberies. (AUDIO: Tales from the Vault) He saved pilot John Finney after his plane was shot down during the Korean War, (PROSE: Prelude First Frontier) and visited Bob Dovie at 59A Barnsfield Crescent in Totton, Hampshire on 23 November 1963. (AUDIO: The Light at the End)
The group landed in the Frenko Bazaar, a famous intergalactic trading post where one could buy "just about anything". The Doctor, in an attempt to take down the slave market, placed a homing device on Jamie, and followed some Voraxx into Stellar Imports & Exports to gain their attention. A member told the Doctor that Jamie, coming from the past, was worth a mint. When he said Jamie wasn't for sale, the Voraxx members followed them, whispering to themselves.
The Voraxx kidnapped Jamie and took him aboard a slaver ship in orbit. Following Jamie's signal, the Doctor and Zoe found the trans-mat that led to the ship and found Jamie. They then awoke some Ice Warriors, who started an uprising. The slaves took over the ship, forcing the slavers to leave. As the trio teleported back to the shop, the Doctor was shocked to find his companions missing, having been captured by a cloaked figure. (COMIC: Bazaar Adventures) The Doctor later rescued his companions. (COMIC: Endgame)
He encountered the Sixth Doctor when his Doctor was switched in time. He helped this Doctor to defeat Zennox's plans to revive the Cybermen. (AUDIO: Last of the Cybermen)
He didn't like to try and understand the "gizmos" of the TARDIS. He thought on learning that the Edge was a scientific research facility and thought he would end up being there for weeks. He didn't want to join the Doctor and Zoe in the labs so waited for them to come back. After Provost Curtis wanted the Doctor and Zoe to join him permanently, Jamie was to be killed. He decided to destroy the circuits in the mine to stop Curtis from kidnapping his friends, eventually destroying its Relative Dimensional Stabiliser. (AUDIO: The Edge)
He arrived in the 14th century with Zoe and the Doctor and he explored the nearby forest with the Doctor whilst Zoe talked to Marie. He was knocked unconscious by the groundskeeper. (AUDIO: The Iron Maid)
They landed in Belize but were shortly stunned afterwards by Deakin. Ruth Matheson and Zoe managed to get them all back into the TARDIS and the HADS helped them to escape before a missile landed. (AUDIO: The Tactics of Defeat)
A reluctant farewell
The Doctor and his companions landed on a planet where the War Lords planned to use human soldiers as an army to conquer the galaxy by picking them out of various periods of Earth's history with the War Chief's space-time vessel technology that had been given to them. The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe helped unite the various resistance movements on the planet to fight the War Lords.
When the Doctor asked the Time Lords to intercede to return the victims of the War Lords, Jamie desperately urged the Doctor to escape his sentencing in the TARDIS but submitted when they could not, promising to never forget the Doctor. After the dematerialisation of the War Lord for his crimes, a tribunal of Time Lords told the Doctor that they would return Zoe and Jamie to their homes a moment in time before they went away with him — thus they would remember only their first adventures with the Doctor, but nothing more.
The Doctor watched Jamie, now back in 1746 at the Battle of Culloden, come to the momentarily confused realisation of where he was. Jamie was fired at by a Redcoat, whom he then ran after with a sword, proudly yelling, "Creag an tuire!" for the Clan McCrimmon. (TV: The War Games)
Further travels
According to one account, the Doctor undertook a mission for the Time Lords and blackmailed them into having Jamie by his side. The Time Lords consented, altering Jamie's memories to make him believe that he was still travelling with the Doctor and Victoria, who had in fact left the TARDIS to live out the rest of her life on 20th century Earth. This account stated it was at this point that Jamie accompanied the Doctor on a diplomatic mission to Space Station Camera. (PROSE: World Game) Here, the Doctor and Jamie intended to have Joinson Dastari stop Professors Kartz and Reimer's experiments into time travel. Jamie believed he saw the Doctor killed in a massacre by Sontarans. After Jamie spent ten or twelve days hiding in the service ducts, he was found by the Sixth Doctor and Peri Brown. After letting Jamie rest, the Sixth Doctor deduced that the Second Doctor's supposed death was an illusion created by the Sontarans. The Sixth Doctor used telepathy to track the Second Doctor to a hacienda near Seville, where he was being held captive while Dastari tried to isolate the symbiotic nuclei in a Time Lord's cells so that the Sontarans could be given the secret to time travel. While Peri distracted the hacienda's occupants, a local woman called Anita helped the Sixth Doctor and Jamie find a secret passageway into the cellars.
The Sixth Doctor sabotaged a TARDIS copy that was being developed on the space station, and lied to Jamie about its workings while he knew the Sontaran Group Marshal Stike was listening in on them. Jamie wounded Stike, and the two of them escaped. Knowing there was another Time Lord present, the technologically augmented Androgum Chessene changed the plan into having Dastari alter the Second Doctor into Chessene's Androgum consort. Chessene also betrayed the Sontarans. The effect on the Second Doctor was not permanent, however, as the condition was not stabilised. The Sixth Doctor, Peri, and Jamie followed the Second Doctor to Las Cadenas restaurant in Seville. Dastari and Chessene had the Doctors and their companions brought back to the hacienda. The Sixth Doctor saved Jamie from being butchered and eaten by the Androgum Shockeye. Dastari then freed the Second Doctor upon realising his mistake in augmenting a primitive Androgum, and was shot by Chessene for betraying her. Jamie disarmed Chessene before she could shoot the Second Doctor and Peri. With Peri's help, the Sixth Doctor deceived Chessene into using the faulty prototype TARDIS, and Chessene was killed by molecular disintegration. The Second Doctor used his Stattenheim remote control to return his TARDIS to him. Jamie left with the Second Doctor in the TARDIS, intending to someday rejoin Victoria, who he had been told was studying graphology. (TV: The Two Doctors) According to another account, this happened earlier in the Doctor and Jamie's timeline, and they were sent there by the Monk, pretending to be Pavo. (AUDIO: The Black Hole)
They then travelled to Helicon Prime to relax whilst on their missions for the CIA. Whilst they were there, they stumbled across a set of murders, which the Doctor began to investigate. They also met Mindy Voir, a famous singer of which the Doctor seemed to be a great fan. The Doctor and Jamie focused their suspicions and efforts on the ambassador Dromeo, the supposed owner of the station; the Doctor had Jamie infiltrating into his suite to find clues. Here, Jamie came across Mindy, and the two of them assisted at Dromeo killing two of his accomplices, saying they were the last ones to know the secret of the Fennus treasurer. Jamie told the Doctor what he heard and the Doctor recalled the story of the Fennus colony: a rich and prosperous one, forced to abandon its place since the planet was dying. Later that evening, the Doctor asked Mindy for her signature on one of his CDs; in exchange for this, he had the singer give Jamie one of her jewels, a pendant. As the relax station, sabotaged, came dangerously out of its orbit, the Doctor and Jamie saw the ambassador rummage through some rooms looking for the treasure. They confronted him, and the ambassador confessed he and the other victims were members of the rescue mission for Fennus: they were unable to save the colonists, but found out they saved all their knowledge and power into a lost database. He asked the Doctor to hand over the key and collaborate with him, but the Doctor left Jamie the task of deciding whether to give it to the ambassador. Jamie refused, and the Doctor then answered negatively to Dromeo. In the following confusion, the Doctor and Jamie escaped in the TARDIS; the former managing to set the station back to its orbit. (AUDIO: Helicon Prime)
Another mission was to travel to Earth in 54,010 to rescue a tribe of Stone Age humans from a bio-dome. (PROSE: All of Beyond)
The Doctor and Jamie were sent to investigate something strange happening in Northern England. He got separated from the Doctor and encountered Liz Shaw. He helped her escape an attack by the Helt. Liz and the Brigadier took him to meet the Third Doctor, but he didn't believe him to be the Doctor. (AUDIO: The Annihilators)
Life after the Doctor
Jamie went on to marry Kirsty McLaren and they had "more bairns than there are days in the week", with numerous grandchildren by 1788. In order to correct a mistake that was made in 1688, where Jamie tried to help King James II and ensure a victorious future for Scotland and Bonnie Prince Charlie, a visitor from the Celestial Intervention Agency came to help alter history back to its original course. However, Jamie chose to once again forget the memories of his adventures with the Doctor that were brought back, as he and Kirsty had a good life together. (AUDIO: The Glorious Revolution)
One of their distant descendants was a 21st century history student at the University of Edinburgh named Heather McCrimmon, who became a companion of the Tenth Doctor. (COMIC: The Chromosome Connection)
While out on the moors, Jamie appeared to have been struck by lightning on a bright, clear day. The men who found him noted that the heather around him had been dotted with flame and that his head had been smoking. Nurse Muir watched over him, with him only remembering her bandaging his head when he was first brought in seemingly days earlier. He began to remember travelling in the TARDIS with the Doctor, including the incident on Helicon Prime, and told the nurse of his adventure. The nurse was revealed to be Mindy Voir, who wanted the Fennus treasure from him, as he had the knotted pendant that was stolen by the Doctor. Inside it, it contained all the data from the Fennus colony, founded by Mindy's father; for that pendant, Mindy had killed the members of the rescue mission. She began to sing with her deadly voice. As he began to unwind the knot, voices whispered to him from within it. Mindy became trapped inside the pendant when he finally undid the knot. When Jamie awoke, he knew his identity, but did not know how he came to be under the bed in the wrecked, burnt room. (AUDIO: Helicon Prime)
Death
When the Sixth Doctor next met him, he had miscalculated and arrived forty years later than he had intended to. Jamie lived as an elderly pariah in his village and lamented that the Doctor shouldn't have had to see him as an old man. Jamie had managed to retain memories of his travels using tricks the Doctor had taught him and because the Time Lords had a less-than-perfect understanding of the human mind.
After he told others about them, the locals believed his wartime experiences had driven him slightly mad. Jamie vindicated himself by vanishing in the TARDIS before the whole village and then helped the Doctor, Peri and Frobisher fight the Cybermen on Marinus. He saved the universe using his sword to destroy the Worldshaper device; this let out a blast that aged him to death. (COMIC: The World Shapers)
Undated events
At some point, Jamie was taken to the Black Archive by UNIT to have his record as a companion of the Doctor taken. His memories of the visit were subsequently erased and he was sent on his way. (TV: The Day of the Doctor). How exactly he was brought there is unknown, as it would have required him to travel through time.
Jamie and Victoria Waterfield once returned to the Dalek City, where they learned the Daleks had survived their civil war. They were surrounded by an army of Silver Daleks who had captured the Doctor's TARDIS. (HOMEVID: Emperor of the Daleks)
Characteristics
Appearance
More often than not, Jamie wore a traditional Scottish kilt with a red tartan. He was often teased for continuing to wear his kilt, even in situations where it was too cold to wear it. (TV: The Abominable Snowmen)
After initially changing out of his battle-ragged 18th century clothes into a wetsuit during the course of an adventure, (TV: The Underwater Menace) he began to include more modern clothes in his dress — including several turtleneck jumpers of varying colours, a tan leather vest with a reversible cow-patterned fur lining, a Nehru jacket, a sleeveless pullover, neckerchiefs, anoraks and a laced black shirt. While he usually wore his fur-covered sporran, there was a stretch of time early on during which he didn't. (TV: The Highlanders through the start of The Web of Fear) He would, when necessary, wear a space suit (TV: The Moonbase, The Wheel in Space, The Seeds of Death) or sometimes a disguise. (TV: The Enemy of the World)
The kilt was sometimes jokingly referred to as a "dress" or "skirt", to which he would take mild offence. (TV: The Tomb of the Cybermen, The Enemy of the World, The Two Doctors) When deciding who would have the task of dressing in drag as a disguise in a society where women were in power, the Doctor mentioned his youthful, androgynous appearance in contrast to the rest of the male prisoners, despite his masculine gait, and his comfort with wearing a "skirt" as reasons that he should be the one to go undercover to retrieve their confiscated clothing. (AUDIO: Prison in Space) He and the Doctor also dressed as washerwomen with wool padding while smuggling King James II into a rowboat. After correcting the Doctor on calling his kilt a "skirt", Jamie mentioned that he thought they looked like "a pair of old fishwives". (AUDIO: The Glorious Revolution) One of the flustered, half-hearted insults levelled at him by the Doctor was being referred to as a "hairy-legged Highlander".
Later, he reverted to his 18th century dress, including a white ruffled shirt, a black jacket and a red tartan sash. When Jamie cleaned himself up after living rough in the ducts of Space Station Camera, the Sixth Doctor bluntly suggested to Jamie that he perhaps could use a bath more often in general. (TV: The Two Doctors) Much later, back in his old time, he grew a long beard and carried a claymore sword. (COMIC: The World Shapers)
Personality
Jamie had a very strong connection to his Scottish homeland. When presented with the sound of bagpipes and the misty sight of Scotland on the scanner, he was lured out of the TARDIS, as this was what he wanted most. (TV: The Mind Robber) Despite having viewed the English for a long time as his mortal enemy, he teamed up later in his travels with a Redcoat from the Forty-Five, who had also been displaced in time and space, in order to rebel against the War Lords. (TV: The War Games)
The Doctor and Zoe both often teased or insulted Jamie about his intelligence. Zoe expressed relief that Jamie hadn't thought of x-rays before her, which would have been "awful", (TV: The Wheel in Space) and the Doctor even suggested that they run away because of Jamie having an idea. (TV: The Abominable Snowmen) He was a little "thick", even by 1745 standards. (PROSE: Doctor Who and the Cybermen) Jamie was simple and straightforward, but he was also practical and full of common sense, despite having no formal education. It was these qualities which often put him ahead of his companions. He came a long way from questioning why the Doctor hadn't bled the wounded and having never heard of "germs" before (he assumed the word came from "German"). (TV: The Highlanders) When Jamie and Victoria were undercover at the Virtor-run New York Supplementary Education Institute in 1982, Jamie needed Victoria to fill out his sign-up forms, as he did not know how to write. Victoria made him promise to practice writing once they got back to the TARDIS. (PROSE: The Lost) Later, he read stiltedly on several occasions. (TV: The Mind Robber, The Invasion) Rago assessed Jamie and discovered that his brain showed signs of recent rapid learning. It was his idea to dig through to a borehole and intercept the seed device which saved the travellers. Later, while the Doctor and Zoe were revelling in their rescue of Dulkis with only a minor volcanic eruption, it was Jamie who pointed out that they happened to be standing on the island that would erupt. (TV: The Dominators) While trapped without the Doctor or Zoe, Jamie had to order a complicated series of events. He was able to defeat Moran by thinking outside of the box, rather than solving the puzzle. (AUDIO: The Jigsaw War)
Although he didn't understand the TARDIS, he was enthusiastic about it. His journey was a voyage of discovery; almost everything he experienced was new to him. The few times when Jamie showed worry or concern were when his companions were in danger — particularly Victoria. When the unconscious Doctor was threatened by an Ice Warrior, Jamie attempted hand-to-hand combat with it, despite being unevenly matched and at great risk to himself, to protect him. (TV: The Seeds of Death) Jamie saw the Doctor as a friend and mentor. He was extremely loyal to the Doctor and they were nearly inseparable. He learnt a lot through his experiences, but also believed the Doctor needed his help. When Ben and Polly left the TARDIS, Jamie reassured them that he would look after the Doctor. (TV: The Faceless Ones)
Jamie was initially very shy around girls and awkward in situations where they were forward. In one case, he wanted the ladies who were primping him called off because he was afraid of what they might do to him if he looked "charming". (TV: The Macra Terror) He kissed Sam in order to steal her plane ticket. (TV: The Faceless Ones) When he was being flirted with by girls in a 1960s coffee bar wearing plaid miniskirts — to which he exclaimed, "Oh, if only the Laird could see that!" — he hurried back to the Doctor. He was not comfortable with having been given the difficult task of questioning them, despite the Doctor stating that Jamie was so much better at it than he. (TV: The Evil of the Daleks)
Jamie seemed intrigued with the short dresses that he had seen the ladies wearing. He teased Victoria about whether she saw herself wearing something similar, a thought for which she admonished him. (TV: The Ice Warriors) Despite his early shyness, Jamie began to flirt more, but was always gentlemanly and chivalrous. Jamie apologised when he realised that it was Rapunzel's hair that he had climbed and assured her that he was quickly passing through when she expressed wariness at inviting him inside her castle. (TV: The Mind Robber) Jamie expressed old-fashioned values about the roles of men and women, often seeing it as his duty to protect the ladies, even when they rebuked him with modern concepts of feminism and women's suffrage. (TV: The Invasion, The War Games) When Zoe misidentified his Scottish origin, calling his kilt a barbaric form of garment and asking whether he was a Scandinavian or a Dane, he told her to watch her lip or else he'd put her across his knee and larrup her. (TV: The Wheel in Space) He later gave Zoe a spanking over his knee when she had been taken over by female superiority brainwashing. (AUDIO: Prison in Space) After having been ignored by Anita earlier, he gave Peri a peck when he was about to leave with his Doctor. (TV: The Two Doctors) He had previously shared two kisses with Sam (TV: The Faceless Ones) and one with Victoria. (TV: Fury from the Deep)
The Second Doctor considered Jamie to be the most reliable friend that he had ever had. (AUDIO: The Jigsaw War)
During their travels together, Ben and Polly thought of Jamie as being like their "baby brother." (AUDIO: The Forbidden Time)
Jamie considered Zoe to be "a nice enough lassie" but was irritated by her occasional smugness. (AUDIO: The Edge)
On 31 December 1986, twenty years after they left the TARDIS, Ben described Jamie as "a good bloke" to Polly. (PROSE: Mondas Passing)
In the 2000s, Polly described Jamie as being "brawny and reckless but lovely" and "a bit slow on the uptake" to Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. (AUDIO: The Three Companions)
The Fourth Doctor claimed that Jamie could be very fierce on occasion. (AUDIO: The Fate of Krelos)
The Sixth Doctor told Peri that he was "always very fond of Jamie." (TV: The Two Doctors)
Habits and quirks
Jamie had a habit of pretending to understand technology beyond his ken with a shrug and a nonchalant, "Oh, aye." He often used analogies to describe the new things he was seeing — he compared Space Station Camera to "twenty castles in the sky" and called the Sontarans "knights" (TV: The Two Doctors) and aeroplanes "flying beasties." (TV: The Faceless Ones) He referred to the Cybermen and the Daleks as "metal beasties." (AUDIO: House of Cards, The Rosemariners) If he couldn't understand or compare something, he would simply ignore it.
He had a particular fascination with gadgets such as Polly's secretarial dictaphone, which she kept his recordings on for many years after (AUDIO: The Forbidden Time) and the small radio that he was given by Tobias Vaughn. (TV: The Invasion) Although he didn't know how they worked, he was able to figure out how to get these simple devices to function.
Jamie carried a sgian dubh, though he rarely ever used it, and only then in self-defence, as when he stabbed a Sontaran in the leg. (TV: The Mind Robber, The Two Doctors) He also showed such talent with swordsmanship. (TV: The Highlander, The Evil of the Daleks, The Abominable Snowmen, The War Games, COMIC: The World Shapers) On several occasions, he used or expressed interest in weapons such as explosives, grenades, rock-throwing, and guns, both historical and futuristic. (TV: The Dominators, The War Games) Good in a fight, he was also known to tackle enemies to the ground (TV: The Invasion) and get into physical altercations. (TV: The Underwater Menace, The Krotons, The Seeds of Death, The War Games) He often took it upon himself to go after beasties. (TV: The Macra Terror, The Dominators)
He enjoyed a high degree of familiar physical contact, such as friendly shoving, prodding, pulling, hand-holding, climbing on top of or being climbed upon, and hugging. When stressed for any reason he would often grab on to his companions for reassurance, with a marked preference for grabbing the Doctor.
Skills and abilities
Jamie had the ability to sense and reject subconscious mental manipulation while asleep, (TV: The Macra Terror) as well as sense danger. (TV: Fury from the Deep) He was also the first to be affected and detect that something was wrong after they had exited the TARDIS upon first arriving in the Land of Fiction. (TV: The Mind Robber)
The young piper had musical ability, though he rarely displayed it. When his family legacy of piping was mentioned, he noted that all he had left of his bagpipes was the chanter. The Doctor wanted him to teach him how to play the bagpipes in return for being invited aboard the TARDIS. (TV: The Highlanders) He later found some bagpipes in the TARDIS, which he planned to mend. (TV: The Abominable Snowmen) At one point, he danced the Highland Fling in an attempt to dance out of the room and escape. (TV: The Macra Terror) The Doctor remarked that Jamie often attempted to hide his recorder from him. (COMIC: The Forgotten)
He also was able to ride horses and used this skill to escape a Confederate soldier after knocking him off of his horse. (TV: The War Games) He was also adept at rock climbing. He scaled steep rocks with the aid of Rapunzel's rope of hair. (TV: The Mind Robber) However, he wasn't particularly good at tying knots and the Doctor wanted to be reminded to give him a lesson sometime. (TV: The Tomb of the Cybermen)
Jamie expressed worry about being drowned and said that he couldn't swim when Ben suggested that they escape by swimming. (TV: The Highlanders) The Doctor also mentioned that a member of their group might not know how to swim. At the time, Jamie and Polly were fleeing the rising water which was quickly engulfing the underwater city of Atlantis. (TV: The Underwater Menace) The Doctor and Jamie occasionally paddled a kayak (TV: The Invasion) or a rowboat together on the River Thames in November 1688. (AUDIO: The Glorious Revolution)
Before travelling with the Doctor, Jamie did not know how to read (PROSE: The Dark Path, The Story of Extinction) or write. (PROSE: The Lost) He did, however, demonstrate a very basic understanding in both fields. He was able to read Kemel's name when it was spelled out for him, for example, even before he received proper lessons. (TV: The Evil of the Daleks) Victoria agreed to teach Jamie how to write (PROSE: The Lost) and read during her time travelling with him. She once attempted to teach him Robinson Crusoe (PROSE: The Dark Path) after explaining to him each letter of the alphabet. After Victoria's departure, the Doctor continued to teach Jamie in her place, (AUDIO: The Story of Extinction) getting him to read in his spare time. (AUDIO: The Jigsaw War) Soon Jamie demonstrated adequate reading abilities, (TV: The Mind Robber) although he remained suspicious of both skills. (PROSE: The Indestructible Man) He was soon able to write a letter for Victoria which was eventually delivered to her by the Seventh Doctor. (AUDIO: The Story of Extinction)
References
Illusions of Jamie and Zoe appeared to the Second Doctor and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart in the Death Zone on Gallifrey. (TV: The Five Doctors)
A fictional version of Jamie was created in the Land of Fiction by Zoe after she faced the Cybermen. (AUDIO: Legend of the Cybermen)
After Jamie's death, a shapeshifting Gwanzulum took the form of the youthful Jamie to trick the Seventh Doctor. (COMIC: Planet of the Dead)
Experiencing trauma from his recent regeneration, the Fifth Doctor imagined that he was with Jamie. (TV: Castrovalva)
When under the influence of a Dalek mind-draining device, the Fifth Doctor recalled Jamie among other companions. (TV: Resurrection of the Daleks)
Before she had ever met him, Peri Brown mentioned that the Sixth Doctor had absentmindedly called her "Jamie." (TV: Attack of the Cybermen)
The Sixth Doctor later fondly recalled Jamie when he met a man of the same name in Edinburgh, 1828, telling him that Jamie was an honourable name. (AUDIO: Medicinal Purposes)
The TARDIS, in an attempt to warn the Seventh Doctor about the threat of the Timewyrm, projected one of his memories of Jamie on the scanner. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Genesys)
Izzy Sinclair tried on one of Jamie's sweaters and kilts, which she had found in the TARDIS wardrobe. (COMIC: Ophidius)
When introducing himself to Queen Victoria in 1879, the Tenth Doctor used the alias Doctor James McCrimmon. (TV: Tooth and Claw)
A version of Jamie appeared in a "hellscape" dream the Eleventh Doctor created while the mind parasite Mr Waites fed off the worst thing Doctor could imagine. In the dream, the Doctor worked in the Mediation Section of the Department of Commonality. He turned away Jamie when he was to be sent to a work camp. The Doctor said it was above his authority. (COMIC: John Smith and the Common Men)
When the Twelfth Doctor took it upon himself to correct a Coal Hill School history textbook, among his annotations was his belief that Jamie, having been born two centuries earlier, was truly the first human being on the moon instead of Neil Armstrong. (PROSE: A History of Humankind)
Behind the scenes
- McCrimmon is the anglicised form of the Gaelic Mac Ruimein "son of Ruimen", which is the Gaelic form of the Old Norse personal name Hroðmundr, composed of hród "fame" + mundr "protection". This was the name of a famous family of pipers for the Clan MacLeod.
- Patrick Troughton and Frazer Hines met in 1964 on the set of Smuggler's Bay (also wiped by the BBC), during which Patrick recalled Frazer injuring his hand through a pane of glass and mentioned it to him when they reunited on The Highlanders. Patrick and Frazer were friends in real life and were known for indulging in innuendo and playing practical jokes, usually on their female co-stars, on set and during rehearsals.
- Jamie was never intended to become a companion, but the production liked the actor and rewrote the ending of The Highlanders to bring Jamie aboard the TARDIS (he originally departed aboard the Annabelle). Jamie's original Highlander accent was deemed unsuitable (a bit monotone) for a continuing companion and was changed to a "television Scots" accent, although Frazer could do both.
- Frazer said he played the part as if he had fallen in love with Victoria, though no admittance of this was ever spoken on-screen.
- During the making of The Mind Robber, Frazer caught chicken pox from his nephew. Hamish Wilson, who looked very unlike him, filled in for him. The justification for this formed part of the plot of the story. A persistent myth (debunked by the episode notes) describes the latter actor as Frazer's cousin. However, Frazer's brother, Ian Hines, has a small role in the story as one of the Clockwork Soldiers.
- Jamie was to depart in a Season 6 story called The Laird of McCrimmon, which would have been set in 18th century Scotland and seen the return of the Great Intelligence and the Yeti. However, this was never made due to a dispute between the BBC and Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln, the creators of the Intelligence and the Yeti, over the rights to the Quarks. Frazer's agent wanted him to leave the show, but Patrick persuaded Frazer, who was reluctant to leave, that they would depart together.
- Jamie was the first (and for many years, only) television companion to appear in the comic strips.
- Jamie was the first established TV companion to be killed off in licensed spin-off media.
- Jamie would have had a cameo in The Three Doctors, except that Frazer had a prior work commitment on Emmerdale Farm. The show also prevented Frazer from having more than two days off to film his cameo in The Five Doctors. Had he been available, Jamie would have been the Second Doctor's designated companion instead of the Brigadier. It was seeing Patrick and Frazer reunite that inspired John Nathan-Turner to bring them back for The Two Doctors (by which time Fraser was available for longer, having since left production of Emmerdale Farm).