Talk:Mike Yates
Full name
Where we gettin the full name from?
czechout<staff /> ☎ ✍ 04:25: Fri 17 Aug 2012
Sexual orientation
In Happy Endings (novel) Mike states only that he's living with someone called "Tom". For all we know, "Tom" could be his brother, nephew, a lodger, anything. From what we've seen of Mike he was very much a "ladies' man", and there is nothing in any medium that suggests he is ever anything other than heterosexual. Speaking in polari does not mean that someone is homosexual. Polari was widely used by circus and fairground people, essentially the British equivalent of the American "kayfabe". In addition, sailors and members of the British military used polari. So all we have are Mike(and Benton) speaking in a secretive dialect used by members of the British military and Mike living with a guy called "Tom". The former is obvious. The latter is ridiculous, as it would imply that every fictional male who lives with another male(Oscar and Felix, Gary and Tony, Chandler and Joey, Basil and Manuel, Fletch and Godber, Lewis and Oswald, Avon and Vila etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.) is necessarily in a homosexual relationship. In any case the Hornets' Nest, Demon Quest and Serpent Crest Audios take place over the same period of time, with no mention of anything to do with Happy Endings (novel), and Mike clearly and obviously heterosexual. Franklin's own (admittedly unofficial) Great Tea Bag Mystery and The Killing Stone show a post-UNIT Mike who is undeniably heterosexual. And in fact, Letts and Dicks created the Mike Yates character, and recruited Franklin, to be a potential love interest for Jo Grant. Mike Yates being anything other than heterosexual exists only in the mind of Paul Cornell, and even then he never put anything unambiguous or clear in writing. Mike lives with another guy? So do many many straight guys. Mike speaks a secretive language used by members of the British military? There's a surprise. 41.135.172.4talk to me 15:59, May 31, 2014 (UTC)
And of course Russell T Davies confirmed in interviews and promotional material that Jack Harkness (Captain Jack Harkness) is the first non-heterosexual television companion of the Doctor. Which means Mike Yates couldn't be. And neither could any other pre-Captain Jack television companion. I realise some people think it's "funny" and behave like 12-year-old schoolboys writing "Yates is gay" on the bathroom wall then giggling, but there is nothing at all that says, or even suggests, that. 41.135.172.4talk to me 16:02, May 31, 2014 (UTC)
