Mike Yates Captain Michael Alexander Raymond " Mike " Yates ( PROSE : " The Devil Goblins from Neptune " ) worked alongside Brigadier Lethbridge - Stewart , Sgt Benton and the Third Doctor in UNIT . Years later , he also had a series of adventures with the Fourth Doctor and Mrs Wibbsey . Biography . Early life . Yates had family links to Aberdeen on his mother ' s side . He gained a knowledge of northeast Scotland due to spending much of his childhood there . ( AUDIO : " Vengeance of the Stones " ) In his childhood , Yates attended prep school before being sent to public school and joining the British Army . ( AUDIO : " The Rings of Ikiria " ) Yates had three brothers , and his mother thought he was the most sensitive . ( PROSE : " Deep Blue " ) Yates also had a sister . ( AUDIO : " Starfall " ) Before UNIT . Yates spent two years posted at Fort George in Inverness . ( AUDIO : " Vengeance of the Stones " ) UNIT career . Joining UNIT . Enlisted man . Yates first met the Third Doctor when he had just come off of " clean - up duty " . He also came to see UNIT as cash - strapped . The Brigadier took Yates into his confidence and admitted neither the UN nor the UK government would give UNIT enough money for additional officers . He was forced to ask that Yates and Benton shoulder more responsibility than would typically be required of non - commissioned officers . He was subsequently chosen to follow the Doctor and Liz Shaw through a time bridge that the Doctor had accidentally created back to Salutua in 1934 , where he became acquainted with Amelia Grover . He was deeply affected by her final transformation into an angelic being , but he accepted the Doctor ' s observation that Amelia could be trusted with her new power . ( PROSE : " The Eye of the Giant " ) After his adventure in the Pacific Islands , Sergeant Yates was part of a group that went to Smallmarshes in Kent , which was the Doctor ' s last known location , and also where a Silurian had reportedly been seen . When the Doctor returned to Smallmarshes , the Doctor , the missing boy Marc Marshall , and the Silurian hybrid Tahni were taken aboard a stealth plane . Yates knocked out the C19 lookout guard and quickly changed into his clothes , infiltrating the craft as it flew to the C19 Vault in Northumberland . Yates helped the Doctor escape the Pale Man , and after Yates had the craft ' s hangar opened , UNIT troops led by the Brigadier entered the Vault , stopping the rogue C19 group ' s plans to take over the world . The Doctor and Yates freed Tahni , but were unable to save Marc . Yates was promoted to a captain afterwards ; Benton feeling that Yates was better suited to the more political aspects of being a captain than he was despite Benton ' s longer career with UNIT . ( PROSE : " The Scales of Injustice " ) RAF officer . Yates first encountered the Doctor in his eighth incarnation , as well as Charley Pollard , when he was a local military lieutenant serving at an RAF base in Scotland , where they were trying to get rid of a time roach . ( AUDIO : " Foreshadowing " ) Soon after that , he was temporarily enlisted by the Brigadier to help him and the Third Doctor investigate the disappearance of an RAF fighter jet in the area . The Doctor and Yates found the missing pilot , Frank Parry , heading for the Easter Aquhorthies stone circle near Inverurie . Parry died from an electrical discharge when he pressed his palms against the recumbent stone . Later , the Brigadier ordered Yates to place a security cordon around the circle . A group of the last surviving Armidian s rescued Yates from being atomised from an energy packet that was launched from the circle and took him to a derelict house on a cliff near Portsoy that was surrounded by a perception barrier for questioning on humanity ' s weapons capabilities . The Doctor tried negotiating with the Armidians , telling them that their planet Tharos no longer existed , but Yates broke free and Benton opened fire on them as they escaped . With the Armidians still in the local area , the Brigadier ordered the Tharon stone the Armidians used to draw power from igneous rock to be destroyed . Yates led one of three groups to find the stone circles the Armidians had teleported to . Under the Doctor ' s orders , Yates ' group earthed the Tharon stone at the Easter Aquhorthies with the nearby wire fencing , rendering it powerless . Afterwards , the Brigadier invited Yates to join UNIT full - time , which came with a promotion to captain . ( AUDIO : " Vengeance of the Stones " ) Yates would spend most of his first year with UNIT searching for Silurian nests with Sergeant Benton . ( AUDIO : " Call to Arms " ) Assisting the Doctor . He travelled with the Doctor to Sark to investigate some crop circles . When the Ikiria arrived he was one of the people not possessed by her , due to the Rings she gave them . He was determined to find where the Doctor had gone . ( AUDIO : " The Rings of Ikiria " ) During the Doctor ' s early exile on Earth , Yates was tasked with combing the British countryside for signs of Auton and Silurian debris . The Brigadier assigned him to headquarters duty around the time of the investigation in the South Pacific that led UNIT into an encounter with Brokk . Yates took charge with escorting the Thunderbolt missile to be dumped at the bottom of the ocean . He was wounded when the convoy was attacked by escaped prisoners from Stangmoor Prison who stole the Thunderbolt . He followed the stolen convoy to a hangar at an abandoned air field , where he got captured . After escaping , he informed UNIT of the Thunderbolt ' s location , and evacuated the area around the Thunderbolt . ( TV : " The Mind of Evil " ) When the Doctor was recovering from being frozen at the Devil ' s Hump , Jo asked Benton and Yates to come to Devil ' s End . They came in the Brigadier ' s helicopter at soon as it was light outside . Yates took Jo back to The Cloven Hoof pub to recover from her injuries when she fell out of Bessie . When the Master and his Sabbat took Jo to be sacrificed inside the church ' s cavern , the Sabbat tied up Yates . Yates escaped and warned the Doctor . When the Doctor entered the church , Benton and Yates were joined by UNIT reinforcements to get past Bok to save the Doctor and Jo , but to no effect . Bok was made immobile when Jo ' s attempt to save the Doctor in an act of self - sacrifice caused Azal ' s powers to turn against himself . ( TV : " The Dæmons " ) He once investigated strange weather phenomenons across the country , one of these included the freezing of Hyde Park which killed people in the middle of June . Jo believed that Diamond Jack had something to do with the killings . ( AUDIO : " The Magician ' s Oath " ) Yates was cool under fire , efficient , and both gave and carried out orders with a minimum of fuss . Despite his somewhat aristocratic demeanour , he had a good rapport with his men , although he did remind Benton on occasion that " rank has its privileges " . ( TV : " Day of the Daleks " ) He was attracted to the Doctor ' s assistant Jo Grant . ( TV : " The Curse of Peladon " ) He accompanied the two of them to the planet Karfel . On the way , they stopped on the planet Nooma . He was killed and resurrected as one of the Dead . The Doctor was able to restore him to his original body before they left . ( PROSE : " Speed of Flight " ) A photograph existed in UNIT ' s Black Archive showing Yates next to Sara Kingdom , indicating a meeting between the two at some point during Yates ' UNIT career . ( TV : " The Day of the Doctor " ) Dismissal . The chain of events leading to Yates ' s retirement from UNIT started when , while working undercover at Global Chemicals , he was hypnotised by the computer BOSS . Mike was given a command to kill the Doctor , and pointed a gun at him inside the Nuthutch . Lethbridge - Stewart entered the room as Mike prepared to shoot , but Mike hesitantly ordered him to stay back , still trying on some level to avoid murder . Having ventured to Metebelis III , the Doctor used the Metebelis crystal he obtained there to break the mind control . Mike ' s mind locked on to the crystalline patterns and it wiped clean the conditioning placed on his neural pathways , but the resulting nervous pain from erasing the control rendered him unconscious . After being forced to turn a weapon on a friend and colleague , Yates was devastated . The terrible event had a lasting impact on Mike ' s resolve as a captain and a human being . ( TV : " The Green Death " ) After this incident , Mike went on leave . ( AUDIO : " Council of War " ) As a result of the hypnotism , he began suffering from bouts of depression , prompting him to undergo a course of pathological assessment and take some compassionate leave . After returning to duty , he helped the Fifth Doctor defeat the Xaranti . ( PROSE : " Deep Blue " ) Yates ' brush with ecological disaster apparently made him very concerned about the future of the planet . He was easily recruited by Sir Charles Grover into the secret Operation Golden Age project , which would have reverted the whole of Earth to prehistoric times . The conspiracy was thwarted by the Doctor . In return for his past service to UNIT , the Brigadier allowed Yates to take medical leave and quietly resign . ( TV : " Invasion of the Dinosaurs " ) Aftermath . Mike later decided to go to a Buddhist meditation centre to find solace . Here , he uncovered strange events , which he reported to Sarah Jane Smith , since he felt that UNIT would consider him untrustworthy . Sarah communicated this to the Doctor . Through it all , the Doctor still considered him an ally . ( TV : " Planet of the Spiders " ) He briefly met the Fourth Doctor at the Brigadier ' s Christmas party . ( AUDIO : " The Stuff of Nightmares " ) In 1976 , he helped the Seventh Doctor defeat the Vardan s while acting undercover in the terrorist organisation Black Star . However , Yates noted that he would resign from UNIT once this crisis was over , as he had come to sympathise with Black Star ' s motives regarding their anger at government manipulation even if he disagreed with their methods . ( PROSE : " No Future " ) In 2009 Mike Yates was running an ecology project in San Francisco with Brendan Richards . He was invited to Sarah Jane Smith ' s aborted wedding with Peter Dalton , but couldn ' t make it in time . ( PROSE : " The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith " ) Reuniting with the Doctor . Hunt for the Hornets . At some point after his retirement from UNIT , Yates answered a magazine advertisement seeming directed specifically for him about " light household duties " leading him to a house called Nest Cottage in the village of Hexford . There he reunited with the Fourth Doctor , who told him about his encounters with the alien Hornet s . He heard stories that the Doctor recited about how he faced the menacing insects . ( AUDIO : " The Stuff of Nightmares " , et al ) The Doctor used Francesca ' s ballet shoes and his TARDIS ' s dimensional stabiliser to shrink himself , Mike Yates and Mrs Wibbsey , to enter the hive of the Hornets . During the expedition into the hive of the Hornets , Mike had become paranoid and suspicious of Mrs Wibbsey , leading to his handcuffing her , and directing her to the centre of the hive , in the brain , resulting in a confrontation with the Hornet Queen . It was during this confrontation , the Hornet Queen revealed she had taken possession of Mike , feeding off the negative emotions he felt in his life as a result of his breakdown and his betrayal of UNIT during the Golden Age incident as a means of taking control of his mind . It was this revelation that the Doctor realised that it must have been the control of the Hornets that forced him to put that advertisement in the magazine , using what knowledge she had taken from the Doctor ' s mind . So she could draw Mike to Nest Cottage , believing him perfect to take control , since he had so many negative experiences as a result of his time with UNIT . The Doctor used the Hornet Queen ' s desire for the Hornet ' s royal jelly against her by filling Francesca ' s ballet shoe with royal jelly , and the Queen overcome with the desire for the jelly , drank it out of the shoe . Then , using the residual energy of the Hornets in the shoe , and the sonic screwdriver ' s connection to the dimensional stabiliser to shrink the Hornet Queen so small she could only exist in the micro - universe . This weakened the Hornets and gave the Doctor the opportunity to escape , so he could increase their size again . Allowing the Doctor to reactivate the dimensional stabiliser , so he could put a force shield around the hive to contain all the Hornets in the stuffed zebra , sending them to the other side of the universe . This gave the occupants of Nest Cottage the chance to celebrate Christmas , the following day . ( AUDIO : " Hive of Horror " ) Traps for the Doctor . One year following the battle with the Hornets , the Doctor returned to Nest Cottage to celebrate Christmas with Mrs Wibbsey , Mike Yates and Captain ( whom the Doctor gave to Mike to look after once the Hornets had been defeated ) . ( AUDIO : " The Relics of Time " ) While he stayed in Nest Cottage , someone stole the Doctor ' s spatial geometer , leaving behind a bag with five objects as clues . The first one , a storybook with images of the Doctor and Mike in it — drew them to a cave in eastern Europe , where he met a story teller , Albert Tiermann on his way to tell his stories to the king . But the materialisation of his TARDIS caused a blockage in the road on his route to the king . They were all forced to remain in a near by hotel owned by Frau Herz until the morning . Albert had discovered the Doctor ' s copy of Albert ' s storybook , containing stories he hadn ' t written yet . Since he was suffering from mental block , and had to tell a new story to the king on pain of death , he had a desire to obtain the book . That night , an Ice Queen whom Albert had previously met in his childhood visited him , and further persuaded him to take the storybook . The following morning , Albert ' s coachman had been killed , and in an attempt to take Frau Herz hostage , the Ice Queen killed Hans , Albert ' s footman . The Doctor pursued the Ice Queen to a cave nearby , full of dead husks drained of their life force , where Albert revealed that all his stories were created for him by the Ice Queen , in her elaborate plan to lure the Doctor here . The Ice Queen returned to the hotel , and threatened to kill Mike . It was now revealed that the hotel was really the dematerialisation chamber , and was in disguise for 40 years , unbeknownst to Frau , all for this moment . Direct threats from the Ice Queen to Mike did not hold the Doctor , so he tricked the Ice Queen into believing he was going to accompany her , allowing Mike , Albert and Frau to escape . Then , at the last minute , the Doctor escaped , leaving the Ice Queen empty - handed . But Mike had discovered more of the spatial geometer in the draws of the hotel . The Doctor deposited Albert and Frau near the king ' s palace , and allowed Albert to keep the storybook , and used it to write his stories in the future . ( AUDIO : " A Shard of Ice " ) The Doctor ran into a trap in New York City in 1976 . A meteorite landed in Central Park and bestowed super - powers to local resident Alice Trefusis . The Doctor investigated the comic book cover showing the event . When the Doctor , Mike and Mrs Wibbsey arrived , Alice was with Buddy , Alice ' s boyfriend . As soon as the Doctor arrived , he felt weak and drained of energy . Mrs Wibbsey and Buddy had taken a now unconscious Alice to the ageing film star Mimsy Loyne ' s apartment . Alice began to use her superpowers to combat crime and stop accidents , using the alias " Starfall . " While this was going on , Mike and the Doctor came upon a used dead body drained of energy , similar to the dead bodies from previous time zones . It was at the scene , where police arrested the Doctor and Mike , believing them to be involved in the death . However , while in prison , Alice rescued the Doctor and Mike , taking them to Mimsy ' s apartment . Buddy and Mrs Wibbsey then found a cult working in the apartment block , chanting around the final piece of the spatial geometer . This was used to create a telepath debilitator to confuse the Doctor , causing his weakness . Mimsy captured the Doctor , but was foiled when Alice broke up the chanting cultists necessary for the debilitator . During the confrontation with Mimsy , the Doctor took the remaining spatial geometer component . In frustration , Mimsy kidnapped Mrs Wibbsey , outright . The Doctor informed Alice that her powers would fade , but Buddy still had inspiration for his new comic book story . ( AUDIO : " Starfall " ) Following the last item — a golden heart pendant — the Doctor and Mike went straight to Sepulchre , which took the form of a stately home , where they found Mrs Wibbsey , who had been there for three weeks and seemed to be possessed by some intelligence . The Doctor brought the telephone from Nest Cottage , and listened to a voicemail left by Ernetina Stott , regarding the burning down of the Cromer Palace of Curios museum . While they were exploring , the Doctor , Mike and Mrs Wibbsey found that their host , the Demon , no longer needing any disguises , sprang the trap on the Doctor , and transported them all to a dark cavern , using a mysterious green flame . He revealed he was actually working for Mrs Wibbsey , or rather , the Hornets that had regenerated inside of her , who had been present within her since their last encounter with them . The Demon locked the Doctor in a sarcophagus , and started the process to extract all of knowledge of space and time from the Doctor ' s mind , using it to create the Atlas of All Time for the Hornets . Therefore , they could use it to locate their Hornet Queen . A quick turnabout by Mike Yates set Mrs Wibbsey in the sarcophagus instead , and the Atlas was reshaped only to contain Mrs Wibbsey ' s knowledge of time . The Doctor convinced the Demon to cooperate with him , and they reconfigured the sarcophagus ' functions to transport anyone in it , to anywhere in the Atlas . Therefore , using what little remained of the Atlas , the Doctor transported the sarcophagus and the Hornets to the Cromer Palace of Curios , where it caused the museum to burn down with a green flame , quickly destroying the Hornets . However , the Doctor was able to rescue Mrs Wibbsey , but with the loss of the Hornet , it caused the destruction of the Atlas and Sepulchre . The Doctor , Mike , and Mrs Wibbsey escaped in one direction , using the TARDIS to go to Nest Cottage , and the Demon escaped in another direction , free to roam the universe . While the Doctor , Mike and Mrs Wibbsey tried to celebrate a second Christmas at Nest Cottage , Robots from the Robotov Empire force their way into the cottage , knocking out Mike and capturing the Doctor and Mrs . Wibbsey . Mike spends some time in the hospital recovering from his blow . ( AUDIO : " Sepulchre " ) Invasion of Hexford . Nine months after the encounter with the Robotovs , UNIT began picking up strange readings above the skies of Hexford Village . Shortly after this , a Skishtari - created clone of the Second Doctor posing as the real one showed up to warned UNIT about an impending alien invasion . Mike Yates was temporarily brought out of the retirement to act as the Doctor ' s handler as he and two other UNIT soldiers made their way to Hexford to warn the villagers and prepare for the impending invasion . Although the villagers laugh of the warnings of UNIT and the fake Doctor , the villagers and Mike Yates seemed to warm up to clone . Mrs . Wibbsey , however , is suspicious of the cloned Doctor ' s behaviour . After a few weeks , the Fourth Doctor eventually turned up in Hexford along with a Skishtari spacecraft . Although the real Doctor was also suspicious about his supposed younger self ' s activities , Mike still trusted the clone Doctor even as he covertly helped the Skishtari in their attempt to recover their lost gene egg , resulting in the whole of Hexford being teleported to the Rebel Moon via a Skishtari wormhole . ( AUDIO : " The Hexford Invasion " ) Mike Yates , the Doctor clone , and the rest of the population of Hexford remained trapped on Rebel Moon behind the force field created by the Doctor clone for three months . During this time , Mike became a figure of authority for the displaced village and formed a friendship with the Doctor clone , completely unaware of his attempts contact with the Skishtari and his search for their gene egg . The real Doctor and Mrs . Wibbsey eventually arrived in Hexford , followed shortly after by Robotov soldiers in search of the Skishtari gene egg . Soon the Skishtari themselves revealed themselves , at which point the Doctor clone showed his true colours and stole the egg from the Doctor ' s TARDIS to deliver to the Skishtari . The Skishtari egg ultimately hatched , with the serpent god that is born from it prepared to devour all of Hexford . This disaster was averted , however , as Tsar Alex of the Robotov Empire , is able to exercise control over serpent god and turn it against its creators . Using the Skishtari spaceship to pull Hexford Village through the wormhole and back to Earth , the Doctor has Mike prepare the villagers for the journey as he successfully returns the village to its place of origin . Leaving Mrs . Wibbsey behind , the Doctor leaves Hexford Village for good . ( AUDIO : " Survivors in Space " ) . Rejoining UNIT . After the events in Hexford Village , Yates rejoined UNIT on a permanent basis , regaining his rank of Captain . He was sent on a mission to recruit Charlie Sato and Ruth Matheson for a mission to enter the Vault . Inside the Vault they found that Rees had animated the corpses of several aliens , as well as controlled the minds of previous UNIT soldiers who had been sent into the Vault . Rees escaped the Vault and Yates , Matheson and Sato pursued him . After realising that Rees had escaped their clutches , Yates sent word to Geneva for UNIT to call in the Doctor to help . ( AUDIO : " The Screaming Skull " ) Retirement . Choosing to retire , Yates and his other retired soldiers attended a reunion at John Benton ' s pub , the " White Hart " . A Silurian nest became active during his time there , and Yates met up with UNIT to help them deal with the crisis . He then became trapped in the Pub when the Silurian ' s came after him . ( AUDIO : " Call to Arms " ) Kate Stewart appointed Yates , Benton and Jo Jones in command of UNIT forces during their invasion of the United Kingdom . Following the attack , he vowed to aide UNIT whenever they required his help . ( AUDIO : " United " ) Kate passed local control of UNIT in the UK to Mike , Benton and Jo due to their experience with Silurians and Sea Devil s before , whilst she couldn ' t get back to base . He launched the Bird Flu protocol due to stop the potential of the UK population being attacked by Silurian Plagues . With Josh Carter ' s help he devised a plan to stop the Silurians . He went with Carter to face Jastrok at Westminster Abbey , to find out what he wanted . After the defeat , he told Kate that he knew UNIT was in safe hands . ( AUDIO : " United " ) Personality . Though as a young man he presented himself as straight and very " laddish " , ( PROSE : " The Devil Goblins from Neptune " ) he later realised his attraction to men . By 1976 he had entered into a relationship with another man . ( PROSE : " No Future " )