Adric's people believed themselves to be Terradonians--humanoids from the planet Terradon. The Terradonians who crashed on the planet Alzarius in the Starliner spaceship, were all killed by the Marshmen of the planet. This planet also contained Marsh Spiders who bit and took over Romana. The people who lived in the Starliner thought it was their ship and that they originated on Terradon. They were, in reality, the evolved Alzarian Marshmen who after four thousand generations evolved into these humanoids. The oldest one of the humans--the Decider was the only one who knew the truth. The Marshmen were in favor of nature and did not like technology on the planet. They also seemed to be against the Alzarians since they were of a higher order--and were cruel to the Marsh baby that wandered into the Starliner, using it in cruel experiments. The Mistfall was a periodic orbital change which released non-toxic gases that enhanced evolutionary processes. The Starliner people were told that the gas was toxic and that they should lock themselves up in the Starliner until it is over.

Adric was about 14 when the Doctor landed on Alzarius. Small and wiry for his age but strong, with short straight black hair of varying lengths, Adric has brown eyes and a snub nose. His usual attire is a yellow jerkin with beige sleeves. On the left breast is a red pocket to which is attached a gold edged blue, star shaped badge for mathematical excellence. Beige baggy trousers complete his attire with greenish boots and a marsh reed around his waist worn as a belt. This belt had to be earned by the youth to become one of the Outlers--teens who did not live on the Starliner with the adults and the others who practiced academic excellence. The people on the ship were intelligent in many ways but in many others they were very naive--they couldn't really fly the ship at all--they just merely made endless repairs over and over and no one among them expected that they were evolved from the dreaded Marshmen who killed the real owners of the Starliner--the real Terradonians.

Adric's parents were killed when he was one year old. They died in the last of the forest fires. Adric's brother was Varsh and he was three and half years older than Adric. As they grew up, Adric wanted to be like Varsh and he learned to steal, lie, and other activities which were the dark side of his natural optimistic brashness and enormous intellectual curiosity. Varsh, for all his differences from Adric, felt a need to protect him. They had been brought up by friends of the family but they never felt they could properly express themselves to anyone except for each other. That ended when Varsh left the Starliner community to become an Outler--who break all family ties when they leave. Varsh eventually became leader of the Outlers. His charges included Tylos Milren (who wanted to become leader badly and would do anything soon to become it) and Keara Login, the blonde and pretty daughter of Chief Engineer Halgrin Login--who would later become a Decider. Keara was pretty and conceited and took what she wanted but Adric wouldn't let her take his badge. Other Outlers included Yenik and Hektir, both of whom die by the Marshmen at the onset of the recent Mistfall. Tylos dies also by the Marshmen, saving one of the Starliner foremen-Rysik during the Marshmen attack on the Starliner. Two others were Refnal and Gulnar-who are later killed by the Marshmen also.

Adric was normally a non-conformist and didn't like authority in most any forms--he was even an outsider among the Outlers. Like his brother Varsh, he wanted to be free of strictures and to be in charge of situations. While Adric confronted this by being the best in all academic areas he endeavored in, Varsh left and survived outside in the forests, living in a cave and stealing river fruit from the small supply of the community. Varsh was taller, physically stronger than Adric and broad shouldered. Adric did not like the predictable and sterile. He had been one of the keenest minds on the Starliner though and was an elite among the Elite.

Thus Adric's personality was a bit brash. He seemed very naive at times and this could have been due to many reasons. One could have been his self preservation--a false air of innocence and youthful helplessness when there was none or as a cover for his real fears. Another reason could be that he came from such a closed, rigid community which did not encourage much thinking beyond the academics they professed to be true--thus there were large gaps in Adric's intellect and in those of all his people. The Outlers were indeed not better than Adric but he had an annoying habit of making them and others aware of their inferiority. Adric was very real in a sense that he was mortal. The swamp heritage did give him a quicker healing rate time than the humans from Earth and the Time Lords and Ladies of Gallifrey and most other beings. Adric had a habit of stealing and this helped the Doctor get an image translator which he needed to see if he and Romana were in another universe. What he found was that they were. Thus, Adric is not from N-normal Space. He lived in E-Space--which is the negative coordinates of our real positive space. The center of which was zero coordinates--which was also visited by Adric with the Doctor and Romana and K-9.

While travelling with the Doctor (and we can count the many adventures through the two annuals he appeared in as well as many fan fiction tales he was in), Adric's enquiring mind emerged, but he was definitely and irritatingly a mendacious magpie. In many ways he could do things most other companions of the Doctor could not--help with many of the functions of the TARDIS and other devices. But in many ways, the Doctor couldn't always trust Adric to do the right thing--and at first he didn't always seem loyal to the Fifth Doctor. Adric seemed to side with some of the Doctor's enemies. This usually occurred because Adric saw some intelligence from the enemy such as with the Monarch who he thought could liberate people and set up new ideals. While lead astray by such false promises, Adric usually came through in the end for the Doctor and the other companions. He could be easily swayed by the con artistry of such villains as the Monarch. At other times, Adric just seemed to go along with the enemy such as Hindle until he could bide his time to free the Doctor. Adric sometimes had his own plan and these didn't always work--such as his going along with the Vampires until he could try to free Romana--which failed. Usually with the Fourth Doctor he followed plans to the letter but when the Doctor regenerated, he didn't seem to feel that confidence was with the Doctor as much and decided to handle things his own way. Adric was so worried about Tegan that he didn't think about his leading the robot of the Terleptils to the Tardis but he did attack it--a brave thing to do--when it attacked Nyssa.

Despite his intelligence and his quick math skills, Adric was in all a boy, a teen with much angst-always in trouble as Nyssa once said. Did Nyssa like him? Did Tegan? Did he fit in with the TARDIS group? He was never really sure himself although without him the Doctor probably couldn't have dismantled the Cybermen bomb. He constantly worried that Tegan didn't like him even though she really did love him and later had problems even going near his old room after she thought him dead. Adric never really knew she felt this close until the last time he saw her. While there definitely was something that could have developed between him and Nyssa, he normally felt more like a brother to Tegan and sometimes to Nyssa as well. Since he had a sheltered education, Adric felt teased by all the others on the TARDIS. In many ways, he may have felt more at home with the sturdy, consistent father like image of the Fourth Doctor and the mother like, big sister presence of Romana. While erratic, the two possessed more parent-like qualities than the group he found himself with secondly. Adric also has a partner in crime with K-9, who he usually could get to do what he wanted--sort of a new brother. Adric never forgot Varsh in the same way the Doctor will never forget him--Varsh died defending the Starliner from the Marshmen.

Other traits of Adric include being a good swimmer, a fast healer, having a large appetite, being able to conceal hidden things in his sleeves, and being a quick judge of devices-such as his homing device given to him by Romana--which he loses in the forest of 1666. Adric also used a knife which he was skilled at throwing and he threw one at Zargo, one of the vampires. Adric was also adept at space suit use and of all the companions the most likely to be able to fly the TARDIS bar Romana of course. There also may be swamp man, Marsh abilities Adric possesses that even he is not aware of and which may yet frighten him. Adric is usually cheerful, full of eagerness to explore, and has a sense of humor that doesn't come out too often but when it does he is very funny. And sarcastic. Witness his line about the new and Fifth Doctor when he had a fight with him, "You know since his regeneration, I think he's become decidedly immature."

However, Adric could also charm someone especially the Doctor and Nyssa. He usually had words with Tegan but they were good working together and Tegan could sometimes get the Doctor to thank Adric for his good deeds. Even the vampires could tell that Adric had intelligent eyes, great beauty, and a promising inventory of abilities. Adric was basically caring with all his TARDIS pals and cared a great deal about all of them and did his best to help them. He just sometimes thought his ways were best and that the others didn't understand things he did. Certainly they really didn't fully understand him nor he did understand himself. Adric knew there was nothing back for him on the Starliner or so he said--perhaps, though, there was something there for him. He just chose to stay on the TARDIS where he knew something was already there for him. It is highly unlikely that Nyssa would have left the Doctor as she did on Terminus had Adric still been with the TARDIS crew. Tegan might not have left as she did had she had the warmer Adric with her. His supposed death left a great deal of trouble in her mind.

Adric's death leads us to many bones of contention. It appeared that he died saving the Earth from the Cybermen bomb that had been planted on the Freighter. The Earth was about to be blown up by the bomb in the prehistoric past--making humankind unable to come about at all. Adric broke three of the logic codes before it blew--and perhaps his doing so veered the course of the ship and caused it not to hit the Earth with as hard an impact.

Adric supposedly died but there are many conflicting reports of his continued existence, some perhaps in other time streams, parallel dimensions, and alternate time zones. One report had him nearly saved by the Sixth Doctor and Peri Brown and he turned up later to help them. Another report had the Fourth Doctor and Leela save him, regenerating and converting him into Brendan Richards, the ward of Sarah Jane Smith's heir. There was a tale that the Fifth Doctor dragged Nyssa and Tegan to through the prehistoric past to find a part of the Key to Time to bring Adric back, defying the Black Guardian. In another report, Adric had used the block transfer codes of the Master that enabled him to create Castrovalva, to make a copy of himself just before he blew up. This version appeared to the Fifth Doctor at one point. Another story had him saved by a Time Team from Gallifrey and he later became a companion to Lady Leona. More versions exist and several even had the Master save him for his own evil purpose. Another had Romana and K-9 find him in E-Space where he remained for a time to help Biroc's people--until the Second Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe showed up to bring him back to the Starliner--just before it took off Alzarius, shown how to by the Fourth Doctor. There were also unsubstantiated rumors that Adric had worked for UNIT while the Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane were off time-hopping just around the time of the Loch Ness incident.

Whatever happened to him, Adric remains one of the most original, complex companions and characters to come out of DOCTOR WHO, most misunderstood by the production team and writers and his loss saw a set back, for the series reverted back to DOCTOR WHO traditional companions.