Favorite Characters: Barbara Wright (Doctor Who)

Oh, how I love Barbara.  Hands-down my favorite One-era companion and in my top five for the classic series in general.  Her classy-clever-cool trifecta is just the ticket, and considering what a pill One can be in those early episodes, she’s the companion he needs.  Here’s to my favorite Coal Hill teacher!

Right from the start, Barbars shows off how great she is with her curiosity about Susan.  She’s twigged that something’s off, investigated, and realized that it seems even more off than originally anticipated.  She’s conferred with a friend about it and told him her plan to get to the bottom of things.  This quickly tells us she’s a good deductive thinker, she doesn’t give up on something just because it seems crazy, and she’s not afraid to do something odd for the sake of getting answers.  It also tells us that she’s a caring person – true, she goes to Totter’s Lane to satisfy her own curiosity, but she also knows that something’s going on with Susan and wants to make sure the girl is all right.  All primo qualities that help set the tone for companions for years to come.

And yeah, traveling in the TARDIS is hard on her at first.  The show was great in those days, but it was also a product of its time.  Translation?  If someone is going to fall to pieces in the face of danger, it’s going to be Susan or Barbara.  Although Susan takes the brunt of it, Barbara does get saddled with a bit of unfortunate Hopeless Screaming.  To be fair, though, she never actually signs up for traveling in time and space and is in fact kidnapped by the Doctor and brought to the Stone Age, so she’s not exactly prepared for all the craziness that’s about to happen to her life.  However, she adjusts quickly, and while she still has her moments of helplessness, they tend to be more when she’s at the end of her rope, when she’s been wracking her brain for a way out that doesn’t appear to exist.

Because that’s how Barbara usually solves things, which is awesome.  She’s all about reasoning out an answer, using knowledge to her advantage, and thinking through a solid plan.  Her smarts get her out of a ton of scrapes – in “The Crusade,” I love how she reels in Saladin by talking of her travels (and makes plans to use the greatest hits of English literature to her advantage,) and in “The Dalek Invasion of Earth,” her cobbled-together “intel” of every major army in human history descending on the Dalek base of operations is the best.  She backs up her smarts with determination and a lot of nerve, which comes in handy when you’re put in peril as often as the Doctor’s friends tend to be.  (I also appreciate her genuine relish for history.  In general, I love how teachery both she and Ian are – knowledge is power, kids! – as as a history teacher, it’s really neat to see Barbara come to terms with their responsibility as time travelers not to amend the past.)

And like I said above, the Doctor could use someone to talk some sense into him in series 1, and Barbara is just the ticket.  Although they eventually become good friends, Barbara has no illusions about how imperious and self-centered One can be in those early days, and when she needs to, she gives him what for.  Even at the start, when she’s technically his abductee in time and space, she stands up to him and demands that she be heard, whether it’s over her decision to intervene in the lives of some cavemen or her opinion of the Doctor’s shoddy treatment of her and Ian.  Barbara Wright, ladies and gentlemen:  accept no substitutes.