Top Five Big Damn Hero Moments: Ian Chesterton (Doctor Who)

Ian actually has quite a few more traditional “hero” scenes on the show – right from the start, the series showed us companions mixing it up, and that was mainly Ian’s job in the beginning.  For the most part, though, those aren’t the moments I picked.  As fun as it is to see the science teacher throw down with various era-appropriate weapons, I’m an even bigger fan of watching him save the day with his knowhow (spoilers.)

Impersonating a Dalek (Series 1, Episode 8 – “The Daleks:  The Ambush”)

There’s an age-old fascination with putting people in Dalek casings, and Ian did it first.  After a group effort to trick and overpower a Dalek, Ian gets inside to do the honors, pulling the old Wookie prisoner routine.  He plays his part well, and when the casing hampers him with the Daleks bearing down, he encourages the others to go on without him, wanting to be sure they have time to get out.

Finding the Key (Series 1, Episode 23 – “The Keys of Marinus:  The Screaming Jungle”)

Ian is such a Science Teacher Hero, and I love it.  He and Barbara, armed with a cryptic string of letters and numbers from the professor, have to find the next key of Marinus before the screaming jungle closes in on them.  Once they’ve exhausted every possibility on the safe, it’s Ian who breaks out the chemistry and realizes that the letters and numbers aren’t a code – they’re a chemical formula, with the key hidden inside one of the labeled jars in the professor’s office.

Subduing Ixta (Series 1, Episode 28 – “The Aztecs:  The Warriors of Death”)

This is Badass Ian at his finest, because he shows off balls and brains all at once.  It’s no small matter to challenge an Aztec warrior, but Ian uses his knowledge of pressure points to put Ixta out of commission using only his thumb.  It’s a bloodless way to win the fight and lends credence to team TARDIS’s cover story of being sent by the gods.

Starting the Fire (Series 2, Episode 3 – “Planet of Giants:  Crisis”)

More science coolness combined with physical strength.  With our heroes shrunk down to mini-size and an urgent need to draw someone’s attention, Ian gets the idea to start a fire in the lab.  He and Susan light an enormous match by running it at the match box like a battering ram, and he shrewdly opts to use a gas jet to set fire to an aerosol can for maximum impact.

Navigating the Museum (Series 2, Episode 27 – “The Space Museum:  The Dimensions of Time”)

A small moment, but fun.  With Ian, Barbara, and Vicki hopelessly lost inside the museum, Ian takes a page from Theseus and decides to unravel Barbara’s cardigan and use the thread to mark their trail.  I’m always a sucker for people applying tricks they learned from stories, and Ian nearly being thwarted by the sheer impregnability of Barabara’s cardigan makes it even more fun.