Top Five Big Damn Hero Moments: Ben Jackson (Doctor Who)

Ben’s Big Damn Hero moments wound up being surprisingly front-loaded for me:  only one of the five coming during the Two era and a whopping three from “The Tenth Planet” alone.  Interesting.  I wonder if it’s a by-product of Jamie joining the show unexpectedly – if, with Jamie-less scripts already written for series 4, they wound up divvying Ben’s moments between the two of them, leaving Ben with less to do (spoilers.)

Connecting the Cable (Series 3, Episode 45 – “The War Machines:  Episode 4”)

The act itself is small, but both the danger (slipping past the war machines to connect a cable) and the result (giving the Doctor the power he needs to enact his plan to defeat WOTAN) are pretty big.  I like that, even though Ben has just met the Doctor, he already feels loyal to him and would rather take on a risk himself than have the Doctor face it.

Escaping the Cybermen (Series 4, Episode 6 – “The Tenth Planet:  Episode 2”)

The first instance of Ben employing his smarts against the Cybermen.  Held prisoner, Ben rigs up a projector to blind his Cyberman guard and then, while it’s temporarily incapacitated, swipes its weapon and kills it.  Ben fights very cleverly against the Cybermen throughout this story, and I love that, outthinking an enemy that he knows he can’t match physically.

Sabotaging the Rocket (Series 4, Episode 7 – “The Tenth Planet:  Episode 3”)

This time, Ben works to outsmart, not a Cyberman, but a human.  With Cutler’s disastrous idea to destroy Mondas with a Z-bomb – and let the nuclear fallout land where it may – it’s Polly and Barclay who get the idea to sabotage the Z-bomb, but Ben is the one who executes it, following Barclay’s map through the air ducts and then following his instructions to disable the rocket in a small, fiddly way that no one will think to look for.

Fighting the Cybermen (Series 4, Episode 8 – “The Tenth Planet:  Episode 4”)

And Ben for the win once again!  While the Cybermen force him and several other humans to suit up and handle the bomb at their behest, Ben is the one to realize it isn’t just a power trip – the Cybermen can’t go near the bomb due to the radiation it gives off.  He then formulates the plan to use it against them, luring them close enough that the humans can spring upon them wielding irradiated materials.

Escaping the Annabelle (Series 4, Episode 18 – “The Highlanders:  Episode 4”)

Dude is tied up and thrown overboard from a ship, and what does he do?  He frees himself, keeps out of sight, and swims to shore, where he meets up with the Doctor again and takes part in the plan to free the rest of the captives.  All in a day’s work!