Relationship Spotlight: Susan Foreman, Barbara Wright, the Doctor & Ian Chesterton (Doctor Who)

Can’t argue with the very first Doctor-companion relationships the show ever gave us. While Doctor Who has had many truly-exquisite dynamics between the Doctor and their companions over the years – and the One era itself features some other good groupings – there’s something magical about this unlikely quartet wandering the fourth dimension together (a few spoilers.)

Elephant in the room first. This is not your typical Doctor-companion meetcute in which the companions meet the Doctor at the onset of some sort of alien crisis, impress the Doctor with their cleverness/heart/bravery/etc., and get a TARDIS invitation by the end of the story. I mean, don’t get me wrong, Ian and Barbara have all those things in spades. Case in point, they both recognize something’s off about Susan, are concerned enough for her that they want to investigate, and poke around an eerie junkyard at night looking for clues. It’s not until a bit later that they have their respective 20^th-century minds blown by TARDISes and time travel, but even in a situation that barely hints at the fantastical, they prove themselves to be companion material.

But at the time, the First Doctor isn’t in the market for companions. His only company is Susan, and that’s the way he likes it. When Ian and Barbara do some snooping and discover the TARDIS, he’s angry at them for learning his secret and is prepared to go to extreme measures. And yes, he straight-up abducts them in time. That is a thing that happens.

And so, the relationship does not start well. Ian and Barbara are two ordinary schoolteachers who’ve been forced against their will on a bewildering journey in time and space, the Doctor is the distrustful, mysterious alien who’s taken them, and Susan is the “unearthly child” caught in the middle, trying to help her teachers and her grandfather see the best in one another. As such, the early episodes are filled with Ian and the Doctor clashing over authority, Barbara taking the Doctor to task for how he treats them, and the Doctor doing sneaky things to get his way.

But even as this friction is going on, very gradually, the Doctor, Susan, and the two humans are beginning to understand, respect, and even like each other. Getting into tight situations together (because it’s Doctor Who – no matter where the TARDIS takes them, they’re going to end up in a tight situation pretty quickly,) they need to collaborate and come up with plans to stay alive/save the day/whatever’s required of them, and that means discovering what each of the others brings to the table. Before too long, almost without realizing it, these four people become a group, one that grows closer with each passing adventure.

One thing I really enjoy about this era of the show is the “hanging-out” scenes that tend to come at the start of a new serial. While stories of six or more episodes usually wind up dragging at some point, it does leave space for these low-key moments of the original team TARDIS exploring a new era/planet: examining local fauna, finding appropriate clothes for the era, and just generally enjoying poking around a new time and place. I like that, not jumping straight into the crisis/mystery within the first few minutes of the story and spending a little time just showing these four having a good time together. It’s a nice way to establish their ever-evolving relationships with one another, and while Who still squeezes in moments like this, they tend to be a lot more condensed than they are in these earliest seasons of the show.

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.

Favorite Characters: Ian Chesterton (Doctor Who)

I’ve already written about Barbara, and she’s hardcore amazing on her own, but you really can’t have one without the other, and I thought Ian needed some love as well.  While I’m not sure if, like Barbara, he’d make my classic Who companion Top Five, but I’m almost positive he’s in my overall companion Top Ten.  Let’s hear it for the science teacher!  (A few Ian-related spoilers.)

Again, as with Barbara (I promise I’ll stop with the comparisons soon,) one thing I really love about Ian is how blame teacher-y he is.  It’s so great to watch him with Susan, explaining things to her and appreciating her love of learning.  I also enjoy the way the One-era serials always tend to start out with just some general exploration; Ian is really in his element studying alien flora and speculating what sort of planet they’ve landed on.  Not to mention, you can see that, although he’s always intrigued to learn something new, he gets just the slightest bit on the defensive when the Doctor starts talking over his head with the sci-fi babble.  Hee!

As I’ve said before, the Doctor doesn’t actually invite Ian and Barbara aboard the TARDIS but instead abducts them after they stumble upon it, and so Ian doesn’t come into his adventures with a “companion mindset.”  At first, his main focus is just on keeping himself, Barbara, and Susan (and, since he’s their only hope of getting home, the Doctor) safe in whatever unwelcoming environment the TARDIS takes them to.  He shows off a surprisingly-effective set of survival skills and demonstrates a lot of courage and determination, taking on wild foes he never could have dreamed of.

But as time goes on, Ian really gets into the spirit of things (as do the others,) which is a fun aspect of the One years.  Especially with the historicals, there’s enough space to feel our heroes getting acquainted with the culture of whatever time/place they’re in, complete with the local clothing, customs, and cuisine (not that there’s never an element of “(20^th-century) England Knows Best,” but I appreciate that they don’t just stand on the outside looking in.)  In particular for Ian, that seems to mean learning a lot of local fighting styles.

Yep, Ian is way more badass than any science teacher I ever had, and yet he doesn’t generally carry himself like a tough guy or otherwise-formidable guy.  It’s an aura he only pulls out when he needs to – when he and/or the others are in danger and he’s trying not to look like easy pickings – but the skills are always at the ready.  Whether he’s facing opponents in the Aztec empire, alongside Marco Polo, or during the French Revolution, Ian knows how to throw down and often holds his own.  It’s a surprising characterization, because the knit sweaters and overall unassuming nature might lead viewers to see him only within the context of a much narrower archetype, but there’s a lot more to him than that.

While he and the Doctor clash over ideas early on (again, abduction, so it’s understandable,) I like the power dynamic they settle into, wherein each respects the other for the specific assets he brings to team TARDIS.  Just as Ian recognizes that the Doctor is capable of being more than self-serving and curmudgeonly, the Doctor that learn Ian is no mere primitive being who doesn’t know what he’s doing.  Over time, they learn to share their leadership role rather than quarrel over it, which is cool to see.