Growing up, I was OBSESSED with Doctor Who. I love that show – it is magic, the perfect escapism. So when the UK went into its third lockdown, and I remembered I have a BritBox subscription a challenge was created. I set out to watch Doctor Who from the very beginning. My sofa became a TARDIS. My first destination was in London in 1963.
The show I grew up with and the show I began watching could not have been more different. For starters, the Doctor is a woman now. But also better graphics, bigger budget, and scarier monsters. In other ways Doctor Who hasn’t changed at all, the theme tune and sound of the TARDIS are the same, the Doctor is still a bit mad.
I have lots of thoughts about the First Doctor (William Hartnell), but that’s for another time. Today, I want to explore the Doctor’s very first human friends Ian Chesterton (William Russell) and Barbara Wright (Jacqueline Hill).
*It seems silly to put a spoiler alert for a show that is 58 years old, but there will be spoilers for the first two series of Doctor Who.*
Ian and Barbara are unwittingly drawn into the Doctor’s adventures. We first meet them in ‘An Unearthly Child’ as the teachers of the Doctor’s granddaughter Susan Foreman (Carole Ann Ford). Concerned for her welfare and utterly bewildered by her expert knowledge of well, everything, Ian and Barbara follow her home. There they barge into the TARDIS and, the Doctor refuses to let them leave! The first-ever TARDIS team was formed.
A rocky start
Unsurprisingly Ian, Barbara, and the Doctor did not have the best relationship at the beginning. The Doctor is very much angered by their presence and wants to continue doing things his way. Whilst Ian and Barbara just wanted to go home. Unfortunately for them at this point, the Doctor could not control where the TARDIS landed, so they were stuck with each other. The First Doctor was very selfish and a little sassy. It is the Doctor’s selfishness in ‘The Daleks’ that leads the group to face radiation poisoning and the Daleks for the very first time. The Doctor is working against Ian and Barbara with Susan in the middle as a mediator.
“a deeper relationship was born”
For the Doctor, this is the first time he’s travelled with someone from another race. Ian and Barbara’s knowledge of space was incredibly limited so the Doctor had to explain everything to them. There was an element of distrust that came to a head in ‘Edge of Destruction’ when the Doctor believed Ian and Barbara had done something to damage the TARDIS and threatened to throw them out into space. They hadn’t. The Doctor was forced to work with them to solve the problem and from that, a deeper relationship was born.
Refreshing characters
It was refreshing for someone who is such a New Who fan to see companions with complete agency. They didn’t always need the Doctor to get themselves out of sticky situations. If you’re going to watch any Ian and Barbara episode after this watch ‘The Romans’. They have an adventure all by themselves that the Doctor never learns anything about!
“the first Doctor isn’t the hero we know and love today”
Ian and Barbara learnt a lot from the Doctor for sure. They were used as a way for the Doctor to explain to the audience what was going on. However, the first Doctor isn’t the hero we know and love today. He is perfectly happy with just passing through. Sight-seeing and taking notes in his notebook. Ian was very much a hero, always wanting to try to face whatever evil they came up against and Barbara was with him all the way. The Doctor got used to their sense of morality and even began to copy them. Throughout their two series, the Doctor’s affection for them grows. He refers to Ian as “my dear boy” and after the departure of Susan, he shows Barbara how to work more of the ship.
Fantastic chemistry
The success of Ian and Barbara is also helped by the chemistry between William Russell and Jacqueline Hill. Although nothing romantic happens on screen as an audience you are just wanting for it to happen. A scene from The Sarah Jane Adventures reveals that the pair went on to get married but also never aged!
When they choose to leave the Doctor it is incredibly emotional and upsetting. He has the complete opposite reaction to when they first boarded the ship. At first, he refuses to help them pilot the empty Dalek ship, calling it a “suicide mission”. The truth is, he can’t imagine the TARDIS without them. He does of course help them, and they arrive back in London in 1965 as completely different people. At the end of their final episode, the Doctor sadly remarks that he “shall miss them”. Ian and Barbara helped mould the Doctor into the character we know and love today.
The Doctor has had many companions across the series, but for me, none will ever be as iconic as Ian and Barbara.
Orla McAndrew
Feature Image via Dante Candal on Unsplash. This image has in no way been altered. Image license is available here.
Orla McAndrew
Orla McAndrew is a co-founder of Empoword Journalism and also a features and Instagram editor. As a freelance writer she has written for Stylist Magazine, The Yorkshire Evening Post, The Indiependent, The Hysteria Collective and SmallScreen. Currently she is an intern at Screen Yorkshire, and in September she was be starting her English Literature degree at the University of York.