I had another post ready to go for the Birthday Honors List in the Television Crossover Hall of Fame today. But the news on Tuesday threw those plans out the window….
From Yahoo! News:
William Russell, the actor who first uttered the words: “Doctor Who?”, has died aged 99.His death on 3 June 2024 has been confirmed by The Guardian.
Russell was best known for his role as schoolteacher Ian Chesterton in the long-running BBC sci-fi series Doctor Who.
He appeared in the show’s first episode, “An Unearthly Child”, in 1963, greeting William Hartnell, who introduced himself as “the Doctor”, with the famous question: “Doctor Who?”
As Chesterton, Russell appeared in Doctor Who’s first two seasons before leaving in 1965.
He reprised his role as Chesterton in 2022 when he appeared in a cameo as part of the “companion support group” in Jodie Whittaker’s final episode, “The Power of the Doctor”.
My Birthday Honors List is the perfect place to induct a duo. It’s during the Gemini month, after all, and it falls on 6/6. And the motto for the honors list is “What I say, goes.” This means there is some leeway sometimes in making sure a character can get in.
So Ian Chesterton easily makes it into the TVXOHOF based on his credits. But a bit of finagling was needed so that the other half of the Birthday Honors Couple could join him on that journey. And I set that up years ago.
Come along for the ride….!
&
BARBARA WRIGHT
First up, Ian….
From Wikipedia:
Ian Chesterton is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series ‘Doctor Who’ and a companion of the First Doctor. He was played in the series by William Russell and was one of the members of the programme's first regular cast, appearing in much of the first two seasons from 1963 to 1965. Ian appeared in 16 stories and 77 episodes. He later returned for a cameo appearance, played once again by Russell, in the 2022 episode "The Power of the Doctor".
Ian Chesterton is a science teacher at the Coal Hill School and works with Barbara Wright, a history teacher. One of their students, Susan Foreman, the granddaughter of the Doctor, shows unusually advanced knowledge of science and history.
Attempting to solve the mystery of this "unearthly child," Ian and Barbara follow Susan back home to a junkyard, where they hear her voice coming from what appears to be a police box. When they investigate further, they discover that the police box exterior hides the much larger interior of a time machine known as the TARDIS, and are whisked away on an adventure in time and space with the Doctor and Susan.
And now for Barbara….
From Wikipedia:
Barbara Wright is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series 'Doctor Who' and a companion of the First Doctor. She was one of the programme's first regulars and appeared in the bulk of its first two seasons from 1963 to 1965, played by Jacqueline Hill. Barbara appeared in 16 stories (74 episodes).
Barbara Wright first appears in the first Doctor Who serial, "An Unearthly Child" (1963), where she is teaching history at Coal Hill School in London in 1963, working with science teacher Ian Chesterton (William Russell). They are curious about their student Susan Foreman (Carole Ann Ford), who shows an unusually advanced knowledge of science and history, but a rudimentary knowledge of other subjects. In an attempt to learn more about Susan, Barbara and Ian follow her home to a junkyard, where they hear her voice coming from what appears to be a police box. During a confrontation with her grandfather, the Doctor (William Hartnell), Barbara rushes in to the police box, only to discover that its exterior hides the much larger interior of the TARDIS.
After the Doctor reveals to Barbara and Ian that he and Susan are aliens exiled from their own planet, he tells them he cannot risk their revealing information about the TARDIS to their contemporary world, and dematerializes the craft against Susan's protests. At this point in the series the Doctor had no control over where or when it would land, making a return to London in 1963 impossible to co-ordinate. They are transported back in time to 100,000 BCE Earth, where they are captured by a prehistoric tribe seeking the secret of fire.
Once they escape back to the TARDIS, their second trip takes them to the planet Skaro, where they encounter the Daleks for the first time. At the end of the first episode of that serial, Barbara becomes separated from her fellow travelers and is threatened by an unseen creature with a metal arm, marking the first appearance of a Dalek.
Following her departure in “The Chase”, Barbara has been name-checked in the series on four subsequent occasions. She was mentioned by Vicki in episode one of “The Time Meddler”; by the first Doctor in episode four of “The Massacre”, by his third incarnation on Spiradon in episode one of “Planet of the Daleks” and again by the seventh Doctor, who intoned her name amongst a list of former companions to ward off the haemovore attack in “The Curse of Fenric.”
Barbara was also mentioned in episode one of the 1993 ‘Children In Need’ charity special “Dimensions In Time” and again in “Death of the Doctor”, a two part story in the fourth series of ‘The Sarah Jane Adventures’ transmitted in October 2010. (After meeting Jo Grant and the Eleventh Doctor, Sarah Jane Smith reveals that she has researched the lives of some of the Doctor's Earth-bound companions and discovered that Ian and Barbara have married each other, become professors, live in Cambridge and are rumored to have not aged since the 1960s. This non-aging rumor however, has been seemingly contradicted by an elderly Ian Chesterton’s appearance in the 2022 episode story, “The Power of the Doctor.” [Don’t worry. I have “some splainin to do” about that.])
Just some additional info from the TARDIS Wiki:
Barbara Chesterton, née Wright was a companion of the First Doctor. Before meeting the Doctor, Barbara was a history teacher at Coal Hill School in 1960s London.
Barbara eventually moved into her own flat in London. She started working as a history teacher at Coal Hill School. Barbara met Ian Chesterton during his first year teaching at Coal Hill.
Usually I list the roles which qualify the inductions after sharing all the other information. But I think it’s best in this case to do it now.
DOCTOR WHO
77 episodes
In 1963, Barbara taught Susan Foreman history at Coal Hill School in Shoreditch, London. She had a particular interest in the Aztecs.
The odd gaps in Susan's knowledge and her knowledge of things she could not know intrigued Barbara. Informing her colleague Ian Chesterton of the strange girl, together they followed Susan to 76 Totter's Lane, where they heard her voice from inside a police box. They forced their way inside, discovering the massive console room of the Doctor's TARDIS. Susan's grandfather, the First Doctor, kidnapped Ian and Barbara in the TARDIS, which traveled back in time.
Despite his obvious enjoyment of his travels, Ian never lost sight of his desire to return to his own home and time. When the opportunity arose, Ian and Barbara risked travel in a Dalek time ship to return home. When they emerged from the time machine, they were delighted to be back and, according to one account, discovered that two years had passed since their departure.
"Just one more thing!"
COLUMBO
[For Barbara only]
O'Bservation:
More on that later.
DOCTOR WHO
(Home Video version)
In the late 1990s, William Russell reprised the role of an aged Ian for a series of links in BBC Video's restoration of The Crusade. (It was filmed at his actual house, being passed off as Ian's house.)
In their old age, Ian and Barbara mostly kept their stories to themselves, knowing what people were thinking when they found out the truth. Ian occasionally told people about his adventures.
O'Bservation:
Based on how he spoke of his wife, I believe Ian and Barbara were still together. But likely due to the seeming difference in their ages, they had mostly withdrawn from public appearances.
I don't think Ian is a serlinguist; that is, I don't believe he is breaking the fourth wall and addressing us on Earh Prime. He's probably got a UNIT camera crew there to record his memories. (By the time they're ready to leave, they'll wipe his memory of that visit.)
THE SARAH JANE ADVENTURES
DEATH OF THE DOCTOR PART TWO (2010)
The Tenth Doctor was shown visiting all of the companions that had appeared in the current series prior to his regeneration. The Eleventh Doctor reveals that during that time, he not only visited the current series companions, but also all the companions that appeared in the classic series as well.
Sarah Jane reveals that she has done some research on the whereabouts of the Doctor's former companions. She reveals that Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright were professors at Cambridge and had not aged since the 1960's, that Tegan Jovanka was in Australia fighting for Aboriginal rights, that Ben and Polly were running an orphanage in India, and that a "Dorothy something" ran a foundation called A Charitable Earth (ACE, implying Dorothy Gale "Ace" McShane). Sarah Jane also says that her former co-companion Harry Sullivan saved thousands of lives through vaccines. She speaks of Harry in the past tense, implying that he has passed on.
According to a rumor which Sarah Jane Smith shared with her friends Clyde Langer and Rani Chandra, Barbara and Ian had become professors at the University of Cambridge by the 2010s and reportedly had not aged since the 1960s.
O’Bservation:
As Ian was already aging in the late 1990s, Sarah Jane’s information about him and Barbara never aging was not up-to-date. (I blame Mr. Smith.) We have visual evidence that Ian was aging, but nothing says that Barbara can’t be as young-looking as she was in the 1960s.
DOCTOR WHO FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY
From the TARDIS Wiki:
Sometime in the 2010s, an "I. Chesterton" had become the Chairman of the Governors for the Coal Hill Secondary School.
CLASS
From the IMDb:
The list of Governors of the Coal Hill Academy includes Chesterton, I and Wright, B. (Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright, companions of The Doctor in Doctor Who (1963)'s first few seasons).
From the TARDIS Wiki:
In the 2016 spin off ‘Class’, the refurbished Coal Hill Academy contains a building called "The Barbara Wright Building".
DOCTOR WHO
[For Ian only]
From the IMDb:
The episode marks the largest reunion of previous ‘Doctor Who’ cast members in the show's 59 years.
Although 'The Day of the Doctor' (2013) showed representations of all of the actors to portray The Doctor up to that time, most were done using archival footage. With seven actors who portrayed The Doctor, "The Power of the Doctor" has the most appearances filmed specifically for one episode (Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann, David Tennant, Jodie Whittaker, and Jo Martin), plus David Bradley portraying the William Hartnell Doctor.
Ian Chesterton (William Russell) is the first companion from the first episode, “An Unearthly Child” (1963) and the entire 1960s era, to appear in the revival series. With a gap of 57 years, his cameo holds the world record for the longest gap between televised appearances as the same character.
From the TARDIS Wiki:
In 2022, Ian attended a meeting of many of the Doctor's past companions, including Graham O'Brien, Dan Lewis, Yasmin Khan, Tegan Jovanka, Ace, Melanie Bush and Jo Jones. He expressed surprise upon hearing Dan refer to the Doctor as "her".I don’t take into account any of the stories from novels, comic strips, short stories, or audio dramas. There are just too many opportunities for contradictions and discrepancies. (See the original stories for ‘Human Nature’, ‘Blink’ and the comic book adventure dealing with the Meep.) But of all the adventures which I saw described in the TARDIS Wiki, this intrigued me….
From Wikipedia:
One BBC Books novel, “The Face of the Enemy” by David A. McIntee (1998), picks up the story of Ian and Barbara, now married to each other, in the early 1970s, the two of them collaborating with the Doctor's colleagues at UNIT and his enemy the Master when Ian is hired as the Third Doctor's temporary replacement while the Doctor is taking a trip away from Earth. In this book, they have a young son named John. Many of the novels mention a 1980s pop star named Johnny Chester or Johnny Chess, intended to be the same character. Chess is idolized by the Seventh Doctor's companion Ace and has apparently been romantically involved with the Fifth Doctor's companion Tegan.
I know it's photo-shopped,
but I have a soft spot for this picture.
I can’t state for certain that holds true for the televersions of Ian and Barbara, save for the being married part, of course. I think that has to be a given in all the fictional metaverses. Like a fixed point.
But as for the existence of Johnny Chess as a son of Ian and Barbara in a hypothetical untold story from Toobworld, I’ll just leave it unsaid. The possibility is out there.
Between the original series, the cameo at the end of the Thirteenth Doctor’s run*, and those videotapes recorded by UNIT regarding the adventure during the Crusades, Ian is covered for the minimum amount of appearances to qualify for Hall membership.
Barbara, on the other hand, has the original series and the references in the home video of "The Crusade" and that episode of ‘The Sarah Jane Adventures’. She needs one more entry to qualify and I’ve had that ready for years. (Remember – with the Birthday Honors inductees, “What I say, goes.”)
In several posts over the years, I’ve played with my splainins, tweaking them every so often as new ideas came to me or new information was available from the show.
When it came to the idea of bringing the characters back (especially after it was learned that they stopped aging in the 1960s), it was O’Bvious that while it was a sweet premise, it couldn’t really play out on the screen. We already saw that Russell was getting older in those narrative videos for “The Crusade”, but more importantly – and sadly – Jacqueline Hill had passed away in 1993.
I don’t know if it was ever suggested that the roles could be recast, but if so, I’m glad somebody put the (technobabble alert!) kibosh on that. In my Inner Toob blog, I have often let my displeasure for recasting be known. There are circumstances in which I don’t mind a different actor coming in to take over, but I don’t think any of them could apply to Ian & Barbara. (It’s bad enough that they recast William Hartnell with David Bradley as the First Incarnation, but at least a good splainin was provided for that when the Tenth Incarnation met the Fifth in the short, “Time Crash”.
"The frowny face! I remember that one!
Mind you, a bit saggier than I ought to be.
Hair's a bit greyer.
That's 'cause of me, though.
Two of us together has shorted out the time differential.
Should all snap back into place when we get you home."
But humans can't regenerate. Well, except for River Song. It's one of the few splainins for a Terran recastaway which I can't use. And I wouldn't want to have the roles recast and leave it at that. It would have to be Jacqueline Hill and William Russell or forget it.
O’Bservation:
I accept that William Russell and Jacqueline Hill have “televersions” in Toobworld; they were played by actors in the TV movie which provided a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of ‘Doctor Who’ – “An Adventure In Space And Time”. From what I understand, both of those actors have gone on to play Ian and Barbara in audio dramas and I have no issue with that. Those take place in a different fictional universe.
So how do we splain away Ian aging if he was supposed to be immortal?
What if in some unseen adventure, fanfic if it must be, Ian journeyed back in Time to ancient Greece in the Age of Legend? Doesn't even have to be with the Doctor, no matter what incarnation you favor. There are plenty of Time Agents and other resources for reaching back to that time... the Time Tunnel! Why not? I am partial to crossovers, after all.
But if you want to keep it within the Whovian stratosphere, then I think traveling with the Curator might be the best bet. At some earlier stage in their lives, still an unseen adventure, Barbara and Ian gained their immortality. (It may be unseen, but perhaps not unread - I'm sure somebody has addressed the immortality question by now, either in some licensed forum or fanfic.)
However.... Something must have gone wrong in Ian's case. And it didn't become recognizable until he and Barbara, traveling with the Curator, arrived in ancient Greece, during the Age of Legend. Perhaps it was the work of a sorcerer or a warlock - using a spell aimed directly at Ian. He was still immortal, with ever-lasting life. But he wasn't granted ever-lasting youth. He became old, and frail, and withered. And among those who witnessed this phenomenon would be a story-teller who passed on the tale as myth, being the only way the people of his time would come to accept what must have seemed so inconceivable as Truth.
(Not too far off from what happened in the present day when the people of Earth Prime-Time easily accepted the emergence of the Cybermen from St. Paul's, the Army of Ghosts all across the world, the Battle of Canary Wharf, the Clan Slitheen attack on Big Ben, and the total removal of the planet from the Solar System by Davros and his Daleks, as being mass hypnosis, publicity stunts, whatever to keep them from acknowledging the Truth.)
But after they departed, that story-teller began weaving this new myth, one in which the sight of Ian shriveling down due to the rapid aging process and looking rather like an insectoid. And they would forever after be remembered by new names - as the goddess Eos and her lover Tithonus.
This is only my suggestion as to what happened. You might have your own. That’s the glory of fanfic.
Barbara was not affected by that aging affliction at all. She would be still looking the same as she did when she left the TARDIS with Ian all those decades ago. But they couldn't stay together forever with Ian in his aging condition. Eventually the Curator would have to do the only thing possible: he would have to bring Ian to the planet of New Earth where he could be tended by the Sisters of Plenitude. Since we saw Ian in 2022 at that support group meeting of former companions, it would have to happen at any point after that. (Death of an actor in the real world does not also signal the death of their character in Toobworld. The mention of Jacqueline Hill's Barbara Wright as still being alive seventeen years after Ms. Hill had died proves that officially.)
These are the musings I wrote about Barbara’s continued existence in Toobworld. In these blatherings you will find that one last credit which she needed for membership in the Hall….
1]
And more than likely, Barbara would be kept busy by UNIT. She could spend her time in research, or drawing on her skills as a teacher to impart her experiences to UNIT officials. And she might have taken on a lover or three - she would always love Ian, but she would have accepted that he was but a memory now; Life goes on.
2]
In an earlier post, I pointed out that Barbara had become a writer by the early 1970s, fictionalizing her adventures with the Doctor. Locked away in the Under-Gallery, I'd like to think she's there still, typing up new stories which she could sell. In fact, this idea just struck me - in my vision of Toobworld, it is Barbara Wright-Chesterton who is now the head of UNReel, the organization which is in charge in keeping the public from panic should they ever find out that the exploits of the Doctor, James Bond, the men from U.N.C.L.E., and others are actually happening. Better for the general safety of the world that they think it's all fiction.....3]
I’ve made the claim in the past that ‘Columbo’ had a definite crossover with ‘Doctor Who.” It can be found in the episode “Publish Or Perish” when he is examining the poster for a book released by Greenleaf Publishing – MODERN AZTEC COURTSHIP PRACTICES.
The woman seen in the illustration of that cover is the artist’s rendering of Barbara Wright, one of the first Earthlings to travel with the Doctor. Along with fellow teacher Ian Chesterton, she accompanied the First Incarnation of the Doctor and his granddaughter back in Time to the era of the Aztecs. (And just to double down on the 'Columbo' connection, the artist was Max Barsini from the 'Columbo' episode "Murder: A Self Portrait".)
And it was during that time among the Aztecs when Barbara made note of the courtship practice which almost landed another wife for the Doctor because of the miscommunication regarding the offering of cocoa….
And there you have it, the reasons why Ian and Barbara (Wright) Chesterton are eligible for membership in the Television Crossover Hall of Fame.
Good night and may God bless you both.
Welcome to the Hall!
