Barbara Wright, later Barbara Chesterton, was one of the earliest companions to travel with the Doctor. Before meeting the First Doctor, Barbara was a history teacher at Coal Hill School in 1960s London.
Biography
Early life
In her teens, Barbara dated a boy who carried a knife. Barbara's mother called these "her rebellious years". Barbara had an aunt called Cecilia. She met her every year in London on the 23rd of November, her aunt's birthday. (ST: 1963)
In 1954, she was a student teacher in Cricklewood, living in a rented room. (PDA: The Witch Hunters)
Travels with the Doctor
Barbara became involved with the First Doctor's life through his granddaughter, Susan. Like her colleague, Ian Chesterton, Barbara taught at Coal Hill School in Shoreditch, London. Ian taught science, and Barbara taught history. (DW: An Unearthly Child) She had a particular interest in the Aztecs. (DW: The Aztecs) The odd gaps in Susan's knowledge and her curious knowledge of things she could not know intrigued Barbara. Ian and she followed Susan to 76 Totter's Lane, where they discovered the Doctor's TARDIS and the First Doctor, who abducted them. (DW: An Unearthly Child)
Although Barbara accepted the seemingly impossible more easily than Ian, her first inclination was to rationalise things. She felt that there must be an explanation for the TARDIS and that it was an illusion Susan and her grandfather had created in their loneliness and isolation. However, Barbara was practical and realistic. Once she realised that Susan and the Doctor had told the truth about the TARDIS, she accepted it fully.
Barbara was an instinctive person; her combination of practicality and intuition made her the ideal mediator, not only in the alien worlds and times they visited, but also within the TARDIS. Many arguments between the Doctor and Ian were smoothed over by Barbara's intervention. Her intuition didn't fail her when the travellers arrived on Skaro; she felt uncomfortable and wanted to return to the safety of the TARDIS. When the Daleks captured her, she knew that her fears were justified. (DW: The Daleks)
Barbara's strong beliefs and acceptance of truth made her a formidable character. When she believed in something, she stood up for it. This was apparent when the travellers arrived in Mexico during the time of Aztecs. Her interest in history allowed her to see the good and the evil in the Aztec society and her belief that they could be a truly good people led her to become determined to change the course of history when the Conquistadors arrived.
She wished to preserve all that was good and honourable, whilst driving out the horrors and ignorance of human sacrifice. Barbara was disappointed to learn that history cannot be changed, but she had the strength of character to live with this. (DW: The Aztecs)
Passionate about history, Barbara could see both sides to a story. When the travellers arrived in revolutionary France she befriended Léon Colbert. When he died, she was distraught and defended his treachery. (DW: The Reign of Terror)
On 22nd century Earth, the travellers found the Daleks had invaded and occupied the planet. Barbara helped a small resistance group in their plotting and, together with Jenny, took Dortmun through London. With the Daleks defeated, Susan left their company. (DW: The Dalek Invasion of Earth) When they arrived on the planet Dido, Barbara was unable to closely bond with Vicki after she killed her pet sand beast, Sandy. After formulating an apology, the pair got on well and Vicki joined them on their travels. (DW: The Rescue)
Barbara's knowledge of history prepared the travellers for the hardships they would encounter when they landed in Rome. She warned Ian, once they had been captured to be sold as slaves, just how badly Roman slaves were treated. (DW: The Romans)
The strength of character Barbara showed when accepting the fate of the Aztecs allowed her to survive some of the discomforts she faced on her travels. While on Vortis, Barbara survived working for the Zarbi (DW: The Web Planet); and although she was captured and tortured by a Saracen band led by El Akir, she had the strength of mind to survive. (DW: The Crusade)
Barbara and Susan became confidantes; and perhaps because she missed Susan once she has left the TARDIS, Barbara immediately took to Vicki, whom they met and helped on the planet Dido. When Barbara accidentally killed Vicki's pet, she was distraught. Despite how well Barbara and Vicki got along, Barbara was not amused when Vicki said that she must be "about five hundred and fifty years old", as she came from 1963. (DW: The Rescue) Perhaps Barbara's most treasured keepsake from her travels was the gold bracelet which she was given by Nero. (DW: The Romans, The Chase)
However her happiest moment was when she realised that she and Ian might be able to return home in the Dalek time machine. She was the first to realise this and her single-minded determination to get home led her to decide to risk her life in the Dalek ship.
On returning home, Barbara and Ian were thrilled to have safely arrived. Once they had left the Dalek ship, and it had self-destructed, the two friends realised that they had some explaining to do, as they had arrived home in 1965 — two years after they had left. (DW: The Chase)
Life after the Doctor
Barbara and Ian claimed to have been missionaries in Africa to cover up the time gap. Barbara began a career as a university lecturer, specialising in Aztec history (MA: Who Killed Kennedy). Barbara and Ian later married (SJA: Death of the Doctor) and had a child together, John Alydon Ganatas Chesterton, who grew up to be a famous musician using the name Johnny Chess NA: Timewyrm: Revelation, PDA: Byzantium!). According to a rumour Sarah Jane Smith shared with Clyde and Rani, Barbara and Ian had become professors at Cambridge by at least the 2010s and had not aged since the 1960s (SJA: Death of the Doctor).
Personality
Barbara was keen to see the good in all things. She was frequently protected by Ian. (DW: The Keys of Marinus) She believed in the innate goodness of people and saw that sometimes there was more to a situation than met the eye. (DW: The Romans)
Barbara killed Sandy with a flare gun in shock, after which she was keen to make it up with Vicki. (DW: The Rescue) While a prisoner, Barbara looked after her fellow captives at risk to herself. (DW: The Romans) After they were armed, Barbara was eager to violently attack the Daleks. (DW: The Chase)
Behind the scenes
- The roles of Ian and Barbara as, respectively, science and history teachers were part of the series' original plan to alternate between science-fiction and historical stories. In an original format document, Barbara's age is listed as twenty-three, but it was decided to cast a slightly older actress in the role instead.
- Barbara Wright has the distinction of being the first ongoing Doctor Who character to actually appear on screen.
- In I Am the Doctor: The Unauthorised Diaries of a Timelord, it is suggested that Wright may have written a novel based upon her experiences with the Doctor, which in turn may have been turned into a motion picture in the 1960s.
- She is the first character to meet a Dalek on screen.
- Russell T Davies has stated that he sees Tenth Doctor companion, Donna Noble, as how Barbara would be presented today. (REF: The Writer's Tale)
- Before her travels in the TARDIS, Barbara's homework assignments for her students required them to study the causes and effects of the French Revolution.