James Wordie was a member of Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition to cross Antarctica.
In 1915, the expedition's ship the Endurance was trapped in the ice. When the biologist Robert Clark had begun turning into a Skith after being in contact with a whale whose DNA was altered by the Skith, a group including some of Shackleton's crew, joined by the Tenth Doctor and Martha Jones, followed Clark to the Skith ship Oppressor One. The Skith imprisoned the group and prepared to study and dissect them, but after Shackleton got through to Clark, Clark released them. Martha brought most of the group apart from the Doctor and Shackleton back to the Endurance in the Doctor's TARDIS, before later coming back for them when they destroyed the Oppressor One. After being brought back to the Endurance, Shackleton and fellow explorer Frank Wild came up with a plan to travel 250 miles west to Paulet Island, leaving the expedition abandoned. The Doctor mentioned that everyone on the expedition survived. (COMIC: The First)