Ian Chesterton
Ian Chesterton, knighted as Sir Ian, Knight of Jaffa, was one of the earliest companions to travel with the First Doctor. Before meeting the Doctor, Ian was a science teacher at Coal Hill School in 1960s London.
Biography
Ian Chesterton grew up in London during the Blitz in World War II. (CC: The Time Museum) As a child, he loved the works of Jules Verne and H. G. Wells, whose stories inspired him to pursue a career in science. (PDA: The Eleventh Tiger) During the 1950s, Ian was a private in the British Army. His national service number was 15110404. (PDA: The Time Travellers) he served the first part of his national service in Wales, during which time he boxed. (PDA: The Eleventh Tiger) He later joined the Royal Air Force, serving the remainder of his national service in Malay. (PDA: The Face of the Enemy)
Ian bore a very strong resemblance to his paternal great-grandfather Major William "Bill" Chesterton, who was a member of a Hussar company in Jaipur, India in 1860 and had been transferred to China by 1865. Major Chesterton had retired to England by 1890, where he translated Mountains and Sunsets by Ho Lin Chung into English. (PDA: The Eleventh Tiger)
Ian was Susan Foreman's science teacher at Coal Hill School, London in 1963. (DW: An Unearthly Child) His classroom was C3. (ST: Nothing at the End of the Lane) He was intrigued by her advanced scientific knowledge. In talking with Susan's history teacher, Barbara Wright, he found he was not the only one who had noticed. One evening as school was finishing, Ian and Barbara decided to follow Susan home as they were concerned about this eccentric behaviour and couldn't get in touch with her grandfather. They followed her back to I.M. Foreman's junkyard in Totter's Lane where she entered and closed the gate behind her. This causes the two teachers to become more concerned for her safety. They followed her into the yard and discovered a police box sitting incongruously amidst the junk. They deduced that Susan was inside and barged their way into the massive console room of the Doctor's TARDIS.
Susan's grandfather, the First Doctor, kidnapped Ian and Barbara in the TARDIS, which travelled back in time. The TARDIS landed in Earth's Stone Age. The Doctor was taken by Kal, who had seen him produce fire. The others tried to rescue the Doctor, but were taken to the Cave of Skulls. The Old Mother released the Doctor and his companions and they escaped into a nearby forest. Ian and the others aided Za's injuries from an animal when he tried to chase after them, but were returned to the cave. Ian produced fire for the tribe and devised a way of scaring the cavemen by setting the skulls on fire. The group escaped to the TARDIS, which took off again. (DW: An Unearthly Child)
When the TARDIS landed on Skaro, the Doctor lied about the fluid link needing mercury, when there was nothing wrong, so he could explore a nearby city. The Daleks imprisoned the Doctor and his companions inside the city, confiscating the fluid link they brought along.
Having escaped, they assisted the Thals in their attack on the Dalek city. The Daleks' power supply was damaged in the attack. The Daleks died and their plans to flood the atmosphere with radiation failed. (DW: The Daleks)
With the fluid link retrieved, the Doctor left Skaro for Earth, using the Fast Return Switch. The spring in the switch was damaged, causing it to be stuck. The TARDIS was sent to the beginning of a solar system and everyone was knocked out in the trip. The TARDIS tried warning the crew about the atoms forming around them when they came to, but the Doctor assumed that this was Ian and Barbara's sabotage of the ship. Once Barbara figured out what was going on, the Doctor fixed the spring, ending the fault. (DW: "The Rescue", The Edge of Destruction)
Still heavily damaged and malfunctioning, the TARDIS found its way to Earth, but did not make it to Ian and Barbara's time, instead landing in the Plain of Pamir in 1289. There, Ian met Marco Polo, who took the TARDIS and its keys on his caravan to travel the breadth of Cathay in order to hand it over to Kublai Khan as part of a bargain for his return to Venice. Along the way, Ian discovered the Mongol warlord Tegana, also part of Polo's caravan, wanted to take the TARDIS for Nogai as part of his plan to assassinate Kublai. In the chaos of Tegana and Polo's duel in Peking, the Doctor and his companions escaped in his repaired TARDIS. (DW: Marco Polo)
The Doctor landed on an island on Marinus. Arbitan asked them to search for the keys to the reprogrammed Conscience of Marinus to regain control over the Voord, as all of his other followers and family members failed to retrieve them. Arbitan trapped the TARDIS in a forcefield, preventing the Doctor and his companions' escape.
They used Arbitan's travel dials to reach Morphoton. Barbara released Arbitan's daughter, Sabetha and the rest of the city from the Morpho's mind control, and retrieved the first key.
Ian and Barbara found a fake key in the Screaming Jungle, and after enduring several traps were told the proper location of the second key by Darrius. The third key was found in a mountain cave and was guarded by Ice Soldiers.
Escaping the soldiers, Ian reached Millennius, where he was knocked out and framed for the murder of Eprin. The Doctor helped discover the true culprit, and Ian was spared execution. The fourth key was found inside the mace that killed Eprin when the man sent to fetch the key was captured.
The Doctor and his companions returned to Arbitan's island, where Arbitan had been murdered. Ian handed the Voord the fake key, which destroyed the Conscience, along with the Voord. They were able to leave in the TARDIS once more. (DW: The Keys of Marinus)
The Doctor and his companions arrived in an Aztec temple in Mexico. They went through a one-way passage that prevented access to the TARDIS. Barbara posed as the Aztec god Yetaxa, with the others as her servants to find a way back. Ian was declared rival to the warrior Ixta.
Susan was to be punished for denying marriage to the Perfect Victim and Ian to be executed when he was framed by the High Priest of Sacrifice Tlotoxl for attacking the High Priest of Knowledge Autloc. Autloc's faith in Yetaxa was shattered, and he left for the wilderness. The Doctor, Ian and the Doctor's accidental fiancée Cameca distracted Ian and Susan's guard to escape. Ian prevented Tlotoxl's murder of Barbara and fought off Ixta. They worked on a pulley system to open the doorway back to the TARDIS. As they departed, the human sacrifice of the Perfect Victim continued as planned. (DW: The Aztecs)
Ian revelled in his new life and experiences. When the travellers landed in 12th century Palestine during the Crusades, Ian was knighted Sir Ian of Jaffa by Richard the Lionheart and sent as an emissary to search for Barbara who had been abducted by the Saracens. Ian developed his skill as a swordsman during his travels. He was also capable at unarmed combat. (DW: The Aztecs, The Crusade) These skills are attributed to time spent in the army for his National Service.
On a number of occasions, Ian endured the severe test of facing his fears. No great swimmer, he had to overcome this when, during a visit to Rome in AD 64, he was sold as a galley slave. His galley sank in a storm and Ian, with his Greek slave friend Delos, escaped and made their way to Rome. (DW: The Romans) While searching for Barbara in Palestine, Ian was captured and staked in the desert, daubed with honey to attract ants. (DW:The Crusade) Ian's instinctive fear of ants may have been increased with his experiences on Vortis. (DW: The Web Planet) He also suffered from seasickness aboard the Mary Celeste, but still managed to make it on deck twice. (DW: The Chase)
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 to 1960s London. When they emerged from the time machine, they were delighted to be back, despite discovering that two years had passed since their departure. (DW: The Chase)
Life after the Doctor
After their departure from the Doctor, Ian and Barbara got married. However, despite having left the Doctor behind, they again got 'caught up in his world' when they were contacted by UNIT in the 1970s to assist in a temporally related problem. (PDA: The Face of the Enemy) Ian and Barbara had a son, John Alydon Ganatus Chesterton. (NA: Timewyrm: Revelation, PDA: Byzantium!)
According to a rumour Sarah Jane Smith shared, Barbara and Ian had become professors at Cambridge by the 2010s and reportedly had not aged since the 1960s. (SJA: Death of the Doctor) However, Ian stated that he and Steven Taylor were more than a little bit older when he was brought into the alternative Death Zone on Gallifrey. He also mentioned that he had taken up teaching once again. Right before reuniting with Steven, he had taken out a Dalek and hid in its casing, as he had many years before. (DW: The Daleks) He met a new incarnation of the Doctor, who now looked younger than him. He also met fellow companions Sara Kingdom, Polly Wright and Nyssa for the first time. (CC: The Five Companions)
Personality
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Ian was fiercely loyal and would stand by any decision made by the rest of his group even if he disagreed with it himself. Like Barbara, Ian was keen to return home, (DW: The Daleks) prompting him to depart from the Doctor's company at the first chance. (DW: The Chase) He usually put others' interests before his, especially Barbara, whom he always looked after. (DW: The Daleks, The Keys of Marinus)
Although Ian was essentially a moral character and had stopped the Doctor from killing the caveman Za with a rock on their first adventure, (DW: An Unearthly Child) he was willing to kill if neccessary. Having been forced into hand-to-hand combat, Ian accidentally killed the Aztec warrior Ixta when he fell over the side of a pyramid. (DW: The Aztecs) Ian threatened Lobos, saying that killing him might be enjoyable, though he may have been bluffing. (DW: The Space Museum)
Barbara noted that it was the quiet girls who interested Ian the most. (PDA: Byzantium!)
He was well-acquainted with music artists who were popular with his students such as John Smith and the Common Men (DW: An Unearthly Child) and even danced to Ticket to Ride by the Beatles (DW: The Chase).
Ian was a supporter of the Liberal Party whereas Barbara was a Conservative. She regarded his politics as "wrong but romantic." (ST: Nothing at the End of the Lane)
Appearance
Ian continued to wear parts of his Coal Hill School attire whilst travelling. (DW: The Daleks) His black and emerald green-striped tie (the school colours) was destroyed when the Doctor tested acidic water with it. (DW: The Web Planet) He wore a pinstripe shirt on one occasion. (DW: The Chase)
After visiting 13th century China, Ian received a Chinese-style gown. (DW: Marco Polo) He continued to wear it on Marinus. (DW: The Keys of Marinus) He also dressed for various historical occasions, including donning a toga with his hair (which almost always remained in its 'square', early '60s styling) combed forward by Barbara (DW: The Romans) and taking the guise of an Aztec warrior, complete with a bird-headed helmet. (DW: The Aztecs)
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 one of the original format documents, Ian's age is listed as twenty-seven.
- In the early 1990s, William Russell reprised the role of an aged Ian for a series of links in BBC Video's restoration of DW: The Crusade.
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