Ben Jackson
Benjamin "Ben" Jackson was a companion of the First and Second Doctors, along with his future wife, Polly Wright, and Jamie McCrimmon.
Biography
Early Life
Ben was a Cockney. He was born in 1942 (PROSE: Invasion of the Cat-People) and grew up opposite a brewery. (TV: The Power of the Daleks) He mentioned he once had a headmaster who "got nicked for not paying his bus fare." (TV: The War Machines)
In 1956, at the age of fourteen, he sneaked aboard his father's ship. When he was found out, the captain promised him a job when he was fifteen (which was four months away). (PROSE: Invasion of the Cat-People)
Travels with the First Doctor
By 1966, Ben was assigned to the Royal Navy vessel HMS Teazer as a radar plot third class. He made Polly Wright's acquaintance in the Inferno nightclub in Covent Garden on 12 July, having briefly crossed paths with her there a week earlier. Ben was depressed at the time because he was stuck on a six month shore posting while his ship patrolled the West Indies. He spent most of his nights at the Inferno.
After helping the First Doctor defeat the sentient computer known as WOTAN and its War Machines on 20 July 1966, Ben and Polly, mistaking it for an ordinary police box, entered the TARDIS by accident. (TV: The War Machines)
In his investigation of reports of a series of agent provocateurs known as "the Doctor" who had been involved in numerous unusual incidents, the journalist James Stevens discovered evidence of Ben's involvement in the C-Day fiasco. (PROSE: Who Killed Kennedy)
The Doctor first took them to 17th century Cornwall, where they met Henry Avery's band of pirates (TV: The Smugglers)
The Doctor, Ben and Polly later arrived in New York City in the 1890s where four Ovids - being of pure thoughts who travel from world to world in crystal spheres - had become trapped. Their presence caused people's dreams and nightmare to manifest in reality. The time travellers were able to free the Ovids with the assistance of Harry Houdini. (AUDIO: Smoke and Mirrors)
The Doctor later took them to Antarctica in December 1986, when the Earth faced invasion by the Cybermen of Mondas. Ben played an important role in the defeat of the Cybermen when he disarmed the Bomb that General Cutler intended to detonate and realised the Cybermen's weakness - their fear of radioactivity. Shortly afterwards, suffering from exhaustion, the Doctor collapsed onto the floor of the TARDIS control room and regenerated in front of them. (TV: The Tenth Planet)
Adventures with the Second Doctor
Ben showed more scepticism than Polly that an imposter had not simply gotten into the TARDIS. But on the planet Vulcan, which the three time travellers visited next, a Dalek did recognise the Second Doctor. Ben then accepted the Second Doctor as the man he had known. (TV: The Power of the Daleks)
Ben continued to travel with the Doctor, facing foes such as the Cat-People, (PROSE: Invasion of the Cat-People) and the Selachians. (PROSE: The Murder Game) He and Polly were then joined by Jamie McCrimmon. (TV: The Highlanders) At one point in Ben's travels, he was mind-controlled by the Macra, but ultimately he fought against their control and saved his friends. (TV: The Macra Terror)
Throughout his journeys, Ben never lost sight of his desire to return home, and to his ship, HMS Teazer. Before leaving, Ben and Polly insisted that they would stay if the Doctor needed them. The pair departed from the Doctor at the same time, having discovered they had arrived back on Earth on the very same day they left. (TV: The Faceless Ones)
Life after the Doctor
Ben proposed to Polly in 1966 at the top of the Post Office Tower, which was witnessed unbeknownst to them by the Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler. (COMIC: The Love Invasion) He was taken home to meet Polly's parents, but they were shocked by him. (AUDIO: The Five Companions)
However, the relationship did not last. They both eventually married others, but on New Year's Eve 1986 were once more reunited. Their relationship had not lasted and they had gone on to marry other people. (PROSE: Mondas Passing) In 1999, the Second Doctor helped Ben meet Polly once more. They were now both widowers, Ben and Polly admitted their love for each other. (PROSE: That Time I Nearly Destroyed the World Whilst Looking for a Dress)
They eventually embarked on a successful marriage. (AUDIO: The Five Companions). In 2010, Sarah Jane Smith stated that Ben and Polly were running an orphanage in India. (TV: Death of the Doctor)
Personality
Ben was practical and a realist. It took him a while to believe that the TARDIS really travelled through time and space. He was also the most sceptical than Polly when the Doctor regenerated, believing that the new incarnation was an impostor. It took a Dalek recognising the Doctor to finally convince Ben of the truth.
Though they came from different backgrounds, Polly, whom he nicknamed "Duchess" because of her upper-class accent, and Ben became good friends during their travels. They trusted each other, and their relationship was punctuated by good-natured teasing and banter. They complemented each other well, making a good team. When Polly created a chemical potion to kill the Cybermen on the Moonbase, Ben worked out its practical application of it — using fire extinguishers to deliver Cocktail Polly. (TV: The Moonbase)
Ben was clever and never shirked danger or action. He was sensible enough to realise that taking on a Cyberman with a screwdriver would be a big mistake, and managed to dazzle one with the light from a film projector before killing it. Ben also worked out that the Cybermen were avoiding radiation, and helped devise a plan to destroy them using the Snowcap Base's reactor fuel rods. (TV: The Tenth Planet)
Ben might have been headstrong and impetuous, but he proved to be mentally weaker than his companions when they faced the hypnotic processing of the Macra. However, he did struggle against it, failing to report Jamie for having taken Officia's keys. (TV: The Macra Terror)
During their travels together, he and Polly thought of Jamie as being like their "baby brother." (AUDIO: The Forbidden Time)
Footnotes
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