Companions: Ben Jackson

Ben Jackson

(Michael Craze)

Ben Jackson was introduced to Doctor Who as a successor of sorts to departed companion Steven - Ben took on the "action hero" role that Steven, and Ian before him, played opposite the elderly Doctor. Ben was a Cockney sailor from modern-day Earth. Together, he and Polly would ground the show in the present and represent the point of view of the audience perhaps a bit better than spaceman Steven or the soon-to-depart dull-as-dishwater Dodo.

Oh, and also, he was freaking adorable. Look at him! You can't not love him!

Right, sorry. I'll try and keep that reined in. Ben was an Able Seaman (YEAH HE WAS!) in the Royal Navy. His heart belonged to the sea, and when we first see him he's feeling blue because he's stuck on a six month shore posting while his ship patrols in the West Indies.

Here he is in his first story, The War Machines, meeting his soon-to-be-best-friend Polly and soon-to-be-Doctor-Who-history-footnote Dodo. Polly and Dodo fail to cheer him up, but when Polly gets harassed by a drunken goon, Ben rushes to her defense. Soon he's swept up in the fight against the evil computer WOTAN, and with Dodo and Polly both hypnotized into working for the enemy Ben quickly becomes the Doctor's go-to assistant. He traps one of the titular machines for the Doctor, and rescues Polly from the final firefight.

Dodo stays on Earth, and when Ben and Polly slip aboard the TARDIS to return the Doctor's dropped key, they're both rather surprised to find it's bigger on the inside. (It's only the third season, that hasn't gotten old yet.)

The Doctor had put the TARDIS in flight before he realized the duo were aboard, and he was irritated by their presence, but amused by their refusal to believe that they were travelling in space and time.

The trio arrive in 17th Century Cornwall. Ben grudgingly accepts that they're not in London anymore, but refuses to believe that they've traveled in time - or that the Doctor can't control the ship and return them home. Worried about being arrested for desertion, he stalks off, determined to walk back to civilization. The Doctor and a slightly more credulous Polly follow along. Soon the TARDIS trio are caught up in the machinations of The Smugglers, a ruthless gang of pirates searching for Captain Avery's missing treasure.

Huh. I meant to insert a picture of the pirates, but instead put in a picture of Ben with no shirt on by mistake. Whoops. It's also much larger than the other pictures for some reason. Oh, look, Polly and the Doctor are in the picture, too! I didn't notice them before. Anyway, they beat the pirates and escape in the TARDIS and it all works out.

Here they are at the end of the story - they look much happier than they did at the beginning, don't they? Ben's accepted that the Doctor has been telling the truth, and although he never stops hoping that the TARDIS will take them home, he does begin to enjoy his adventures - although his focus is always on protecting Polly, for whom he seems to be developing some strong feelings. He calls her "Duchess" due to her comparatively posh manner, because there's no surer route to a girl's heart than to mock her upbringing.

In The Tenth Planet, the TARDIS takes them to a military base in Antarctica in the year 1986, where the travelers help fight off the very first invasion of the Cybermen. With actor William Hartnell unwell, the Doctor doesn't appear in a good chunk of the story, leaving much of the action to Ben.

Here he is in a radiation suit or something, as he sabotages a rocket that would destroy the Cybermen's home of Mondas but would take the Earth with it. When the Doctor and Polly are captured, Ben rescues them, and the young couple help the ailing Doctor back across the ice to the TARDIS, where he collapses and undergoes a peculiar metamorphosis, for the very first time...

I did it again! That's not a picture of the Doctor regenerating, it's just another picture of Ben looking adorable. Honestly, you'd think I didn't know what I was doing! It's from the right story, though - The Power of the Daleks saw Ben and Polly dealing with the Doctor's first ever regeneration. Ben flat-out refused to believe that this strange younger man was the same crotchety racist old Doctor he had been travelling with. (Did I say racist? Sorry, sometimes I get the behind-the-scenes gossip mixed up with the on-screen stories.)

The TARDIS lands on the planet Vulcan, where they emphatically do not encounter any pointy-eared logicians. Instead the Doctor is surprised (because he didn't watch the opening credits and doesn't know the title of the story) to encounter his old enemies the Daleks. The Doctor overcomes the baddies despite his somewhat erratic behavior, and Ben slowly comes to accept that he really is the same man with a new face and stronger line-memorization skills.

When the TARDIS takes them to the aftermath of the Battle of Culloden in 1746 Scotland, the Doctor is, unusually, the one who wants to get right back in the ship and take off again, but Ben wanders off to take a look around.

How much phallic imagery can YOU spot in this picture? After the usual historical shenanigans the crew takes off, with Highland lad Jamie McCrimmon in tow, making our TARDIS traveling trio a less alliterative quartet. The time-space machine takes them to Atlantis for the marvelously bonkers story The Underwater Menace, where Ben spends most of the story in a wetsuit.

Also there are Fish People. Seriously, watch this story. Ben's original role of the go-to action guy has become redundant twice over by now, with Patrick Troughton playing a much more physically capable Doctor than William Hartnell's, and now strapping young buck Jamie added into the mix. This combination of characters is unusual for a TARDIS crew throughout the show's history - discounting the UNIT team, this is the only time we'll see two male companions at once. Perhaps the writers were worried about finding enough for the actors to do when more than one filled a similar stock-type, but there's nothing to worry about if you're writing for actors as good as these, and Patrick Troughton, Frazer Hines, Anneke Wills and Michael Craze are quite good indeed. These four rank as one of the strongest TARDIS teams in the show's history, so of course not a single complete story featuring all four exists, only scattered episodes.

I know, guys, it's a bummer. But cheer up - next stop is the moon!

Ben, you look worried. Adorably worried. And you should be! In The Moonbase, the Doctor's kooky quartet encountered the malevolent Cybermen for the very second time. Jamie's flat on his back for a lot of the story, so Ben gets quite a bit of action. And if this blog were all slash fiction, that sentence would be a good jumping-off point, but all I mean is that Jamie's sick with the same malady the Cybermen are infecting the crew with, so Ben gets the action-hero spot to himself until he's better. Maybe I need to start a second blog?

Ben gets an even bigger share of the spotlight in The Macra Terror, when the TARDIS takes its crew to an evil holiday camp...in spaaaaaace! The apparently happy human colony is actually being controlled by the evil Macra, a race of giant crab things who the production team wisely keeps mostly in the dark until they're able to CGI themselves up for the Tenth Doctor and Martha in Gridlock decades later. I already showed a picture of the Macra in my entry on Polly, so instead here's Ben getting a massage.

I'm booking my vacation now! The Macra try to take over the minds of the foursome, but they're all able to resist - except Ben. Michael Craze gives a great performance here, as Ben is brainwashed, believing that all is right in the colony and becoming frustrated with his friends' attempts to subvert the status quo - he struggles with his desire to do what he sees as the right thing and turn them in to the authorities. He finally comes round and saves the day when their lives are in danger, but Ben spends a good portion of this story as an antagonist for the other three.

The Macra Terror is the last full outing for Ben, as he's sidelined fairly early on in his next and last story, The Faceless Ones.

Cheese! That's the manly travelers pausing for a photo while making plans to rescue the once-again kidnapped Polly. Ben would be captured as well by the end of the second episode of this six-part story, with the pair only returning to say goodbye to the Doctor and Jamie at the end. The TARDIS has landed them back on the exact same day they left - July 20, 1966 - and they decide to stay behind.

Ben doesn't appear again on the show, but some of the spin-offs have suggested what might have happened to him. Several licensed short stories have given brief looks into Ben and Polly's lives after leaving the TARDIS - according to those, they drifted apart and married other people, but were reunited by the Doctor in 1999. Polly had divorced and Ben's wife had died, and the two finally admitted their feelings for one another. On The Sarah Jane Adventures it was suggested that in the present day the two are running an orphanage in India together.

Ben is one of the most under appreciated companions of the classic series, even more so than Polly, I think - certainly because of the sheer number of his episodes that are missing, but also perhaps because of Michael Craze's untimely passing in 1998. If you haven't seen any of his stories, take a look - there are audio and video reconstructions of the missing episodes, so it's possible to fill in the missing pieces if you're motivated. Just look at how adorable he is!

Companions: Polly

Polly

(Anneke Wills)

Dodo may have been the first attempt from the Doctor Who writers at bringing a modern example of swinging sixties London on board the TARDIS, but Polly was where they got it right. She's the first female companion that audiences of that time - particularly teenage girls - might both recognize from their real lives and aspire to be. Susan was an alien, Barbara a grown-up schoolteacher, Vicki, Katarina and Sara all from other times, and Dodo, although from the present, appeared from and went back to nowhere. We meet Polly in present day (1966) London, working as a secretary, wearing mod fashions and going to the trendiest nightclubs.

Polly (no last name is ever given on-screen, although it was possibly intended to be "Wright") first appeared in The War Machines, working as a secretary to Professor Brett, inventor of the super-computer WOTAN. When the Doctor and Dodo arrive to investigate the machine, Polly (unlike the viewers) takes a liking to Dodo and brings her along to a happening nightspot, where they meet depressed, adorable sailor Ben Jackson.

That's Dodo, looking drab, and Polly, looking fabulous, with Kitty, the owner of the nightclub (because of course Polly is friends with the owner), and Ben, looking like the back of his head. Better pictures of him later. After Dodo makes her ignominious exit halfway through the story, Ben and Polly get caught up in the adventure. Polly is briefly hypnotized by WOTAN but shakes it off after being rescued by Ben. (This is a theme that will recur.) After the dust settles, Polly and Ben track the Doctor down, to let him know that Dodo has decided to ditch him.

My god, she is frigging adorable! Sorry, I really like Polly. Ok, so the Doctor thanks them and enters the TARDIS, and Ben - remembering that he had pocketed a spare key the Doctor dropped earlier - opens the door to return it to him. Ben and Polly climb aboard and are whisked away.

The next story, The Smugglers, sees the trio arrive in seventeenth century Cornwall. Ben is skeptical that they've truly traveled in time and is eager to get back to London, but Polly is excited at the prospect of adventure. Now, Polly could scream with the best of them - she's still a classic series Doctor Who girl after all, it's a job requirement.

Here she is screaming at...I don't know, a skeleton or a pirate or something. But Polly was clever - when she and Ben are wrongfully imprisoned for murder, it's Polly who - having accepted they really are centuries in the past - preys on their jailer's superstitions to get them released.

(A side note about The Smugglers - it concerns a search for the hidden treasure of the pirate Captain Avery, believed dead at the start of this story but whose true fate would eventually be revealed in the new series episode The Curse of the Black Spot. Given that not a single episode of this story survives to the present day, this has to be the most obscure callback the new series has made so far. I guess Moffat wanted to outdo Davies' use of the Macra.)

In the next story, The Tenth Planet, Polly shares with Ben two majorly significant firsts in Doctor Who history.  Arriving at the South Pole in the fantastic future world of 1980, Ben, Polly and the Doctor encounter the Cybermen for the very first time.

Here she is talking to him about feelings and crap (just like a woman, am I right, fellas?). Polly doesn't do a whole lot in this story, but she does get to witness that other significant first - the whole reason this show is still on the air, decades later. The Doctor, weakened by the Cybermen's attack on Earth, rushes back to the TARDIS, collapses, and regenerates!

Here they are at the top of the next story, The Power of the Daleks (guess who they're about to meet), staring in amazement at this new man calling himself the Doctor.

I think they convey the sense of "What the FUCK?!?" quite well, don't you? Ben has a hard time believing this strange little man isn't an impostor, but Polly, as ever, is quicker to accept the evidence of her own eyes. Polly gets to meet the Daleks in this story, but spends much of her time getting captured, so let's move on to the next story, The Highlanders, where she really shines.

Here's the new TARDIS team arriving in Scotland in 1746, shortly after the Battle of Culloden, where they'll get caught up in conflicts between Jacobites and Redcoats. When the Doctor, Ben and the local Laird are captured by the British, Polly works with the Laird's daughter, Highland lass Kirsty, to work out a plan to rescue them.

Although all three of the main characters get plenty of action, to my mind The Highlanders is Polly's story. Since all of the episodes are lost it's hard to judge it fairly, but listening to the audio, any scene without Polly in it suffers. The story really gets going when Polly and Kirsty meet the stuffy but good-hearted Redcoat Lieutenant Algernon Ffinch - or "Algy", as Polly insists on calling him. The two girls (mostly Polly) trick Algy into a trap, threaten him, and steal his money and his identity disc, which they use throughout the serial to repeatedly blackmail him into helping them. Despite their being on opposite sides, Anneke Wills does a wonderful job of showing a growing genuine affection for Ffinch through her semi-threatening teasing. It's a good performance of an increasingly complex character.

But character development came and went from story to story as the writers changed on classic Doctor Who, and in the next story, The Underwater Menace, Polly has little to do except once again get captured and almost turned into one of these things.

Which, as much as I love Polly, would have been kind of awesome. They're called Fish People, and they are one of the many utterly insane facets of this wonderfully bizarre story.  The TARDIS quartet - oh, I forgot to mention, they picked up Scottish piper Jamie McCrimmon in the last story - here's the new team of companions...

Anyway, the four travellers have arrived at some indeterminate time in the future in the underwater city of Atlantis. The survivors of the sinking of the city use the aforementioned Fish People to farm plankton to survive underwater. Now the mad Professor Zaroff has convinced the Atlanteans that he can raise the city, when in truth he's actually planning to blow up the planet for some reason. So yeah, bizarre, but awesome. Anyway, Polly is about to undergo surgery to become a Fish Person...

...when she's rescued by the Doctor. There's a slave revolt, Zaroff goes even crazier, blah blah blah, Polly puts on an awesome costume and hides out with a disguised Doctor...

...and everything's fine. So yeah, good story, check it out. (What's left of it - most of it, you guessed it, no longer exists.)

Polly's back to kicking ass in the next story, The Moonbase. Arriving on the moon in the year 2070, Jamie takes sick with the same illness that's been affecting much of the base's crew.

While playing nursemaid (because, you know, sixties, woman...), she discovers that their old enemies the Cybermen are behind the mysterious illnesses. While everybody's freaking out about what to do, Polly - inspired by, no kidding, her nail polish remover- mixes up a batch of chemicals which they use to dissolve the Cybermen's plastic chest units, killing them. Polly's chemical cocktail keeps them all alive long enough for the Doctor to ultimately see the invaders off. Fuck yeah!

Next up -The Macra Terror. This story is also completely lost, but here's a shot of Polly in the grips of the malevolent Macra.

Say what you will about sixties Doctor Who, they knew when a monster was good enough to show and when it was best kept in the dark. (Seventies and eighties Doctor Who would frequently forget this lesson. See The Talons of Weng-Chiang, The Androids of Tara, Warriors of the Deep...I could go on.) As I mentioned above, the Macra would reappear to terrorize the Tenth Doctor and Martha in Gridlock, in the second most obscure callback in the new series' history. If you add in a dialogue call-out from the Eleventh Doctor and Amy story Victory of the Daleks to The Power of the Daleks, that's three from the Polly and Ben era. Considering how few of their episodes actually exist - only their introductory story exists in its entirety - they must have had a monumental impact on Messieurs Davies and Moffat. I put it down to Polly. (Is it clear yet that I'm rather fond of her?)

The next story, The Faceless Ones, sees the TARDIS returning to Earth on the very same day Ben and Polly left - July 20, 1966. Like Dodo, Ben and Polly get a bit of a short shrift in their farewell story. Polly gets hypnotized and disappears for a good chunk of it, returning only to say goodbye to the Doctor and Jamie at the end. Since the Doctor can't control where or when the TARDIS lands, the duo are taking the opportunity to return to their previous life. They wouldn't appear again in Doctor Who, but a 2010 episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures suggested that Ben and Polly are presently running an orphanage in India together.

Polly was a great companion, and Anneke Wills did a great job of portraying her. It's a real shame that her and Ben's stories were hit hardest by the BBC's purging of old videos in the sixties and seventies - most of their episodes exist now only in soundtracks and snapshots. Although later female companions (most often Ace or Sarah Jane) are often cited as the forerunners of Rose, Martha, Donna and Amy, it's really Polly who set the precedent of the brave, smart, witty, modern-woman "Doctor Who girl" with a life of her own outside the TARDIS.