Travelling companion to the First Doctor. Ian was a science teacher at Coal Hill School in Shoreditch, London, at the time that the Doctor's grand-daughter Susan was a pupil. He was perplexed by her behaviour, as she seemed to know more science than he did. One evening, fellow teacher Barbara Wright spoke to him about Susan, explaining that she had also found her behaviour strange. Whilst Barbara had tried to look into Susan's background, Ian looked for rational explanations. They decided to follow her home that evening, and entered a gloomy junk yard behind her. She was nowhere to be seen, but Ian did come upon a Police Box which was giving off a faint vibration. When an old man entered the yard, Ian challenged him - demanding to see inside the box. He and Barbara were about to go and fetch a policeman when the doors opened and Susan called out, so they pushed their way in - finding themselves in a brightly lit control room. Ian was skeptical that they were inside a time machine, arguing with the Doctor that what he was claiming was impossible. It was only when the doors were opened after they had travelled back to prehistoric times that Ian accepted the Doctor and Susan had been telling the truth. Ian would retain a degree of skepticism throughout his travels with the Doctor.
During the early part of their travels, Ian and the Doctor had an often fractious relationship, with Susan and Barbara usually called upon to placate the pair. Having been in charge of his own affairs for so long, the Doctor initially resented the presence of a younger, fitter man aboard his TARDIS. The Doctor acknowledged that Ian was their protector whilst imprisoned by cave dwellers, whilst Ian acknowledged that the Doctor was the leader of their party. Ian was horrified when it appeared that the Doctor was prepared to kill the injured Za just so they could escape back to the ship. Prompted by Susan, it was Ian who found a way to frighten the superstitious cave people and facilitate their escape.
On arriving on Skaro, Ian was keen to learn more about the workings of the TARDIS. In the Dalek city he was incapacitated when the inhabitants fired on his legs. Despite this, and his radiation sickness, he wanted to be the one to go and fetch the drugs which the Thals had left for them outside the TARDIS. Ian got to sit inside a Dalek shell when they escaped from their cell. It was he who stayed behind to warn the Thals of a Dalek ambush. When it became clear that they would have to go back into the city to fetch the TARDIS fluid link, Ian had to find a way to get the Thals to fight for them. He was opposed to this at first, feeling that it was wrong to make them go against their pacifist ideals.
The Doctor frequently got his surname wrong, which Ian soon accepted in a lighthearted vein.
When it appeared that the TARDIS had been sabotaged, the Doctor suspected Ian and Barbara of being the culprits, and was prepared to throw them off the ship.
Travelling through 14th Century Cathay, Ian demonstrated knowledge that implied that he had visited the region before. Along with his handiness in a fight, this suggested that he had been in the army during National Service, spending part of it in the Far East.
On the planet Marinus. Ian's skepticism came to the fore when they were confronted by a life of apparent luxury in the city of Morphoton. Later, he found himself under sentence of death for murder, in a society where you were guilty until proven innocent.
On the planet of the Sensorites, Ian fell ill after drinking poisoned water, but showed remarkable powers of recovery.
Ian got to see a great deal of Earth's history during his time aboard the TARDIS. In 15th Century Mexico he found himself lined up to take command of the Aztec army - and having to fight the man whose place he was to usurp. He was later locked up in Revolutionary France, and then got to meet Napoleon Bonaparte whilst playing the part of an inn keeper. In ancient Rome, Ian and Barbara were captured by slave traders. Ian first found himself a galley-slave, then was forced to fight a gladiatorial contest. In 12th Century Palestine, he was knighted by King Richard - becoming Sir Ian of Jaffa. A bandit then tried to torture him with ants.
Ian spent a lot of his time being knocked out and incarcerated. The most unusual places he found himself trapped were a matchbox and a briefcase, after the TARDIS had been shrunk in size after an accident.
Ian also had adventures in a future, Dalek dominated, Earth and on planets such as Vortis, Xeros and Dido.
Ian always felt that it was his job to protect Barbara, Susan, and later Vicki. Barbara sometimes felt that he was over-protective.
Back at Coal Hill, he had surprised Susan with his knowledge of current chart hits, and later, when Vicki selected a TV clip of the Beatles on the Space-Time Visualiser, Ian couldn't help having a dance. Ian's own selection had been to see Abraham Lincoln delivering the Gettysburg Address.
As time went by, Ian and the Doctor became great friends. He still longed to get home to London in 1963, and an opportunity eventually arose when they captured a Dalek time machine that was fully operational. This followed a chase through time and space, in which Ian got to visit the Mary Celeste - where it turned out that he was susceptible to sea-sickness.
The Doctor did not want the teachers to leave, fearing that the journey might kill them, but Ian held his ground. The Doctor and Vicki used the Visualiser to witness their return to London - although it was 2 years after they had first left it. Ian jokingly blanched at the sight of a real Police Box, and told Barbara that they would need a very good excuse to explain their absence from the school.
We can safely assume that Ian and Barbara got married once they were back on Earth. Ian would go on to become Chairman of the Board of Governors at Coal Hill School. He and Barbara settled in Cambridge and, according to Sarah Jane Smith, they had hardly aged a day...
Played by: William Russell. Appearances: An Unearthly Child (1963) to The Chase (1965).
- Born William Russell Enoch in Sunderland in 1924, Russell continues to play Ian for the Big Finish audio range. Prior to getting the role of Ian Chesterton, he had been famous for starring in The Adventures of Sir Lancelot. He was pretty much Verity Lambert's only choice to play Ian.
- On leaving Doctor Who, he and Jacqueline Hill toured together in Terence Rattigan's Separate Tables.
- He had a cameo in An Adventure In Space And Time as the commissionaire.
- His son, Alfred - born when Russell was 64 - is also an actor, having appeared in the Harry Potter movies.
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