Companion to the First and Second Doctors. He was a young Cockney seaman, attached to HMS Teazer. When his ship left for the West Indies on a six month posting, Ben found himself instead based at barracks back in England. Depressed, he started hanging out at the 'Inferno' nightclub in Covent Garden. The owner asked her friend Polly to try to cheer him up, which is how he came to meet the Doctor's companion Dodo Chaplet. Polly worked as secretary to computer scientist Professor Brett, who had installed a revolutionary super computer named WOTAN in the new Post Office Tower. This had been visited by the Doctor and Dodo. When Polly was harassed by one of the 'Inferno' customers, Ben stepped in and beat him up.
Later that evening he met the Doctor for the first time when he came to the club in search of Dodo.
ben became worried when Polly failed to meet him for lunch the next day, and so went to find the Doctor at the home of civil servant Sir Charles Summer. The Doctor suggested he have a look around Covent Garden as a tramp they had seen the night before had turned up dead there. Ben entered a warehouse where WOTAN was having robotic War Machine constructed. Polly was here, under WOTAN's mental control and she helped to capture him. However, she later allowed him to escape, and he went to warn the Doctor and Sir Charles. he later helped the Doctor capture one of the War Machines so that it could be reprogrammed to fight against WOTAN.
When Dodo elected to stay behind in London, Ben and Polly went to find the Doctor to inform him. They then saw the old man enter a Police Box. ben had earlier picked up a key which the Doctor had dropped, and he used this to enter the TARDIS. He and Polly were then whisked off to 17th Century Cornwall. Ben did not believe they had gone back in time at first, and was insistent on returning to London as he was expected back at his barracks. He thought that the Doctor might have hypnotised them, but realised the truth when they met the church warden Joseph Longfoot. When Longfoot was killed by the pirate Cherub, Ben was blamed and locked up with Polly.
The TARDIS next materialised at the South Pole in 1986, where Ben encountered the Cybermen for the first time. He attacked one of them and was locked up in a crew room in which there was a film projector. He used this to blind his Cyberman captor and used its weapon against it, which he hated having to do. After the Doctor fell ill, Ben used information which he had given to him to advise the base crew in what to do to defeat the Cybermen. He sabotaged the Z-bomb so that general Cutler could not attack the planet Mondas, as this might have also destroyed the Earth. He then led the scientists in using radioactive fuel rods to overpower the Cybermen.
On returning to the TARDIS after the Cybermen had been defeated, Ben and Polly saw the Doctor collapse on the floor and change his appearance. Despite seeing this with his own eyes, Ben refused for a long time to accept that this stranger was really the Doctor. In the colony on the planet Vulcan, Ben revealed some information about his childhood - including having lived near a brewery and having a headmaster who was arrested for fare dodging. Ben finally accepted that this was a new incarnation of the Doctor when the Daleks recognised him as such.
When the TARDIS arrived in 18th Century Scotland, Ben found himself captured by English Redcoats and was locked up on a slave ship. Ben tore up the papers which a crooked solicitor wanted to use to enslave the captives. The captain, Trask, ordered that he be keel-hauled. Ben used his navy training, and a trick of Harry Houdini's, to escape death.
In the city of Atlantis, Ben and new companion Jamie were sent to work in the mines but managed to escape. He then pretended to be a city guard in order to help capture the insane scientist Zaroff.
In a colony on an alien world the Doctor and his companions came under mental attack by the giant crab-like Macra creatures. The process took place whilst they slept. Only Ben was affected, and he became fiercely loyal to the colony's regime - even denouncing his companions. The conditioning began to break down, and he eventually assisted the Doctor in destroying the Macra.
After arriving at Gatwick Airport, Ben was abducted by the alien Chameleons, miniaturised and placed in storage in their spacecraft.
Ben always longed to get back to the London of 1966, to resume his naval career, so when he learned that it was the very day he and Polly had first entered the TARDIS, he elected to remain behind. Polly had similar feelings and opted to leave the Doctor and Jamie at the same time. The Doctor hoped Ben would one day become an admiral, with Polly looking after him.
It later transpired that he and Polly were running an orphanage in India in the 2000's.
Played by: Michael Craze. Appearances: The War Machines (1966) - The Faceless Ones (1967).
- Craze began his career as a child actor and singer. He featured in an ITV sci-fi series (Pathfinders, starring Gerald Flood) before joining Doctor Who. He retired from acting and ran a pub for a time and was a popular guest at many conventions. On 8th December 1998 he had an accident whilst helping a neighbour. He fell down some stairs and suffered a fatal heart attack. The Doctor Who theme was played at his funeral.
- He married Edwina Verner in 1968. She was a production assistant on The Tenth Planet, which is how they met. Craze had just had an operation on his nose, and Verner threw some polystyrene snow into his face which aggravated the injury - but he married her anyway. They named their son Ben.
- Ben features briefly in Twice Upon A Time, which recreates moments from The Tenth Planet. In this he was played by Jared Garfield.
- His brother Peter made three appearances in Doctor Who - in The Space Museum, The War Games and Nightmare of Eden.
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