Ian Chesterton William Russell

• A Review by Stuart Gutteridge

A Review by Stuart Gutteridge 18/8/00

As was often the case, the male companions of the Doctor tend to be either chronically underused or universally hated. This is because they tended to fall into the clichéd role of romantic lead (at least until the 80s), despite the fact that The Doctor (himself the lead) is male. Ian Chesterton was the first of these and he starts off as an interesting character. His scepticism proves a good foil for William Hartnell`s Doctor and their initial arguments can be seen as the cause of their situations.

Ian didn`t really go through much character development and his background as a science teacher is never really exploited. At the end of the day he was there to rescue Barbara, Susan and Vicki and to provide a bit of muscle for The Doctor. Although his situation on Marinus could`ve been perilous; it for once shows us a helpless Ian, unable to play the hero. Probably his relationship with Barbara was the best character development we could hope for, their closeness being most obvious in the first two serials.

GREATEST MOMENT: Still playing the hero, it was probably when Ian became Sir Ian Of Jaffa in The Crusade.