Barbara Wright

Portrayed by: Jacqueline Hill
Travelled with: First Doctor
Series: Classic

Barbara Wright was a companion of the First Doctor after being abducted by the Time Lord, becoming one of the first companions to the Doctor. Barbara was a teacher at fellow companion, Susan Foreman’s school, Coal Hill School in London. Barbara taught history at the school, but was always intrigued by Susan’s, her student, advanced knowledge. When she discussed this with fellow teacher and companion, Ian Chesterton, she discovered that she was not the only one who thought the strange knowledge Susan appeared to have. Concerned about her, Ian and Barbara chose to follow Susan to her home, entering I.M. Foreman’s junkyard in Totter’s Lane, where they discovered Susan entering a small police box. Concerned for her safety, the duo entered the police box after a brief scuffle with the Doctor to discover the interior of the TARDIS in An Unearthly Child (Classic Series). Barbara accepted the seemingly impossible easier than Ian did but her first reaction was to rationalise things, feeling that there must be an explanation for the TARDIS and believed it to be an illusion created by the Doctor and Susan to cure their loneliness and isolation. However, after the Doctor proved he was telling the truth about the TARDIS, Barbara accepted it fully.

Barbara Wright, a companion of the First Doctor

Barbara was an ideal mediator, made from a combination of intuition and practically along with being an instinctive person; both within the TARDIS and on the alien worlds they visited. Barbara smoothed over many arguments between the Doctor and Ian. Barbara’s intuition didn’t fail her when they landed on Skaro, feeling uncomfortable and wishing to return to the safety of the TARDIS. Her fears were confirmed when she was captured by the Daleks in The Daleks (Classic Series) and making her the first companion to encounter a Dalek. Because of her acceptance of truth and strong beliefs, Barbara was a formidable character and if she believed in something, she would stand up for it. Her interest in History allowed Barbara to see both the good and the evil in the Aztec society when the travellers landed in Mexico during the Aztec times; standing up for her beliefs that the Aztec’s could be good people led Barbara to change the course of history when the Conquistadors arrived. Barbara wished to try and preserve all that was good and honourable whilst also driving out the ignorance and horrors of human sacrifice. Though she was disappointed to learn that she was unable to change history, her strength of character allowed her to live with this in The Aztecs (Classic Series). This strength of character would later allow Barbara to survive some of the discomforts she faces on her adventures with the Doctor, including surviving working for the Zarbi on Vortis in The Web Planet (Classic Series) and surviving being captured by a Saracen band led by El Akir in The Crusade (Classic Series).

Barbara Wright, a companion of the First Doctor

Because of her passion for history, Barbara was able to see both sides to any story she was presented with. When the TARDIS crew landed in revolutionary France, Barbara made friends with Leon Colbert and was distraught when he died and defended his treachery afterwards in The Reign of Terror (Classic Series). She believed in the goodness of people and also saw that there was sometimes more to a situation than met the eye. Her knowledge of history also prepared her and the rest of the TARDIS crew for events when they travelled into the past, including Rome. Barbara warned Ian of how badly slaves were treated in Rome when Ian was sold as one in The Romans (Classic Series). After Susan’s departure from the TARDIS crew, Barbara took to Vicki very quickly, though she was distraught when she accidently killed Vicki’s pet, Sandy, and when Vicki suggested Barbara must have been “about five hundred and fifty years old” in The Rescue (Classic Series). During her adventures in Rome, Barbara was given a gold bracelet by Nero which became her most treasured keepsake. Despite her adventures, Barbara always looked for a chance to return home, and was the first to see it when a Dalek time machine was presented to them. Her single-mindedness on returning home at that point led Barbara to risk her life on the Dalek ship to do so. Ian and Barbara left the TARDIS together, returning back to Earth in the 1960’s where both of them were delighted at returning safely, even if they did arrive two years after they had left in The Chase (Classic Series). During her travels, Ian would regularly protect Barbara, though she was able to look after herself; when they were armed, Barbara was eager to attack the Daleks. When she was a prisoner, Barbara would look after and protect her fellow captives, usually at risk to herself. Sarah Jane Smith noted in the Sarah Jane Adventures story, Death of the Doctor, that a rumour said both Ian and Barbara had become professors at Cambridge by 2010, though they had not appeared to have aged since the 1960’s.