Iananbarbara

I've been doing timeslipped reviews covering the early period of the show for a while now, and will continue to do so for at least as long as William Russell and Carole Ann Ford keep on recording audios; but I've decided that it's past time to draw a line under this era. Ian's Tale will also continue at some point, but I'll just treat that as a timeslip too. So, just as I did when Susan left, I'm going to do a round-up post for our latest two retirees. This post isn't really as I want it, but as I mentioned before the wait is getting to be ridiculous. Hopefully there's still enough in here of interest.

Iananbarbara
I came up with the portmanteau description of the schoolteachers in my very first review for this marathon. Indeed, the very first scene with significant dialogue in the show was their conversation about an unearthly child, and they left the show together; so the connection is obvious. The description is almost a ship - a canon ship, if you count expanded universe material (heck, last year we even got to see their wedding). I knew about shipping before I started this marathon, though not under that title, and not with the mashed together names; since my daughter became a teenager I've been exposed to a lot more. I suppose the proper version would be 'Barbarian', but that's just wrong.

The standard line is that Iananbarbara teach the Doctor to be a better person, and are then no longer needed. There's truth in that - it's certainly the 'arc' of the first thirteen episodes - but it tends to overemphasise their supporting role. From a modern perspective we think of the show in terms of "the Doctor and his companions", but that idea only really came in with Jon Pertwee; it's not really how the show was set up in the 1960s. What we have at the beginning is an ensemble cast, which only tends to revolve around the Doctor because he's the man with the vehicle. Once Iananbarbara stop being kidnap victims they are part of a group of friends travelling space and time together, each with strengths and weaknesses. They really are so much more than just the people that turn the Doctor into a hero!

Apart from the very first episode, An Unearthly Child - one of the most awesome introductions to a cast ever to open a TV show - my favourite stories to focus on the pair are probably The Time Travellers in books, probably The Fragile Yellow Arc of Fragrance in audio, and... well, TV's difficult because of the way all the cast tend to get separated, and in general focus on the group rather than the couple. Probably The Romans, which has the lovely villa scenes and Ian's determination to find Barbara driving him on when they are separated.

So much for the pair; what about individually?

Barbara
Barbara has been the heart of the TARDIS since the beginning, the emotional core of the team but also holding her own intellectually - and in terms of bravery. She was certainly no "screamer"! Her confrontation with the Doctor in The Brink of Disaster demonstrates all these traits, as she almost singlehandedly creates the family we have been watching for almost two seasons.

On television, I'm going to stick with the crowd and say that the best showcase for Barbara has to be The Aztecs. Audio is harder; she's at a disadvantage in that the viewpoint character is generally someone else, and partly for that reason, I'm going for Farewell, Great Macedon. In books, it's probably The Plotters; for short stories, perhaps The Mother Road.

Ian
Ian, the man of action, is loyal, determined, a fierce fighter though with an ex-military man's sense of humour. Like Barbara he cares deeply for his fellow travellers.

Ian's best moments on TV are spaced throughout his run, making choosing a single showcase story hard. I'm going to be more controversial here and select The Web Planet, which has a good mix of scenes for him. On audio, I'll go for The Rocket Men to highlight the action man, and The Library of Alexandria for his other side; with The Time Museum thrown in to cover his post-TARDIS self. Meanwhile, in books, if I can't have The Time Travellers again I choose Campaign. In short stories we have the lovely Rise and Fall, but he doesn't do much there so I might have to pick the grim The Last Days.

Jacqueline Hill and William Russell
Of course, there are real people behind the fictional faces; and just as Iananbarbara were important to the development of the show's story, Russell and Hill were important to the show's production. They supported William Hartnell, giving him an anchor when he was struggling; but by mid '65 Maureen O'Brien and Peter Purves were able to take on that responsibility. Hill in particular was an acting rock, scarcely putting a foot wrong in her entire run on the show; Russell was not far behind, and, of the two, had the bigger role in covering for Hartnell's slips (which he generally did elegantly). It's telling that when thinking about weaknesses, the one that sprang to mind was the fact that he couldn't fall down for toffee!

William Russell's real name is Russell Enoch, which is why people keep calling him Russ in interviews. He was an action hero before he was Ian, particularly as the star of The Adventures of Sir Lancelot, and indeed was the closest thing Doctor Who had to a leading man, despite not having the title role. Afterwards, he continued to have a busy career - including a brief stint as a regular cast member of Coronation Street, the supposed arch-rival of our show (though I know plenty of people have enjoyed both) - before taking up the audios in a new millennium. My daughter May met him at Comicon last weekend, and said he was lovely; I'm jealous.

It was Russell who decided to leave before Hill, but it seems she didn't take much persuading and the two landed a run working together in theatre. I get the impression that in the US there is more of a divide between actors of stage and screen, whereas here in the UK people switch between the two more freely. For non-theatre-goers (and for casual researchers - like me - who are reliant on Wikipedia and IMDB to find out what people have done), this means that actors who have busy careers can still seem to disappear from the map for long periods. Still, we do know that Hill mostly stopped work to raise her children with her film-director husband, while Russell carried on. We haven't seen the last of Hill, quite - when she took up acting again in 1979 she accepted a final role in the show for which she is best-remembered - but it'll be a while before we see her again. Russell will continue in the timeslipped audio reviews, of course.

Tragically, Hill died in 1993, of cancer. There is an excellent extra on the DVD of The Chase about Russell and Hill (and their roles in the show), which I can thoroughly recommend.

It's been a fun time travelling with this pair since I started my marathon. Although I think the incoming team is underappreciated, they will be missed.

Next Time:
In a new thread, at last, the beginning of a new strand to the marathon...