Barbara Wright was one of the two main tritagonists (alongside Ian Chesterton) of Season 1 and one of the main deuteragonists of Season 2 of the Classic series of Doctor Who.
She was portrayed by the late Jacqueline Hill. In the Big Finish audio plays, she is voiced by Jemma Powell.
History[]
Barbara was a history teacher at Coal Hill School. She and her colleague, Ian Chesterton, were curious of one of their students, Susan Foreman, who had a keen grasp of history yet was unaware of basic details of everyday life such as British currency. Following her home, they encountered her grandfather the Doctor and learned that the pair were aliens, living in a time machine known as the TARDIS. The Doctor impulsively set the TARDIS in motion with Ian and Barbara on board, transporting all four of them back to the Stone Age. There, they were held prisoner by a stone age tribe until managing to escape, but the Doctor was unable to return his unwilling passengers to their own time since his control of the TARDIS was limited.
Instead, they travelled to the planet Skaro and became caught up in the conflict between the Daleks and the Thals, during which Barbara developed an attachment to the Thal Ganatus. Other early voyages included travelling with Marco Polo's caravan and recovering the keys to the Conscience of Marinus, during which Barbara saved her companions by being the only one to resist the mind control of the creatures ruling the city of Morphoton.
Finding herself in 15th century Mexico and mistaken for the Aztec priest Yetaxa, Barbara sought, despite the Doctor's warnings, to turn the Aztecs away from human sacrifice in the hope of saving their culture from being destroyed by European settlers. She made some progress with the progressive priest Autloc, but earned the enmity of Tlotoxl, the high priest of sacrifice. Ultimately, the Aztecs' beliefs proved too ingrained and Barbara and the others barely escaped from Tlotoxl's vengeance.
During a visit to the French Revolution, Barbara and the others fell in with an escape chain saving aristocrats from the guillotine. She befriended Leon Colbert and was upset when he was killed, despite him being a spy for the Revolution who had betrayed her, Susan and Ian. The TARDIS finally made it back to Barbara's own time only for an accident to see them reduced in height. Barbara was infected with the deadly insecticide DN6 and needed to be returned to full height to survive, but insisted on lingering long enough to expose the insecticide's dangers.
The TARDIS then finally returned to London, only in the 22nd century, with the planet under Dalek occupation. Barbara played a role in their overthrow by helping turn their brainwashed Robomen against them. At the end of the incident, Susan left the ship. Not long after, Barbara, Ian and the Doctor were joined by Vicki, an orphan from the future rescued from the planet Dido. During a visit to Roman times, Barbara and Ian were captured by the slave trader Sevcheria. The compassionate slave buyer Tavius arranged a place for her in the court of Emperor Nero, where she was the subject of the emperor's unwanted attention and thus earned the wrath of his wife Poppoea. This allowed Tavius to arrange for her to escape with Ian.
On the planet Vortis, Barbara was enslaved along with members of the Menoptra and ended up personally killing the Animus, who had conquered the planet. In her final adventure aboard the TARDIS, Barbara and her friends were targeted for death by the Daleks, who pursued them through time. After the Dalek squad were wiped out in battle with the robotic Mechanoids, Ian and Barbara used the Dalek time machine to travel to 1965, two years after they left.
Many years later, Sarah Jane Smith reported that she'd heard of a couple called Ian and Barbara Chesterton who lived in Cambridge and hadn't aged a day since the 60s. According to the comic trip "Hunters of the Burning Stone", Ian and Barbara encountered the Eleventh Doctor and found their old acquaintances the Tribe of Gum given advanced powers by the alien Prometheans. The novel "The Face of the Enemy" saw Ian and Barbara assist UNIT in dealing with incursions from another universe.
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The Doctor The Doctor's companions UNIT Torchwood Institute Bannerman Road Gang Investigators of Infernal Incidents Paternoster Gang Coal Hill defenders Other Allies |