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Ben Jackson
(1966 - 1967) |
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| Michael Craze |
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Born
in Cornwall in 1942 Michael Craze started acting,
at the age of 12, in Boy Scout gang shows as it
was found that he had an excellent young soprano
voice. This led him to being cast in West End productions
of The King and I and Damn Yankees After
performing in repertory theatre he turned to television
appearing in various programmes which included Armchair
Theatre in 1958, Target Luna in 1960, Z
Cars, and Crossroads. During the seventies
and eighties he managed a number of public houses.
He still took on the occasional small acting part
for both films and television. This included the
1994 Kenneth Branagh's film Frankenstein.
Unfortunately Michael Craze collapsed and died on 7th December 1998 at
the age of 56. |
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 Ben Jackson was a merchant seaman who, while
on shore leave from his ship The Teazer, became a regular visitor
at the Inferno night club in London. It is there that he comes
to the defence and befriends Polly, a secretary of scientist
Professor Brett. It is also here that he also meets Dodo who
is visiting the club while The Doctor is investigating Brett's
futuristic computer called WOTAN. After helping The Doctor defeat
WOTAN - Polly and Dodo having fallen under the machine’s
influence during the fight -, Ben and the now-restored Polly
meet The Doctor outside the TARDIS to tell him that Dodo has
decided to stay behind and to return her TARDIS key. As The
Doctor goes inside the TARDIS they suddenly realise they still
have Dodo's key and enter the police box to return it. The TARDIS
then dematerialises taking them with it to become The Doctor's
new companions ("The
War Machines").
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| The War Machines |
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Although The Doctor was initially not expecting to have
new companions so soon after Dodo’s departure, he nevertheless
seemed to get along with his two new friends fairly quickly, privately
admitting to himself that he hadn’t been looking forward to
being on his own once more. While Ben acknowledged that he knew relatively
little about The Doctor, he concluded early on in his travels with
The Doctor that he knew that The Doctor’s life was an adventurous
one that he wanted to share with his friends, and felt at the time
that he didn’t need to know anything else.
However,
after only a short time with The Doctor, Ben and Polly became
increasingly concerned for The Doctor's health, due to the
cold environment of the South Pole that the TARDIS had taken
them to. During their subsequent confrontation with the
Cybermen as Earth’s long-lost twin planet Mondas returned
to the solar system, The Doctor became increasingly weaker
as the crisis progressed, and at the very end of the story
they returned to the TARDIS to find that The Doctor had
collapsed and was lying on the console room floor. Powerless
to help, they then both then witnessed The Doctor regenerate
into a much younger and darker haired man ("The
Tenth Planet"), the following story featuring them trying
to work out if the man before them was genuinely The Doctor.
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The Tenth Planet
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Even after
the initial confusion of working out just what The Doctor
had undergone before their very eyes, Ben continued to challenge
The Doctor, noting that he no longer even acted like the
man he’d been before, although he was finally convinced
that 'the stranger' was indeed The Doctor when a Dalek recognised
him for who he is, Ben concluding that he could accept The
Doctor as the real thing if a Dalek could ("The
Power of the Daleks"). Despite this, it took Ben briefly
being connected to The Doctor’s mind when they were
forced to form a telepathic gestalt to contain a shadow
creature to fully convince him that the new Doctor was the
same man as the old one ("Short
Trips: Solar System
- Pluto"), and even then he still regarded The Doctor
with suspicion, once expressing doubt that the new Doctor
was all there sometimes ("The
Murder Game").
Right from the start, when the audience was first introduced
to Ben at the Inferno night club, it was clear that he saw himself
as a knight in shining armour and during the time he spent aboard
the TARDIS he protected Polly from the many dangers they found themselves
in. He even resorted to physical contact to carry out this role as
demonstrated at the night club when he tackles the unwanted amorous
intentions of a young man who was pestering Polly. His courage was
further demonstrated in his time with The Doctor, such as when he
fought the ruthless smugglers he faced in his first trip in the TARDIS
("The
Smugglers"), shooting at a ruthless Hunter-Killer
robot when they arrived in the middle of a military training exercise
on an asteroid in the far future ("Ten
Little Aliens"),
and even taking a great deal of independent action when facing the
Cybermen, ranging from destroying the Cyberman guarding him to working
out the Cybermens’ weakness to radiation ("The Tenth Planet").
However, despite this Ben was quite shy; in his initial meeting with
Polly, it took his confrontation with her harasser to break the ice
and prompt him to agree to see Polly again, and when participating
in a role-playing game in the future he felt that he was acting above
himself when he simply dressed in an admiral’s uniform for
the game ("The Murder Game").
He settled into the concept of time travel quite quickly
and his nautical training meant that he got on well with the First
Doctor, eventually growing to accept the Second
Doctor as they worked
together during such problems as trying to save Polly from the Selyoid
influence ("Dying
in the Sun"). Regardless of any post-regenerative
tension that existed, Ben was soon established as a loyal and reliable
companion to The Doctor, a team feeling eventually emerging in the
ship, especially after Jamie joined
them. (Although Ben and Polly sometimes teased Jamie about his comparative
lack of historical knowledge
compared to their own). A particular example of their group dynamic
occurred during the Cyberman invasion of the Moonbase ("The
Moonbase"), with Polly developing a chemical solvent that could
be used to destroy the Cybermens’ respiratory systems - which
Ben teasingly called ‘Cocktail Polly’ - while Ben subsequently
came up with the plan of using it against the Cybermen by putting
it inside the base’s fire extinguishers.
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| The Moonbase |
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Possessing
a long interest in the navy - his fascination with the sea having
begun when he sneaked on board his father’s boat when he was
fourteen ("Invasion
of the Cat-People") -, Ben's nautical
training was at times a big help in his adventures in the TARDIS
like in "The
Highlanders" where he suffered a nasty keel-hauling,
although on another occasion he was briefly press-ganged onto a ship
during a visit to 1648, forcing him to work with an enemy of his ‘captain’ in
order to escape the ship and return to London and his friends ("The
Roundheads"). He was full of energy and vigour and was used
to obeying orders from those that he saw as his superiors, although
he was still prepared to take independent action when he had to,
such as when he rescued Polly from WOTAN before The Doctor’s
reprogrammed War Machine destroyed it despite the warnings from his
allies ("The War Machines"). He was very practical, dependable,
faithful and unafraid to involve himself in all the action, especially
if it meant protecting Polly. He liked to impress Polly with his
ability to cope calmly and to show his milder side when required,
demonstrating a tough and resourceful nature when it was required
of him, and despite Polly making fun of his Cockney accent they made
a very effective team and got on well together.
After the encounter with The
Chameleons, who have tried
to invade Earth, it is discovered that they are back near London
on exactly the same day as when they left in the TARDIS. Realising
that this was the best time for him and Polly to leave The Doctor
and stay on Earth, the two parted ways with their fellow companions
("The
Faceless Ones"). Although Ben and Polly subsequently
went their separate ways and married other people, the two spent
the day together when Mondas came to Earth in their lifetimes, waiting
out the experience as their past selves dealt with the crisis ("Short Trips - Mondas Passing"). The two were reunited with The Doctor
again at the turn of the Millennium when Polly, now the head of the
GEZ record company, collapsed at the funeral of a reality TV-show
host and was attacked by an unidentified hostile force that sent
her to different locations in history to disrupt the timeline, her
travels helping Polly realise the mistakes she’d made in her
past before the Second
Doctor and Jamie brought Ben to her unconscious
body in the present. With Ben having brought her back with the kiss
of life, he and Polly finally admitted their love for each other,
spending New Year’s Day with their old friends as they began
their new lives ("Short
Trips: Past Tense - That Time I Nearly
Destroyed the World While Looking For a Dress").
In "Death
of The Doctor" - an episode of spin-off series The
Sarah Jane Adventures, looking at the modern adventures of the Third and Fourth
Doctor’s companion Sarah
Jane Smith -, Sarah Jane mentioned that her research into other
companions had included reference to Ben and Polly as a couple who
ran an orphanage in India. |
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