Moderator's Note: This is Mike's original Barbara summary:

Jacqueline Hill was also very believable as a teacher. I think I had someone like her in 7th grade. I wish the writers had managed to bring her and Ian back for "The Five Doctors;" that would have been a great reunion.



No-one's said anything about Barbara!! EVER!!! Quick, someone think of something...


Um...


Well...


Oh yes...her hair. Why did she have it in that _interesting_ shape and how did it bravely stay stuck up like that, planet after planet, kidnapping after kidnapping, scream after scream?

Space hairspray, maybe? And then there's her interesting bushy eyebrows. A nice lady, though. Somehow the Doctor never got confused over her name, as he did with Chesterfield, uh, I mean, Ian Chesterton.

I seem to remember her hair getting a bit dishevelled in The Daleks.

I'm obviously due for a rewatch of The Daleks, then :) The trouble is, ever since SOMEONE on this board mentioned her tendency to blink all the time *glares around for the culprit*, I've been unable to watch Barbara episodes without concentrating on her eyelids instead of the story.

Susan tends to swallow a lot. And she moves her head from side to side quite a bit, like a fraught hare in an unfamiliar field.

And then there's that nervous finger twitching the Doctor does when he's thinking (or Bill Hartnell was desperately trying to remember his lines.)

Shut up! Both of you! Now I won't be able to enjoy any story with Barbara, Susan OR the first Doctor.

Oh well...I didn't enjoy them much in the first place...

I think I saw a piece of spinach in Tom Baker's teeth in episode 3 of Pyramids of Mars...

CBC, that was unnecessarily cruel.
I think the reason why he mispronouced Chumperton's name and not Barbara's is because he found Ian to be more annoying.

Hey, the Discontinuity Guide claimed there was a booger up Tom Baker's nose in one episode.

You're right Gordon, but don't worry, I can take it...I KNOW they're just coming up with these lies to wind me up...

The Doctor's nose when he is imprisoned on Traken does not a good sight make. Although it was not so much 'up' as 'out'.

Before you know it, this could get really unnecessary, really personal. Then we'll literally start picking at nits...

But otherwise, everyone in the show/alternate reality is lovely.

Sorry, Gordon, I didn't mean to be mean to Hartnell, who I've always liked very much as the Doctor. It's just that I did notice his fingers twitching in several epsiodes, and have read (whether true or false, I don't know) that Hartnell had trouble with long scenes. Whether it was a Doctorism or Hartnellism, we'll never know.
And Emily; we wouldn't tease you like this if we didn't love you.
Now, about that spinach...

Actually, I was referring to the quip about the spinach.

Well, now I have egg AND spinach on my face.

I LOVE Keeper of Traken! How will I ever dare watch it again? Even if I don't spot, er, anything, I'll still be THINKING about it...

As long as you have your hanky, you'll be fine.

Isn't there one story where Ian, who is trying to grab Barbara after she jumps, almost pulls her pants down?

The True Origin of the Sonic Screwdriver:
It wasn't created by the Second Doctor or even Jamie. It was in fact the hair styling tool Barbara used to keep her hair that way.

Chris--I believe you're thinking of "The Chase."

i always thought the baker booger was a clump of spider web :)

Thanks, Luke, I've got nothing against the Doctor having spider's web up his nose. (Well, maybe I have, but it's better than the alternative. It was obviously placed there by a future self, as a warning that his next regeneration is near (seeing as it was spiders that did him in the last time) but it was too subtle a hint, the Doctor never noticed, and died anyway. Or something.)

Maybe it was a Time Lord nanoprobe that had to be added to the Doctor so he didn't get another big shnozz when he regenerated again.

Oh-kay. So...she married Ian. That gives me a warm fuzzy feeling. She changed her surname to Chesterton. The feeling is considerably less warm and fuzzy but hey, she comes from the Dark Ages, it's only to be expected. She's a Professor. Ah, that warm fuzzy feeling is back! She hasn't aged...UH? Why the hell not! What did she and Ian go through that the rest of 'em didn't? They didn't go wrenching up that TARDIS console in their spare time, did they? And if they've been alive and kicking all these decades, why haven't they investigated any of the strange alien goings-on and bumped into Himself or Sarah or anyone?

Maybe she and Ian WERE the only ones to travel in that Dalek deathtrap---I mean timeship.

Maybe One was being sneaky--one trip in it shouldn't hurt his pet monkees(no wait that's Eccy)his good friends too much.

Stop in a couple of times in the future to scan them--and if it works out, go with the working machine.

I'd guess the stopped ageing made it a no-go.

Sharp fellow-this First Doctor.

Emily: And if they've been alive and kicking all these decades, why haven't they investigated any of the strange alien goings-on and bumped into Himself or Sarah or anyone?

Well if you go by New Who Sarah spent 30 years in hiding.

It could be they have been out there--and we've just not seen their stories.

I just stumbled back here and had a new thought.

Didn't the Doctor revisit Coal Hill School at least twice in the time shortly after they got back??

Maybe he was(either openly or behind the scenes) checking up on them.

Did he? When? Cos Ian n'Barbara didn't get back till two years after they left, whereas McCoy's messing around with Hands of Omega occurred straight after, didn't it?

McCoy's messing around with Hands of Omega occurred straight after, didn't it?

About Time has a plausible argument it actually occurred before Unearthly Child. Among other things, if it was after, the school ought to have been smothered in tinsel, since it'd be December.

However, either way, McCoy wasn't there at the right time to check up on Ian and Barbara. Hartnell could have during War Machines, or Pertwee any time in the Unit era, but would they have bothered?

We all know the answer to THAT.

No.

Reign of Terror:

Barbara's emotions have always been what made her really stand out as a Companion, but they've always been allied with intelligence. Here, she puts her maternal instinct above survival - twice losing the chance to save both their lives in favour of 'There, there, Susan, of course you needn't look at the nasty rats or do any nasty running-away if you don't feel like it.'

And she's REALLY taken with that filthy traitor Leon. Even after Ian returns so you'd THINK she'd drop her hastily-acquired-Ian-substitute like a brick. She's got one HELL of a cheek shrieking at her heroic saviours about what a wonderful patriot the man who'd betrayed them all was.

The Daleks:

Interesting to witness Barbara's single-minded selfishness, worthy of Rose Tyler herself: 'Ian, you don't seem to understand. We'll be prisoners here unless we can think of some way of getting that fluid link back from the Daleks. So OBVIOUSLY we've gotta use the Thals like sheep in a minefield.' (OK, I possibly made up that last line. But you get the gist.)

'I'm sorry I'm not having anyone's death on my conscience' 'Except mine, and Susan's, and the Doctor's' - for heaven's sake! How come IAN'S suddenly to blame for everything? How come the lives of the entire Thal race (including your very own admirer) are of so much less value than the life of the old git who got you into this mess in the first place?

How come the lives of the entire Thal race (including your very own admirer) are of so much less value than the life of the old git who got you into this mess in the first place?

Because the old git in question is the only one who can get her OUT of said mess?

Oh, I think the hideous realisation that the old git WON'T be able to get 'em home has already struck Barbara and Ian.

Still, he is the best option they have, so "sorry Thals, but you have now become expendable"

They could always have settled on this exciting new world with these lovely people who desperately need them (to teach punching, Women's Lib etc) instead of going to any (i.e. wiping-out-the-Thal-species) lengths to get back in that box with a homicidal maniac and get dragged from one hideous nightmare time or world to another in the UTTERLY FUTILE hope that one day said box would return them to boring (give or take the threat of nuclear annihilation) early Sixties London.

(Maybe I'm being unduly influenced by the novelisation, in which the Doctor attempted to persuade Barbara and Ian to settle on Skaro to rebuild a world instead of going with HIM.)

About Time: 'The strait-laced English schoolteachers with the sensible haircuts quickly find a way of adapting to a hostile universe without oppressing the natives, much' - Barbara does NOT have a sensible haircut! And she TOTALLY oppressed the poor old natives! Never mind the Aztecs, imagine lecturing the people who'd just RESCUED HER FROM THE GUILLOTINE about the benefits of the French Revolution...

'Characteristically, she's perfectly happy to go on hair-raisingly dangerous missions in caves with unseen swamp-monsters and precipitous drops. But put her in a well-lit uninhabited city, and she's near-hysterical in ten minutes' - ah. I hadn't spotted a PATTERN to her alternative bravery and snivelling cowardice.

'It's at this point that Barbara ceases to be the demure-if-morally-impassioned history teacher in a twin-set and sensible shoes, and becomes the Terminatrix. She zaps Sandy the Sand Beat with no compunction, and she'll be downright bloodthirsty by the time she leaves the series' - she will? When?

'She doesn't even try flirting with [Nero] to get him to spare Ian's life. In fact she looks more willing to consider his advances when she's given a gold bracelet than she does when people's lives are in jeopardy. Hussy' - OK, someone who's seen the Romans more recently than me tell me this TOTALLY isn't true.

'Later on in the series, when everyone has worked out what Doctor Who "is", a reliably sensible figure like this could be dispensed with (although not entirely...the Brigadier is more like Barbara than we might like to think).' - I think it's fair to say that never occurred to me.

'Even when the Aridians are about to surrender her to the Daleks, she tries to save one of them from a Mire Beast [although admittedly it's quite badly-directed and makes her look as if she's throwing him to it]. She shows more remorse over losing yet another cardigan, though' - well, why the hell SHOULDN'T she? The CARDIGAN never tried to get her exterminated.

Anyone else get the image of a dalek-ised cardigan?

Oh, I've seen some Lovely Knitted Daleks in my time...

Somehow, I don't think they would be amused

You never know. One message of Asylum of the Daleks is: never prejudge the metal meanies. They have surprising depths. (Well, I suppose THAT was obvious from the moment we saw a sculpture in their city in The Daleks. If they're no longer into art it's probably all the fault of Barbara n'chums for using it to MURDER them with.)

Another odd question--on the back cover of the set I talk about in ask the moderator there is a photo(I think from "The Tomb of the Cybermen") showing Troughton and someone who looks a lot like Barbara: Did Jacqueline Hill return for a role in tomb--or am I mistaken on this???

Nope, she doesn't return until Meglos.

I have to say that I am impressed--less than 3 minutes after I post a question about a actress who left the show nearly 50 years ago, Emily answers it and gives the title of the show she returned in.

(So much for someone claiming to have a lousy memory--your secret is out!!!!)

Funnily enough, I remember things I discovered decades ago (You're saying that LEXA is BARBARA? Don't be ridiculous! They're nothing alike! Look at all that long white hair and crazy dodecahedron-bothering!) a lot better than things that happened yesterday.

There was this big MeToo moment at Gallifrey One with the women guests talking about the sexism, propositions and outright assault that they've experienced during their acting careers. Fortunately for David Whitaker and Terry Nation, Jackie "Barbara" Hill was no longer alive to call them out on the many times Babs got threatened with sexual assault.

Personally I think Barbara being constantly threatened with sexual assault is a reflection of what every woman goes through and any men involved in these various storylines is to be congratulated on not brushing it all under the carpet.

For some reason - probably because the Colin Baker era did it so badly, cos the Colin Baker era did EVERYTHING so badly - I don't feel the same about poor old Peri being leched over by every man/giant slug/deformed nutcase/shouty king in her vicinity.

So, RIP Barbara Wright.

If she was alive she'd TOALLY have been at the We-Survived-The-Doctor-Support-Group with her husband, wouldn't she.

Jackie Hill, who played Barbara, has been dead since 1993.

Barbara, however, was alive and well as recently as Susan's War: Sphere of Influence...

Maybe Barbara was offscreen in the scene or we were seeing it through her POV

If that was the case, we should at least have heard her yelp 'HER?!'

But there was at least one other person attending the meeting, with Chibnall deliberately not saying who it was.

Barbara could have been ill, and unable to attend that meeting. After all, she would be in her 90's by now.