The history teacher who handled time travel with more dignity than most Time Lords.
Character Overview
Barbara Wright (Jacqueline Hill) was one of the Doctor’s first companions, joining the adventure right from An Unearthly Child (1963). As a history teacher at Coal Hill School, Barbara was sharp, cultured, and far too sensible for the nonsense she ended up in. She and fellow teacher Ian Chesterton followed their mysterious student Susan home one night and accidentally ended up inside the TARDIS. Cue a crash course in cavemen politics, Dalek diplomacy, and the fine art of not getting killed by history.
Barbara quickly emerged as the group’s moral compass. When the Doctor was grumpy, selfish, or downright suspicious, it was usually Barbara who reminded him that compassion and humanity should come first. In fact, she often took charge of situations herself. When she wasn’t smacking cavemen with rocks, she was standing up to Daleks, organizing resistance movements, and generally proving that the title of “companion” was a massive understatement.
Her greatest hits include disguising herself as a goddess (The Aztecs) and nearly changing the course of history, leading the Doctor to give his first lecture on “fixed points in time.” She also had a strong partnership with Ian, with the two often functioning like the TARDIS’s unofficial mom and dad. (Yes, they bickered a bit, but compared to the Doctor’s antics, they were practically the voice of reason.)
Barbara eventually got her well-deserved happy ending: she and Ian found a way back to 1960s London via Dalek time machine (The Chase), and presumably went on to terrify their students with oddly specific knowledge of Roman gladiators and French revolutionaries.