Doctor Who Changes Forever: Ian and Barbara Leave in The Chase

Christian Cawley is a writer at Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews - All the latest Doctor Who news and reviews with our weekly podKast, features and interviews, and a long-running forum.

50 years ago this weekend, Doctor Who changed forever when the very characters who we followed into the TARDIS, Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright, finally made their way home, back to London in 1965.

Leaving the Doctor with Vicki (Maureen O’Brien) and a stowaway Steven Taylor (Peter Purves), the final episode of The Chase sent the Doctor and his friends – and the audience – in a whole new direction, as the two driving characters of the show went off on their own, and eventually (presumably) back to Coal Hill School. We would, of course, have encountered Ian Chesterton again in Mawdryn Undead had the actor been available; as it was, the story was rewritten to accomodate the Brigadier, thereby screwing up the UNIT continuity.

Funny old show, isn’t it?

“I shall miss them. Silly old fusspots,” said the Doctor, and thanks to the performances of William Russell and the late Jacqueline Hill, fans missed them too, their strong performances delivering believability to even the most imaginative and unlikely situations. Even now, 50 years later, fans would like to see Russell back in the TARDIS for one last adventure with the Doctor, especially following the actor’s appearance in 2013’s anniversary docudrama An Adventure in Space and Time.

Until the ultimate return happens, we’ve got the DVDs, we have William Russell’s work with Big Finish… and we have this, Ian and Barbara’s final scene in Doctor Who…

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