Ian Chesterton Sir Ian Chesterton ( TV : " The Crusade " , HOMEVID : " " ) was one of the Doctor ' s first companion s , travelling with him in their first incarnation . Before meeting the Doctor , Ian was a science teacher at Coal Hill School in 1960s London . During a trip to the 12th century , he was knight ed as Sir Ian , Knight of Jaffa . After leaving the TARDIS , Ian had adventures with the Doctor in his fifth and eleventh incarnations . Ian travelled alongside future wife Barbara Wright , Susan Foreman and Vicki Pallister , as well as briefly meeting Steven Taylor . Biography . Early life . Ian Chesterton grew up in London during the Blitz in World War II . ( AUDIO : " The Time Museum " ) He was raised in the Church of England . ( AUDIO : " The Flames of Cadiz " ) As a child , Father Michael taught him the Ten Commandments in Sunday school . ( PROSE : " The Eleventh Tiger " ) The young Ian loved the works of Jules Verne and H . G . Wells , whose stories inspired him to pursue a career in science . ( PROSE : " The Eleventh Tiger " ) Ian ' s hero was Sir Francis Drake . He had seen films depicting the Spanish Armada in which Drake was played by Errol Flynn and Queen Elizabeth I was played by Bette Davis and Flora Robson . ( AUDIO : " The Flames of Cadiz " ) During the 1950s , Ian was a private in the British Army . His national service number was 15110404 . ( PROSE : " The Time Travellers " ) He served the first part of his national service in Wales , during which time he boxed . ( PROSE : " The Eleventh Tiger " ) He later joined the Royal Air Force , serving the remainder of his national service in Malay , ( PROSE : " The Face of the Enemy " ) from which he was honourably discharged after two years . ( PROSE : " Byzantium ! " ) He also served in Cyprus for a time . ( AUDIO : " Domain of the Voord " ) He had always wanted to visit the country Australia . ( AUDIO : " The Transit of Venus " ) Months prior to his meeting with the First Doctor , Ian met a gypsy called Rosemary . She told him that he would face many great challenges in the future and that he could change his fate by taking a package from a woman in a café . Ian resisted the urge to change , or alter , his future . ( PROSE : " The Splintered Gate " ) He visited Geoffrey Chaucer ' s tomb in Westminster Abbey at some point before he began his travels with the Doctor . ( AUDIO : " The Doctor ' s Tale " ) At Coal Hill School . Ian was Susan Foreman ' s science teacher at Coal Hill School , in London in 1963 ( TV : " An Unearthly Child " ) in classroom C3 . ( PROSE : " Nothing at the End of the Lane " ) At the time , he lived in Fenby Street . His landlady was Mrs Russell . ( AUDIO : " The Flames of Cadiz " ) He was intrigued by Susan ' s advanced scientific knowledge — she saw simple experiments involving inactive chemicals turning from red to blue as child ' s play , and also pointed out to him that a problem involving A , B and C as the three dimensions was impossible to solve without the use of D and E to represent the dimensions of time and space . In talking with Susan ' s history teacher , Barbara Wright , he found he was not the only one who had noticed Susan ' s unusual knowledge and ability . One evening , as school was finishing , Ian and Barbara decided to indulge their curiosity and follow Susan home to where she lived with her grandfather . They followed her back to I . M . Foreman ' s junkyard at 76 Totter ' s Lane , where she entered and closed the gate behind her . ( TV : " An Unearthly Child " ) Susan was worried that she was being followed by a car . ( COMIC : " " ) They followed her into the yard and discovered a police box sitting incongruously amidst the junk . Shortly thereafter , they hid as they heard an old man , the First Doctor , approaching . As he began to open the police box , they heard Susan ' s voice from inside . After a brief confrontation with the Doctor , they barged their way into the police box and were amazed at the massive control room of the Doctor ' s TARDIS . ( TV : " An Unearthly Child " ) Travels with the Doctor . Susan ' s grandfather , the First Doctor , kidnapped Ian and Barbara in the TARDIS , which travelled back in time . The TARDIS landed in Earth ' s Stone Age . The Doctor was taken by Kal , who had seen him produce fire . The others tried to rescue the Doctor , but were taken to the Cave of Skulls . The Old Mother released the Doctor and his companion s and they escaped into a nearby forest . Ian and the others aided Za ' s injuries from an animal when he tried to chase after them , but were returned to the cave . Ian produced fire for the tribe and devised a way of scaring the cavemen by setting the skulls on fire . The group escaped to the TARDIS , which took off again . ( TV : " An Unearthly Child " ) When the TARDIS landed on Skaro , the Doctor lied about the fluid link needing more mercury , when there was nothing wrong , so he could explore a nearby city . The Dalek s imprisoned the Doctor and his companions inside the city , confiscating the fluid link they brought along . Having escaped , they assisted the Thal s in their attack on the Dalek city . The Daleks ' power supply was damaged in the attack . The Daleks died and their plans to flood the atmosphere with radiation failed . ( TV : " The Daleks " ) With the fluid link retrieved , the Doctor left Skaro for Earth , using the fast return switch . The spring in the switch was faulty , causing it to be stuck . The TARDIS was sent to the beginning of a solar system and everyone was knocked out in the trip . The TARDIS tried warning the crew about the atom s forming around them when they came to , but the Doctor assumed that this was Ian and Barbara ' s sabotage of the ship . Once Barbara figured out what was going on , the Doctor fixed the spring , ending the fault . ( TV : " The Rescue " , " The Edge of Destruction " ) Still heavily damaged and malfunctioning , the TARDIS found its way to Earth , but did not make it to Ian and Barbara ' s time , instead landing in the Plain of Pamir in 1289 . There , the Doctor and his companions met Marco Polo . Polo took the TARDIS and its keys on his caravan to travel the breadth of Cathay in order to hand it over to Kublai Khan as part of a bargain for his return to Venice . Along the way , Ian discovered the Mongol warlord , Tegana , also part of Polo ' s caravan , wanted to take the TARDIS for Nogai as part of his plan to assassinate Kublai . In the chaos of Tegana and Polo ' s duel in Peking , the Doctor and his companions escaped in his repaired TARDIS . ( TV : " Marco Polo " ) The Doctor landed on an island on Marinus . Arbitan asked them to search for the keys to the reprogrammed Conscience of Marinus to regain control over the Voord , as all of his other followers and family members had failed to retrieve them . Arbitan trapped the TARDIS in a forcefield , preventing the Doctor and his companions ' escape . They used Arbitan ' s travel dial s to reach Morphoton . Barbara released Arbitan ' s daughter , Sabetha , and the rest of the city from the Morpho ' s mind control , and retrieved the first key . Ian and Barbara found a fake key in the Screaming Jungle , and after enduring several traps were told the proper location of the second key by Darrius . The third key was found in a mountain cave and was guarded by Ice Soldier s . Escaping the soldiers , Ian reached Millennius , where he was knocked out and framed for the murder of Eprin . The Doctor helped discover the true culprit , and Ian was spared execution . The fourth key was found inside the mace that killed Eprin when the man sent to fetch the key was captured . The Doctor and his companions returned to Arbitan ' s island , where Arbitan had been murdered . Ian handed the Voord the fake key , which destroyed the Conscience , along with the Voord . They were able to leave in the TARDIS once more . ( TV : " The Keys of Marinus " ) The Doctor and his companions arrived in an Aztec temple in Mexico . They went through a one - way passage that prevented their return to the TARDIS . Barbara posed as the Aztec god , Yetaxa , with the others as her servants , to find a way back . Ian was declared rival to the warrior Ixta . Susan was to be punished for denying marriage to the Perfect Victim and Ian to be executed when he was framed by the High Priest of Sacrifice , Tlotoxl , for attacking the High Priest of Knowledge , Autloc . Autloc ' s faith in Yetaxa was shattered , and he left for the wilderness . The Doctor , Ian and the Doctor ' s accidental fiancée , Cameca , distracted Ian and Susan ' s guard to escape . Ian prevented Tlotoxl ' s murder of Barbara and fought off Ixta . They worked on a wheel - and - pulley system to open the doorway back to the TARDIS . As they departed , the human sacrifice of the Perfect Victim continued as planned . ( TV : " The Aztecs " ) The Doctor landed inside a spaceship in the 28th century , where two crewmembers were suspended in a state resembling death and another , John , had had his mind opened and turned insane , following an attack on their minds by the Sensorite s . The Sense Sphere , which the ship had been trapped around , had its aqueducts ' water supply poison ed with atropine by survivors of a previous human expedition whose ship had been destroyed . The TARDIS ' lock was taken by the Sensorites , leaving the Doctor and his companions trapped on the spaceship . After the Doctor and his companions resisted the Sensorites , the Doctor , Ian and Susan agreed to go down to the Sense Sphere , where the Doctor worked out the cure for this " disease " , which had also afflicted Ian , while the Sensorite scientists treated John . The Doctor and Ian , later followed by Barbara , went to the aqueducts where " Atropa belladonna " had been growing . They found the human expedition and pretended to be a welcoming party for them and that the " war " against the Sensorites was won . The expedition were taken into custody on Maitland ' s ship . Maitland ' s ship was free to leave and the TARDIS crew had regained their lock . ( TV : " The Sensorites " ) After visiting the Sense Sphere they landed on the Endeavour where the Doctor wanted to throw him and Barbara of the ship . Whilst trapped on the ship with the Doctor he met James Cook soon after they observed the Transit of Venus . He started to hear voices which the Doctor didn ' t believe was true . He was thrown off the ship by Joseph Banks or so he believed in a delirium . He was still experiencing the effects of the Sensorite ' s telepathy , and this allowed Barbara to tell him that she was still alive and hadn ' t drowned . ( AUDIO : " The Transit of Venus " ) At some point during his travels with the Doctor , Susan and Barbara , they visited Bob Dovie at 59A Barnsfield Crescent in Totton , Hampshire on 23 November 1963 . ( AUDIO : " The Light at the End " ) When they landed in Alexandria and stayed for a while , he became employed as a customs official . He encountered Hypatia who wanted the books on the ship he impounded . He found Hypatia interesting . He found thanks to Hypatia a book that looked like something from his own time , it was a Mim reconnaissance mission . ( AUDIO : " The Library of Alexandria " ) He was intrigued by a play he saw in Seville about Elizabeth I and her sentencing of Mary Queen of Scots . He wanted to save the people who were in a house that the Spanish Inquisition burnt done as the church thought they were stealing from the church . He tried to stop Esteban Aribi from being arrested but was arrested himself . After he was rescued by Barbara and Susan , he went with Esteban to deliver a message to Francis Drake . ( AUDIO : " The Flames of Cadiz " ) They later landed in a flotila of ships on the planet Hydra where they were captured by Amyra Kaan and Pan Vexel for being stowaways . Whilst helping a rescue mission he discovered that the invaders on the planet were the Voord . He was tasked in interrogating Nebrin . He joined a landing party to help fight off the Voord in the capital of this world . When he and Susan found the TARDIS he forced Susan to pilot it away from the hands of the Voord . He was later imprisoned and forced to work as a slave . He was later rescued by Amyra and taken to the Doctor . Ian then helped the Doctor destroy the Voord machine . ( AUDIO : " Domain of the Voord " ) He found Russia interesting when he met Grigori Rasputin . He helped Grigori to find medicine to help the Doctor when he collapsed . He discovered an alien machine that could show the future . ( AUDIO : " The Wanderer " ) After defeating the Daleks for a second time in the 22nd century , Ian was saddened to lose Susan , who fell in love and remained to lead Dalek resistance , which left only him , the Doctor and Barbara aboard the TARDIS . ( TV : " The Dalek Invasion of Earth " ) Ian came to believe that locking Susan out of the TARDIS was the bravest thing that he ever saw the Doctor do . Soon after leaving Susan the Doctor landed in the Orkney Isles in 1956 . After they left the TARDIS , it vanished with the Doctor in it . They started to explore the island where they were saved from drowning by Janet McKay ( AUDIO : " The Revenants " ) After Susan left , Ian and Barbara considered leaving the Doctor ' s side when the TARDIS landed in the 1950s , and they spent three months attempting to adjust to a new life . But in the end , they rejoined the Doctor . ( PROSE : " Set in Stone " ) During a visit to 19th century Afghanistan , at the time of the First Afghan War , Ian endured the most painful experience of his life when he was kidnapped by the brutal Gilzia cheiftain , Gul Zaheer , who delighted in playing twisted games of torture . Imprisoned for a month , Ian befriend a fellow British prisoner , Symonds and struck up a bond with him , a bond so strong that when Symonds was killed by Gul , Ian didn ' t hesitate in killing Gul by throwing him into a pit . The trauma he faced in the previous months changed Ian forever , and he was haunted at the fact that he was capable of cold - blooded murder when pushed too far . ( PROSE : " Mire and Clay " ) Approaching the Doctor in the TARDIS , Ian and Barbara were shocked to discover that the Doctor was paralyzed . Using a Telepathic helmet , Ian was able to learn that the Dalek s were behind this . He was able to find the source of the situation , the Nerve Machine being controlled by the Daleks , and the Doctor was freed from their control . ( COMIC : " Dr . Who and the Nerve Machine " ) After landing in the caves of the planet Dido , the murderer Bennett tried trapping the Doctor and Ian inside with a rockfall to hide his guilt of the murder of the people on board the crash landed ship the " UK - 201 " , separating them from Barbara . After finding another way outside and following the death of Bennett , the Doctor , Ian and Barbara agreed to invite the orphaned Vicki on board the TARDIS . ( TV : " The Rescue " ) The travellers stayed in a villa in Assisium near Rome for several weeks in the year 64 . Ian and Barbara were taken as slave s by the slave traders Sevcheria and Didius , with Ian being sold as a galley slave . Ian ' s galley sank in a storm and he was saved by his slave friend Delos by bringing him to shore , while they subsequently made their way to Rome . In Rome , Ian and Delos were recaptured and were to fight each other to the death as gladiator s , but the two escaped again , and found that Barbara had been sold into the Emperor Nero ' s palace . With the help of Tavius , Ian and Delos sneaked into the palace to rescue Barbara , and Ian and Barbara returned to the villa before the Doctor and Vicki returned from their own adventures in Rome . ( TV : " The Romans " ) They were next dragged down to the planet Vortis . When Ian and the Doctor went out to investigate , they were captured by Zarbi . Ian managed to escape the Zarbi with the help of a Menoptera named Vrestin . Hiwever , Ian and Vrestin fell underground and met the Optera , who were going to sacrifice them until Ian convinced them that Vrestin was a god . Ian then convinced the Optera leader , Hetra , to lead an expedition to find the Animus . When they found the Animus , it was destroyed by Barbara , and the four travellers left again in the TARDIS . ( TV : " The Web Planet " ) They landed on Platform Five in the skies of the Planet Jobis . Soon after they arrived the Rocket Men and their leader Ashman invaded the station . He managed to disguise himself as one of the Rocket Men in order to find out more of their plans . After Ashman threw Barbara off the station , he dived out of the station to save her . ( AUDIO : " The Rocket Men " ) The Doctor , Ian , Barbara , and Vicki travelled to 1868 , where they attended a lecture by Thomas Huxley . The four of them travelled into the London Underground to investigate a group of missing students and discovered that the Zarbi had populated themselves in there . Travelling further into the sewers , they found the Animus , who had reformed itself and had moved to Earth to take revenge on the human race . Ian was able to kill it by driving a train into it . The Doctor and his companions prepared to leave , but the Doctor discovered that his companions were missing ; having been pulled out of time by Adam Mitchell . ( COMIC : " Unnatural Selection " ) Ian revelled in his new life and experiences . When the travellers landed in 12th century Palestine during the Crusades , Ian was knighted Sir Ian of Jaffa by Richard the Lionheart and sent as an emissary to search for Barbara who had been abducted by the Saracens . ( TV : " The Crusade ) " Whilst on Hisk he was in a trance state and believed he was being interrogated by Gerrard . He had to tell him about the Doctor and his travels . He realised that the technology that the locals used in their siestas was the same as his teaching machines . ( AUDIO : " The Sleeping City " ) He worked on a planet in a food preparation facility but he vanished . He noticed some mysterious fluid which was added to everything . ( AUDIO : " The Unwinding World " ) He was concerned that the Doctor and Vicki were becoming involved when they landed in Sonning Palace . When he met Robert de Wensley he used his title Sir Ian of Jaffa . After he heard that King Henry IV had been attacked Ian became worried for the Doctor ' s and Barbara ' s safety and travelled to London with Robert de Wensley . Whilst in London he met Geoffrey Chaucer . He was later imprisoned with the Doctor and Chaucer at Thomas Arundel ' s whim . ( AUDIO : " The Doctor ' s Tale " ) Despite his obvious enjoyment of his travels , Ian never lost sight of his desire to return to his own home and time . When the opportunity arose , Ian and Barbara risked travel in a Dalek time ship to return to 1960s London . When they emerged from the time machine , they were delighted to be back , despite discovering that two years had passed since their departure . ( TV : " The Chase " ) Ian and Barbara explained that their two year absence from London had been due to missionary work in Africa . ( PROSE : " Who Killed Kennedy " ) At some point , Ian was taken to the Black Archive by UNIT to have his record as a companion of the Doctor taken . His memories of the visit were subsequently erased and he was sent on his way . ( TV : " The Day of the Doctor " ) Life after the Doctor . Adventure with the Eleventh Doctor . Sometime later in the year 1965 , Ian and Barbara were pulled into an illusory world , and made to believe they were still at Coal Hill School . They encountered the Eleventh Doctor , who helped them overcome the illusion . Ian was sceptical when the strange young man proclaimed himself to be the Doctor , brushing off his intimate knowledge of their adventures as being a result of him being some sort of mind - reading alien . Barbara , on the other hand , was more willing to believe him , citing all the strange things the Doctor had done during their travels . They went with the Doctor to Cornucopia , where they discovered the place in ruins . When the attackers ( calling themselves " the Hunters of the Burning Stone " ) attacked , the Doctor got their attention by claiming to possess the item they sought , allowing Ian to attack their leaders from behind and finally convincing him that he really was the same man he once knew . Barbara was then kidnapped by Miss Ghost , and the creators of the metal the hunters sought , the Promethean s , appeared . The Doctor demanded to know why he , Ian and Barbara had been brought to Cornucopia , to which the Prometheans replied that it was Ian and Barbara they needed , not the Doctor . The Doctor and Ian escaped the Prometheans with the help of Horatio Lynk . Horatio took them to Miss Ghost ' s home , where they found a doll that the Doctor recognised as belonging to Annabel Lake . Horatio was then attacked by the Prometheans . The Hunters arrived soon after . Referring to Ian as " teacher " , they removed their helmets to reveal themselves as the Tribe of Gum . The Prometheans revealed that they visited primitive worlds and granted them the gift of their psychic metal , and that they had witnessed Ian , Barbara and the Doctor ' s encounter with the tribe of Gum , and given the tribe the psychic metal after the TARDIS departed . The Tribe became the Hunters , who travelled through time and space in search of more of the metal . The Hunters then blasted Ian , Patrick and the Doctor with psychic energy . Ian and the Doctor were shown Patrick ' s memories : shortly after a repelled Cyberman invasion in the early 21st century , Patrick lobbied for a new branch of MI6 , one dedictated to space travel and defence against alien threats , to be formed . He trained his daughter to become one of the branch ' s agents , giving her an alien suit capable of phasing through solid objects . The Doctor , realising the Prometheans were feeding on Patrick ' s psychic energy , shut down Patrick ' s conscious mind . The Prometheans then turned their attentions to the Doctor , forcing him to relive his most terrifying memories . The Doctor was able to overcome the onslaught , and the memories changed to the moment during their time in prehistoric Earth , when Ian persuaded the Doctor not to kill someone . The Doctor told Ian that he helped him to be better , and revealed that he had been inspired by Ian and Barbara to take on more human companions . He also told Ian of the many deaths he brought about , particularly those of the Time War . Ian reassured the Doctor that he " was " a good person , and the two finally escaped the psychic realm . They then discovered that the Prometheans craft was a " Neural Extractor " , which the Prometheans used to regress humanity to the level of cavemen , so that they would once again worship the Prometheans as gods . The Doctor , Ian and Patrick were then picked up by Barbara and Patricia . Once onboard their ship , the Doctor admonished Patrick for turning his daughter into a weapon , with Patricia retorting that she was honouring her fallen mother , and telling the Doctor to think of a solution himself . When the Doctor was unable to , Ian encouraged him , and he suddenly hit on a plan , departing in the TARDIS . As the Tribe of Gum instructed the primitive humans to worship the Prometheans , the Doctor returned , having planted images of the TARDIS throughout human history , and using that image to alter the neural platform , reversing the effect , destroying the platform , and " locking " the minds of the human race from being altered again . Incensed , the Tribe of Gum , at the Prometheans ' urging , attacked the Doctor . Ian and Barbara landed their ship on a fragment of the neural platform , and convinced the Tribe to stop by telling them of love and sacrifice , and how the Doctor protected the people of Earth for years . When the Tribe of Gum ceased their assault , the Prometheans attacked Ian and Barbara . The Tribe of Gum then turned on the Prometheans . Both sides were destroyed in the ensuing struggle . Ian and Barbara returned to their own time , and married , with the Doctor attending their wedding . ( COMIC : " Hunters of the Burning Stone " ) Continued association . Ian became a science lecturer at a university , and gained a professor ship , specialising in astronomy , as well as a wide range of other fields . ( PROSE : " Who Killed Kennedy " ) However , despite having left the Doctor behind , he again got " caught up in his world " when he were contacted by UNIT in the 1970s to assist in a temporally related problem . ( PROSE : " The Face of the Enemy " ) Ian and Barbara had a son , John Alydon Ganatus Chesterton , who later became a pop singer under the name " Johnny Chess " . ( PROSE : " " , PROSE : " Byzantium ! " ) The Seventh Doctor ' s companion Ace was a fan of Johnny Chess . ( AUDIO : " Maker of Dreams " ) According to a rumour which Sarah Jane Smith shared with her friends Clyde Langer and Rani Chandra , Barbara and Ian had become professors at the University of Cambridge by the 2010s and reportedly had not aged since the 1960s . ( TV : " Death of the Doctor " ) Other sources suggested that Ian and his wife had aged . ( PROSE : " Untitled ( DWM 169 ) " , AUDIO : " The Five Companions " , HOMEVID : " " ) Years after his meeting with Richard the Lionhart , an aged Ian recalled the events in his home . ( HOMEVID : " " ) Sometime in the 2010s , an " I . Chesterton " had become the Chairman of the Governors for the Coal Hill Secondary School . ( TV : " The Day of the Doctor " ) In their old age , Ian and Barbara mostly kept their stories to themselves , knowing what people were thinking when they found out the truth . Ian occasionally told people about his adventures . ( HOMEVID : " " ; AUDIO : " The Transit of Venus " , " The Revenants " ) Ian and Steven Taylor , among others , were later brought to an alternate Death Zone on Gallifrey . There he met the fifth incarnation of the Doctor , who now looked younger than him . He also met fellow companions Sara Kingdom , Polly Wright and Nyssa for the first time and encountered Dalek s and Sontaran s . According to this account , Ian Chesterton hadn ' t met the Doctor since his departure from his first incarnation , nor was he privy to the concept of regeneration . ( AUDIO : " The Five Companions " ) He was brought by Pendolin to the Time Museum . He was shown things from his memories such as Coal Hill School and places from his travels . He had to evade a being who ate memories so Pendolin got him to remember . Pendolin abducted him in order to try and get the Doctor to come to the Museum . ( AUDIO : " The Time Museum " ) Legacy . An oak tree was planted at the Coal Hill quad in memory of Ian and Barbara . Surviving two Dalek invasions , it remained to at least the end of the 22nd century when it was found by Susan , who lived in the block of flats which Coal Hill had been converted to over a hundred years prior . Realising that the commemorative plaque had since been replaced more than once , Susan found it did not say when they ultimately died . ( AUDIO : " All Hands on Deck " ) Personality . Ian was fiercely loyal and would stand by any decision made by the rest of his group even if he disagreed with it himself . Like Barbara , Ian was keen to return home , ( TV : " The Daleks " ) prompting him to depart from the Doctor ' s company at the first chance . ( TV : " The Chase " ) He usually put others ' interests before his , especially Barbara , whom he always looked after . ( TV : " The Daleks " , " The Keys of Marinus " ) Despite his loyalty , Ian was not against standing up to the Doctor when he felt he was being unreasonable ; when the Doctor called him a " tiresome young man " , Ian retorted " And you ' re a stubborn old man ! " ( TV : " The Forest of Fear " ) Being a science teacher , Ian was initially sceptical about the TARDIS ' time - travelling capabilities , having believed that time just happened and then it was finished and that you couldn ' t get " on and off whenever you like in the past or the future " . However , he admitted he would be satisfied if he saw the truth for himself . ( TV : " The Cave of Skulls " ) On a number of occasions , Ian endured the severe test of facing his fears . While searching for Barbara in Palestine , Ian was captured and staked in the desert , daubed with honey to attract ant s . ( TV : " The Crusade " ) Ian ' s instinctive fear of ants may have been increased with his experiences on Vortis . ( TV : " The Web Planet " ) Although Ian was essentially a moral character and had stopped the Doctor from killing the caveman Za with a rock on their first adventure , ( TV : " The Forest of Fear " ) he was willing to kill if necessary . Having been forced into hand - to - hand combat , Ian accidentally killed the Aztec warrior Ixta when he fell over the side of a pyramid . ( TV : " The Aztecs " ) Ian threatened Lobos , saying that killing him might be enjoyable , though he may have been bluffing . ( TV : " The Space Museum " ) Ian developed his skill as a swordsman during his travels . He was also capable at unarmed combat . ( TV : " The Aztecs " , " The Crusade " ; COMIC : " Hunters of the Burning Stone " ) Barbara noted that it was the quiet girls who interested Ian the most . ( PROSE : " Byzantium ! " ) He was well - acquainted with music artists who were popular with his students such as John Smith and the Common Men , ( TV : " An Unearthly Child " ) and even danced to " Ticket to Ride " by the Beatles . ( TV : " The Chase " ) Ian was a supporter of the Liberal Party whereas Barbara supported the Conservative Party . She regarded his politics as " wrong but romantic . " ( PROSE : " Nothing at the End of the Lane " ) He was a supporter of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and participated in the Aldermaston marches . It was on the marches that he and Barbara first became friends . ( AUDIO : " The Doctor ' s Tale " ) Appearance . Ian continued to wear parts of his Coal Hill School attire whilst travelling . ( TV : " The Daleks " ) His black and emerald green - striped tie ( the school colours ) was destroyed when the Doctor tested acidic water with it . ( TV : " The Web Planet " ) He wore a pinstripe shirt on one occasion . ( TV : " The Chase " ) After visiting 13th century China , Ian received a Chinese - style gown . ( TV : " Marco Polo " ) He continued to wear it on Marinus . ( TV : " The Keys of Marinus " ) He also dressed for various historical occasions , including donning a toga with his hair ( which almost always remained in its " square " , early 1960s styling ) combed forward by Barbara ( TV : " The Romans " ) and taking the guise of an Aztec warrior , complete with a bird - headed helmet . ( TV : " The Aztecs " )