Ben Jackson

This page chronicles the adventures of **Ben Jackson** as played by Michael Craze in the order in which he experienced them. Therefore the following timeline should not be seen as an accurate reading/listening order as some stories may have framing devices which take place later in another character's life.

The timeline is primarily derived from facts from within *Doctor Who* media, however authorial intent is taken into account as well. Occasionally, assumptions or speculations may be made where insufficient information is available, however these will always be marked as such for full transparency.

Most BBC licensed *Doctor Who* content is counted on this timeline, including but not limited to the TV series itself, Big Finish Productions, BBC Books and Virgin Books material. However, intentionally parodic content such as the Dr Men books, various Titan Comics backups and Doctor Whoah! should not be added to this particular chronology. Likewise, fanfiction and charity publications will also be avoided.

## Key

* **TV**: Television story
* **WC**: Online video story
* **AUDIO**: Audio drama, audio short story, or audio novel
* **COMIC**: Comic story
* **NOVEL**: Novel
* **NOVELLA**: Novella
* **SHORT**: Short written story
* **FEATURE**: A feature or featurette which doesn't explicitly tell a story

## Limiting factors

### Age

According to *The Forsaken*, Ben was born in December 1942. Therefore he would have been 24 when he joined the TARDIS in *The War Games*.

## Timeline

### Working as a sailor

* (FLASHBACK) - 1956 - NOVEL: *Invasion of the Cat-People*

In 1956, at age 14, in the "Far East", Ben is offered a job by the captain of a ship he stowed away on back at Tilbury Docks. He would be given a proper job in four months time, when he turns 15, and in the meantime work in galley or engine room.

### Travels with the First Doctor and Polly

* 12-20 July 1966 - **TV: *The War Machines***

On 12 July 1966, Ben is working as a sailor with his ship off in the West Indies while he has a Barracks posting in London. At the Inferno Nightclub, Ben reunites with Polly Wright, whom he had briefly met a few nights ago, and also meets Dodo Chaplet and later the First Doctor. The four of them become embroiled in an attempt to stop the supercomputer WOTAN from taking over London. On 20 July, Ben and Polly enter the Doctor's TARDIS just as it begins to dematerialise.

* **TV: *The Smugglers***

Following directly on from *The War Machines*, the Doctor realises that Ben and Polly have boarded the TARDIS before they arrive in 17th century Cornwall. There they battle former crewmen of Captain Avery, before eventually escaping back to the TARDIS. As the TARDIS rematerialises, the Doctor indicates the scanner and remarks that they have landed in the "coldest place in the world".

* AUDIO: *The Bonfires of the Vanities*

Following on directly from *The Smugglers*, the beginning of *The Tenth Planet* is reenacted until temporal distortions result in them leaving the TARDIS in wintery clothes in Lewes in the late 1950s, instead of the South Pole, where they find a crashed alien.

* COMIC: *Food for Thought*

The Doctor, Ben and Polly land on the planet Apresar IV where they discover the planet being fed on by giant slugs known as the Mollusi.

* NOVEL: *Ten Little Aliens*

Ben and Polly seem to have been travelling with the Doctor for some time, being familiar with but not fully accustomed to some of his mannerisms. They land on an asteroid in a year ending with '90. The precise year is unknown, but perhaps is 2890 as the Earth Empire is pretty powerful. There they meet a group of soldiers on a supposed training mission, but it turns out to be a trap set by a group of terrorist Schirr, an oppressed species in the empire. The Doctor expends a lot of energy holding the mental power of the Schirr at bay, leading to him commenting to Ben that he shall "soon feel a new person".

* AUDIO: *The Crumbling Magician*

The TARDIS is hit by a temporal wave from an exploding temporal clinic, which they then end up in. Ben says the Doctor has been complaining of being old and tired lately. They meet Allie Kay, an 8-year-old who has been aged into an old man's body by the same temporal accident. Allie joins the TARDIS as look for a new home for him, which Ben jokes could take six months.

* AUDIO: *The Plague of Dreams*

The Doctor, Ben and Polly meet a Time Lord known as the Player in the village of Wild Heath in the 16th century. He has been sent by the Time Lords from a future war to stop an enemy from interfering in the Doctor's timeline and preventing him from regenerating in the South Pole. In doing so, they have placed a psychoactive virus in the village to attempt to kill the Doctor early. The Doctor learns of his fate in Antarctica, and seems to agree to go there to restore the timeline.

* AUDIO: *Falling*

Ben and Polly awake from their sleep, both reporting nightmares. The TARDIS becomes caught in the slipstream of an ancient being which claims to be the origin of the angel myth, meeting the creature in the Outer Quadrant of the Wildean Galaxy. The Doctor, who looks visibly frail, is again told of his coming regeneration, and responds that "you might be correct sir, indeed you might be, but my future is my own". According to narration, the next place they visit after this story would be South Pole, leading into the events of *The Tenth Planet*.

* **TV: *The Tenth Planet***

The TARDIS lands by Snowcap Base of the South Pole of Earth to find a cyborg species known as the Cybermen invading the planet. There is no indication that the Doctor knows of the Cybermen, but he does seem to know, or at least works out, that Mondas is Earth's twin planet knowing just that the planet had come into close proximity. Mondas is destroyed after the Cybermen are unable destroy Earth. The Doctor, drained by this event and with his body "wearing a bit thin", returns to the TARDIS to regenerate into his second incarnation, leading into *The Power of the Daleks*

* (CAMEO) - TV: *Twice Upon a Time*

Recreates the final scenes of *The Tenth Planet*

### Travels with the Second Doctor and Polly

* **TV: *The Power of the Daleks***

Ben and Polly begin to come to terms with the Doctor's new face, which the Doctor takes some time to get used to as well. They land on the planet Vulcan in the midst of growing civil unrest. A the presence of a Dalek capsule prompts the Doctor to stay and defeat them, which he does, but not after significant damage to the colony and huge numbers of deaths. In this post-regenerative phase, the Doctor is often playing his recorder.

* (FLASHBACK) - COMIC: *The Chameleon Factor*

The Doctor's regeneration is very recent ("The Doctor's been through a lot changing like that") and reflects on his lost ring, suggesting he could make a new one. The TARDIS then suddenly lurches as the flaskback ends.

* SHORT: *Pluto*

The trio visit Pluto's moon, Charon, which Polly believes to be "thousands of years" into her future, however humans are only just utilising the planet now. Ben is still deeply distrusting of the Doctor, thinking of him as an imposter still. After their minds connect in a temporary gestalt, Ben senses the First Doctor in his mind and finally accepts him as the true Doctor.

* NOVEL: *Invasion of the Cat-People*

The Doctor's regeneration was three weeks ago, but Ben now trusts the Doctor, setting this after *Pluto*. When she sees a Cat-Person, Polly thinks of it as her first encounter with an "honest-to-God monster". This appears to be Ben and Polly's first trip into their near personal future. Polly is surprised to see computers aren't huge anymore ("These aren't computers. I mean computers are massive things."), suggesting a setting before *The Curator's Egg* and *The Murder Game*. Although handheld computers were in use in her story with the First Doctor, *Ten Little Aliens*. Polly doesn't see her and Ben as a couple, just as good friends, also pointing out the fact her family wouldn't appreciate the class divide between them.

* AUDIO: *The Curator's Egg*

The TARDIS lands in 23rd century Dorset, approximately 100 years after the Dalek invasion. By this point, Ben accepts the Doctor, setting this after *Pluto*. The Doctor mentions that he still hasn't recovered all of his memories since his regeneration.

* AUDIO-NOVEL: *The Dead Star*

Initially landing in a crude reconstruction of London, the Doctor follows a time tunnel to land the TARDIS in the real London in July 1968. They spend several weeks there, inveigling themselves into physics circles. Ben and Polly go undercover for the Doctor with no qualms, despite just about being back in their own time, showing that they trust him implicitly by this point. In August, Earth is destroyed, so they travel to the other end of the time corridor, the Montoo space station in the Kuiper Belt on 8 April 2064. From there, they revert history, stopping the time corridor from forming and Earth's subsequent destruction. Polly thinks of the "new doctor" as "familiar and strange at the same time", suggesting *Power of the Daleks* isn't too long ago. Also, Ben is unfamiliar with space stations, despite having it explained to him in *The Murder Game*, where Polly wasn't familar with the concept.

* SHORT: *The Sour Note*

The Doctor lands *Tardis* on an unknown planet to allow Ben to go for a run. The Doctor tells Polly that he's been thinking in a more "youthful vein" since his "reincarnation".

* SHORT: *The Dream Masters*

The Doctor, Ben and Polly are brainwashed and enslaved on the planet Dorada for over a week before being brought to their senses by a resistance movement, whom they reluctantly help to defeat the Masters of Dorada.

* COMIC: *The Tests of Trefus*

The Doctor, Ben and Polly land on a planet, presumably called Trefus, where they help to free the fair-haired people from enslavement by the dark-haired people. The Doctor considers the planet to be pleasant, compared with the desolate places they've been to lately.

* SHORT: *Only a Matter of Time*

The Doctor mentions having developed a number of devices since his "reincarnation" which his previous self would not have deemed worth his time. The trio encounter an entire species on the move; the Arcturians from the Arcturus system are looking for a new home, but unfortunately they are heading from Earth, so the Doctor shunts them off into the Ninth Dimension to find a home somewhere there.

* SHORT: *Planet of Bones*

The TARDIS lands on the planet Harmony in the Magellanic Clouds. They discover that the people there want to eat them, so decide it's time to leave. The Doctor uses his recorder as a weapon against the people's sensitive ears.

* SHORT: *When Starlight Grows Cold*

The TARDIS materialised in intergalactic space, 4 quadrillion light years from the nearest galaxy. They discover and awaken an alien spaceship drifting through the void, but by chance, Polly is able to pilot the TARDIS into the ship by making a short hop, which the Doctor claims to never have done before. Although at least two stories depict the First Doctor making short hops.

* COMIC: *World Without Night*

The trio visit the Planet of Light, which is about to have an eclipse which its elder know will drive the people of the planet into self-destruction.

* SHORT: *H.M.S. Tardis*

The TARDIS lands on the H.M.S. *Victory* on 21 October 1805, during the Battle of Trafalgar. They meet Horatio Nelson, who the Doctor seems hell bent on trying to save from his death that day. Though he fails. Polly mentions that it's been a "long time" since they were on Earth, while Ben hasn't seen the sea for "ever so long". They dematerialise at the end of the battle after witnessing Nelson being shot.

* SHORT: *The King of Golden Death*

Materialising in an Egyptian tomb in what the Doctor estimates is 1-3000 BCE, the TARDIS crew frighten off some grave robbers.

* NOVEL: *The Murder Game*

Having spent the previous night at a spaceport bar which contained Venusians, Draconians and Alpha Centaurans, the Doctor answers a distress call and lands on the space station Galaxian in the year 2136. He then meets the Selachians for the first time, having previously heard of them. Polly was not previously familiar with space stations, making this their first time visiting one.
By this point, Ben and Polly have been travelling with the Doctor for months, and have never pressed the Doctor about getting back home, just assuming it would happen one day. Ben and Polly are best friends, but nothing more, although there is clearly some underlying love between them. Ben of course trusts the Doctor now, but isn't quite used to him yet ("I knew the old Doctor, you knew where you stood with him. But this one..."). Polly is 24 years old.
Polly learns to use computers, setting this after *Invasion of the Cat-People*.
The Doctor creates a sonic device to open a door, which is destroyed, and he vows to start work on a more permanent one.

* NOVEL: *Dying in the Sun*

The TARDIS lands in Los Angeles in October 1947, and so the Doctor decides to visit his old friend Harold Reitman, only to find his murdered body. The Doctor tries to work out how Harold was killed, only for the three of them to become embroiled in a plot to take over the world by director Leonard de Sande using intelligent microscopic beings made of light he termed Selyoids. The Doctor been to the US for "some time", probably setting this before *Wonderland*. During the story, Polly is influenced by the Selyoids to kill Caleb Rochefort, which affects her deeply for a time, and she mentions that this is the first time she's killed someone.

* NOVELLA: *Wonderland*

Landing in San Francisco in 1968, Ben and Polly befriend a young hippy called Summer. The Doctor behaves in a rather secretive manner similar to his portrayal in *The Power of the Daleks*. As noted by Summer, Ben and Polly are incredibly loyal to the Doctor. The Doctor uses "some little gadget he pulled out of his pocket" to unlock a door, seemingly a sonic device, suggesting a setting after *The Murder Game*.

* SHORT: *The Feast*

The TARDIS lands in London in the 1650s, during a time when Christmas was banned. They find an elemental being masquerading as St. Nick from using (killing) locals to reach its home. Ben and Polly think they've finally reached home, before they learn of the year.

* AUDIO: *Lost and Found*

The Doctor, Ben and Polly arrive in London 1948 and find a talking can of baked beans in a bomb site, which contains some alien lifeform. The Doctor takes the beans back to Henrik's Department store and encounter a young Polly Wright.

### Travels with the Second Doctor, Polly and Jamie

* **TV: *The Highlanders***

The TARDIS lands in the aftermath of the Battle of Culloden in 1746, where they meet a group of Highlanders of Clan McLaren, including the piper Jamie McCrimmon. They are captured and about to be executed, when Solictor Grey acquires them and takes them to Aberdeen to attempt to sell them into slavery in Barbados. The Doctor, Ben and Polly work to free themselves and the highlanders, who set sale for France. Jamie stays behind and joins the quickly joins the TARDIS as British soldiers close in on them.

* **TV: *The Underwater Menace***

Follows on directly from *The Highlanders*, with Jamie learning about the TARDIS for the first time. They land in Atlantis sometime after 1968 to find the city still standing. The mad scientist Hermann Zaroff has convinced King Thous that he plans to raise Atlantis, but in actuality he's just trying to destroy the world for a laugh. He is stopped by the Doctor, of course. Upon their return to the TARDIS, the Doctor tries to prove that he can control the TARDIS by piloting her to Mars, but the TARDIS suddenly jolts, leading into *The Moonbase*.

* **TV: *The Moonbase***

The crew discover they have actually landed on the Moon in the year 2070, having been drawn there by the a moonbase operating a gravitron. They discover the Cybermen survived the destruction of Mondas in *The Tenth Planet*. The Cybermen from this invasion of the moon base are flung out into space and the crew return to the TARDIS. After dematerialising, the Doctor uses the time scanner (which he hasn't used much due to its unreliability) to get a glimpse of their future, and they see a large claw, leading into *The Macra Terror*.

* **TV: *The Macra Terror***

Arriving on a human colony planet, crew face off against the Macra. At the refreshing department, Polly has her hair cut short They meet the Macra for the first time and liberate the colony from their influence.

* PROSE: *Something at the Door*

Ben, Polly and Jamie are exploring the TARDIS when they come upon the secondary control room. Ben and Polly have apparently been with the Doctor for a few weeks, while the Doctor's regeneration was recent. Jamie seems to realise the true vastness of the TARDIS for the first time, with Ben and Polly recalling their own exploration of the TARDIS when they first joined, with the implication that this is the same for Jamie.

* PROSE: *The Roundheads*

The TARDIS lands in London in December 1648 during the English Civil War, where the crew encounter figures such as Oliver Cromwell and Thomas Fairfax. Despite Polly being described as having long hair, Jamie is clearly new to the TARDIS, being unused to travelling in time by this point. He does realise he is starting to think of the TARDIS as home though and has explored the corridors of the ship, setting this after *Something at the Door*. Apparently Polly and Ben have been constantly going on about getting back to 1966.

* AUDIO: *The Mouthless Dead*

The TARDIS materialises in Kent 1920, seemingly returning to the planet after some time away. The TARDIS is hit by a train shortly after arrival, damaging the telepathic circuits and causing the appearance of psychic apparitions. Jamie learns about world wars for the first time (specifically world war one, but the entire concept is new to him), likely setting this before *The Forsaken*. He also learns about trains for the first time.

* AUDIO: *The Forsaken*

The crew land on the island of Kenga, near Singapore, in February 1942. Jamie is relatively new to the TARDIS, consistently asking Ben for clarification of modern terms and ideas. Ben also mentions not having known Jamie that long. Ben meets his father, Private James Jackson.

* PROSE: *The Slave War*

The TARDIS lands in 71 BCE during the slave rebellion in Rome led by Spartacus. They stay there for several months, from Winter to Autumn, with Polly, Ben and Jamie fighting for the rebellion while the Doctor was trying to trick the leader of the Romans while posing as a Roman noble.

* AUDIO: *Resistance*

Landing on a train line in Southern France in February 1944, the others try to tell Jamie what a train is, but he seems to know already, suggesting a setting after *The Mouthless Dead*. Regardless it's set during a World War, so it has to be after that story. Polly meets a man pretending to be her uncle, Randolph Wright, who died during the war. After a week in France, the four reunite when the Doctor spends six hours under the TARDIS console while Ben and Jamie check the likely routes Polly would've taken to Spain. They seem to get there in one go, impressively. As they leave, the Doctor cryptically tells Polly that he thinks fate was on their side that day, based on something he saw on the TARDIS scanner.

* AUDIO: *The Three Companions: Polly's Story*

The TARDIS lands in Cosmic Finance Central Five, where they meet a man called Gerry Lenz.

* AUDIO: *The Forbidden Time*

The TARDIS lands in a Shadow version of London in 35 years before 2011, making it 1976. Jamie has seen cars before and recalls the first time he saw them as if it was some time ago. Ben recognises that they're after his time period when he recognises a particular type of car.

* AUDIO: *The Selachian Gambit*

The Doctor, Ben and Polly encounter the Selachians again on the Galacti-Bank, with this being Jamie's first encounter with them. The Selachians plan once again to steal a weapon from the vault of the bank. Ben refers to his and Jamie's escape from the Milese in occupied France, setting this after *Resistance*.

* AUDIO: *House of Cards*

The crew visit a Sidewinder Syndicate casino, run at this point by Fortune, a seemingly extra-dimensional being. Jamie refers to his encounter with the Selachians in *The Selachian Gambit*. Jamie describes himself as being well equipped with fighting "metal beasties".

* AUDIO: *The Yes Men*

Attempting to teach his three companions how to pilot the TARDIS, the Doctor attempts to take Ben and Polly back to 1966 using the fast return switch. But he ends up going too far back in the flight log, to a planet he visited with Dodo called New Houston. He says this means the fast return won't be an option for returning them home any more but it does suggest slightly improved control of the ship. Jamie is described as being "perhaps a year older" than the 22-year-old Jamie fighting at Culloden in the Yes Men simulation. So this is set around a year after *The Highlanders*. Polly has never been in a flying car before.

* AUDIO: *The Night Witches*

Set shortly after *The Yes Men*, with the crew discussing their recent failed piloting to New Houston and the team upset that the Doctor wouldn't let them pilot the TARDIS again. The Doctor does let Polly hit the final lever though in attempting to land at the Winter Palace in St Petersburg in 1782, but they instead land in 1942 outside Stalingrad during the Nazi siege of the city. Polly meets a doppelgänger. Jamie is told of the TARDIS translation circuitry for the first time. Upon departure, the Doctor sets coordinates for Spain.

* AUDIO: *The Outliers*

The TARDIS lands on an asteroid in 7691. The crew see possible futures of theirs after they leave the TARDIS.

* AUDIO: *The Morton Legacy*

The crew spend a few days with Josiah and Jemma Morton in the 1860s before finding the TARDIS and leaving.

* COMIC: *Card Conundrum*

The four of them encounter an insectoid species resembling playing cards.

* AUDIO: *The Home Guard*

The crew land on a human colony being used as an experiment by the Master. They soon all come under his psychic influence and are forced into the experiment, but eventually they overcome his control and defeat him. The Doctor thought the Master was dead by this point. The Master is left in the hands of the colony people, and is due to stand trial before Galactic authority. While Polly is described as having short hair, the events of *The Yes Men* are referred to and the crew seem close-knit and Jamie appears experienced in time travel.

* 20 July 1966 - **TV: *The Faceless Ones***

Landing in London on 20 July 1966, the crew discover that the so-called Chameleons are infiltrating Earth airports and kidnapping young people to steal their identities. Jamie once again refers to planes as "flying beasties". After stopping the Chameleon plot, the Doctor sends the Chameleons away with better ideas for gaining their faces back. Ben and Polly decide to stay in London, now they've returned to their own time.

### Living in London

* 20-22 July 1966 - AUDIO: *Sleeper Agents*

Immediately following *The Faceless Ones*, Ben and Polly return to life in London. Ben returns to his ship on 21 July and finds himself being escorted to Whitehall to meet Tobias Harmer. He and Polly are then kidnapped by Harmer and taken to an island in the Arctic Circle and interrogated. They escape in a submarine but suspect themselves to be set up as sleeper agents.

## Footnotes

1. ↑ This scene is removed from the animation, where her hair is short from the beginning, including the Moonbase recap. It occurs at 7:55 in the recon.