Here’s a list of who’s who in ‘The Zondor Robbers’.

THE FIRST DOCTOR (William Hartnell)

An exile from his homeworld, wandering through time and space in his trusty TARDIS with granddaughter Susan, the First Doctor first appeared in ‘An Unearthly Child’. Appearing as a frail old man with a chuckle and a twinkle in his eye, the Doctor has an unquenchable thirst to explore and a knack of getting himself into trouble doing it. Sometimes doting, sometimes difficult, the First Doctor was both a loving father-figure and a fierce opponent. He plays deadly games with the Celestial Toymaker, he fools Roman emperors, mongol warlords and French revolutionaries, and he foils each and every machination of the evil Daleks. After preventing the Cybermen in ‘The Tenth Planet’ from absorbing the Earth’s energy and with his body ‘wearing a bit thin’, the First Doctor collapsed to the TARDIS floor and began to change…

SUSAN FOREMAN (Carole Ann Ford)

Susan Foreman was a pupil at Coal Hill School first appearing in ‘An Unearthly Child’, where she was taught History by Ms Wright and Science by Mr Chesterton. She lived at 76 Totter’s Lane and is also the Doctor’s granddaughter. An alien, exiled from a distant time and place, living in an extraordinary ship called the TARDIS. Curious, quick-witted and kind, Susan is the first of the Doctor’s travelling companions to leave him, settling with David Campbell after defeating the Daleks in ‘The Dalek Invasion of Earth’.

IAN CHESTERTON (William Russell)

Science master Ian Chesterton is persuaded by his colleague Barbara in ‘An Unearthly Child’ to follow their mysterious student Susan home. They discover the TARDIS – a scientific paradox that Ian finds very hard to comprehend. Always the gentleman, Ian demonstrates great bravery against French revolutionaries, Aztec warriors and the dreaded Daleks. He returned to Earth with Barbara in 1965 at the end of ‘The Chase’. Sarah Jane Smith later noted that Ian and Barbara became professors at Cambridge, and mysteriously hadn’t aged since the 1960s…

BARBARA WRIGHT (Jacqueline Hill)

School teacher Barbara is curious about one of her students – Susan Foreman. She persuades fellow teacher Ian in ‘An Unearthly Child’ to help her follow Susan home one day and their lives were never the same again. Whisked off into space and time, historian Barbara encountered cavemen, Aztecs, ancient Romans and almost loses her head on the guillotine. She and Ian leave the Doctor using a Dalek time machine in ‘The Chase’, and return to Earth – although two years after they had left!

© Tim Bradley, 2020