Ian isn't on WM and nor do I intend to app him there, but this prompt seemed like a good way of thinking about his character, given that I haven't played him a lot recently

Character Dossier: Ian Chesterton
Years of Schooling: Slightly complicated due to leaving London during the war
Degrees: Chemistry
Grades achieved in school:
Skills, Abilities and Talents (Name at least four): Swordfighting, hand-to-hand, making fire by rubbing two sticks together, Vulcan nerve pinch, looking good in a skirt
Areas of Expertise (Name at least three): Science, leadership, science fiction
Special Occupational Training: PGCE
Occupation: Secondary science teacher
Past Occupations (list as many as you like): N/A
Military Experience: One year's national service.
Short Term Goals (name three): Getting home, learning how to fly the TARDIS, working out what my feelings for Barbara are.

1. Not having to rescue anyone

2. Or failing that, having rescued them so they're not in danger any more

3. Everyone being safe at the end of the day

4. Not having an argument with the Doctor

5. Getting some useful information out of the Doctor

6. The look on Susan's face when she discovers something new

7. Vicki's excitement - it's infectious

8. Barbara's smile

9. Being knighted (although it's only happened the once)

10. Being able to spend at least some of it relaxing

1. Being kidnapped by the Doctor and stepping out onto another world

2. When it looked like we were going to be killed, until I lit a fire

3. When we were all, the Doctor especially, dying of radiation poisoning

4. Running out of water in the desert

5. Fighting to the death during Aztec times

6. Nearly being executed during the French Revolution

7. Barbara nearly dying when we were reduced in size

8. When we were taken as Roman slaves and Barbara was really scared because she knew what it meant would happen to us

9. Discovering Barbara had disappeared while we dealt with the Saracens

10. Nearly being wiped out of existence in the Space Museum

1. Barbara: Sorry, I've run out of pens. Have you asked the Doctor?

2. Vicki: If you're really that interested you can borrow the book, but after I've read it.

3. Susan: Are you sure the food machine isn't broken? It still won't work when I try it, even when I hit it.

4. Barbara: Doing nothing but lazing around and drinking wine all day doesn't make me a drunken layabout. We're on holiday, remember?

5. Doctor: Is it sodium chloride or sodium chlorite? There is a difference between the two you know.

6. Adric: Have you seen the cricket pitch? I've lost it again.

7. Nyssa: At least it was only a sheep.

8. Shopping list: Turkey, stuffing, potatoes, sprouts, carrots, gravy, crackers, wine.

9. The car is at 76 Totter's Lane.

10. Gold dust starts on page 24.

1. The last Christmas before my father went off to war and we moved to the country. Sometimes it feels like the last happy one.

2. The first Christmas after my father died. I stole a turkey and spent most of Christmas Day at the police station.

3. The one awkward year I spent with my mother, sister and step-father.

4. The first year I had a job I was able to spend in my own house in the way I wanted to.

5. My second year of teaching the music teacher was ill and I offered to organise the school carol service. It was hard work but everyone enjoyed it.

6. One year I went up to Kate's house in Scotland. We got snowed in and she announced she was pregnant, which made it quite memorable.

7. The year Ann was 7 and she got a bike, and I spent the afternoon teaching her to ride it.

8. The last work Christmas dinner I went to and Barbara and I pulled a cracker.

9. Christmas on the TARDIS. Barbara and I thought it was probably Christmas and we had to explain to the Doctor what we wanted to do. He said he would leave us to it, but Susan wanted to join in and then the Doctor did too and it was almost like a proper Christmas.

10. When we were in the house that had Christmas Day over and over again and before we left Barbara kissed me under the mistletoe. [A Christmas Treasury: Every Day]

1. Leaving school when my father died.

2. Going back to school again.

3. The first time I fought the bullies and won.

4. Going to university.

5. National Service. As much as I disliked it at the time.

6. Becoming a teacher.

7. The first time I ever put on a dress (which no one else knows about)

8. Marrying Barbara.

9. Seeing my son for the first time.

10. Believing Barbara was dead [in The Face of the Enemy]

1. That Barbara and I investigated Susan - I can't imagine not having had our experiences with her and the Doctor. Also, I would have always wondered what her secret was.

2. The time I got to spend with my father. It meant that after he died I didn't regret the time I didn't spend with him.

3. In my whole teaching career I've never had any truly impossibly naughty pupils. I've heard stories from other teachers that have and I know I've been lucky there.

4. The sturdiness of the TARDIS. It may be incredibly unreliable, but at least nothing we've ever put it through has stopped it from working for too long.

5. The friends I have. I know I can rely on them.

6. Going to university. If I hadn't gone back to school after my father died I'd be bored in a dead-end job by now, rather than in my current, rewarding one.

7. Everything I've learnt that has been useful on the other planets and times we've been to. I never guessed that sword fighting would be a life saver.

8. Being friends with Barbara meant learning about history. I never thought it would be so much practical use.

9. My family. Even if I don't see that much of them any more, I'm still glad they're there.

10. Having a roof over my head with electricity and modern plumbing. You don't realise how much you miss it until it's gone.

1. Grow old

Everything else is optional.

Ask me to list my top fives of anything (i.e. Top Five Favourite Films)

Unmarked Graves

Muse: Ian Chesterton
Fandom: Doctor Who
RS or Non-RS: RS
Word Count: 500

( Unmarked Graves )

1. Ann Smith, in my university digs. It was a choice of mine or hers and mine was better.

2. We did make it to hers eventually though, just the once because her friends accidentally walked in on us.

3. In someone's room at a party at the end of term with a girl called Marion - to my shame I don't remember her last name - but it was a split-second decision and if we'd gone anywhere else I'd probably have changed my mind.

4. Marie. It was her party, so we got to use her room.

5. Charlotte Lewis on a pile of mats in the gym cupboard at university because she bet me I wouldn't.

6. With Charlotte in the showers in the university gym. It was late at night and she had a key and we thought we were unlikely to be disturbed. We were right about that at least.

7. In her room, since apparently she never had there. She declared it boring and we never did again.

8. With Liz Stokes. I'd helped her move into her flat and we had to move boxes to make enough space on the floor, since clearing a path to the bed seemed like more work.

9. It was far more civilised at my flat.

10. In Liz's bed, after her housewarming party.

1. Likes wearing women's clothes.

2. Is in love with Barbara (it's a secret even from himself).

3. Has kissed a man before - at university - and felt guilty for not finding it too horrible.

4. Was once told by his maths teacher he would never get anywhere - he feels slightly guilty about having to teach it therefore.

5. Spent time in the library researching history so he can understand what Barbara is talking about.

6. He's not that desperate to get home and is actually quite glad the Doctor did kidnap them.

7. Tended to believe (optimistically in some cases) that quite a bit of science fiction was possible until he met the Doctor. And discovered some of it wasn't just possible, it was already true.

8. Although it'll never stop him from enjoying pulp science fiction with monsters from outer space. He's seen enough to know they're real, just not from Mars.

9. Wouldn't have minded too much if they'd had to stay in Roman times.

10. Barbara or Susan or Vicki in danger scares him more than anything else.

Write a personal ad for yourself (in which you assume that you are single or otherwise available).

1) It has to make you sound as unappealing as possible
2) It has to be honest - you can't lie at all
3) It can't sound as though you're deliberately making yourself sound unappealing.


Secondary school science teacher seeks similar academic to make the first move. Unlikely to notice subtle hints. Knowledge of just about everything likely to put anyone else's to shame. Must either ask no questions, or believe every answer of missing two years. Must not try to open locked doors, especially if they are to a room with a wardrobe in.

1. Being able to experience other cultures without the great expense that comes with travelling without a TARDIS

2. Spending time getting to know Barbara better

3. Discovering how people really lived in the past

4. Going to other planets

5. Not having to deal with lesson plans and marking (although he feels a bit guilty about that one)

6. Solving the mystery of Susan

7. Being able to do things he can't do in ordinary life - such as sword fighting for real

8. Being knighted by Richard the Lionheart

9. The time they spent in a Roman villa, relaxing

10. Learning science from the Doctor

1. When Barbara told him her experiences with Susan, he dismissed them, despite his misgivings. When Barbara went missing that evening and no one ever heard from her again, he never forgave himself for not giving her more of his attention.

2. Despite first thinking of National Service as a necessary trial, Ian nevertheless found he had an aptitude for it. He was never quite so keen on the idea of killing another man, but when his time was up he was offered a position teaching new recruits. He accepted - a job was a job after all and it still satisfied his ambition to teach.

3. As much as he agreed with everything she said, Ian drew the line at spying on a student. When one day Susan mysteriously disappeared Barbara went to the location she had given as her address and found nothing there. Over time they both forgot it, and eventually each other when they moved schools.

4. The TARDIS never landed anywhere near home and Ian and Barbara never really considered it, after a while. When Barbara was killed on that space ship as they tried to defeat the Daleks' plan to take over the solar system, Ian managed to carry on somehow. At least until the device was activated and he died within sight of the TARDIS, the Doctor beside him.

5. Telling them in no uncertain terms that he'd got them home, Ian and Barbara walked out of the TARDIS and watched it dematerialise. It was only when they found an abandoned house they realised his mistake. They were reconciled to living in 17th century France, but never got the chance before Madame Guillotine had her way.

6. Surprised by Barbara's declaration of her feelings for him, Ian denies his and not even the hurt expressed on her face. By the time he changes his mind it's too late and she's married someone else, and he has to live with the regret.

7. Ian and Barbara made it back from Rome and assumed they got there before the Doctor had. After waiting a few days they went to check the TARDIS and found it gone. They went back to the villa and continued their previous, relaxing life. When the owner returned they moved on to another and another, never settling and growing increasingly bored of a life with no purpose.

8. After Ian's father died fighting in World War II, his mother died shortly after. With Ian and his sister orphaned, Ian's dream of going to university was no longer possible, and he went out to work to support his younger sister. The jobs he had were menial and he could do them, but what he really wanted were the jobs he couldn't get without qualifications.

9. When they got home, Ian and Barbara couldn't think of a good explanation for their two missing years, so they never went back, and managed to find teaching jobs in a quiet village in the country. Although it was simplest to tell everyone they were married when they got there, they never quite got round to the actual ceremony.

10. While held captive by the Daleks, Barbara dies of radiation sickness before Susan can get back to them. Ian blames the Doctor for getting them into the mess in the first place. They argue and although they manage to escape, the Doctor goes off without Ian, who stays to help the Thals rebuild Skaro.

1. I have a younger sister, Katherine. We call her Kate for short.

2. My father fought in the second world war.

3. When he left to fight, rather than have us evacuated, my mother moved with us to live near her sister in Oxfordshire.

4. I was twelve when my father died.

5. For a few months after that I looked after the house, my mother and my sister. I didn't have time to go to school then.

6. My mother remarried when I was eighteen.

7. I didn't get on that well with my stepfather, but Kate did. But since I left for university shortly after they married, we never had that much contact.

8. My half-sister Ann was born two years later.

9. Kate married a Scotsman when she was twenty one and moved to Scotland. I don't see her as much as I'd like.

10. I see Ann once a month, though, and when I take her out people tend to assume I'm her father, rather than her older brother. She thinks it's funny.

1. Mr Taylor, my secondary school chemistry teacher. The subject was never as interesting before he taught it.

2. Mr Jones, the school cricket captain, whose confidence in me allowed me to perform far better than I would have expected.

3. Bobby Tyler, who picked on me for being a swot in school, but meant I learnt to fight.

4. Ann Smith, the first girl I loved.

5. My mother, who was determined to make sure I could fend for myself when I left home.

6. My father, who loved 'getting away from it all' at the weekend. Among other things, he taught me to make fire without matches, which saved our lives on my first trip in the TARDIS.

7. The Doctor, who showed me a universe of possibilities.

8. Susan - if she hadn't been in my class I might never have met the Doctor.

9. Barbara Wright, who I've been friends with since we first met.

10. Vicki, who made us laugh.

Muse: Ian Chesterton
Fandom: Doctor Who
RS or Non-RS: RS
Word Count: 536
Author's Note: I blame this partly on mathsgenius for suggesting this in the first place, and Hilary for telling me not to write it. Yeah, like that's going to work.


( Dressing Up )

OOC Note: This should not be taken seriously. And it is all Hilary's fault.

Definition of yard from the New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary:

3. A usu. small uncultivated area adjoining or enclosed by a house or other building; esp. one surrounded by walls or buildings within the precincts of a house, castle, inn, etc.

( Read more... )

Muse: Ian Chesterton
Fandom: Doctor Who
RS or Non-RS: RS
Word Count: 485

( Prompt 4: Wonder )