Farewell, Ian Chesterton.

Sad news from England, as DOCTOR WHO has lost one of its legends. William Russell, who portrayed schoolteacher Ian Chesterton in the first season, has passed away at the age of 99. Ian was one of Susan Foreman’s (Carole Ann Ford) teachers, who followed her home for a ‘welfare inspection’, only to discover her “home” was actually the T.A.R.D.I.S. – a craft capable of traversing space & time – that she shared with her grandfather, known only as “The Doctor“. He and fellow teacher Barbara Wright (Jacqueline Hill) were spirited away on a two year journey aboard the T.A.R.D.I.S., until they parted company with the Doctor & Susan in 1965 London. William has the rare distinction of setting a world record for time between appearances by an actor as the same character – almost 60 years – from Episode 1 (An Unearthly Child) in 1963, to Power of the Doctor, in 2022, where he had a memorable cameo among other former Companions.