Free Companions: Fifty Years of Doctor Who Assistants by Andy Frankham-Allen Page A

two characters together.
    First of all there is the little matter of Polly’s surname. In the original character outline she is named Polly Wright, sharing the same surname as Barbara. It is a name that never makes it to the television screens, but it is confirmed as her surname in the 1995 novel Invasion of the Cat-People by Gary Russell. In this story we also learn that both Ben & Polly were born in 1942, a point later contradicted in the 2009 audio book Resistance , which tells us that Polly was born in 1943. We also learn that her father is Doctor Edward Wright and her mother the former Miss Bettingham-Smith. Polly later considers that she took them both for granted, spending so much time away from home enjoying herself. Another important point is mentioned – Polly and Barbara are not related, they simply share a common surname.
    For Ben’s own part, not much of his personal history is revealed; save that when he was fourteen he snuck aboard his father’s ship, and as a result of his interest in the sea-faring life, the captain promised him a job when he turned fifteen.
    Otherwise, the Expanded Universe stories set during their travels with the Second Doctor do not deviate much from what we already know on television, but a special note must be made of instances from the 1968 Doctor Who Annual . In this collection of stories we see a different side of their journeys. These stories are at odds with their television counterpoints, especially the characters inter-personal relationships. In one story the Doctor favours Polly over Ben, considering her sensible and smarter than Ben. This may explain why, in another story, Ben and the Doctor have a very contentious relationship. In yet another, Polly manages to operate the TARDIS, something she never does on television. In the audio book The Forbidden Time (2011), we learn that Ben & Polly consider Jamie a ‘little brother’.
    Much has been made of their lives since leaving the Doctor and once again it is Polly who receives the most attention. In the 2005 comic The Love Invasion published by Doctor Who Magazine there is a brief moment where the Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler rush by at the top of the Post Office Tower in 1966 and witness Ben proposing to Polly. In The Five Companions Polly takes Ben home to meet her parents, much to their horror. But Ben & Polly each go on to marry other people. However, in the 1998 short story Mondas Passing the estranged couple meet up in 1986 – but separate as friends after reminiscing about their time with the Doctor and Jamie.
    Polly’s life by the turn of the twenty-first century comes under the microscope in Joseph Lidster’s short story That Time I Nearly Destroyed the World Whilst Looking for a Dress published in 2004. Lidster describes her as something of a music mogul. She regularly features in OK! , Hello and Heat and has been married several times. Her first husband, Simon, is dead and she also, at some point, marries a gay boy-band member. As a result she suffers a few bouts of excessive alcohol dependency and bulimia. She has a son, Mikey, and by the end of 1999 she fears she will mess his life up too. She goes on a rather bizarre journey through time and encounters the First Doctor, Ian and Susan in Sherwood, and later the Fifth Doctor, Tegan, Peri and Erimem – the latter she has a catfight with. Eventually, as 2000 comes to pass, she encounters the Second Doctor and Jamie once again. The TARDIS crew take her to Ben, who is now running a pub in Sydenham, and the two finally admit their love for each other.
    Before meeting the Fifth Doctor again in The Five Companions , Polly takes to searching the internet to find other companions of the Doctor. Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart has erased all such information, but they communicate via email and are joined by companion of the Fifth Doctor, Thomas Brewster ( The Three Companions ). The last we see of Polly in the Expanded Universe is in the 2012 play The Five Companions where