Benton

One of Benton’s great qualities was his selflessness. When the Doctor declared he had to ‘connect’ with a dangerous blue crystal, Benton immediately volunteered to carry out the task. ‘Wouldn’t it be best for me to have a go first?’ he suggested. ‘I mean, I’m expendable and you’re not.’ Such courage and dedication was typical of Benton and characterised his relationship with the Doctor. It’s ironic then, that they didn’t get off to the best start… In fact when the UNIT man first met the Second Doctor he didn’t reveal who he was and virtually kidnapped the Time Lord, taking him to see the Brigadier in a way that the Doctor described as ‘cloak and dagger’, with even the Brig admitting the operation had been ‘a little melodramatic’!

At this point Benton was a corporal in the recently-formed UNIT and acted more like an undercover agent than a normal soldier, wearing civvies and carrying out covert surveillance work. He helped the Doctor defeat the Cybermen and clearly felt great warmth towards him - when he met up with the Second Doctor again during the Omega crisis he was delighted to see his old friend, shaking hands enthusiastically and proudly revealing he’d been promoted to the rank of sergeant.

By that point the Third Doctor and Benton had shared several adventures. He remained a valued member of UNIT, usually working under the Brigadier’s direct command, but now his role tended to be more akin to that of a traditional soldier and he invariably wore uniform whilst on duty. Benton proved incredibly reliable and an invaluable ally. He fought the Master, Daemons, Daleks, Autons and many more aliens but never panicked or wavered in his duty. His superior officer, Mike Yates, may have suffered a breakdown after combatting so many monsters but Sergeant Benton remained steadfast and unflustered. When he eventually entered the TARDIS for the first time he simply scratched his head and accepted the fact it was something of a miracle. ‘Well, Sergeant,’ the Doctor said, ‘aren't you going to say it - that it’s bigger on the inside than it is on the outside? Everybody else does.’ But Benton wryly replied, ‘It’s pretty obvious, isn’t it? Anyway, nothing to do with you surprises me anymore, Doctor!’ Such nonchalance was par for the course for Benton.

He received another promotion shortly before UNIT tackled the so-called ‘giant robot’ built by Professor Kettlewell, rising to the level of warrant officer. His adventures with the Fourth Doctor included a brush with the evil Zygons and an attempted invasion by the villainous Kraals whose plan involved an android replica of Benton!

When the Fifth Doctor met up again with the Brigadier he asked about ‘Sergeant Benton’. But at that point the Brig – not recognising the Doctor– was stepping carefully and his response, that Benton was selling second-hand cars somewhere, was given cautiously and he even said he’d left ‘the army’ as opposed to UNIT, so it’s possible the Brigadier was simply unwilling to divulge confidential information and made up a cover story for his former comrade-in-arms. But if Benton had left UNIT, they would have lost one of their finest soldiers - and one of the force’s very best men.