John Benton

John Benton was a member of UNIT, serving before, during, and after the Third Doctor's exile on Earth. He was promoted from Corporal to the rank of Warrant Officer Class 1, holding the post of Regimental Sergeant Major. One source says that he later achieved the rank of Lieutenant.

Early life
John Benton's grandfather met the Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler in the trenches of World War I in 1914. (COMIC: The Forgotten)

John Benton's father also served in the military. As a boy, John wanted to be just like him. His brother, Chris Benton, did not want to be a soldier. (HOMEVID: Wartime)

In 1944, while his father was on embarkation leave, the Benton family had a picnic in the woods outside Bolton. While the boys were playing, Chris fell from the high wall of a ruined tower to his death. John tried to save him, but failed and blamed himself ever after. Some time later, his father was killed in Normandy by a grenade. (HOMEVID: Wartime)

John had a younger sister. (TV: The Android Invasion) He also had an auntie, who was implied to be a medium and died in the late-1960s. (PROSE: The Eye of the Giant)

Military career
Benton was a corporal when he met the Doctor for the first time, though he was doing surveillance work rather than serving in uniform. He helped the Second Doctor against the Cybermen and Tobias Vaughn. (TV: The Invasion)

At some time before the loss of Mars Probe 7, Benton had been promoted to Sergeant. (TV: The Ambassadors of Death) This was the rank he held throughout the Third Doctor's exile and beyond. He quickly formed a close working relationship with the Doctor, Captain Mike Yates and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. (TV: Terror of the Autons) Lethbridge-Stewart, in fact, often called Benton rather than Yates when an order needed to be carried out.

Benton was a down-to-earth British infantryman and non-commissioned officer — reliable, uncomplicated and with a good dose of common sense. When the Doctor asked him if he was going to comment that his TARDIS was bigger on the inside than on the outside as everyone did, Benton's classic reply was, "Well, that's pretty obvious, isn't it?" (TV: The Three Doctors) Despite not understanding what the Doctor was doing or any of his explanations, Benton always took the Doctor at his word and trusted him implicitly. He was loyal, not just to the rank but also to the people he worked with and disobeyed orders when necessary to help them. (TV: Invasion of the Dinosaurs)

Little is known of his personal life at this time. It seems Benton was single. He was preparing for a dancing date with his sister when a crisis with Azal interrupted his plans. (TV: The Dæmons) He flirted briefly with Jo Grant and Sarah Jane Smith, (TV: Robot) though as far as is known, this never progressed beyond good-natured banter.

Benton had some memorable experiences in UNIT. He fought Daleks and Ogrons from an alternate timeline. (TV: Day of the Daleks) 's TOMTIT machine regressed him to a baby. When restored to adult form, he appeared before his UNIT colleagues stark naked. (TV: The Time Monster) Benton also worked with the current Doctor and his previous incarnation whom the Time Lords had called in to help against Omega. Benton was delighted with the reunion. It was during these events that Benton travelled for the first and only trip in the TARDIS — namely, the short journey to Omega's HQ. (TV: The Three Doctors)

Shortly after the return of the Doctor to Earth and his regeneration into his fourth incarnation, Benton was promoted to Warrant Officer — a rank which entitled him to be addressed as "Mister". (TV: Robot) As a Regimental Sergeant Major, Benton helped against the Zygons. (TV: Terror of the Zygons) He was stationed at the Space Defence Station at Devesham during the Kraals' attempted invasion of Earth, where he was replaced by one of Styggron's android duplicates. (TV: The Android Invasion)

While transporting radioactive cargo by UNIT Land Rover through the woods outside Bolton with his driver, Private Willis of the Regular Army, Benton was haunted by the ghosts of his brother and father. He overcame his feelings of guilt (which were apparently the source of these hauntings) and returned to his post in time to prevent the cargo from being hijacked by a dangerous criminal. (HOMEVID: Wartime)

Life after UNIT
In 1979, Benton had left UNIT and become a used car salesman. (TV: Mawdryn Undead) Some time later he was married and had three children. (PROSE: Genocide)

In 2010 he attended the wedding of Bernice Summerfield and Jason Kane. By this time he was in his seventies, well-tanned and stocky. (PROSE: Happy Endings)

The Eighth Doctor visited Benton and informed him that he would die soon. (PROSE: DS Al Fine)

Other information
One alternative account states that by 1986, Benton had returned to UNIT and become a commissioned officer with the rank of Lieutenant, subsequently leading a UNIT team to Antarctica to clear up the chaos left by the Cybermen's attempt to drain Earth of its energy. (PROSE: The Power of the Daleks)

Behind the scenes

 * Benton would have appeared in a cameo in TV: The Five Doctors, not recognising the Second Doctor and denying him admittance to UNIT's reunion. However John Levene declined to take up the role again on the grounds that Benton would have remembered that version of the Doctor and not made such a mistake. Instead, he was replaced by a nameless UNIT sergeant (Ray Float).
 * During his on-screen appearances, Benton's first name, John, was never given. It was first revealed in HOMEVID: Wartime, but it appeared in later, fully-licensed work, such as PROSE: Happy Endings.
 * Benton was the first companion to be portrayed by a juvenile or infant actor. (TV: The Time Monster) While such depictions are commonplace in the BBC Wales era, with Rose Tyler, Mickey Smith, Adelaide Brooke, Amy Pond, Rory Williams, River Song, Jack Harkness and Sarah Jane Smith all being seen in their infancy and/or childhoods, Benton was unique in this regard in the "classic" era.