John Benton was a member of UNIT during the Third Doctor's exile on Earth, and after. 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.
Biography
Early life
John Benton's grandfather met the Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler in the trenches of World War I in 1914. (IDW: The Forgotten) Likewise, John Benton's father also served in the military. As a boy, John looked up to him and wanted to be just like him. However, his brother, Chris Benton, did not want to be a soldier. (RP: Wartime)
In 1944, while his father was on embarkation leave, the Benton family had a picnic in the woods outside Bolton. While the boys played, Chris fell from a tower to his death. John tried to save him but failed, blaming himself ever since. Sometime afterwards, his father was killed in Normandy by a grenade. (RP: Wartime)
John Benton also had a younger sister (DW: The Android Invasion). He also had an Auntie, who was implied to be a Medium and died in the late-1960s. (MA: The Eye of the Giant)
Military career
Corporal Benton completes surveillance work. (DW: The Invasion)
Benton met the the Second Doctor while he was a Corporal and helped him against the Cybermen and Tobias Vaughn, though when he met the Doctor he was doing surveillance work rather than serving in uniform. (DW: The Invasion)
By the time of the Doctor's regeneration and exile, Benton had been promoted to Sergeant and quickly formed a close working relationship with the Doctor, Captain Mike Yates and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. Lethbridge-Stewart, in fact, usually called Benton rather than Yates when an order needed to be carried out.
Benton was always a down-to-earth example of a 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 (since everyone did), Benton's classic reply was, "Well, that's pretty obvious, isn't it?" (DW: The Three Doctors) Despite not understanding the specifics of what the Doctor was doing or any of his explanations, Benton always took the Doctor at his word and trusted him implicitly. Benton was loyal, not just to the rank but also to the people he worked with, and was willing to disobey orders to help them. (DW: Invasion of the Dinosaurs)
Little, though, is known of his personal life at this point, though it seems Benton was at that time single and preparing for a dancing date with his sister when a crisis with Azal interrupted his plans. (DW: The Dæmons) He flirted briefly with Jo Grant and Sarah Jane Smith, though as we far as we know this never progressed beyond the level of good-natured banter.
Benton, after being regressed to a baby. (DW: The Time Monster)
Benton had some memorable experiences during his time in UNIT. He fought against the Daleks. (DW: Day of the Daleks) The Master's TOMTIT machine had the effect of regressing Benton to a baby. When restored to adult form he appeared before his UNIT colleagues stark naked. (DW: The Time Monster) Benton also worked alongside both the current Doctor and the Doctor's previous incarnation, whom the Time Lords had called in to help against Omega. Benton was delighted with the reunion and with the chance to work alongside him. (DW: The Three Doctors)
Shortly before the return of the Doctor to Earth and his regeneration into his fourth incarnation, Benton was promoted to Warrant Officer. (DW: Robot) As a Regimental Sergeant Major, Benton helped against the Zygons. (DW: 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. (DW: The Android Invasion)
While transporting radioactive cargo through the woods outside Bolton with Private Willis, Benton was haunted by the ghosts of his brother and father. However, he was eventually able to overcome 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. (RP: Wartime)
Life after UNIT
In 1979, Benton left UNIT. He became a used car salesman. (DW: Mawdryn Undead) Some time later he was married and had three children. (EDA: 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. (NA: Happy Endings)
Apocryphal information
One alternative account states that by 1986, Benton had returned to UNIT and became a commissioned officer with the rank of Lieutenant, subsequently leading a UNIT team to Antarctica to clear up the chaos left in the wake of the Cybermen's attempt to drain Earth of its energy. (DWN: The Power of the Daleks)
Behind the scenes
- Benton would have appeared in a cameo in DW: 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 the character of Colonel Charles Crichton.
- During his onscreen appearances, Benton's first name was never given. It was only revealed in Wartime.
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