Cliches are funny things, they can be both annoying and undetectable, depending on how they are handled, and in some cases they can be necessary as well. When Doctor Who was started in the early sixties, it became apparent that a couple cliches were needed for the show’s weekly serial adventure concept to work.

The Doctor was set to be not only the shows name sake and star, but also the brains of the operation, the one who would be coming up with the solutions to all the sticky situations the crew of the Tardis would be getting into.

They also had Barbara and Susan, one a history teacher who would be both a fount of knowledge in the historical episodes and along with Susan would find herself in the (cliche) typical trouble female leads found themselves at the time, although Susan did break the mold of the usual teen age girl in certain aspects, being an alien who had been traveling alongside her grandfather the Doctor for a long time.

Most cliche ridden of all was science teacher Ian Chesterton, who also was to be the action man of the series, the one who would do all of the physical fighting and have the bumpiest ride along the way, getting to experience the terror of being both a Roman slave and the glory of being knighted by King Richard the Lionheart, not to mention having to endure a traveling companion in the Doctor who could not get his name right.

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