Ben was a Cockney merchant seaman who was tough, resourceful and independently-minded. He was in awe of the first Doctor, but with the gentler, somewhat vaguer second Doctor, he could rely much more on his own initiative.

He and Polly were about as different as they could possibly have been, but when they decide to stay on Earth, it seemed as though their future was together in The Faceless Ones

Other Appearances

In the spin-off short story "Mondas Passing" by Paul Grice (in the anthology Short Trips) which takes place in 1986, it is revealed that Ben and Polly have gone their separate ways and married other people. Ben meets a divorced Polly again with the help of the Second Doctor in 1999 ("That Time I Nearly Destroyed The World Whilst Looking For a Dress" by Joseph Lidster, published in Short Trips: Past Tense), where the two admit their love for each other. The canonicity of the spin-offs is unclear.