Favorite Characters: Polly Wright (Doctor Who)

Subsequent classic Doctors, especially Two and Four, have more companion variety on a very upfront level, but I also think many of One’s companions are nicely varied in subtler ways.  Polly, who begins as One’s companion and then carries over into Two, manages to always feel like her own person without a lot of specificity, which is a pretty commendable feat.

Polly (along with Ben) meets the Doctor and Dodo in London during the swinging ‘60s.  She’s not quite the put-together woman Barbara was, but she’s not really a girl like Susan or Dodo either.  She’s very self-assured, cool as a cucumber, and she both has a decent job and likes to have a good time.  She’s naturally curious – always a must for any good companion – and has a take-charge attitude with a head for creative problem-solving.  The Doctor may not have intended for her to be a companion, since she and Ben wind up on the TARDIS as unintentional stowaways, but she’s certainly a good fit for it.

Traveling with the Doctor and Ben, and with Jamie later making a fourth in the TARDIS, Polly is the only woman on the bunch, but she holds her own pretty well.  Even though a big part of the companion’s job is getting into trouble/getting captured, it’s easy for the balance to feel skewed when there’s a mixed TARDIS crew with only one female.  It’s hard to tell if the woman is actually the one who does the lion’s share of the getting captured or if it just seems that way.  Polly, though, generally makes a good showing.  She gets captured on occasion (and when she does, it can feel like she’s more likely to need rescuing than to rescue herself,) but just as often, she’s scheming to rescue her friends, like when Ben, Jamie, and Two are arrested by the redcoats in “The Highlanders.”  And when she’s captured alongside one of her friends, like when she and Ben are nabbed in “The Smugglers,” she’s usually good for a clever idea to get out of it.

Polly really enjoys life with the Doctor.  I always love the brief moments after the TARDIS has landed where the companions just get to have a good time – before everything inevitably goes crazy – and Polly always makes the most of these moments.  Whether it’s basking in a spa resort, leaping around the surface of the moon, or just strolling along a beach, I feel her enthusiasm for traveling and seeing new things, which is always a plus.  She’s also pretty quick to roll with the punches where her new friends are concerned.  She becomes very in-sync with Ben very quickly, she has a lot more patience than Ben for Jamie’s 18^th-century knowledge gaps, and when the First Doctor regenerates into Two, it doesn’t take her long at all to adjust to the idea of him still being the same man, just different.

If Polly gets flack as a companion, it’s largely over the tea/coffee.  There are numerous instances where she’s sent out to make/fetch tea or coffee for the others, and at least one serial ends with Ben urging her to put the kettle on.  Yes, it is conspicuous that it’s the only woman who consistently winds up with tea-making duty, but for me, I think these complaints are generally overmagnified.  Sometimes, it feels like they suggest that’s all that Polly does, and that’s far from the truth.  She’s a smart cookie who contributes a lot, and I’m glad a few of the series 4 serials have been recovered so I’ve had a chance to see her in action more.

Top Five Big Damn Hero Moments: Polly Wright (Doctor Who)

Polly is a good “smart cookie,” a companion who can often be counted on for a clever plan in a pinch.  That’s what most of her Big Damn Hero moments are, bright ideas when they’re needed most (spoilers.)

Tricking Tom (Series 4, Episode 2 – “The Smugglers:  Episode 2”)

Polly and Ben have been locked up under false charges (as tends to happen with the Doctor and his friends,) and Polly gets the idea to use old-timey superstitions to their advantage.  Using some straw to make a fake voodoo doll, she goes into a “trance” and soon has Tom thinking she’s a witch.  Rather than face her wrath, the lad lets her and Ben go free.

Gaining an Ally (Series 4, Episode 7 – “The Tenth Planet:  Episode 3”)

The Doctor recognizes that Barclay isn’t as keen to set off the Z-bomb as Cutler, and he sends Polly to recruit his help.  Polly’s always been good with people, and it isn’t long before she coaxes the nervous tech onto their side.  While Barclay figures out how to sabotage the rocket, Polly’s the one who suggests doing it in the first place, as a way to defy Cutler without him knowing it was them.

Getting the Jump on Ffinch (Series 4, Episode 16 – “The Highlanders:  Episode 2”)

Oh man, I love Polly here.  This Redcoat thinks he’s got things perfectly in hand with these two girls, but Polly walks all over him.  After luring him into the same animal pit she and Kirsty have fallen down, Polly swipes his identity disc for blackmail purposes and gets him to hand over his purse while Kirsty holds him at gunpoint.  When they meet up again in the village later, it’s clear that Polly has Ffinch wrapped around her little finger and can easily make him dance to her tune.

Rescuing the Doctor and Ramos (Series 4, Episode 21 – “The Underwater Menace:  Episode 3”)

Another bright idea.  When guards are closing in on the Doctor and Ramos in the temple, Polly is in the perfect position to create a diversion.  She’s hidden in a secret passage behind a statue, where she discovers an amplifier used to stage “messages from the gods” – using it, she commands the guards to all bow down, which gives the Doctor and Ramos an opportunity to slip away.

Finding the Cybermen’s Weakness (Series 4, Episode 25 – “The Moonbase:  Episode 3”)

More clever Polly for the win!  Noting that the Cybermen’s breathing apparatus is made of plastic, she gets the idea to dissolve/fuse it using nail varnish.  In the infirmary, she mixes up a compound from different cleaning fluids until she gets the concoction she needs, then she and the boys arm themselves with spray bottles to attack the Cybermen.  Way to go, Polly!