Polly

Last updated 28 March 2020


Polly -
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Polly Wright


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Polly Wright was a companion to the first and second incarnations of the Doctor, and was one of the very first people to witness the Doctor regenerating. She travelled in the TARDIS with her future husband Ben Jackson and Jamie McCrimmon.

Before meeting the Doctor, Polly was a typical 1960s London twenty-something. She lived in Chelsea, worked as Professor Brett's personal assistant and was unhappy that WOTAN's typing was faster and more accurate than hers. She had an active social life and enjoyed her time off work. On 20 July, 1966, she met Ben Jackson at one of her favourite haunts, the Inferno nightclub, where they were joined by the First Doctor, who expected to find Dodo Chaplet there. When Dodo failed to show by closing time, the three went out into the night together and soon became embroiled in the fight against WOTAN. Polly's mind fell under WOTAN's control. Ben freed her just as WOTAN was destroyed by one of its own War Machines. When Ben and she found the Doctor beside an old police box, Polly told him Dodo would be staying in England. Miffed, the Doctor bid the couple adieu. As they walked away, Polly turned to see the Doctor had used a key to enter the police box. Remembering that Ben had found a key that had earlier fallen out of the Doctor's cloak, she dragged Ben back to the police box to see if it would fit. They ended up inside the ship just as it took off.

The Doctor first took Polly and Ben to 17th century Cornwall, where they ran into smugglers.

In Antarctica in December 1986, Polly helped fight off an invasion by Cybermen from Mondas. After these events, the Doctor, exhausted, collapsed and went through his first regeneration.

On the planet Vulcan, Polly adjusted quickly to the Doctor's having changed into a new and younger persona, while Ben was less accepting the change, speculating that an imposter had replaced the Doctor. On Vulcan, Polly and Ben encountered the Doctor's archenemies, the Daleks.

Polly was confident and not afraid to use her feminine wiles to enlist the help of Redcoat Algernon Ffinch while the travellers were in the Scottish Highlands. Polly also encouraged Kirsty McLaren to lure Algernon into a pit, where they took his money, identity disc and a lock of his hair. She struck up a relationship with Ffinch and teased him whenever they met, calling him "Algy". She realised that he admired her and gave him a kiss goodbye. Polly asked for the young Jacobite piper, Jamie McCrimmon, to come with them in the TARDIS, as she feared for his safety.

When Polly found herself in Atlantis, she was initially slated to be converted into a Fish Person. The Doctor interrupted the power supply as her operation was about to begin, allowing her to escape Damon's medical bay and rejoin her friends. She took on the disguise of an Atlantean in a seashell dress. She and Jamie escaped the rising water that flooded Atlantis, fearing that the Doctor and Ben had perished. They were relieved to find that they too had survived.

Polly was more than just a pretty face. When the TARDIS crew arrived on the Moonbase in 2070 and faced the Cybermen, she soon realised the Cybermen's plastic parts could be attacked with a mixture of solvents. She thought of the way nail polish was dissolved by nail varnish remover and concocted a mixture including acetone, benzene, ether and epoxy propane to make a substance, called "Cocktail Polly" by Ben, which was shot at the Cybermen with adapted fire extinguishers.

Although Polly enjoyed her adventures, she couldn't hide her desire to return home. After an adventure with the alien Chameleons in 1966, the travellers found the TARDIS had returned to London just before they had departed. With Ben, Polly left the TARDIS and returned to her life, appearing never to have been missing.

At some point, Polly was taken to the Black Archive by UNIT to have her record as a companion of the Doctor taken, her memories of the visit were subsequently erased and she was sent on her way.

In 2010, Sarah Jane Smith said that Ben and Polly were running an orphanage together in India.

Biography from the TARDIS Data Core article, licensed under CC-BY-SA