Doctor Who: 10 Bizarre Powers You Forgot The Doctor Has

8. Mind Control And Hypnosis

Doctor Who Terror Of The Zygons Tom Baker
BBC

A power that was seen more in the classic era than the modern era - which means that newer fans might not be aware of it - the Doctor is capable of hypnotising other beings in order to make them act in a certain way, or to acquire information from them.

One of the earliest examples of this can be found in the 1972 serial The Curse Of Peladon, in which the Third Doctor hypnotises a creature called Aggedor by singing a weird chant and using a spinning handheld mirror.

Then, when the Fourth Doctor entered the picture, this ability was seen once again.

In Terror Of The Zygons, he hypnotises Sarah Jane so that she can survive without air, and this time, he doesn't even need a mirror or a chant - he just uses his voice (and his crazy bug-eyes). He then hypnotises Sarah Jane for a second time in The Hand Of Fear, putting her into a trance so that he can ask her a few important questions.

Other classic Doctors have also displayed similar abilities too, and there are even instances of the Doctor performing different types of hypnosis in the modern era of the show, although here, the examples become less frequent.

While the Doctor's various psychic powers - erasing people's memories, mind reading, etc - are quite well-known, his hypnosis ability is something that fans definitely overlook, and we often forget how strong it truly is.

Just think about it: the Doctor seems capable of hypnotising any life form, to make them do anything he wants. It's like he has a version of the Harry Potter Imperius Curse that he can perform willy-nilly, and that's pretty damn overpowered no matter which way you look at it.

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Danny has been with WhatCulture for over ten years, and is currently Doctor Who Editor and WhoCulture Channel Manager, overseeing all of WhatCulture's Whoniverse coverage. In 2022, he took charge of WhoCulture and has grown it into the biggest Doctor Who channel on YouTube, and one of the biggest Doctor Who communities on the web full-stop. He has been writing and video editing since his early teens, and first got a taste for content creation after making his own Doctor Who trailers, off the back of a burning obsession with the Matt Smith era of the show. Like many his age, he first got into Doctor Who with the 2005 revival, but has since gone back and fallen in love with the classic years too. If you need someone to recite every Doctor Who episode in order, or to give you a random factoid about the making of Gridlock, Danny is the person to ask!