5. Reverse The Polarity
The Doctor is clever. Very clever. When Liz Shaw asked the Third Doctor, What are you a Doctor in, exactly? He answered, Practically everything". Its strange, then, that so many of the Doctors seem so... unscientific. Problems are usually solved by lots of running, using the TARDIS or by the wave of his magic wand... sorry, Sonic Screwdriver. The Third Doctor was the scientist, the engineer. He had his own laboratory and was always fiddling about with machinery, gadgets and technology. He beat the baddies by lashing together a doo-hickey with wires, valves and lights. If he came across a dangerous piece of tech, he rolled up his sleeves and re-engineered it. His favourite trick was to reverse the polarity. This meant that the doomsday device worked backwards and destroyed its evil creators instead, which is always handy. During his exile, he practically rebuilt the TARDIS to try and get it to work again. He also souped up the aforementioned Bessie and created the Whomobile. Best of all, he did it old school by twisting wires and soldering connections. He did have the Sonic Screwdriver but he mostly used it as a remote control, scanner or detonator, none of this wave-it-over-the-machine-and-make-it-do-whatever-you-want nonsense like today. The closest any Doctor has got to this since is the Twelfth. He chalks immense and unfathomable calculations on blackboards fixed to the TARDIS wall. This would be a little theoretical for the grease-monkey Third, but it's definitely a welcome return to his scientific flavour.
Stephen Allsop
Contributor
Older than some and taller than most. Grey of eye and white of beard.
Stephen's book 'Hiding', about a boy who meets a goblin in a local wood, is available to download from the usual places. Think of it as a scavenger hunt.
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