Polly Wright

Portrayed by: Anneke Wills
Travelled with: First Doctor, Second Doctor
Series: Classic

Polly Wright was a companion of the First and Second Doctor after joining the TARDIS crew with fellow companion, Ben Jackson. Unlike Ben, Polly was a middle-classed person, child of Dr. Edward Wright and his wife, the former Miss Bettingham-Smith. Prior to meeting the First Doctor, Polly lived in Chealsea, London, as a typical 20-something year old in the 1960’s. Polly worked as Professor Brett’s personal assistant, though she was unhappy that WOTAN was able to type faster and more accurately than she could. Polly had an active social life, enjoying her time away from work, with one of her favourite spots being the Inferno nightclub, where she met the cockney sailor Ben Jackson and the First Doctor, who had expected to meet his previous companion, Dodo. After Dodo failed to show up, the First Doctor left with Polly and Ben instead, where they undertook a fight against the WOTAN, though Polly became side-lined after she fell under the WOTAN’s mind control. After the battle, where the WOTAN was destroyed by one of its own War Machines, the Doctor bid farewell to Polly and Ben before entering the TARDIS. Polly noted that the Doctor used a key to enter, and convinced Ben to try a key that he had gained after it fell from the Doctor’s cloak and the duo ended up inside the TARDIS just before it took off in The War Machines (Classic Series).

Polly Wright with fellow companion, Ben Jackson, and the First Doctor in The War Machines

During her travels with the Doctor, Polly was taken to 17th Century Cornwall, where they met smugglers in The Smugglers (Classic Series), to the South Pole in 1986 where she helped fight the Cybermen in The Tenth Planet (Classic Series), which resulted in the First Doctor’s regeneration, witnessed by Ben and Polly. Polly adjusted quicker to the Doctor’s regeneration than Ben. During her adventures, Polly was a confident person who was not afraid to use her feminine wiles, using both her attractiveness and femininity to enlist the assistance of Redcoat Algernon Ffinch when the TARDIS crew were in the Scottish Highlands, and convinced the other girls to use their femininity to trick Algernon into a pit in The Highlanders (Classic Series). During an adventure in Atlantis, Polly became the subject of a conversion attempt to turn her into a Fish Person, though the Doctor was able to interrupt the power supply, ceasing the operation and allowing her to escape Damon’s medical bay and re-join the TARDIS crew. Despite Polly’s beauty, she regularly proved herself to be more than just a pretty face. On the Moonbase in 2070, Polly devised a cocktail solution to destroy the Cybermen, which would later be named Cocktail Polly by Ben in The Moonbase (Classic Series). Polly enjoyed her adventures and travels with the Doctor as part of the TARDIS crew, but her desire to return home over won her desire to travel when the opportunity arose. After adventuring with the alien Chameleons in 1966, Polly and Ben chose to depart the TARDIS together when it landed in London, a short time prior to their original departure with the First Doctor, where they both returned to their lives. Polly usually treated her close fellows with teasing banter and chose to hide her affection for others, particularly Ben, behind this façade. If her friends, again particular Ben, were in danger though, Polly became very serious about the situation, working towards practical solutions to help them. However, just as Barbara Wright and Ian Chesterton, Polly chose to leave the TARDIS when it landed as close to the mid-1960’s London as possible in The Faceless Ones (Classic Series). Sarah Jane Smith noted in the Sarah Jane Adventures story, Death of the Doctor, that both Ben and Polly were running an orphanage in India in 2010.