Third Doctor

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The Doctor
The Third Doctor
Portrayed by Jon Pertwee
Tenure 1970–1974
First appearance Spearhead from Space
Last appearance Planet of the Spiders (regular)
The Five Doctors (guest star)
Number of series 5
Appearances 24 stories (128 episodes)
Companions Liz, Jo, Sarah
Related Articles
Preceding Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton)
Succeeding Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker)
Series Seasons 7 to 11

The Third Doctor is the name given to the third incarnation of the Doctor seen on screen in the long-running BBC television science-fiction series Doctor Who. He was portrayed by actor Jon Pertwee.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

After the Doctor was found guilty of breaking the Time Lord laws of non-interference and forced to regenerate, he began his third incarnation in exile on 20th century Earth. The Third Doctor immediately formed a working relationship with UNIT, an international organisation tasked to investigate and defend the Earth against extraterrestrial threats. It was a partnership initially born out of convenience — the Doctor required facilities to try to repair his TARDIS to break the exile, and UNIT needed his expertise in combating the threats they encountered.

The Doctor also developed a good working relationship with Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, whom he had first encountered in his previous incarnation fighting Yeti and the Cybermen. As well as the Brigadier, he developed friendships with other regular UNIT colleagues including Sergeant Benton and Captain Mike Yates. When meteorites were seen falling to Earth in Essex, the Doctor together with a UNIT scientist named Liz Shaw were to face the Autons for the first time. The Autons were to be one of the Doctor's recurring foes. After facing Silurians, the so-called Ambassadors of Death and the Inferno project, Liz was replaced as the Doctor's assistant by a feisty but slightly scatter-brained young woman named Jo Grant.

After meeting Jo, the Third Doctor was to run into one of his most deadly foes — the Master. A renegade Time Lord, the Master plagued the Third Doctor with his diabolical schemes, including the summoning of an ancient Dæmon, and unleashing the terrifyingly powerful Kronos, a Chronovore. The Doctor's exile continued until it was lifted by the Time Lords after he helped save them from destruction at the hands of Omega. The Third Doctor, free to roam space and time again, soon ran into the Master and an even older enemy — the Daleks. Although the Master was a criminal genius, the Doctor was always able to outwit him in all his schemes. Whilst facing the ecological destruction wrought by Global Chemicals and the super computer BOSS, Jo met and fell in love with Dr. Clifford Jones. Marrying Jones and following him to the Amazon on an expedition, Jo left a saddened Doctor.

After being joined by the fiercely independent investigative journalist Sarah Jane Smith, the TARDIS took the Doctor to several more adventures including defeating the Sontarans in medieval England and the Daleks on the planet Exxilon. The Third Doctor contracted radiation poisoning on the planet Metebelis 3, during the events of Planet of the Spiders. When the TARDIS brought him back to UNIT headquarters, he collapsed, regenerating into the Fourth Doctor.

[edit] Personality

The Third Doctor was a suave, authoritative man of action, who not only practiced Venusian aikido, but who enjoyed working on gadgets and riding all manner of vehicles, such as the Whomobile and his pride and joy, the canary-yellow vintage roadster nicknamed "Bessie" whose engine he augmented. Occasionally camp but always charismatic, this Doctor had a personal manner of dress which is the most ornate of his various incarnations, favouring a frilled shirt, smoking jacket and opera cape for his regular outfit.

While this incarnation had spent most of his time exiled on Earth, where he grudgingly worked as UNIT's scientific advisor, he would occasionally be sent on covert missions by the Time Lords, where he would often act as a reluctant mediator. Even though he developed a fondness for Earthlings with whom he worked (such as Liz Shaw and Jo Grant), he would jump at any chance to return to the stars with the enthusiasm of a far younger man than himself (as can be seen in his frivolous attitude in The Mutants). If this Doctor had a somewhat patrician and authoritarian air, he was just as quick to criticise authority too—having little patience with self-inflated bureaucrats, parochially-narrow ministers, knee-jerk militarists or red tape in general. His courageousness could easily turn to waspish indignation.

Despite his arrogance, the Third Doctor genuinely cared for his companions in a paternal fashion, and even held a thinly-veiled but grudging admiration for his nemesis, the Master, and for UNIT's leader, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, with whom he eventually became friends. In fact, even when his much resented exile was lifted, the highly moral and dashing Third Doctor continued to help UNIT protect the Earth from all manner of alien threats.

This incarnation of the Doctor was the first incarnation to attack an enemy physically if he was cornered; both of his previous incarnations would always attempt to dodge, flee or attempt to persuade hostiles to stop their attack rather than directly defend themselves. However, he would only use his fighting skills if he had no alternative; it must also be noted that he never actually started a fight.

[edit] Story style

The Third Doctor stories were the first to be broadcast in colour. The early ones were set on Earth due to cost constraints on the series. To explain this, the Second Doctor was banished to Earth by his race the Time Lords, and forced to regenerate. On Earth he worked with the Brigadier and the rest of the UNIT team. However, as his tenure progressed he had reasons to leave Earth, on occasions being sent on missions by the Time Lords. Eventually, after his defeat of the renegade Omega in The Three Doctors he was granted complete freedom by the Time Lords in gratitude for saving Gallifrey.

The Third Doctor's era introduced many of the Doctor's more memorable adversaries. Aside from the Autons, the Master, and Omega, the Sontarans, the Silurians and the Sea Devils all made their debut during this period.

[edit] "Reverse the polarity"

The catchphrase most associated with the Third Doctor's era is probably "reverse the polarity of the neutron flow". The phrase was Pertwee's way of dealing with the technobabble that he was required to speak as the Doctor. He wanted something all purpose and easy to remember instead of myriad made-up dialogue, and Terrance Dicks provided him with the phrase.

Many fans of the show believe that this is a scientific impossibility. In actuality, it is possible for neutrons to flow and, since neutrons have a magnetic moment[1], it is possible in theory (although difficult in practice) to have a stream of neutrons polarised along or against their direction of motion. Given this, such a polarity could presumably be reversed. However, the phrase is still meaningless in the contexts in which the series uses it.

Pertwee did not use the phrase as often as popular belief has it. The Third Doctor only said the full phrase "reverse the polarity of the neutron flow" once on screen during his tenure — in The Sea Devils — and also in the 1983 20th Anniversary special The Five Doctors. Pertwee did use the phrase again in 1989 when he acted in the stage play Doctor Who - The Ultimate Adventure. (When Colin Baker took over the lead role in the play he amended the line to "Reverse the linetry of the proton flow.") In the radio play The Paradise of Death the Brigadier asks "Reverse the polarity of the neutron flow?" and the Doctor proceeds to explain that the phrase is meaningless.

On four other occasions on screen, the Third Doctor simply "reversed the polarity" of other things. He tells Ruth to reverse the temporal polarity of the TOMTIT device in The Time Monster; reverses the polarity of his sonic screwdriver in Frontier in Space; reverses the polarity of some dismantled circuitry in Planet of the Daleks; and tells Osgood to reverse the polarity of the diathermic energy exchanger in The Dæmons.

The full phrase was used in several Target novelisations. It was subsequently used by the Fourth Doctor (in City of Death) and the Fifth Doctor (in Castrovalva and Mawdryn Undead). Together with The Five Doctors this resulted in the phrase being used as a nostalgic reference three times as often as it was originally said.

The phrase has entered geek culture, although this has been more through its use as technobabble in Star Trek: The Next Generation and its later spin-offs (see, for example, its use in this Penny Arcade strip).

[edit] Title sequence and logo

The original title sequence for the Third Doctor's seasons was an extension of the animated "howlaround" kaleidoscopic patterns used for the previous Doctors, incorporating Pertwee's face and adding colour to showcase Doctor Who being broadcast in colour for the first time. In the Third Doctor's final season, a new title sequence was introduced, designed by Bernard Lodge. Partially inspired by the slit-scan hyperspace sequence in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, one portion of this sequence is the prototype for the classic time tunnel sequence of the Fourth Doctor's seasons. The Third Doctor's final season also introduced the equally classic diamond logo which would remain in use until 1980.

[edit] Later appearances

The Third Doctor would appear in one further (official) story, the 20th anniversary special The Five Doctors, broadcast in 1983. However, where it takes place within the Third Doctor's chronology is unclear. Pertwee played the role on screen one last time in the 1993 charity special Dimensions in Time.

[edit] Other appearances

[edit] Audio drama

[edit] Novels

[edit] Virgin Missing Adventures

[edit] Past Doctor Adventures

[edit] Eighth Doctor Adventures

[edit] Telos Doctor Who novellas

[edit] Comics

[edit] TV Comic

  • The Arkwood Experiments
  • The Multi-Mobile
  • Insect
  • The Metal Eaters
  • The Fishmen of Carpantha
  • Doctor Who and the Rocks from Venus
  • Doctor Who and the Robot
  • Trial by Fire
  • The Kingdom Builders
  • Children of the Evil Eye
  • Nova
  • The Amateur
  • The Disintegrator
  • Is Anyone There?
  • Size Control
  • The Magician
  • The Metal Eaters
  • Lords of the Ether
  • The Wanderers

[edit] TV Comic Specials

  • Assassin From Space
  • Undercover

[edit] TV Comic Annuals

  • Castaway
  • Levitation
  • Petrified

[edit] TV Action

  • Gemini Plan
  • Timebenders
  • The Vogan Slaves
  • The Celluloid Midas
  • Backtime
  • The Eternal Present
  • *Subzero
  • The Planet of the Daleks
  • A Stitch in Time
  • The Enemy From Nowhere
  • The Ugrakks
  • Steelfist
  • Zeron Invasion
  • Deadly Choice
  • Who is the Stranger
  • The Glen of Sleeping
  • The Threat From Beneath
  • kcaB to the Sun
  • The Labyrinth
  • The Spoilers
  • The Vortex
  • The Unheard Voice

[edit] TV Action Specials

  • Fogbound
  • Secret of the Tower
  • Doomcloud
  • Perils of Paris
  • Who's Who?

[edit] TV Action Annuals

  • The Plant Master
  • Ride to Nowhere
  • The Hungry Planet

[edit] Doctor Who Magazine

  • Change of Mind
  • The Man in the Ion Mask
  • Target Practice

[edit] Radio and audio dramas

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
 v • d • e The Doctors
First Doctor (William Hartnell) | Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton)
Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee) | Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker)
Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison) | Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker)
Seventh Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) | Eighth Doctor (Paul McGann)
Ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) | Tenth Doctor (David Tennant)
Other Doctors
Cushing Doctor (Peter Cushing) | Shalka Doctor (Richard E. Grant)
 v • d • e Companions of the Third Doctor
Season 7 Season 8 Season 9 Season 10 Season 11
051 052 053 054 055 056 057 058 059 060 061 062 063 064 065 066 067 068 069 070 071 072 073 074
Liz Jo Sarah→
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