More actions
Hypnosis, sometimes known as hypnotism or mind control, was the ability to place others into a state in which they would obey the commands of the hypnotist or believe what the hypnotist told them. Some forms of hypnosis were stronger than others. Memory erasure or alteration also could be accomplished hypnotically.
The Doctor and hypnosis[[edit] | [edit source]]
The Doctor occasionally practised hypnosis. Time Lord DNA included a psychic empathy field, indicating that all Time Lords may have been capable of hypnosis. (AUDIO: The Oseidon Adventure)
To break the mind control by the artificial intelligence WOTAN, the First Doctor used it on his companion Dodo Chaplet, leaving her asleep for 48 hours and forgetful of the accident. (TV: The War Machines)
In Det-Sen Monastery in Tibet, the Second Doctor repeatedly counteracted the mind control by the Intelligence over humans, such as monks and his companion Victoria; in the second instance, he counter-hypnotised her in order to catch information about their enemy. (TV: The Abominable Snowmen)
Even the Third Doctor proved to be able to break a state of hypnosis caused by others: on Jo Grant manipulated by the Master, through a verbal technique (TV: Terror of the Autons) or on the scientists kidnapped by the Sontaran Linx, with the help of an intermittent light. (TV: The Time Warrior) He could also resist forms of hypnosis which would defeat weaker-minded individuals, such as BOSS's conditioning at its strongest power frequency. (TV: The Green Death)
The Fourth Doctor hypnotised Sarah-Jane Smith in order to reduce her oxygen requirements inside a decompression chamber (TV: Terror of the Zygons) and to recover information about the entity that had possessed her through a Kastrian ring (TV: The Hand of Fear) simply by laying his hands on her temples. On Pluto, he once hypnotised one of the Company's guards in this way — and accidentally hypnotised a watching Leela, as well. (TV: The Sun Makers) On Ribos, instead, the Fourth Doctor used a fob watch to hypnotise a guard of a relic room. (TV: The Ribos Operation)
The Sixth Doctor once hypnotised Jamie McCrimmon by first paralysing him, then using a silver pendulum to send him into a hypnotic sleep in order to ask him questions about what happened to the Second Doctor. (TV: The Two Doctors)
On Necros, the Sixth Doctor tried to perform an eye-fixation form of hypnosis on a mutated victim of Davros' experiments. It failed and he was forced to fight the creature off. (TV: Revelation of the Daleks) Later on, the Seventh Doctor managed to control the minds of Peter Warmsly and Pat Rowlinson and convince them to evacuate Gore Crow Hotel by simple eye-fixation. (TV: Battlefield)
The Tenth Doctor used hypnosis to calm Peter Streete down and put him in a trance state, so that Peter could give him information about the Carrionites. This was performed by pressing his fingers against Peter's temples. (TV: The Shakespeare Code)
The Eleventh Doctor was able to use a form of hypnosis to make people quiet by shushing them. He used this on Craig Owens, Alfie Owens and Kelly. Craig asked the Doctor multiple times how he did it, with the Doctor explaining that it only works once. (TV: Closing Time)
The Twelfth Doctor made Rupert Pink sleep and scrambled his memory about their rendezvous, by pressing his fingers against his temples. (TV: Listen) In order to go undercover as Coal Hill School's caretaker to stop the Skovox Blitzer, the Doctor hypnotised the position's occupant, Atif Basra, into believing he had the flu, as well as a flying car and three wives. When Rupert, by then known as Danny, met the Doctor as an adult and discovered his existence, his girlfriend Clara Oswald asked the Doctor not to meddle with his mind. (TV: The Caretaker)
The Master and hypnosis[[edit] | [edit source]]
As a means to his ends, the Master frequently used hypnosis to have people perform tasks on his behalf. He most commonly did this through suggestion, uttering the phrase "I am the Master and you will obey me". However, his success rate at hypnosis was sometimes poor, owing to potential victims' stronger wills. (TV: Terror of the Autons)
While working under the alias of Professor Thascalos at the Newton Institute, the Master hypnotised its director, Charles Percival; he later commented that it had been a long time since he came across a hypnotic subject as good as Percival. It had absolutely no effect on King Dalios, however, who was too old, clever, and wise to subjugate with hypnosis. (TV: The Time Monster)
When the Third Doctor's TARDIS scanner picked up a televised appeal to the Doctor from Prime Minister Harriet Jones during the 2006 Sycorax invasion of Earth, Jo suggested that the Master had travelled to the future and hypnotised the Prime Minister to lure the Doctor into a trap. The Doctor, however, did not believe so and travelled to the future to confirm that it was not the case. (PROSE: The Christmas Inversion)
The Master failed to hypnotise Jo when she used repeated nursery rhymes to resist. (TV: Frontier in Space)
The Master tried to hypnotise Peri Brown, the Sixth Doctor's companion, using a distracting swinging implement as a focus; it failed, however. (TV: The Mark of the Rani) He also tried and failed to hypnotise Sabalom Glitz. (TV: The Ultimate Foe)
He later hypnotised the Earth on a large scale through use of the Archangel Network, subtly changing people's perception of him. (TV: The Sound of Drums)
During the ten years when the Master was stuck on the Mondasian colony ship with Bill Potts, he would sometimes keep her quiet by putting his hand on her forehead which immediately caused her to fall asleep. (TV: World Enough and Time)
Other instances of hypnosis[[edit] | [edit source]]
On Earth[[edit] | [edit source]]
Passengers of the aeroplane Golf Victor Foxtrot were hypnotised by the Xeraphin after travelling through a time corridor to the Jurassic era. (TV: Time-Flight)
Sarah-Jane Smith was put under a hypnotic trance by Hieronymous. She was told that the Fourth Doctor was an evil sorcerer and that she should kill him with a poisoned needle. The Doctor realised that she was being influenced when she questioned her ability to understand strange languages, which she had never done before. (TV: The Masque of Mandragora)
George Hutchinson was hypnotised by the Malus into helping create conflict in Little Hodcombe. The Malus fed on the psychic energy created through this. (TV: The Awakening)
Magnus Greel granted Li H'sen Chang the power of hypnosis, among others, in return for his services. (TV: The Talons of Weng-Chiang)
Professor Brett was hypnotised by WOTAN, his own creation, into aiding the robot's bid to take over Earth. Other factory workers were also hypnotised into producing the War Machines. (TV: The War Machines)
The weed creature controlled both Mr Oak and Mr Quill through hypnosis. They also received the ability to exhale toxic gas. Both of them were freed by the death of the weed creature. (TV: Fury from the Deep)
On Metebelis III and on Earth, the Eight Legs performed hypnosis on a host by attaching themselves to the back. From this position, they could govern the host. (TV: Planet of the Spiders)
Jack Harkness used hypnotic induction to focus Toshiko Sato, Gwen Cooper, Ianto Jones, and Owen Harper on their true memories before using Retcon to rid them of the memory of Adam Smith. (TV: Adam)
The Pied Piper hypnotised several children in order to abduct them, but was foiled by Mr Smith phoning them all on their mobiles, disrupting the Piper's abilities. (TV: The Day of the Clown)
The Ancient Lights took control of people all over the world through Martin Trueman's invocation of their star signs before Luke Smith stopped them. (TV: Secrets of the Stars)
.jpg)
Eve and her species had hypnotic abilities. While on Earth, Eve hypnotised homeless people into playing with her at the Danemouth Pleasure Park. When Rani Chandra discovered her, she too was hypnotised by Eve. (TV: The Mad Woman in the Attic)
Miss Myers hypnotised a worker in a nuclear power plant to serve her, and put the rest to sleep. (TV: Sky)
The hologram of Joseph Serf was able to hypnotise people. John Harrison intended for it to use this ability to influence the public into buying SerfBoards, making him rich. Sarah Jane Smith, likely due to experience, was immune to this hypnosis. (TV: The Man Who Never Was)
One of the most evident powers of the Great Intelligence was mind control. (TV: The Abominable Snowmen, The Bells of Saint John)
In the late 40th century, Sara Kingdom of Space Security Service used hypnosis to test the loyalty of Earth scientists accused of plotting with the Daleks. She used a pendulum and discovered their thoughts were read by the Daleks. (COMIC: The Brain Tappers)
Sosostris performed a hypnotism act at the New Regency Theatre for Henry Gordon Jago. She helped to break the Master's hypnotic spell over Percival Quick. (AUDIO: Masterpiece)
Professor Helen White hypnotised Andy Davidson and a number of other policemen who attended diversity seminars to stir aggression, which was boosted by radios supplied by Ro-Jedda. The same process was tested on Pete Bunton, who killed Farooq Sadiki of his own accord. (AUDIO: The Empty Hand)
In the prelude to the 2323 Dalek invasion of Earth, the Dalek interrogator hypnotised Georgette Gold, via Georgy Gold, granting the Daleks within the Golden City Zone control of the Dalek Dome's populace. The spell was broken when Georgy destroyed the interrogator's eyestalk. (COMIC: Liberation of the Daleks [+]Loading...["Liberation of the Daleks (comic story)"])
On other planets[[edit] | [edit source]]
On Marinus, the Morpho hypnotised the humanoids there into taking them as their rulers. (TV: The Keys of Marinus)
On Vortis, the Animus could control any creature that was in contact with gold, particularly its Zarbi slaves. (TV: The Web Planet)
The workers of a gas mining colony were hypnotised by the Macra into gathering them the resources they required. (TV: The Macra Terror)
Alzarian spiders could hypnotise through a venomous bite. One did so to Romana who subsequently aided the Marshmen in their attack on the Alzarian starliner. (TV: Full Circle)
The Three Who Rule gained the the power of hypnosis from the King Vampire. They used this on Romana, placing her in near-death trance. (TV: State of Decay)
The Ten, an incarnation of a Time Lord who suffered from regenerative dissonance, was a master hypnotist who used his powers to make soldiers from Gallifrey kill each other by having the first officer kill the commander, then the second officer killing the first, and so on. (AUDIO: Stop the Clock)
With technology[[edit] | [edit source]]
Borusa used the Coronet of Rassilon to bend the Fifth Doctor's will in the Tomb of Rassilon. (TV: The Five Doctors)
After the 2150s Dalek invasion of Earth, several humans were fitted with special helmets and dubbed Robomen. They served the Daleks in controlling the population. However, the process was unstable, with a high failure rate: many died on the operating table, and a high percentage of the ones that survived rejected the conversion, going insane as a result and often committing suicide. (TV: The Dalek Invasion of Earth) Davros showed to have at his disposal a device able to put both humanoids and Daleks under his control by skin contact. It flashed with a green light. (TV: Resurrection of the Daleks)
The Sontarans made use of hypnosis. Jingo Linx had several humans work for him under hypnotic influence, (TV: The Time Warrior) as did the Sontarans of the Tenth Sontaran Battle Fleet when they controlled ATMOS. The Sontarans also hypnotised UNIT privates Harris and Steve Gray. (TV: The Sontaran Stratagem, The Poison Sky)
The Fifth Doctor created a hypnosis machine that he used on Tegan. The machine also protected Tegan from the Mara. (TV: Snakedance)
A Tythonian could use its communicator to hypnotise individuals. Torvin and Edu were hypnotised into returning Erato's communicator to him. (TV: The Creature from the Pit)
The leader of the Sycorax attempted to take humans as slaves using blood control to hypnotise all those with A+ blood. The Sycorax threatened to have them commit suicide if their demands were not met, but the Tenth Doctor pointed out that survival instincts would stop them from doing so. He released them by disabling the control. (TV: The Christmas Invasion)
On Pete's World, Cybus Industries used EarPods to control the population and have them report for Cyber-conversion. (TV: The Age of Steel)
The Berserker pendant allowed its users to control others. (TV: The Mark of the Berserker)
During the war between the planets Atrios and Zeos, the Shadow controlled its pawns through a device put in their neck. Among its victims were the Marshal of Atrios and the princess Astra. The Fourth Doctor proved to be immune to the device. (TV: The Armageddon Factor)
Other references[[edit] | [edit source]]
The Aja'ib contained tales involving hypnosis. (PROSE: Bafflement and Devotion)
Behind the scenes[[edit] | [edit source]]
In Inside a Skaro Saucer, one of the non-narrative features from The Dalek World, it was stated that Super Daleks possessed hypnotic powers.
During the Seventh Doctor's run, every single serial from Dragonfire to Battlefield contains an element of mind control or hypnosis at some point.