Polly first appeared in the First Doctor serial, The War Machines, where she was working as a secretary to Professor Brett. Brett developed the artificial intelligence known as WOTAN, and Polly met the Doctor and Dodo when they came to investigate it. Polly befriended Dodo and took her to a London nightclub called the Inferno, where they met Ben Jackson and tried to cheer up the merchant seaman. When Polly was accosted by another patron in the Inferno, Ben came to her rescue. Eventually, Ben and Polly aided the Doctor in his fight against WOTAN when the computer tried to take over the world. They were bearers of Dodo's decision to stay in 1966 to the Doctor, and accidentally got carried away in the TARDIS when they tried to return Dodo's key to the time machine.

Polly, in contrast to Dodo, was a more sophisticated and hip young woman of the 1960s — vivacious, attractive, and alternately shy and aggressive. She and Ben were an odd couple, but she was receptive to Ben's protective urges, and he in turn found her elegant and posh, giving her the nickname "Duchess". Polly was present with Ben when the First Doctor regenerated into the Second, and continued to travel with the Second Doctor though left in the Faceless Ones.

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