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Reverse Polarity: Difference between revisions
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'''Harley Quinn:''' I don't know... [[Take That|but it always works on]] ''[[Star Trek|Star Quest]]''.|''[[Gotham Girls]]'', "Cold Hands, Cold Heart"}}
When a major obstacle in a [[Science Fiction]] show is resolved purely through the judicious application of [[Techno Babble]], the characters have successfully Reversed the Polarity. It seems that every futuristic gadget or space ship subsystem performs some miraculous function if only you route the power through it ''backwards''. [[Beam Me Up, Scotty|Urban legend has it]] the expression originated on ''[[Doctor Who]]''. In reality, the phrase "Reverse the Polarity" [[Older Than They Think|can be traced back at least as far back as]] a [[Carl Barks]] comic in March 1961, and as mentioned below, ''[[Forbidden Planet]]'' in 1956 had "Stand by to reverse polarity" as an apparently standard procedure when landing the starship. However, it was popularized by ''[[Doctor Who]],'' as Jon Pertwee asked the writers for a simple piece of [[Techno Babble]] he could reliably deliver. The version most associated with the Third Doctor is "reverse the polarity of the neutron flow", although he [[Beam Me Up, Scotty|only said it once]] during his time as the Doctor.
A type of [[Applied Phlebotinum]], Reversing the Polarity is the be-all end-all technical solution for any problem. Usually only thought of at the very end of the show ("Captain... we could reverse the polarity of the positron toilet and send a stream of charged crap particles ''toward'' the Romulans, rather than ''away''..."). It always works. Always.
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