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Reverse Polarity: Difference between revisions
Removed "Sixth Column" example -- the "rays" didn't flip polarity, they were tunable across a wide spectrum, one point of which affected only microorganisms, and one subsection of which acted as a "spectrum of human races" that could be affected
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Looney Toons (talk | contribs) (Removed "Sixth Column" example -- the "rays" didn't flip polarity, they were tunable across a wide spectrum, one point of which affected only microorganisms, and one subsection of which acted as a "spectrum of human races" that could be affected) |
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{{quote|'''Harley Quinn:''' ''holding a raygun'' Don't come any closer, or I'll... (''reads label on her raygun'') reverse polarity!
''[[Beat|*Odd look*]]''
'''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.
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{{examples}}
== Anime
* This once happened in ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'''s English dub when Team Rocket tried to get hold of two Luvdisc, and then reverse the polarity to get rid of all of the love in the world. [[Goldfish Poop Gang|This being Team Rocket]], it's pretty much an [[Affectionate Parody]] of the trope. The original version just has them wanting the Luvdisc captured for an ongoing Team Rocket project.
** In ''[[Pokémon: Jirachi Wishmaker]]'', Butler makes a machine that is supposed to create a live Groudon from its fossilized remains. When the machine creates an enormous evil monster instead, he is able to make the machine destroy Groudon by simply reversing the direction of the fossil and the levers.
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== Literature ==
* Subverted in one of the fiction-chapters of ''[[Discworld/The Science of Discworld|The Science of Discworld]]''. After the Roundworld is transformed into a snowball (Ice Age), the Dean proposes (after four glasses of sherry) to "get [[Magitek|Hex]] to reverse the [[Magi Babble|thaumic flow]] in the cthonic matrix of the optimized bi-direction [[Arc Number|octagonate]]" to fix it. The Archchancellor replies that he would prefer a non-gibberish opinion.
** Also in ''Discworld'', there's a spell called the "Rite of Ashk Ente" which summons Death to you, in order to partake in his wisdom. Alberto Malich thought that if the spell makes Death go to you, then performing it ''backwards'' would make Death go ''away''. However, he soon finds out that there is another way to consider the spell backwards: sending you directly to Death (which, oddly enough, worked out pretty well for him).
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