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Doctor Who: Psychic Paper Is One of The Show's Best Inventions Ever

Psychic paper is the coolest, most underrated invention ever on Doctor Who, and it's the best symbol for not only the show but all stories.

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Doctor Who has a lot of gadgets, characters and inventions that could sell toys, but the most underrated invention on the show might be the Doctor's psychic paper. The Doctor carries it around in a wallet and flashes it to fool people into believing whatever official cover identity the Doctor is posing as to be given access to a place to investigate stuff.

Psychic paper is supposed to be a telepathic interface. It's blank, and the Doctor projects whatever identification they say they are onto, and the viewer of the paper would see, or think they see, a photo ID. Health inspector, cop, detective, anything the Doctor made up as long as it sounded official. It's a prime tool for social engineering, which is the fancy upmarket word for "con job". Maybe the reason tie-in psychic paper merchandise isn't sold is that it's just a blank piece of paper in any wallet. Anyone could create their own psychic paper toy with just a wallet and a piece of paper. It's in keeping with showrunner Russell T. Davies' new philosophy that anyone could cosplay the Doctor now by literally wearing anything. The Doctor is a state of mind, and so is psychic paper.

Doctor Who: Why Psychic Paper is the Best Invention Ever
Image: BBC

But there's a greater point about psychic paper, which is that ALL paper is psychic paper. After all, every blank piece of paper has whatever you want to see on it. Blank paper is the ultimate receptacle for telepathic thought. You can then write your idea on it, whether it's a drawing, words, or a fake ID. Or a script. For Doctor Who. You could say every story was written on psychic paper. This makes psychic paper the best symbol for not only the show but also imagination in general. Doctor Who didn't invent psychic paper – the series only gave it that extra name.

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Adi TantimedhAbout Adi Tantimedh

Adi Tantimedh is a filmmaker, screenwriter and novelist. He wrote radio plays for the BBC Radio, “JLA: Age of Wonder” for DC Comics, “Blackshirt” for Moonstone Books, and “La Muse” for Big Head Press. Most recently, he wrote “Her Nightly Embrace”, “Her Beautiful Monster” and “Her Fugitive Heart”, a trilogy of novels featuring a British-Indian private eye published by Atria Books, a division Simon & Schuster.
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