Exterminate, exterminate!

If you’ve been to a football match or a concert then you’ll have seen volunteer first aiders from St John Ambulance.  They stand out quite well in their shiny yellow jackets.  As well as sporting events and music shows, there’s loads of other event we cover and some of these are slightly more… bizarre.  This week was one of those - the Dalek Invasion at RNAS Yeovilton.

I'm sure everyone who's ever visited Planet Earth before knows who (or what, not quite sure on that one) a Dalek is, and the ‘invasion’ was a chance for Dr Who enthusiasts to celebrate his arch nemesis.  Okay so I'm not sure you can celebrate someone whose sole raison d'être is to exterminate, but it was a chance for fans of the long running TV show to display their fully functional replica Daleks, most of which were controlled by an operator inside.

It didn't end with the Daleks.  Dozens of actors were dressed up in costumes depicting characters from across all eras of Dr Who and the majority of visitors had donned the outfits of their favourite hero / villain.  And it didn’t end there either.  Each person took on the full persona of their character and played that role to perfection throughout the day. It's quite incredible the lengths people will go for their chosen hobby.

St John Ambulance and Dr Who has a joint history stretching back to the very first episode when the logo appeared on the side of the Tardis.  It soon disappeared but in recent years it has made a return and it’s now displayed in all its glory on the side of the most famous police call box in the world.  I can only assume its presence is to identify Dr Who as a first aider.  Well his sonic screwdriver does everything else so it may as well act as a first aid kit too.

I'm not quite sure how you treat someone who's been attacked by a Dalek but naturally you need to look for signs of danger first.  Politely ask the Dalek if it would kindly stop exterminating people for just a brief moment.  If the patient has been exterminated then admittedly there's very little a first aider could do.  On the other hand, I'm not sure first aiders have the authority to diagnose extermination.  Best leave that one to the professionals.

As for treating a Weeping Angel victim, I have no idea. Does the patient even exist in the first aider's dimension?  Would the first aider need to go back in time and how would they do this, by also becoming a victim?  That really doesn't comply with the whole ‘watch out for danger’ policy.  Best leave that one to first aiding Time Lords.