Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, has become a worldwide cultural icon generally associated with tactical brilliance, ambition and political power. His distinctive features and costume have made him a very recognizable figure in popular culture. He has been portrayed in many works of fiction, his depiction varying greatly with the author's perception of the historical character. On the one hand, Napoleon has become a worldwide cultural icon who symbolizes military genius and political power. For example, in the 1927 film Napoleon, young general Bonaparte is portrayed as a heroic visionary. On the other hand, he has often been reduced to a stock character and has frequently been depicted as a short and "petty tyrant", sometimes comically so. Literature, Theatre, and Film Napoleon plays an indirect, yet important, part in Alexandre Dumas' novel The Count of Monte Cristo. The novel starts in 1815 with Napoleon exiled on the island of Elba. Here we learn that he hands a letter to the protagonist Edmond Dantes to give to one of his chief (fictional) supporters in Paris - Nortier De Villefort, the president of a Bonapartist club. Dantes is unaware that Villefort is an agent of the exiled Emperor and that the letter Napoleon handed him contained instructions and plans about Napoleon's planned return to Paris. Dantes's rivals include Gérard De Villefort, the opportunistic son of Nortier (who is a royalist), who uses the letter to frame Dantes and have him imprisoned in the Chateau d'If until he escapes after 14 years and seeks vengeance upon those who wronged him. Napoleon features prominently in the BBC Doctor Who Past Doctor Adventure World Game, in which the Second Doctor must avert a plot to change history so that Napoleon is victorious. In an alternate timeline created by the assassination of the Duke of Wellington prior to Waterloo, Napoleon is persuaded to march on to Russia after the victory of Waterloo, but he dies shortly afterwards, his empire having become so overextended that the various countries collapse back into the separate nations they were before, thus degenerating into a state of perpetual warfare. (This situation is made worse due to the intervention of the Doctor's old enemies the Players). In 2013, Applied Mechanics produced Vainglorious, an epic, 26-actor immersive performance with Mary Tuomanen portraying Napoleon. Depictions of Napoleon in literature include: Stanley from A Streetcar Named Desire invokes the Napoleonic Code while speaking with