May 23: The Mind of Evil Episodes Two & Three

Good thing Jo's around to save the Doctor from imagined fire, even if he seems rather ungrateful for the rescue.  Still, we learn why the Doctor saw fire (though Jo apparently didn't; this will be a bit curious when we get to the resolution in episode three of the next cliffhanger, where everyone sees the pink dragon); he had recently visited a world which "just disappeared in flames" -- undoubtedly a reference to Inferno, which Don Houghton also wrote.  It's still a nice bit of continuity though.

But there's no time to deal with the Keller Machine, as the Doctor is needed to investigate the Chinese delegate's death.  This leads to a nice little moment where the Doctor and the new delegate, Fu Peng, converse in Hokkien, much to the Brigadier's bemusement.  Of course, it does mean that we're already poking fun at the Brigadier's expense, but at least in this case it arises naturally from the situation.  It's perhaps more alarming to hear the Doctor refer to Mao Zedong as a personal friend -- you'd think Mao's policies would be the antithesis of everything the Doctor stands for.  But in any event, the Doctor soon surmises a link between the previous delegate's death and the deaths seemingly caused by the Keller Machine at Stangmoor Prison.  We learn that Captain Chin Lee is the link, and that she's been used by the Master.  Yes, we got an episode without him (and the Radio Times didn't spoil the surprise), but he's already back, being chauffeured around while smoking cigars and listening in on UNIT phone conversations.  He's certainly a lot more suave in this story than in Terror of the Autons (and considering how suave he was in that, that's saying something), and interestingly, the story, with its three separate storylines (the prison, the World Peace Conference, and the Thunderbolt nuclear missile), snaps into focus.  And while we've been primarily following the Peace Conference thread, an attempted takeover of Stangmoor by the inmates takes place, with Jo still inside.  But that's not the cliffhanger: instead we have Chin Lee, under the Master's orders, attempting to kill the American delegate by transforming into a giant pink dragon...

The Master hooks the Doctor up to the Keller Machine. (The
Mind of Evil Episode Three) ©BBC

It's clear in episode three that the Doctor, the Brigadier, and Fu Peng, who burst into the room in time to save Senator Alcott, can all see the pink dragon -- hence the curiosity of Jo not seeing flames at the start of the previous episode.  Our heroes also discover the telepathic transmitter on Chin Lee, and the Doctor quickly figures out that this is the work of the Master.  But here the focus shifts from the Peace Conference back to the prison (with an occasional sidestep to the Thunderbolt missile -- at one point hilariously represented as a photographic backdrop that Benton urgently gestures at).  Jo manages to thwart the inmates' insurrection, thanks to a distraction from Barnham (the convict with all the evil sucked out from episode one) and some quick moves of her own; she can definitely hold her own.  So much so that the Master travels in person to Stangmoor, posing as his alias Dr. Emil Keller, just so he can help the inmates take over the prison again and lay a trap for the Doctor, who's also returning to Stangmoor.  There's a really wonderful scene where the Master and the Doctor are merrily chatting away with each other, with the Master holding the Doctor at gunpoint the whole time.  You get the sense not just that these two are old adversaries, but also that Jon Pertwee and Roger Delgado share a deep rapport that extends into their acting.  Great stuff.

And then the Doctor attempts an escape, but he's quickly recaptured by the Master, who hooks him up to the Keller Machine and turns it on...