Episode 4 has a few more flaws than the earlier episodes. For some reason Zoe insists on believing that Medusa is real, even though a logically trained mind such as hers must know it's not (and she didn't have any problem denying the existence of the unicorn charging at her at the top of episode 3). There's also a moment where, after having cautiously stepped over a photoelectric cell that alerts the Master to their presence inside his citadel (as Jamie discovered when he tripped it near the start of the episode), Zoe has a panic attack and crosses all the way to the other side of the room to trip the beam, just so the three of them can be captured by the White Robots from episode 1. (We will, sadly, see this character trait again in season 8.) And Zoe is also the winner of a decidedly unconvincing fight versus a comic strip character from 2000 called the Karkus (who the Doctor can't deny the existence of because he's never heard of him). There are a number of falls and flips from the Karkus as Zoe enthusiastically throws him around -- that's the idea, at least, but what we actually get is a lot of Wendy Padbury grabbing Christopher Robbie's arm, followed by Robbie doing a somersault each time.
But the love of language and literature continues to shine through in this episode, so even though it's not a very long installment, it still maintains its drive. We're finally introduced to the Master himself, who turns out to be a rather kindly old English writer from 1926 who was kidnapped and brought to this place. ("Oh, but that's a long story," he says on how he arrived.) Now he's old, and the Master Brain controlling him wants to replace him with the Doctor. The way the Master switches between a gentlemanly demeanor and a harsher, clearly under-alien-control persona is very effective. And the final cliffhanger, in which Jamie and Zoe are turned into fictional characters (you know what I mean) by the visual conceit of being literally trapped inside the pages of a book, is a fabulous image.
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The Doctor is linked into the Master Brain. (The Mind
Robber Episode 5) ©BBC |
Episode 5 sees the Doctor finally engage directly in a battle of wits against the Master. Of course, first he's tricked by fictional Jamie and Zoe into an equally fictional TARDIS, which is actually a direct link with the Master Brain -- which means the Doctor can now write the stories at the speed of thought. This means that we start getting additional classic characters added into the mix, as Cyrano de Bergerac engages in a swordfight with D'Artagnan (a much more exciting fight, it must be said, than Zoe's tussle with the Karkus last time), who then fights Bluebeard, who then confronts Lancelot in full armor -- thanks to the Doctor and the Master fighting it out with the power of words. And, somehow, the Doctor convinces Jamie and Zoe to free themselves from the book they've been trapped in as they push their way out. But he can't work out how to get himself free without turning into a fictional character himself (you know what I mean). Fortunately, Zoe and Jamie overhear a snatch of conversation from the Master and they overload the Master Brain's circuits, destroying it and the realm they've found themselves in. As the place disappears, they disappear too, back to where they came from, as the TARDIS reforms -- and that's that. (And, somewhat frustratingly, the events of this story are never explained or even touched upon again -- there are about two lines of dialogue next week and that's it. And
The Mind Robber episode 5 is, at 18'00", the shortest ever episode of
Doctor Who's original run, so it's not like they couldn't spare the time.)
The Mind Robber is a very imaginative story, and there's enough incident to keep things entertaining. After the impressive first episode (doubly impressive when the pressure it was made under is taken into consideration) we're treated to a tale where storybook logic beats "real world" logic, where Gulliver and Rapunzel can inhabit the same world and interact with each other. There's a sense of joy underlying all this, so that even the somewhat repetitive nature of some of the problems confronted by the TARDIS crew (a fictional character attacks but then is defeated when the Doctor and Jamie and/or Zoe deny its existence) isn't nearly the issue it was in
The Dominators. It also helps that there's a definite sense of style here, with both the camera and staging doing an excellent job of selling this somewhat surreal tale (and here one can't help but note that this story marks David Maloney's directorial debut on
Doctor Who), so that it all feels like part of the same world. This is a triumph of imagination, both in the script and on screen, and is easily one of the standouts of Troughton's time on the show. It's hard to believe this is the story that followed
The Dominators.