June 9: The Mutants Episodes One & Two

"It's..."

Seriously, had no one on the production team seen the first series of Monty Python?  Because The Mutants (aka the reason no one except Doctor Who Magazine calls the first Dalek story by its original title) opens in exactly the same way.  But rather than gasp out the first word, he runs past the camera, being chased by uniformed guards in breathing masks.  Welcome to Solos.

And since this is another future story and yet the Doctor is still exiled to Earth, we have another assignment for the Doctor from the Time Lords (although this one is more overt than The Curse of Peladon): to deliver a box of something to someone -- the Doctor won't know what it is or who it's for until he arrives wherever the TARDIS takes him.  (This, incidentally, leads to what's probably Jon Pertwee's best-known goof on the show: "I'm not allowed to open it.  I couldn't, even if I wanted to.  No, I'm not meant to.  I couldn't open it, even if I wanted to.")  That somewhere is the 30th century, and a Skybase orbiting the planet Solos, which is about to be granted independence from Earth's Empire.  "We can't afford an empire any more," the Administrator from Earth (as played by the always excellent Geoffrey Palmer) tells the Marshal in command of Solos.  "Earth is exhausted, Marshal.  Finished.  Politically, economically, and biologically finished."  So this is a story "about" the end of the British Empire then.  Although we also see signs of discrimination between the native Solonians and the human Overlords, most notably in the separate transport cubicles.  So that's segregation and/or apartheid thrown into the mix.

Well, except that the discrimination is rather down in the mix (other than general "Solonians are dirty" stuff), but that's more because of the mutations that the humans apparently triggered in the Solonians (the mutants of the title) rather than because of some natural disposition (at this point in the story, at least).  No, the focus is on the end of Earth's hold on Solos.  Only the Marshal isn't ready to leave, and so he has the Administrator assassinated right before he tells the Solonians that they're free (so that's two for two for Geoffrey Palmer deaths on Doctor Who).  Err, yes... It's not clear what the Marshal's plan is, as if killing the messenger somehow eliminates the decision in the first place.  Is he trying to prove that he can convert the planet into one habitable for humans, and he needs more time?  Or does he think that proving the Solonians can't be trusted will make Earth reconsider their decision?  And in the chaos, Ky, the leader of the "terrorist" Solonians, starts to trigger the opening of the Doctor's box before escaping down to the planet, taking an unprotected Jo with him.

The Doctor and Professor Jaeger attempt to see what's in the
Time Lord box. (The Mutants Episode Two) ©BBC

Episode two is concentrated mainly on the Skybase.  There are some scenes with Ky and Jo on the surface of Solos, as they're tracked by a group of Skybase guards before escaping to a cave where Jo can breathe normally (the nitrogen isotope in the atmosphere that slowly kills humans is only a danger outside in the daylight, it seems), but the primary focus is up in orbit.  The Doctor is introduced to Professor Jaeger and his efforts to make Solos's atmosphere breathable for humans, and the Marshal attempts to cover his tracks in the assassination by killing the native Solonian assassin (who was acting on the Marshal's orders) and then the assassin's father, Varan, who's also the leader of one of the Solonian factions.  He misses Varan, though, which leads to a chase through the corridors of Skybase (and this is as good a time as any to note the distinctive triangle pattern on the walls courtesy of designer Jeremy Bear, which will go on to be used in dozens of subsequent BBC SF shows, including several Doctor Who stories), as the Marshal has declared that Varan is a "Mutt", or mutant.  It's only when the Doctor finds Varan, who is distinctly non-mutated, that the Marshal's plan becomes clear, and Stubbs and Cotton (hitherto the "everyman" characters in this story) begin to play a more significant part in the proceedings.

So the stage is set: Stubbs and Cotton are now working against the Marshal, and the Doctor determines that he needs to get to the surface.  So during an experiment to see inside the Time Lord package for Ky, the Doctor overloads the main power supply, giving him and Varan a chance to escape to the surface.  Except Varan grabs the Doctor outside the transmat booth.  "Die, Overlord, die!" he says to the person who saved his life and gave him this opportunity to escape.  That's gratitude for you.