Written by Sydney Newman, Derrick Sherwin, and Donald B. Wilson
Directed by David Maloney

Doctor Who is a British science fiction television series which has been around off and on since 1963. The main character is just known as “The Doctor” and is a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey. This means he travels through time to various places. One of his favorite places to visit is Earth. Typically, he has a companion traveling with him, usually female, sometimes male, sometimes one of each. He travels in a time machine known as a “Tardis” which is disguised as a British Police booth.

A Time Lord can regenerate if fatally wounded, which has accounted for all the different actors who have played The Doctor throughout the years. In this episode, the Doctor is portrayed by Patrick Troughton.  He’s traveling with two companions, Jamie and Zoe (portrayed by Frazer Hines and Wendy Padbury).

As the TARDIS is about to be buried in molten lava, the Doctor uses the controls to move the booth and its inhabitants out of reality.  He’s never used this particular function before and doesn’t know what to expect.  The Doctor states there is nothing outside of the TARDIS, but Jamie and Zoe want to go exploring.  Both believe they are seeing their homes outside of the TARDIS – Scotland for Jamie and London for Zoe.  They wander out into what would seem to be nothingness and become lost.  Both experience a feeling of being watched.  They manage to retreat back to the TARDIS and believe they are safe, only to have the TARDIS explode when they try to return to their reality.

Here they find a land ruled by an English writer who calls himself The Master (not to be confused with the evil Time Lord by the same name) and pursued by the life-size clockwork soldiers.  They encounter such storybook characters as Rapunzel, Blackbeard, and Gulliver.  All of this is a test as The Master is getting old, and needs someone to replace him…

It’s easy to distinguish that The Mind Robber was originally a four-part episode that was suddenly expanded to five.  Although the first episode in the story arc is quite interesting, it also has something of a stand-alone feel to it.  The four episodes that comprise the main story arc are quite strong and create a world that is both familiar and strange to the audience.  The weakest part is the ending which reeks of all I disliked about Star Trek: Voyager; too many situations where things happen and then the ending wipes it all away with no consequence.  Taking the TARDIS out of the equation, however, is brilliant as it forces the three characters to not have that resource to fall back on.

The acting is fine, although this Doctor seems very different from others.  For some reason, he’s quite fussy as well as being indecisive, and even fearful at times.  It’s not something I’m used to seeing, not even in the episodes I’ve seen Patrick Troughton in.  Zoe doesn’t seem to have a lot to do except scream an awful lot.  The most brilliant bit of acting comes from not Frazer Hines as Jamie, but from his one-episode replacement, Hamish Wilson.  It seems Hines came down with a bout of chicken pox, and this face-changing bit was written into the script to explain the different actor.  Wilson positively nails the role.  Emrys Jones portrays The Master and really takes on the role much like the Wizard of Oz; there’s more to the man behind the curtain than we first believe.

The use of familiar characters in the storybook forest of sorts works well to have the audience somewhat familiar with what’s going on and not have to go on with long explanations of who they are.  Much of what these characters say and do is familiar if you know their tales.  There aren’t a terrible amount of special effects, but considering the time period what’s in The Mind Robber works remarkably well.  The endless white void works as does the depictions of a unicorn in the forest.

The DVD is very good.  Keep in mind, that this was from the black-and-white era of the show.  The restoration from the 16mm copies is very good with a few instances where the quality deteriorates.  There’s a slew of extras that I’ve come to enjoy with the Doctor Who discs, including commentary and a couple of featurettes.

What could have been amazingly cheesy instead works quite well.  For a story arc that first aired more than forty years ago, I found I liked The Mind Robber quite a bit.  It was way better than just the usual alien-of-the-week.  The acting is good even if Troughton or Director David Maloney were a little off with the Doctor.  Opportunities to do something different weren’t squandered.  The story itself is very well-written.  Overall, if I were looking for a good story arc from the early years, this would be near the top of the list for me.


SPECIAL FEATURES:

• Commentary with Wendy Padbury, Frazer Hines, and Director David Maloney
• Bail Brush Segment
• Information Text
• The Fact of Fiction
• Highlander
• Photo Gallery
• Who’s Who