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REVIEW: The Sontaran Experiment by Bob Baker and Dave Martin

SERIAL: 4B, 2X25 minute episodes

SEEN IT BEFORE?: Yes.


After the debut of the fourth Doctor and the good horror story that was The Ark in Space, we have what is effectively a break between two classic stories. The Sontaran Experiment was written in a way so that it would be produced as The Ark in Space's location work, which the latter story didn't have anything of. And unfortunately, Tom Baker was to have an accident which ended up with him having a broken collarbone. But would the production otherwise do well?

Transmatting down to the scorched Earth, the Doctor, Harry, and Sarah find a desolated landscape, with apparently no life other than plants. But appearances are deceiving. Desperate men, survivors of a spaceship shot down, roam the landscape. And so does something else, a robot that abducts humans and brings them to its master, Sontaran Field Marshall Styre, who is performing a series of disturbing experiments. Can the time travellers stop him?

Let's get the best stuff out of the way. The location shooting is suitably atmospheric and bleak for this story set on an Earth ravaged by solar activity, and even after getting his collarbone broken, Tom Baker still manages to do well as the Doctor, although he is not as entertaining as he usually is. Ian Marter and Elisabeth Sladen also do well, despite the fact that Sarah, other than helping the Doctor, getting captured by Styre and having a major 'Oh Crap' moment when she sees the all-too familiar silhouette of a Sontaran, is less proactive in this story than she usually is.

The guest cast do a decent, but not stellar job. Kevin Lindsay obviously takes relish in playing Styre, but the human colonists phone it in and Peter Rutherford as Roth not convincing. This is not helped by a fairly average script, with plenty of fridge logic (surely Sontarans would use other means of finding human specimens to experiment on? And they would have had data on them by this point anyway), and not helped by the short length.

The robot is the real killer of the score for this story. Surely they could have made it a wee-bit more menacing? And not helping is the rather brief fight scene at the end, where it becomes clear, on hindsight, that a double is fighting the Sontaran, with all close-ups of Tom Baker done later.

This is a very average story that could have been better realised if it was a little longer and more complex. A misuse of the Sontarans, this is not a bad story, but it should have been much better.


SCORE: 7.5/10

oohhh but that robot is so cute.

What.

REVIEW: Genesis of the Daleks by Terry Nation

SERIAL: 4E, 6X25 minute episodes

SEEN IT BEFORE?: Yes.


While commissioning stories for Tom Baker's first season for the Doctor, and that of their successors, Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks commissioned Terry Nation to write another Dalek story. When they received the script, they realised this was a rehash of similar plotlines used before, and upon having it pointed out to him, Nation agreed. Letts suggested that they see something that hadn't been seen before: the Daleks' origins. And the rest, as they say, is history...

Their transmat beam intercepted by the Time Lords, the Doctor, Sarah, and Harry are deposited on the planet Skaro, far in the planet's past. The Time Lords, forseeing a possible time when the Daleks have wiped out all other life in the universe, give the Doctor a mission: modify, or prevent, the creation of the Daleks. But this task won't be easy, for Skaro is gripped in a war that has been occurring for centuries, between the Kaleds and the Thals. This is a world where there are no heroes, little morality, life is cheap and racial purity on both sides is paramount. And the Kaleds' greatest scientist, the crippled Davros, is determined to ensure that his creations, a life-support machine for the mutant remnants of his people, will become the supreme beings in the universe. How far will Davros be willing to go to secure the Daleks survival? And can the Doctor stop the genesis of the Daleks without becoming like them?

There is much of Terry Nation's later work, the science fiction series Blake's 7, in this story. It shares many of the same production personnel (director David Maloney would go on to produce the series, Peter Miles and other actors would go on to appear in that show), but more importantly, it shares much of the same worldview. Skaro is a bleak world, and a morally ambiguous one. Both the Kaleds and the Thals are equally willing to sink to Nazist depths, and both sides have some good characters. This is one of the darkest and bleakest stories in the classic series, and yet, it still works.

The Doctor, Sarah, and Harry all get something to do, even if at times Harry is a bit of a third wheel, and their actors all get some meaty bits. Tom Baker seems to have finally come into his own with the role of the fourth Doctor, with a couple of brilliant sequences that illustrate his morality regarding the Daleks and their destruction, sequences that seem harsher in hindsight, given the events of the Time War in the new series. Even the supporting characters are written and performed well, with Stephen Yardley as gentle mutant Sevrin, Harriet Philpin as determined Thal Bettan, and Peter Miles as the cold-hearted Nyder being especially noteworthy.

Of particular note is Michael Wisher as Davros, and re-evaluating his performance after so long is interesting. Davros is written not merely as a cipher and mouthpiece for the Daleks, but he also functions as a character outside them. We have a cunning and pragmatic genius who is also a raving megalomaniac. Wisher's Davros has a subtlety that isn't as prevalent in later Davros performances, although this may be due to the writing, given Terry Molloy's performance in Revelation of the Daleks.

For a Dalek story, there isn't that many Daleks in the story, and most of the time, they are just there to carry out Davros' orders. And yet, in this story at least, they are most effective that way. This is before they became independent of Davros' plans for them.

Everything in this story links together quite well. The only bum notes is the bizarre cheating cliffhanger for episode 2, and the homicidal giant clam. The bleakness of the story might count against it in some people's estimation, but I disagree. It works in the context of this story, at least. And what is more, as supplemental material related to the new series suggests, this story itself contains the genesis of the Time War.

Genesis of the Daleks shows that, while Doctor Who doesn't often reach perfection completely, when it does, it is most satisfying. The dark tone may not be for some, but it works. This is easily one of the best Doctor Who stories of the period, and of all time, and shows what the Holmes/Hinchcliffe era is all about.


SCORE: 10/10


DVD trailer for the next story, Revenge of the Cybermen, as well as Silver Nemesis.


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqRhqPKda58[/youtube]

REVIEW: Revenge of the Cybermen by Gerry Davis (with uncredited rewrites by Robert Holmes)

SERIAL: 4D, 4X25 minute episodes

SEEN IT BEFORE?: Yes.


Revenge of the Cybermen was one of the very first Doctor Who stories I read the novelisation for, and one of the first stories I watched on video. It was certainly the first to be released on home video, if not the first for DVD. So, coming back to it after so many years, would it be any good? Would the years be at all kind to it?

Landing on Nerva Beacon milennia before the solar flares, the Doctor, Sarah and Harry, while waiting for the TARDIS to be sent back for them, find that Nerva Beacon is under quarantine from an unusual and deadly plague. But the plague is spread by Cybermats, controlled by suspicious exographer Kellman, who seems to want to prevent any communication between Nerva, and the asteroid Nerva is orbiting around as a warning station. For the asteroid is really the last remnants of Voga, the lost planet of gold, and its inhabitants are still alive. Problem is, so are the last surviving members of the Cybermen, and they intend to destroy Voga utterly before they launch a new campaign to conquer the galaxy. Can Sarah and Harry persuade the Vogan leaders to help? Is Kellman really on the side of the Cybermen? And can the Doctor avoid being used as an instrument of the revenge of the Cybermen?

Revenge of the Cybermen is possibly the worst ever Cyberman story yet surviving in the BBC archives. The writing, for a start, is a mess, and one wonders if it would have been any better if Robert Holmes hadn't tinkered with it. The characterisation ranges from average to ridiculous, and of particularly note are the Vogan leaders Vorus and Tyrum, and the traitorous human Kellman. While some people criticise the emotional Cybermen of the Eighties, I feel that here, they are worse. If their dialogue and performances had been better, it might have worked. The plot is, at the overall level, decent, but the details and dialogue drag it down.

One of the better things in this story are the performances. Ronald Leigh-Hunt puts in one of the more believable performances as Commander Stevenson, and Jeremy Wilkin as Kellman is excellent at least in the first half of the story, going to town with a bad script in the same way (if not to the same degree) as Raul Julia did with the Street Fighter film. David Collings and Michael Wisher do their best with acting in the roles of Vorus and Malik, but poor Kevin Stoney, after his excellent turns as previous Doctor Who villains Mavic Chen and Tobias Vaughn, doesn't put quite enough effort into Tyrum, with his "It's going to hit, it's going to hit!" not delivered in the right panicked tone. Christopher Robbie does camp the Cyberleader up a little, but his voice is powerful enough that a few of the performance's quirks can be overlooked. However, he does fall down in making it convincing.

Perhaps one of the best aspects of the story is the location shooting, with the caves of Voga being filmed at the Wookie Hole. This adds a certain gravitas that the story badly needs. The sequences involving the plague and the Cybermats are also fairly tense, with a scene where Sarah gets infected one of the most urgent in the history of the series. And the regulars, despite the crappy script, do do well, with Tom Baker as the Doctor clearly relishing telling the Cybermen that they are nothing but "a pathetic bunch of tin soldiers, skulking about the galaxy in an ancient spaceship". And the production design also works well, even when not re-using sets from The Ark in Space.

Revenge of the Cybermen is deeply flawed, and probably the worst story of this era, as well as any surviving story to feature the Cybermen. That being said, there are certainly worse stories, and it is entertaining enough, if you don't think too hard about the flaws. Just don't expect anything substantial.



SCORE: 6.5/10


DVD trailer for the next story, Planet of Evil, an excellent trailer for one of my favourite stories of the era.


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UUfBi5exow[/youtube]

There were certainly flares in ROTC but they weren't of the solar variety, rather they were the cybermen's pants.

Pros
I love the cybermat sequences. It was a much better looking cybermat than the Troughton ones which look too cute.
The virus was a great throwback to the moonbase.
The cave sequences look great.
Kellman (almost typed Kelner is there a name generator for turncoat baddies?) is pretty good.
The head guns aren't all that bad either as a new touch.
The actual story is quite good and there's some great references to cyber-history that we're yet to see on TV.

Cons
Flares and Hands on hips.
Two groups of clown-faced races .... it would have been better if they weren't even alien. Maybe just super-albino from living in caves?
Landscape on a roller
Very weak cybermen - I liked the fact that they fixed this in Earthshock.
Great idea of removing the toxin via transmat but poorly considered since it would affect aliens differently... the doctor should have "modified it" to recognise humans for that one transfer (just one line of dialog to fix).
Terrible waste of Kevin Stoney - it's a pity that they didn't having him as a half-cybernetic leftover from Tobias Vaughn... now that would have been good.

Noted.

gbollard, why didn't you comment on my Genesis of the Daleks review? Don't you have a second opinion or something? I want some comments...

BTW, here's a couple of YouTube videos showing how fans have modified Revenge of the Cybermen to try and make it better. The first substitutes more alien Cyberman voices (in the style of the New Series and Big Finish)...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caJ1wxzzI8Y[/youtube]


And the other enhances the climactic sequence towards the end, amongst other things getting rid of that spinning drum landscape you noted, gbollard...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzaUZqZcay0[/youtube]

BTW, whoever did the subtitles for the Revenge of the Cybermen DVD stuffed up badly. There were a number of mistakes.

You gave it 10/10 so there was no room for comments. That's what I'd have given it too.


BTW: I didn't think that the cybervoices were so bad in ROTC - actually all cyber-voices, even those in the new series, are wrong. I'm not sure if they should sound like Stephen Hawking or whatever but I'd think that they wouldn't bother talking to eachother since they could just transmit. This would mean that they'd only talk when they wanted to be understood. They'd be electronic voices but much clearer ... just flatter as well, emotionless. More like Hal in 2001?


Genesis

Pros
You didn't really mention the Nazi stuff, which was one of my favourite aspects of that story. It makes everything seem so much more menacing and seriously, there are times when Nyder is much scarier than Davros.
The iconic shot of the dalek at the top of the trenches.
The last sequences with Davros
Lots of great characters throughout the story - even the minor character are great.
The tape recording sequence has great throwbacks to earlier stories and cool hints about the future.

Cons
The rocket climbing sequence is a bit silly and feels too studio-bound
The giant clam... the kaelds were always going to evolve into some kind of sea creature I guess.
Betthan is a great character who is tragically underused - she only becomes a character at the last minute.
Ronson's death is a little drawn out. It's a great death but a little melodramatic.

Making it cooler...
Some varga plants would help.

Genesis is considered by many people to be the place where the Time War started. Davros wasn't involved prior to Genesis with the implication being that the daleks simply killed him. Two big things happen in Genesis;

1. The time lords actively interfere for the first time and the daleks (davros at least) discovers this fact.
2. Davros discovers that his daleks go on but must have realized that he wasn't involved and taken some time to modify his chair defences to allow him to go beyond death by extermination.

I'd have loved the new series to reference these changes in some way... perhaps even a "back to the future" style eavesdropping of the eleventh doctor on the story.

I like three of the Cybervoices: the eerie sing-song from The Tenth Planet, the Peter Hawkins with a buzzing artificial palate voice, and the Eighties Cybervoices.




I didn't mention it, partly because it was so blatantly obvious. And to be honest, both sides were Nazis, Kaleds and Thals.

Actually, I noticed something, may just be my Aspie body-language senses wrong as usual, but I noticed something unusual about Nyder. When he is discussing the Mutos with the Doctor, I noticed that this is the only time in the story (other than when he is faking his sympathies with Gharman and when he is confronting Davros about the rebellion in the Elite) he seems remotely uncomfortable. One wonders, did Nyder have a relative that was cast out as a Muto? Or is this just wishful thinking and misinterpretation of Peter Miles' wonderful performance?





The rocket-climbing sequence's only ridiculous bit is the way the cliffhanger is done. Maybe they should have held it off for when the Thal officer knocks her off the ledge sadistically.

Bettan is a little underused, but I doubt that tragically so is the case. You should see the character the actress later plays in Blake's 7. THAT'S a far cry from Bettan.

As for Varga plants, well, they are part of the second episode of the audio drama I, Davros.



I think that in the novelisation of Destiny of the Daleks, Davros mentions building in a force-field to protect himself from the Dalek blasts, just in case.

Thanks for your insights, gbollard. Can't wait for me to review some of the best stories of all time, eh?

Both sides are quite evil but it's interesting when in the beginning sequence we have that shouting guy who makes the doctor empty his pockets (forgotten his name). He's shouting about death to the Thals but then much later you see him portrayed quite differently. He's the equivalent of a "good Nazi".

The Kaleds who experiment on their own people etc... are much closer to Nazis than the Thals but they certainly have an evil streak too.

I forgot to mention, that speech of Tom's "do I have the right" ... awesome.
The "hiding behind a wall" bit in the Thal city is a bit silly.



That's probably what Peter Miles was trying to portray. His was an awesome and chilling performance.


I'd love to see them animate I Davros and release it as a proper DVD. That series was fantastic.



Well, you've already covered at least one.

I hated Planet of Evil for about 20 years but like it now... (weird how age changes things).

I suspect the next truly great one (IMHO) will be Pyramids of Mars.

General Ravon is the name of the character. The man who played him, Guy Siner, later played German Lieutenant Hubert Gruber in 'Allo, 'Allo! Go figure. And the Port Royal harbourmaster Jack Sparrow meets in the first Pirates of the Caribbean film.




Definitely.



And he played Dr Lawrence well in Doctor Who and the Silurians. Nyder was probably his best ever performance that I've seen, but he also played Rontane in the Blake's 7 episodes Seek-Locate-Destroy and Trial. He was a snide politician of the Federation who was concerned about Travis' appointment by Servalan, and also knew that she was using him as a scapegoat to save her own hide when Travis was put on trial.

Nice to see that it wasn't just me seeing that in Miles' performance. I never noticed it until I watched it for the review blog. You see him look away from the Doctor uncomfortably before saying "We must keep the Kaled race pure".





I love both of them, and have done since I first watched them.

REVIEW: Planet of Evil by Louis Marks

SERIAL: 4H, 4X25 minute episodes

SEEN IT BEFORE?: Yes.


While Doctor Who has taken ideas from elsewhere (with Ben Aaronovitch noting that, in relation to the New Adventures novels, though it can apply to the series, that "while talent borrows and genius steals, New Adventure writers get it off the back of a lorry, no questions asked"), it is how it does bring them to the screen that counts. While Planet of Evil took many elements from the science fiction film Forbidden Planet and the Shakespeare play it was based on, The Tempest, there were also elements of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and even from the Doctor Who episode Inferno by Don Houghton. So how would this melange of elements stand up, especially today? Is it plagiarism, a homage, or something that proves to be far more than the sum of its parts?

Overshooting their intended destination (London in the 20th Century) by 30 millennia and ending up at the edge of the known universe, the Doctor and Sarah pick up a faint distress signal from the planet Zeta Minor. Being at the edge of the known universe, the planet is of interest to the Morestrans, whose sun is dying. But the expedition led by the driven Professor Sorenson to find a new energy source has been all but wiped out, and when a suspicious military rescue team arrives, only Sorenson is left. Suspicion for the murders fall on the Doctor and Sarah, but the truth is much worse. Sorenson, in mining for anti-matter, has disturbed an intelligence that has come forth from one universe into another. Zeta Minor is alive, and it is angry...

Doctor Who stories past and future are reflected in this episode. Don Houghton's story Inferno did it on Earth, and later, during the new series, Chris Chibnall's 42 did it with a sun. So, stuck in the middle, how does Planet of Evil fare? Pretty damn well. Although the various concepts are plundered from elsewhere, it ironically turns into one of the most inventive and thrilling episodes in the Holmes/Hinchcliffe era, often called, not without justification, the golden age of Doctor Who.

Ironically for a story with a title like Planet of Evil, there really isn't any, just moral ambiguity. The titular planet and the associated antimatter entity is less evil and more reacting against the misguided and desperate Morestrans. Salamar, while paranoid, is initially more understandable, and Professor Sorenson, although he tries to manipulate Salamar against the Doctor and Sarah simply to conceal his own culpability, ultimately agrees with the Doctor that he has full responsibility for what happened.

The performances work, and of the guest characters, Prentis Hancock, Frederick Jaegar, and Ewen Solon are particularly noteworthy. Hancock seems to be channeling his character from Planet of the Daleks, Vaber, as if he was finally given command. He gives Salamar particular relish in taunting Vishinsky in the final episode after Vishinsky takes command. Ewen Solon plays Vishinsky with a mixture of military competency and human warmth, and Frederick Jaegar puts in a wonderful performance as the breaking-down Sorenson, even if he at time resembles Jack Nicholson's later performance as Jack Torrance in The Shining. Also of note is Graham Weston as De Haan, who embues his character with a likeable weariness when he complains about shifting the antimatter canisters continually. Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen are on fine form, with Baker showing much more gravitas than usual, and Sladen doing well, especially in scenes where Sarah is affected by the presence of anti-creatures.

The production design is great, but of particular note is the Zeta Minor jungle, which is one of the most impressive sets ever constructed for the series, even today. Atmospheric, dark, and alien, it puts many other works to shame. And while the design of Anti-Man is faintly ridiculous, it is worlds ahead of the similar Primords. And the Anti-Matter creature, thanks to some use of CSO and a bizarre costume, is one of the best aliens in the entire show, both in concept and visual effect.

There are only a few hiccups in this virtually perfect story. The effect of the force-field looks crappy by today's standards, and while Anti-Man is effective in the shadows, he does look vaguely comical. And there could have been slightly more complex characterisation.

Still, Planet of Evil is one of the more perfect examples of why this era of Doctor Who is considered the Golden Age of the series. With a tense race against time, spectacular design, and good performances all around, this is definitely one of the classics.



SCORE: 10/10

I can understand that you like this story but I don't know that I'd give it a perfect 10.

As a child, I hated this story with a vengeance. It's the sort of story that the new series invented Psychic paper for. It spends about three episodes just getting the doctor to be trusted.

...and those shoulder-pads. Don't get me started on those shoulder-pads. How could you do a review without mentioning them? They're almost stars in their own right.

I did like the cute monocle (remote camera) thingy.

As I said, when I was little, the story irked me because I spent ages waiting for the damn monster and when it finally appeared, it looked like (a) a guy with fake teeth and some fur on his face and paper on his eyes and (b) an outline.

Now as an adult I can appreciate the monster for who it is... but at the same time it looses a few points for being obviously nicked from forbidden planet.

All in all, though a good story and one that has a lot more for the older viewer to consider.

Agreed that the 'distrust the Doctor' story trope is overused, but it is done in such an excellent way in this story at least that I can overlook that. And as for the shoulder pads, well, they're worse in Frontier in Space, amongst other stories.

And just remember that if Kinda was done today, it would be accused of ripping off Avatar.

This era is probably my favourite in the series. In fact, out of the entire Holmes/Hinchcliffe era, I've only failed to watch one story, The Masque of Mandragora.

Review of Pyramids of Mars coming soon...

REVIEW: Pyramids of Mars by Stephen Harris (written by Robert Holmes, from a script by Lewis Greifer)

SERIAL: 4G, 4X25 minute episodes

SEEN IT BEFORE?: Yes.


Robert Holmes' contribution to the universe of Doctor Who cannot be understated. Not only did he preside as script editor over what many consider the golden age of the show, but also contributed many of its finest scripts. Working with a story originally written by Lewis Greifer that proved unsuitable, Robert Holmes writes his finest story for the series thus far, taking it into the territory of the Egyptian mummy horror movie...

Hurled off course by a malevolent entity influencing the TARDIS, the Doctor and Sarah land on the original site of UNIT HQ, in 1911, in the Old Priory. Investigating, they find a fanatical Egyptian, supposedly acting on the orders of the houseowner, Egyptologist Professor Marcus Scarman, who has ordered everyone away from the house, even his own scientist brother, Laurence. However, Laurence's prematurely created radio telescope reveals that Marcus has become the victim and tool of an ancient and powerful being, Sutekh, one of a race who were revered by the Egyptians as their gods. Sutekh is imprisoned, but is working to destroy the pyramids of Mars, where the controls for his prison are housed. With the bodycount mounting, can the Doctor and Sarah stop the genocidal Sutekh, before he lays waste not only to the Earth, but all creation?

While Robert Holmes is good at writing Doctor Who, it is here, working with story aspects taken from Lewis Griefer's original story, that he truly shines. Combining the macabre with science fiction, and adding some interesting touches, he creates a story which enthrals and horrifies. Although many of the elements seem supernatural, the animated mummies are unconventional robots, and Sutekh is an alien, albeit an immensely powerful one that even the Time Lords would probably be unable to stop.

The Doctor is perhaps at his most alien here since parts of the Hartnell era, in part due to Holmes' writing and partly due to Tom Baker's acting. His comments about walking in eternity at the start of the serial, and his explanation for his apparently flippant attitude to the death of a character are particularly notable, elements that would be later honed for later incarnations, particularly the sixth, seventh, ninth, tenth, and eleventh Doctors. Sarah gets plenty to do, with a highlight being where she attempts to set off sweaty gelignite with a rifle, and gets the shot first time.

All the guest characters of any substantiality get a lot to do, with Bernard Archer as Marcus showing a wonderful malevolence with one very brief glimpse of humanity, and Michael Sheard playing his anxious brother, who is given a very human mistake. But it is the marvellous Gabriel Woolf as Sutekh that steals the show. His understated performance oozes malevolence, doing far more with his voice than he can ever do with his body. He slides into a well-written part with ease, making you believe that this is a being of godlike power and a genocidal hatred of everything that puts the rants of Davros and the Daleks to shame. It is certainly no accident that he returned to the show as the voice of a being claiming to be the Devil himself in The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit.

This seems to be a show, even though different in many ways from its immediate predecessor in transmission, where everything comes together. There is excellent location filming on the Stargroves Estate (at the time owned by Mick Jagger), the mummies are menacing (if a little comical at times), and there are some moments of true horror.

The only real bum notes are the infamous continuity snarl of Sarah claiming that she is from the Eighties (only a problem when it comes to later continuity) and the infamous cushion-holding hand. And if you ignore those minor issues, you come to a perfect example of the pseudohistorical Doctor Who story, with one of the most powerful adversaries of all time, and a satisfying conclusion all around.


SCORE: 10/10

And now, the DVD trailer for The Brain of Morbius...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ml0MumWDNF4[/youtube]

REVIEW: The Brain of Morbius by Robin Bland (written by Robert Holmes, from a script by Terrance Dicks)

SERIAL: 4K, 4X25 minute episodes

SEEN IT BEFORE?: Yes.


In writing the original version of The Brain of Morbius, Terrance Dicks wanted to invert the Frankenstein mythos. However, due to various issues, Robert Holmes rewrote the story substantially while Dicks was incommunicado, and when Dicks found out, he told Holmes to take his name off it, and substitute 'some bland pseudonym' instead. This was how The Brain of Morbius came to be transmitted under the name of Robin Bland, but is the story as bland as its pseudonym?

The Doctor and Sarah land on the planet Karn, where spaceships crash, the Sisterhood of Karn shun all outsiders, and driven surgeon Mehendri Solon and his manservant Condo work on macabre experiments. The Doctor suspects Time Lord interference. So does the Sisterhood, for the Sacred Flame, source of an elixir that bestows immortality, is dying, and they are convinced that the Time Lords want the last remaining elixir. But the true menace is Solon, who was once a follower of brutal Time Lord dictator Morbius, and is intending to resurrect him. But with the Sisterhood considering the Doctor an enemy, Morbius may not be dead, but the Doctor may very well be soon...

One of Terrance Dicks' objections about the way Robert Holmes rewrote the story is that it makes a mockery of Solon's abilities, claiming that if Solon is the best surgeon in the galaxy, why can't he make a decent head himself? That is an objection easily dismissed, given the limited resources available to Solon, but the plot itself has too much of the B-movies of the fifties and, of course, the Frankenstein movie. It is full of incident, but it feels insubstantial, in the end. Maren and the Sisterhood, while their paranoia is a little understandable, seem too paranoid for their own good, even by Doctor Who standards.

Despite this, the characters, while on the page more stereotypical than usual, are performed, by the most part, well. Sarah, while more of a damsel in distress than usual thanks to a temporary blindness, is performed well by Elisabeth Sladen, and Tom Baker goes from flippancy to seriousness in a heartbeat. Philip Madoc takes a role that could have been done ridiculously over-the-top and makes it his own, melodramatic, but believable, and Cynthia Grenville as Maren imbues a character dangerously close to 'bitter old hag' territory and makes it work very well. Colin Fay as Condo does his best with a quite stereotypically written Igor-like role, and Gilly Brown as Ohica does a decent job as Maren's lieutenant. Michael Spice, as the voice of Morbius, manages to imbue the villain with a mixture of arrogance and pathos at his entrapment as a brain in a jar.

If there is one thing in The Brain of Morbius that works better than the actors, it's the atmosphere. This is easily the best thing about this show, with dark lighting, good sets by Barry Newbery, and Dudley Simpson on fine form providing the right music for the occasion. This is one of the darkest and most horrific stories ever to be done with Doctor Who, with body parts, disembodied brains in jars, and perhaps one of the only uses of a blood bag used to show someone being shot. While this is by no means a bad thing, it is certainly something that may put some viewers off.

Despite the insubstantial (to me, anyway) story, virtually all of the other elements combine to bring The Brain of Morbius to a level that it would be hard to dislodge it. Despite its flaws and dark plot, I enjoyed it. Especially when the words 'Chop-Suey, the galactic emperor' gets used as a weapon.



SCORE: 9/10


Coming soon trailer for the next story, The Seeds of Doom.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KV_WYrZTtpw[/youtube]