Doctor Who 6.02 The Mind Robber
DOCTOR: "You couldn't control my mind before, and you certainly can't control it now."
Overview
Okay, so this one is just bonkers, completely and utterly. I find it strangely charming, though. This was the first story with the Second Doctor that I had ever seen - there are so few of them extant and they rarely popped up when the show was being re-run on UK Gold, the preference there being for colour stories rather than black and white. I had read quite a number of Second Doctor novelisations as a teenager, so was more than familiar with the character as he appears on paper, but this was my first encounter with him on-screen. And my first impression? I love him. There is just something about the combination of Two, Jamie and Zoe that works for me - they pull me into the story, bonkers though it is, and hold me there.
Because I've not been watching in order, I've missed out on the development that took the Doctor from who he was in his First incarnation to who he has become in his Second incarnation. Of course, largely speaking, that doesn't really matter since in the main it is the process of regeneration itself that leads to the major personality changes. I know enough to know that One had already changed a lot before regenerating, becoming a far more approachable grandfatherly figure to his later companions than he was in the beginning, but Two is very much his own man - and what a contrast he makes to his previous self. I also enjoy the somewhat paternalistic relationship he has with Jamie and Zoe; as Tardis Teams go, these three are right up there among my all-time favourites. It's just a shame that there are so few (complete) stories involving this group of characters.
Observations
Random thoughts while watching:
Hey, mercury vapour coming from the overheating fluid links! Continuity ahoy! That fluid link and its mercury content was first mentioned way back in the First Doctor's second story; his sabotage of the fluid link was the reason he and his companions got stranded on Skaro to encounter the Daleks for the first time!
I really like Jamie. Okay, so he can be a bit thick at times, but I like the perspective he brings to the Tardis. I mean, he comes from 1745, so he's got basically no education at all, he doesn't understand anything, really, of the science that surrounds him on his travels with the Doctor. But he doesn't let that bother him; he just approaches everything from a different angle, a very simple and pragmatic angle. There are times when the Doctor needs that, plus it does help push the plot forward if you have a character who is prepared to cut across all the hand-wringing and philosophising and just press the button and be damned, so to speak.
Nothing about the plot of this story makes any kind of sense if you start to interrogate it. So it's best not to bother. Just go with the flow. The Tardis gets buried in lava; the Doctor takes the Tardis outside of normal space-time dimensions in order to escape said lava (yeah, don't ask); weirdness ensues; 'nuff said.
Episode one is a marvel. The entire episode consists of just the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe (plus a handful of giant toy soldiers who randomly appear) and the action takes place almost entirely on the Tardis, with just a couple of scenes outside in a totally blank, white environment (cheap set design!), and next to nothing happens whatsoever...yet somehow it works. It is completely bonkers, but it works. Huge kudos to the actors: they really sell it!
Oh, Jamie's face when he thinks he can see Scotland on the scanner - he's so pretty and he looks so happy! Zoe is also excited when she thinks she can see her home. She actually says that she is seeing what she most wants to see. So are they both secretly that homesick? They both went off to travel with the Doctor voluntarily, didn't they? So what's up with this sudden pining for home?
Oh look, there's that iconic image of Zoe in her sparkly catsuit clinging to the console after the Tardis explodes.
What's up with the Tardis exploding like that? What's going on? ...yeah, I know, don't go there. Don't ask questions. Just go with the flow. The Master - not, you know, the Master, but the non-Time Lord Master from this story - has taken advantage of the Tardis taking that little excursion into nothingness and has hijacked it. Somehow. That's all we need to understand. Which is just as well, since it's just about all it's possible to understand!
Frazer Hines and Wendy Padbury are great value for a commentary. I love how Hines calls Padbury 'Padders'. There's so much affection there still and they clearly have very fond memories of their time on the show. And Wendy Padbury sounds so gleeful about the scene where she smacks Jamie across the face!
Frazer Hines came down with chicken pox in the middle of filming this story and wasn't able to film for the better part of a week. As so many others have commented elsewhere, it was an incredible stroke of luck for the show that this just happened to happen while they were working on the one story where they could get away with re-casting a major character for an episode! It is absolutely crazy, but so is the entire story, so it works.
Madness. It's all madness.
Those giant toy soldiers are absolutely hilarious. According to the commentary, Frazer Hines' brother was inside one of them!
Gulliver, as played by Bernard Horsfall, is absolutely brilliant. I love him. The actor does a fantastic job - every word of his dialogue is taken from the text of the book Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift, and boy does he sell it. I'm impressed by the writers, too, who managed to pull quotes from the novel and use them as completely plausible (if a little weird) dialogue for the character as he interacts with the Doctor and the others!
Oh hey, it's Edith Nesbit's Treasure Seekers, including a very young Sylvestra le Tozel, who has gone on to have a decent acting career.
Interesting that when Jamie mentions the Tardis breaking up to the Doctor, he doesn't seem to remember it happening - it is never entirely clear, at any point in this story, whether anything that is happening is actually real or not. It could equally be illusion or hallucination.
The forest of words is quite clever. It's a shame they weren't able to represent them properly from above, which spoils the conceit a little.
I wonder, could Jamie already read before he joined the Tardis? It doesn't seem likely for a humble piper lad from the Scottish Highlands in 1745. Did Ben and Polly teach him to read once he was aboard, then, perhaps?
Aww, the real Jamie is back again after his episode off. Zoe is better at putting his face back together than the Doctor; her logical mind is an advantage there, whereas the Doctor has got himself too flustered to think clearly.
Patrick Troughton and Frazer Hines put so much subtle, physical comedy into their performances; they make a fantastic double-act. They must have been a riot on-set.
I like how Jamie manages to escape the toy soldier when it gets him on his own - unschooled he might be, and he might have to interpret everything he encounters in simple terms that he can understand, but he's bright enough to figure out how the robot sees and to throw his jacket over the eye to blind it. He's all instinct and intuition, which makes for a good contrast with Zoe's computer-like brain and logic.
Rapunzel is rather amusing. I'm fairly certain her dialogue doesn't come direct from a book, though, so how come she has freedom of speech while Gulliver doesn't? Maybe such questions shouldn't be asked of such a bonkers story?
Hey, Medusa is actually pretty good - nice one, special effects team.
Jamie is remarkably good at reading for a lad from 1745 - look at him reading off that ticker tape!
Oh, oh, oh, Zoe's fight with the Karkus comic book hero is absolutely hilarious. I love that she not only gets to fight hand-to-hand with a comic book superhero, but she also gets to win. Given that she hasn't made much of a contribution so far, it's a good moment for her.
Zoe was doing so well, what with vanquishing the Karkus and all, but then she ruins it by setting off the alarm that Jamie just told her about a minute earlier, so she loses points for that, I'm afraid.
Oh look, it's the Master. Not the actual Master, of course, this one isn't nearly as much fun (or as sociopathic).
I like how Jamie and Zoe sneak around behind the Master while the Doctor keeps him talking. I like it when companions are pro-active, even if it doesn't get them very far.
It isn't ever really explained just where the Land of Fiction is or how it was created or what the intelligence behind it actually is. We are at least told why, which is that they hope to use the Doctor to bring the entire human race under their control so that they, whoever they are, can take over the world, but as invasion plans go it's all terribly vague, not to mention convoluted. As a viewer, you just have to go with the flow, enjoy the romp, and not ask too many questions for fear it will all fall apart!
This Doctor is a bit gullible, isn't he? He lets the fake Jamie and Zoe lead him into a trap just moments after realising that they aren't real, just because he's got himself all flustered and isn't thinking straight. It isn't often we see the Doctor at such a loss - luckily it doesn't last long.
Oh, all the heroic figures from fiction who are conjured to do battle with one another - hilarious stuff. And with the stirring musical score, as well. Hee!
As endings go, it's all terribly unresolved - Jamie and Zoe overload the computer and blow up the land of fiction, and they all end up back where they started in the Tardis as if nothing happened!
Quotable Quotes
JAMIE: "Well, we can't stay here. We'll be buried by that lava. It's nearly on us. Look!"
DOCTOR: "Oh, my word, what a wonderful sight."
ZOE: "Fantastic."
JAMIE: "Listen, will you two stop gaping at that and get us out of here?"
ZOE: "You're worried by something, Doctor. What is it?"
DOCTOR: "Me? Worried? No. No. It's only the unknown that worries me, Zoe."
The Verdict
Bonkers. Absolutely bonkers. And yet tremendous fun. I love it!
Overview
Okay, so this one is just bonkers, completely and utterly. I find it strangely charming, though. This was the first story with the Second Doctor that I had ever seen - there are so few of them extant and they rarely popped up when the show was being re-run on UK Gold, the preference there being for colour stories rather than black and white. I had read quite a number of Second Doctor novelisations as a teenager, so was more than familiar with the character as he appears on paper, but this was my first encounter with him on-screen. And my first impression? I love him. There is just something about the combination of Two, Jamie and Zoe that works for me - they pull me into the story, bonkers though it is, and hold me there.
Because I've not been watching in order, I've missed out on the development that took the Doctor from who he was in his First incarnation to who he has become in his Second incarnation. Of course, largely speaking, that doesn't really matter since in the main it is the process of regeneration itself that leads to the major personality changes. I know enough to know that One had already changed a lot before regenerating, becoming a far more approachable grandfatherly figure to his later companions than he was in the beginning, but Two is very much his own man - and what a contrast he makes to his previous self. I also enjoy the somewhat paternalistic relationship he has with Jamie and Zoe; as Tardis Teams go, these three are right up there among my all-time favourites. It's just a shame that there are so few (complete) stories involving this group of characters.
Observations
Random thoughts while watching:
Hey, mercury vapour coming from the overheating fluid links! Continuity ahoy! That fluid link and its mercury content was first mentioned way back in the First Doctor's second story; his sabotage of the fluid link was the reason he and his companions got stranded on Skaro to encounter the Daleks for the first time!
I really like Jamie. Okay, so he can be a bit thick at times, but I like the perspective he brings to the Tardis. I mean, he comes from 1745, so he's got basically no education at all, he doesn't understand anything, really, of the science that surrounds him on his travels with the Doctor. But he doesn't let that bother him; he just approaches everything from a different angle, a very simple and pragmatic angle. There are times when the Doctor needs that, plus it does help push the plot forward if you have a character who is prepared to cut across all the hand-wringing and philosophising and just press the button and be damned, so to speak.
Nothing about the plot of this story makes any kind of sense if you start to interrogate it. So it's best not to bother. Just go with the flow. The Tardis gets buried in lava; the Doctor takes the Tardis outside of normal space-time dimensions in order to escape said lava (yeah, don't ask); weirdness ensues; 'nuff said.
Episode one is a marvel. The entire episode consists of just the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe (plus a handful of giant toy soldiers who randomly appear) and the action takes place almost entirely on the Tardis, with just a couple of scenes outside in a totally blank, white environment (cheap set design!), and next to nothing happens whatsoever...yet somehow it works. It is completely bonkers, but it works. Huge kudos to the actors: they really sell it!
Oh, Jamie's face when he thinks he can see Scotland on the scanner - he's so pretty and he looks so happy! Zoe is also excited when she thinks she can see her home. She actually says that she is seeing what she most wants to see. So are they both secretly that homesick? They both went off to travel with the Doctor voluntarily, didn't they? So what's up with this sudden pining for home?
Oh look, there's that iconic image of Zoe in her sparkly catsuit clinging to the console after the Tardis explodes.
What's up with the Tardis exploding like that? What's going on? ...yeah, I know, don't go there. Don't ask questions. Just go with the flow. The Master - not, you know, the Master, but the non-Time Lord Master from this story - has taken advantage of the Tardis taking that little excursion into nothingness and has hijacked it. Somehow. That's all we need to understand. Which is just as well, since it's just about all it's possible to understand!
Frazer Hines and Wendy Padbury are great value for a commentary. I love how Hines calls Padbury 'Padders'. There's so much affection there still and they clearly have very fond memories of their time on the show. And Wendy Padbury sounds so gleeful about the scene where she smacks Jamie across the face!
Frazer Hines came down with chicken pox in the middle of filming this story and wasn't able to film for the better part of a week. As so many others have commented elsewhere, it was an incredible stroke of luck for the show that this just happened to happen while they were working on the one story where they could get away with re-casting a major character for an episode! It is absolutely crazy, but so is the entire story, so it works.
Madness. It's all madness.
Those giant toy soldiers are absolutely hilarious. According to the commentary, Frazer Hines' brother was inside one of them!
Gulliver, as played by Bernard Horsfall, is absolutely brilliant. I love him. The actor does a fantastic job - every word of his dialogue is taken from the text of the book Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift, and boy does he sell it. I'm impressed by the writers, too, who managed to pull quotes from the novel and use them as completely plausible (if a little weird) dialogue for the character as he interacts with the Doctor and the others!
Oh hey, it's Edith Nesbit's Treasure Seekers, including a very young Sylvestra le Tozel, who has gone on to have a decent acting career.
Interesting that when Jamie mentions the Tardis breaking up to the Doctor, he doesn't seem to remember it happening - it is never entirely clear, at any point in this story, whether anything that is happening is actually real or not. It could equally be illusion or hallucination.
The forest of words is quite clever. It's a shame they weren't able to represent them properly from above, which spoils the conceit a little.
I wonder, could Jamie already read before he joined the Tardis? It doesn't seem likely for a humble piper lad from the Scottish Highlands in 1745. Did Ben and Polly teach him to read once he was aboard, then, perhaps?
Aww, the real Jamie is back again after his episode off. Zoe is better at putting his face back together than the Doctor; her logical mind is an advantage there, whereas the Doctor has got himself too flustered to think clearly.
Patrick Troughton and Frazer Hines put so much subtle, physical comedy into their performances; they make a fantastic double-act. They must have been a riot on-set.
I like how Jamie manages to escape the toy soldier when it gets him on his own - unschooled he might be, and he might have to interpret everything he encounters in simple terms that he can understand, but he's bright enough to figure out how the robot sees and to throw his jacket over the eye to blind it. He's all instinct and intuition, which makes for a good contrast with Zoe's computer-like brain and logic.
Rapunzel is rather amusing. I'm fairly certain her dialogue doesn't come direct from a book, though, so how come she has freedom of speech while Gulliver doesn't? Maybe such questions shouldn't be asked of such a bonkers story?
Hey, Medusa is actually pretty good - nice one, special effects team.
Jamie is remarkably good at reading for a lad from 1745 - look at him reading off that ticker tape!
Oh, oh, oh, Zoe's fight with the Karkus comic book hero is absolutely hilarious. I love that she not only gets to fight hand-to-hand with a comic book superhero, but she also gets to win. Given that she hasn't made much of a contribution so far, it's a good moment for her.
Zoe was doing so well, what with vanquishing the Karkus and all, but then she ruins it by setting off the alarm that Jamie just told her about a minute earlier, so she loses points for that, I'm afraid.
Oh look, it's the Master. Not the actual Master, of course, this one isn't nearly as much fun (or as sociopathic).
I like how Jamie and Zoe sneak around behind the Master while the Doctor keeps him talking. I like it when companions are pro-active, even if it doesn't get them very far.
It isn't ever really explained just where the Land of Fiction is or how it was created or what the intelligence behind it actually is. We are at least told why, which is that they hope to use the Doctor to bring the entire human race under their control so that they, whoever they are, can take over the world, but as invasion plans go it's all terribly vague, not to mention convoluted. As a viewer, you just have to go with the flow, enjoy the romp, and not ask too many questions for fear it will all fall apart!
This Doctor is a bit gullible, isn't he? He lets the fake Jamie and Zoe lead him into a trap just moments after realising that they aren't real, just because he's got himself all flustered and isn't thinking straight. It isn't often we see the Doctor at such a loss - luckily it doesn't last long.
Oh, all the heroic figures from fiction who are conjured to do battle with one another - hilarious stuff. And with the stirring musical score, as well. Hee!
As endings go, it's all terribly unresolved - Jamie and Zoe overload the computer and blow up the land of fiction, and they all end up back where they started in the Tardis as if nothing happened!
Quotable Quotes
JAMIE: "Well, we can't stay here. We'll be buried by that lava. It's nearly on us. Look!"
DOCTOR: "Oh, my word, what a wonderful sight."
ZOE: "Fantastic."
JAMIE: "Listen, will you two stop gaping at that and get us out of here?"
ZOE: "You're worried by something, Doctor. What is it?"
DOCTOR: "Me? Worried? No. No. It's only the unknown that worries me, Zoe."
The Verdict
Bonkers. Absolutely bonkers. And yet tremendous fun. I love it!