Started 02-DecIt can be said that sometimes out of great adversity often comes something great. Certainly that cannot always be true. But The Mind Robber definitely fits that cliche.
The start of Series 6 is a script disaster that rolls on and on for the whole series. The Dominators is cut short by an episode after Sherwin can't get Bryant and Haisman/Lincoln to communicate properly. (and as a consequence they lose series 6 finale "Laird of the McCrimmon".)
Suddenly there's an episode short and nothing to film. Sherwin comes up with ep1 The Mind Robber. A startlingly white, light filler featuring no new sets (the TARDIS console room and a white void and a black void), reused costumes (the White Robots are reused from two Out of the Unknown eps ("The Prophet" and another)) and the regular cast.
Somehow it works....
Then the rest of the Mind Robber kicks off with the TARDIS dissolute and the rules of drama and narrative beating a hasty retreat into the middle distance. The thing is like a 'punk' fractured pantomime. A forest of words, characters from books appearing out of nowhere, Jamie reduced to a photograph and reassembled wrongly by the Doctor, unicorns, a Medusa, D'Artagnan, Lemuel Gulliver and the Karkus being judo flipped by Zoe. Troughton deserves big praise for holding it together with a convincing performance.
Another factor in this success is new director 35yo David Maloney who directs like he knows what he's doing. He's going to do a few more serials in Series 6. David will return to direct
The Mind Robber is a fantasy world story of DW that works. Everything you see is screaming at you this is unbelievable, this cannot be happening. But then you must suspend your disbelief and the story will start to work. Just when it seems like it's about to fall apart it picks up. It's an amazing and psychedlic experience.
A previous attempt at this style was little short of a disaster (Celestial Toymaker) so this presented quite a risk for the producers. But confidence and luck plus a little good judgement made this.
Not the best ever but a firm favourite that stands the test of time.
ABM Rating 3.78/4.00
LJM Rating 4.50/5.00
SPJ Rating 7.80/10.00
No. 4 (out of 45)
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ReplyDeleteThis one is clever. Doctor Who had attempted 'magic world' episodes before (eg The Celestial Toymaker 1966) but this is where it clicks. The serial is a procession through some of the most classic set pieces ever seen in DW. eg. the Unicorn, the Hydra, the white robots, the Karkus (direct from the pages of the 21st century's hourly telepress). All of Gulliver's dialogue is directly lifted from the original 18th century novel. That's kind of fantastic just by itself. Old time DW fans will get a nostalgia kick from this and kids will like it too (as long they can handle the B&W). Note to fans: this DVD is presented in VidFire which means the the original video "look and feel" of the serial is restored. All previous versions of this on VHS and on TV since original transmission have been sourced from an inferior telecine (film) print. It will look fresh and new, even if you've seen it a dozen times before.......