Missing Episodes analysis

UPDATED 8 Apr 2024

Well, there's fan telesnaps recons of all of them and 16mm telecines of some of them.
These days there's Animated eps on DVD and fan animations. Some are better than others.
For reference, here's the scoreboard


A  BBC DVD Animation
A   Fan animation with full motion and basically watchable with narrative integrity (incomplete ep animations not counted.)

R  BBC DVD reconstruction using telesnaps (not necessarily perfect, fan recons are often better)

 -   It's missing

No.	TITLE
001	1A An Unearthly Child	1	2	3	4
002	1B The Dead Planet	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
003	1C Beyond the Sun	1	2	3	4
004	1D Marco Polo	A	-	-	-	-	-	-
005	1E The Keys of Marinus	1	2	3	4	5	6
006	1F The Aztecs	1	2	3	4
007	1G The Sensorites	1	2	3	4	5	6
008	1H The French Revolution	1	2	3	A	A	6
009	1J Planet of Giants	1	2	3
010	1K The World's End	1	2	3	4	5	6
011	1L The Powerful Enemy	1	2
012	1M The Romans	1	2	3	4
013	1N The Web Planet	1	2	3	4	5	6
014	1P The Lion	1	R	3	R
015	1Q The Space Museum	1	2	3	4
016	1R The Executioners	1	2	3	4	5	6
017	1S The Time Meddler	1	2	3	4
018	1T Galaxy Four	A	A	3 A	A
019	1T/A Mission to the Unknown	A
020	1U The Mythmakers	-	-	-	-
021	1V The Daleks Masterplan	-	2	-	-	5	-	-
		A	-	-	-	10	-	-
022	1W The Massacre	-	-	-	-
023	1X The Ark	1	2	3	4
024	1Y The Celestial Toymaker	A	A	A	4 A
025	1Z The Gunfighters	1	2	3	4
026	2A The Savages	-	-	-	-
027	2B The War Machines	1	2	3	4
028	2C The Smugglers	-	-	-	-
029	2D The Tenth Planet	1	2	3	A
030	2E The Power of the Daleks	A	A	A	A	A	A
031	2F The Highlanders	-	-	-	-
032	2G The Underwater Menace	A	2 A	3 A	A
033	2H The Moonbase	A	2	A	4
034	2J The Macra Terror	A	A	A	A
035	2K The Faceless Ones	1 A	A	3 A	A	A	A
036	2L The Evil of the Daleks	A	2 A	A	A	A	A	A
037	2M The Tomb of the Cybermen	1	2	3	4
038	2N The Abominable Snowmen	A	2 A	A	A	A	A
039	2O The Ice Warriors	1	A	A	4	5	6
040	2P The Enemy of the World	1	2	3	4	5	6
041	2Q The Web of Fear	1	2	A	4	5	6
042	2R Fury from the Deep	A	A	A	A	A	A
043	2S The Wheel in Space	-	-	3	-	-	6
044	2T The Dominators	1	2	3	4	5
045	2U The Mind Robber	1	2	3	4	5
046	2V The Invasion	A	2	3	A
		5	6	7	8
047	2W The Krotons	1	2	3	4
048	2X The Seeds of Death	1	2	3	4	5	6
049	2Y The Space Pirates	-	2	-	-	-	-
050	2Z The War Games	1	2	3	4	5
		6	7	8	9	10

	Eps	Complete Serials
TOTAL	253	50
OK	- 156	- 24
MISSING	= 97	= 26
BBC ANIMATED	- 50	- 15
Fan animated	- 3	-1
Really missing	= 44	= 10

050 The War Games

Started 25-Dec

We watched the DVD version with info text by Martin Wiggins.

The War Games is epic and classic and familiar. Groundbreaking DW storytelling and an earthquake in the mythos of the history of the show are actually hand in hand here.

It is not a runaround and then the Time Lords turn up in ep10 and then Doctor regenerates.

The characters are well written and the acting is genuine and believable without being earthy and ultra-real.

The situations are full of recognisable (mostly military) tropes and often historical ones with which people are familiar. The stakes are high: the welfare of 1000's of unfortunate, unknowing soldiers being cheated of their lives and liberty is in play.

The loop plots and twists abound in this story. The contrast of familiar with anachronistic is used here in a way that becomes influential throughout the 3rd and 4th Doctor eras.

Every time I've watched this since the wobbly videos of the 80's this has seemed raw and strangely overacted. In this marathon blog context it has seemed to me for the first time since 1973 that it is actually sophisticated and exciting.

The final ep is amazing TV. The performance by Troughton goes from "runaway" to acceptance yet does not miss a beat. He stays in character and does not gurn or make daft jokes that disrespect the story. He owns the screen and eyes are drawn to him in every scene.


MORE TO COME
 
There is a sense with Patrick Troughton that the timing was slightly wrong. He was an accomplished performer who would have been better in a modern show but was capable in any age.

He left the show with the job not finished. The last year of Doctor Who was a wild ride in the production office. In an interview in the latest DWM Sherwin tells the story about Troughton and Bryant rowing. He does not tell whether he and Troughton saw eye to eye.
It seems as if the idea was put forward in Series 5 to reduce the ep count and go to colour but while those plans were in formulation the basic work of script writing fell over somewhat.

The record of rejected scripts and late submissions between mid 1968 and mid 1969 was little short of alarming. It would not have given relaxed and comfortable people much reassurance let alone insecure and nervy types like Pat Troughton. Series 6 has 3 top 5 serials (two directed by David Maloney, the other by Camfield) and 3 bottom 10 serials (out of 7 candidates!!!)
The viewing figures were tanking fast from solid 7 million the year before to 4 million, even a couple of 3 somethings. But scheduling, weather and competition from Irwin Allen shows on the other channel were factors. In the 2010's DW is still going. None of these other TV shows are.

Why do new Doctors fifty years later cite him as the model for Doctor Who rather than Hartnell?

Is it because of the flexibility he showed? Maybe the notion that slavishly copying the previous incumbent was to be avoided? Certainly it was the idea that the role of Doctor Who is not really acting in that the character is essentially unchanging and unchangeable yet is simultaneously anything you want it to be.

Maybe it's time to read the Michael Troughton biography again....?

Troughton was fond of saying (in the 80's, Fraser Hines still says it) that he loved working on DW and would have stayed there for good if he could have. But I think this may be lazy fantasy. He was a hard bitten pro who knew that his next job depended on not outstaying his welcome or not being shackled to a corpse (at least potentially).

And DW clearly needed to keep changing. In 6 years it had gone from talky, slow moving historicals to anti-war SF fantasy. The pace of change was not about to let up.

After the remarkable ep10 Wendy, Fraser and Pat were gone. So was Peter Bryant. David Maloney would be back but not immediately. Robert Holmes, Terrance Dicks, Derrick Sherwin are all staying... and new boy Barry Letts is about to get a phone call.


ABM Rating 3.82/4.00 
LJM Rating 4.55/5.00
SPJ Rating 8.30/10

Link to Cumulative Rankings
No. 4 (out of 50)

Rankings Scoreboard

049 The Space Pirates

Started 20-Dec

We tried a cgi recon from whorecons.com.au (yes really). and gave up after about 3 minutes. Then we resorted to the LC recon.

This story is slo-o-ow.

The Doctor's company turns up at 14m52s into ep1 and their interactions are limited to the surrounds of Alpha 7 (A little space station) until the end of ep2. No other cast members appear with them. Apparently the regulars were filmed on separate days to the main cast and the clips inserted.

The story begins with pirates raiding a little space station. Then some wanky space police (Hermack, Warne and Penn) who faff about (uselessly) chasing these raids.

Intro'd in ep2 are Milo Clancey and then Madelaine Issigri.

Milo Clancey is clearly a tribute to/obvious ripoff of Gabby Hayes, noted Western character actor. Another way to describe this is 'Stinky Pete' off Toy Story 2 (1999)

The Issigri 'bum' hairstyle helmet is intriguing but not at all attractive.

Dudley Foster as Caven is consistent and menacing without being anything other than dull. Dom Issigri is possibly more annoying and incoherent than Milo Clancey.

The spaceship model work is of a high standard but seems too relaxed and graceful to add any excitement. The spaceship chasing and distances and time scales are either ignored or un-thought out.

The sets are limited to about 4 max per episode. As for location filming.... none, zip, nada, nothing.


The last episode is dire. The climax in particular seems soporific. Caven's ship is almost casually exploded by Space Corps action.

A big fault lies with the direction. In The Space Pirates direction seems too lackadaisical for a tight DW story. Actors are allowed to go wild without much thought. Jack May as Hermack and Donald Gee as Warne are particularly egregiously ill disciplined. They needed a note, mate! They were terrible.

The pace is slow and slower.. Michael Hart did not make a return to DW.

I get the feeling this is a 4 parter stretched out a lot.

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Marathon progress notes
Marathon progress Space Pirates ep6 (243 episodes down) was watched on day 239 of the marathon.

See www.timeanddate.com

Five Four Three One NONE recon eps to go....

Recons concluded 9.06pm 24-Dec-2018

Here's another way to experience recons...I found I needed this to follow The Space Pirates.
Transcripts link here http://dwtpscripts.tripod.com/2nddoc/yy/yy0.html
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ABM Rating 2.00/4.00

LJM Rating 0.75/5.00

SPJ Rating 0.95/10



No. 48 (out of 49)

Link to Cumulative Rankings

Rankings Scoreboard

048 The Seeds of Death

Started 16-Dec

Bloody hell this is a poor DW serial.

This is another base under siege. But that is just the start.

The central plot weakness is the T-Mat system.

It's made every other transport system redundant yet it's experimental and just been introduced.

There's only one person who 'understands' it (Miss Kelly).

From the labels on screen it appears to service mostly European and North American locations. Tokyo and Canberra are the only exceptions. Are South and central America, Africa, Middle East and Southern Asia and China are not part of this world then? What happened?

T-Mat seems to be controlled from the moonbase (like a central exchange.)

Wouldn't a geostationary satellite suffice? In fact Radnor and Miss Kelly discuss this as a temporary measure in ep5. His means the designers made this (very poor) choice at some point.

The basic lack of network security means that it is vulnerable to a moonbase infiltration. And their defence methods are not thought out at all. It seems crazy that there are no telemetry sensors that tell the operators when a successful transfer has taken place. Chunks of the plot depend on this very curious oversight.

It's so badly designed and implemented that worldwide food shortages will take place as early as ep3 when it stops working in ep1...

Assuming that this is meant to be allegorical in some way, is this more of Brian Hayles "warnings" about the future of technology? (Hint: Like in The Ice Warriors that's based on his naive assumptions about engineering.)

In ep1 there's a weirdly ineffective attempt to hide the identity of the invader on the moon T-Mat base. And then they flub it by forgetting to make the dramatic reveal. Is this a mistake? Sloppy direction?

In ep2 there's lots of poor model shots of the rocket. We've had some shockers (Dalek Invasion of Earth, Moonbase) in the first few years of DW. And some judicious minimalising (Tomb, Ice Warriors). Recent serials have shown some improvement. (Wheel, Invasion). The model shots here are just woeful. And the space capsule scenes are disappointing too.

In ep3 there's more terrible model shots. The broken transmitter in the moonbase is shown to use vacuum tubes. And the first of many lines alluding to the radio beam guiding the rocket/fleet to the "target" is made. This becomes a kind of technobabble shorthand for actual space navigation. It is nonsense.

In ep4 there's an appallingly badly directed sequence when an Ice Warrior is T-Matted to Earth Control. Eldred and Radnor stand by while the Ice Warrior proceeds to sonic people left and right. They call for "guards, guards" who then promptly rush in. The guards let loose with percussion fire in Eldred's and Radnor's direction. Yet they are not hit. They don't even duck. The Ice Warrior disappears behind some scenery and Radnor announces that the guards are all dead. This bit is so lame.

The temperature control in the moonbase is crazy. The heating control is measured in centrigrade and Zoe winds it up to set it at 60 deg C. Apart from that being an air temperature that would make humans collapse let alone Ice Warriors, there's the issue of control delay. The moonbase seems reasonably large, perhaps the size of a large building like an office block. To regulate to a temperature like that using air conditioning or central heating would probably take a day or so. (Unless there's an almighty powerful aircon installed.) Was the idea to get the temperature to spike rapidly? It would likely then go out of control quickly. The modern building level climate control would surely be more sophisticated than this.

Why is there only one control for this and why is it centrally located? Same lame brain designer who did the T-Mat network?

Why are the Ice Warriors so dumb as to attack the Earth (5/8 of it's surface is water) with the "Seeds of Death" (which are vulnerable to water)??

The lack of biosecurity measures (aka “quarantine”) adopted by the T-Mat staff is appalling. A weird ball of unidentified stuff appears from space and they immediately try touching it! FFS! It bursts gas or spores or whatever and they deal with it by using the extractor fan to vent it outside thus spreading it perfectly and contaminating every surface in their air system.. Well done, ya dorks!

Again dialogue incorrectly describes the spores as “toxic”. At most it appears to be an irritant.

The characters are: angry base under siege tropes (Radnor), badly acted unconvincing whinebags (Fewsham), boring (Eldred), cool (Gia Kelly), gay in those leathery pants (Slaar), even gayer (the bedazzler he used his helmet)(the Grand Marshall). Everyone else is less than a cardboard cutout.... There are no complex characters with proper motivations or backgrounds or human emotions just shouty tropes. At least Ice Warriors had Penley.

Troughton is asleep in ep4 for some reason (he's knocked out by an exploding seed pod in ep3 20m30s and stays that way till ep5). He sprouts amazing sideburns at some point which disappear in on location shots.

In ep5, the chemistry of attacking the fungus is nuts. If sulphuric, hydrochloric, citric acids (of unknown concentration but probably aqueous base) are ineffective why would water have any effect? The Doctor and Eldred bring a seed pod inside and use no, nil, zero, nada biocontainment whatsoever.

As for what the spores do... in ep5 (about 13m30s) the Doctor speculates about the change in Earth atmosphere that the fungus will create when they “consume plant life”. Fungus that rots vegetable matter creates (very slowly) methane and CO2 (mostly). Eldred says he has calculated that oxygen will be reduced to 0.05 times 'normal'. The Doctor says this will make the atmosphere just like Mars.

Nuh-uh, sorry that's plain crap. The Martian atmosphere consists of approximately 96% carbon dioxide, 1.9% argon, 1.9% nitrogen, and traces of free oxygen, carbon monoxide, water and methane. Pressure at the surface of Mars is approximately 0.6kPa (Earth is 79% N, 20% O, 1% everything else at 101.3kPa).

This story might be 50 years old but the atmosphere of Mars is not newly discovered. It's been well known since the 1920's. Why was no one able to check an atmospheric science text about this (or even an encyclopedia)?

The costumes are strange for the T-Mat staff. The guys seem to wear weird y-fronts. It looks better on the only woman... The security guards helmets are a difficult trivia get. The Ice Warriors look great but we’ve seen ‘em before. They're unable to see people hiding nearby very well at all and they are somewhat slow and lumbering to be really threatening.

The Ice Warriors are killed pretty horribly by the sun ray lamp gear on several occasions by Phipps, Miss Kelly and Jamie and, sadly in ep6, the Doctor. This is not good for the show.

The repeatedly used in-studio shot showing the the screen in vertical thirds with two close up things each side of the screen and a greater depth of field action shot in the centre looks a good idea but it does get overused. There might be a new camera lens and some attention to lighting and lighting design at work here. It's wasted.









The music is pretty good. It's Dudley's best soundtrack yet by quite a way.

Is it Brian Hayles? In the Ice Warriors he wrote about how the atmosphere on Mars is mostly nitrogen (which was wrong). I think this marathon has proved one very decisive thing and that's I don't like Brian Hayles stories.

Worst Troughton story easily. (And I think this will include the next story in that. We'll see next!)


ABM Rating 1.95/4.00
LJM Rating 1.00/5.00
SPJ Rating 1.50/10.00

No. 46 (out of 48)

Link to CumulativeRankings

Rankings Scoreboard



  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
QUESTION TO PONDER
Like 8 other Troughton stories, Seeds.. is set in the future with rockets, and space and spandex outfits and stuff. See analysis below.

Is this reflective of a contemporary fascination? Or a cultural trend? 1969 was Apollo year after all.

The First Doctor is about the past.
Past 13 (out of 29) A, D, F, H, M, P, R, S, U, V, W, Z, 2C,
Present 5 (out of 29) A, J, R, V, 2B,
Future 8 (out of 29) G, K, L, R, T/A, V, X, 2D
Alien 8 (out of 29) B, C, E, N, Q, T, Y, 2A,

Second Doctor is mostly in the future
Past 4 (out of 21) 2N, 2L, 2F, 2Z
Present 6 (out of 21) 2V, 2R, 2Q, 2L, 2K, 2G,
Future 9 (out of 21) 2Y, 2X, 2S, 2P, 2O, 2M, 2J, 2H, 2E
Alien 3 (out of 21) 2W, 2U, 2T,

Third Doctor is mostly in the present/UNIT
Past 3 (out of 24) 3O, 3P, 3U,
Present 15 (out of 24) 3A, 3B, 3C, 3D, 3E, 3F, 3G, 3J, 3K, 3L, 3O, 3R, 3T, 3W, 3Z,
Future 7 (out of 24) 3H, 3M, 3N, 3Q, 3X, 3Y, 3Z
Alien 3 (out of 24) 3D, 3P, 3S,

Fourth Doctor went to alien planets
Past 5 (out of 42) 4G, 4M, 4S, 4V, 5H,
Present 9 (out of 42) 4A, 4F, 4J, 4L, 4N, 4X, 5H, 5M, 5V
Future 14 (out of 42) 4C, 4B, 4D, 4H, 4Q, 4R, 4T, 4W, 5A, 5C, 5E, 5K, 5N, 5P,
Alien 19 (out of 42) 4E, 4K, 4N, 4P, 4Q, 4Y, 4Z, 5B, 5D, 5F, 5J, 5G, 5L, 5Q, 5R, 5P, 5S, 5T, 5V

Fifth Doctor is evenly distributed
Past 7 (out of 20) 5W, 5X, 6A, 6C, 6F, 6H, 6J,
Present 8 (out of 20) 5Z, 6C, 6E, 6F, 6K, 6M, 6P, 6Q
Future 5 (out of 20) 5Y, 6B, 6L, 6N, 6P
Alien 8 (out of 20) 5Z, 5W, 5Y, 6D, 6G, 6K, 6Q, 6R

Sixth Doctor is future-ish
Past 2 (out of 11) 6X, 6Y,
Present 2 (out of 11) 6T, 6W,
Future 7 (out of 11) 6S, 6T, 6W, 6Z, 7A, 7B, 7C
Alien 5 (out of 11) 6V, 6Y, 6Z, 7B, 7C

Seventh Doctor is past-ish
Past 5 (out of 12) 7F, 7H, 7K, 7N, 7Q
Present 3 (out of 12) 7K, 7M, 7P
Future 2 (out of 12) 7G, 7L,
Alien 4 (out of 12) 7D, 7E, 7J, 7L,

• Some stories are set in several times eg. 1V.
• Some stories are set in space or on alien worlds and feature minor characters from Earth in the future (eg. 3M, 3Y)
• Some stories feature Earth like characters but the time or their origin is never stated explicitly. (eg. 6G, 6R, 4H)
• Some stories feature human characters from a particular time setting but they are clearly not on Earth in their original time (eg. 2Z, 6H, 5W)

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047 The Krotons

Started 11-Dec

As with The Invasion this one is very familiar.

I find myself 'singing along' with the dialogue. This one I had as a sound recording as early as May 1982 so I've heard this a lot.


As I have noted before elsewhere this story is very familiar to many DW fans since it's 1981 UK repeat. Consequently there has been a long period of time for fans to pick it to pieces. Typical reviews seem to concentrate on the idea that the costumes and the visual effects aren't very good.

Well, name one 60's DW where the costumes and visual effects are anything better than 'ok'.


Such critiques as these are kinda pointless in my opinion.

Apart from the Krotons themselves, they're mostly ok.

The acting is competent to good in this , the costumes are 'Bobi Bartlett' (distinctive in a 1968 kinda way that has never come back into fashion), the script is tight and sparkles with wit and lines the actors clearly relish. The dark patches on Vana's pants are a little bit rude looking.

The angry student riot stuff is almost allegorically plucked from the headlines of 1968 but nearly no one remembers that now.

Zoe's shorty skirt is eye-watering. I feel pervy looking but it's amazing for a young boy.

The Krotons' 'skirts' are also unwatchable but not because they're attractive. The episode 3 scenes featuring the Kroton's POV expedition in the Wasteland cannot be attributed to arty direction but simple practicality.

This is of course Robert Holmes first DW script, apparently a rehash of a rejected Out of the Unknown storyline that Terrance Dicks found in the filing cabinet. The premise is an isolated relatively low tech alien community which has been invaded long ago by a high tech spaceship which it turns out has put the occupants into a suspended state. We join the story as two 'students' are graduating the Learning Hall and being sent into the Kroton's spaceship. The Doctor's crew are the ones who notice these students are damaged and (in one case) disposed of as waste by the spaceship. The plot pits the Doctor's realisation of the truth against the Gonds bubbling and fizzing internal politics of disinformation and lack of curiosity. The Gonds' conflict is presented as inward and unnecessary. The threat posed by the Krotons is unrecognised, doubted, then exposed and then vanquished.

The curious thing is that the Krotons are a unfamiliar crystalline life form with very unusual biochemistry. Also the timescale is centuries. This is the unheralded great SF bit in this story.


How similar is this plot to the Dominators? Doctor's crew helps low tech vulnerable on some planet overcome the invasion of a small two life-form crewed spaceship of resource predatory aliens who are motivated by survival. The story and style are starkly different.


There seems a musical, even a operatic note to the dialogue in this. It is atonal and disjointed (it's not Oklahoma! more like Nixon in China) but there seems a lot of lines delivered by actors in a strange, off-normal way. The dialogue is dense and delivered very quickly. It is heavily rehearsed (probably).

I'll cite Beta's opening dialogue in ep1 from 18m23s. Beta's lines in particular are delivered in an odd lowering tone end inflection. Either it's clumsy delivery or very calculated. It does not seem sloppy.

• BETA: Selris ...
• SELRIS: Ah Beta, come and meet our guests. My friends this is Beta, our controller of science and my son's good friend.
• BETA: That's what I'm here for. Do you know what Thara's planning? He and some students have gone out to the Learning Hall. They're going to wreck the machines.
• SELRIS: No
• BETA: You've got to stop them Selris. I came as quickly as i could. But they'll be there by now.
• SELRIS: Is it too late?
• DOCTOR: Not if we cut through the wasteland."

There is no incidental music, only BBC Radiophonic Workshop sound effects; almost a sound design. This follows similar experiments in Wheel and Dominators.... The sound effects are timed to enhance scenes, to frame the scenes. (Or maybe I've listened to this 15 times too many...)


The Doctor's and Zoe's goofy delaying in ep4 is delightful. (How do I wear this? Oops, butter fingers...Oh I wanted to stand there.) There's a point to it as well (...playing for time while the Krotons are 'poisoned'.) This illustrates the subtle depth this piece has.

The Krotons ep1 is the highest UK rated Troughton episode.

This is a lot better than its reputation.


ABM Rating 3.25/4.00 
LJM Rating 3.10/5.00
SPJ Rating 3.50/10.00

No. 29 (out of 47)


Link to Cumulative Rankings


Rankings Scoreboard

046 The Invasion

Started 05-Dec

Lots of ECU

Lots of OTT acting, especially from Kevin Stoney but also from Peter Halliday, Ian Fairbairn and Edward Burnham. Even Nick Courtney is shown to be visibly swaggering.

Obviously the actors are bigging this up since the script and the direction are good enough to allow it.

Consider the contrast here from Kevin Stoney's Vaughn to Ronald Allen's Rago in The Dominators. Theatrical medium shots are replaced by fast cuts and ECU and the result is wa-a-a-ay different.

The incidental music needs a mention. After the stock music of series 5 and Dudley's occasional forays into wild analogue synthesiser mode (Fury, Ice W's and Macra Terror but not Evil for some reason.). The cues presented here by Jazz musician Don Harper are spooky and used effectively throughout. Douglas Camfield is developing here. He'll be doing this style of thing again.


The 8 eps make this epic rather than dull, even though we don't even see a Cyberman till near the end of ep4.

The action in ep 7 and 8 is technologically out of date now and seems twee. It probably has some physical problems as well. A large rocket launched 50k miles into space is going to take more than 12 minutes to arrive. Launched at a record 16.3 km/s solar escape velocity in 2005 the New Horizons probe took 9 hours to go past the Moon's orbit (about 240k miles) (See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Horizons#cite_note-airspace20150710-81.) At that speed the Russian rocket would take about 81.5 minutes to reach the Cybership. But a 60's rocket would not capable of launching at anything like that speed and the episodes are only 25 minutes long, so...

As for neuristors, de-polarisers, "emotional" circuitry and the Cerebration mentor.... handwaving waffle.


I think the external filmed 'action' sequences (esp. in ep2 & 3) are not Troughton's best side. He struggles a bit with 'action' scenes. It's more the sort of thing Jamie or the UNIT guys are suited to.

In the studio however he is excellent. I'll cite the scene in ep7 where he confronts Vaughn in his office. Cool fantastic... no scenery chewing, just awesome to the max.

The episode cliffhangers are mostly very good in this story. Late in Hartnell's run I commented that the Ark had a good one for ep2 and that generally they weren't so great up to that point.
In Troughton's era, cliffhangers have been better and better but Invasion has some absolute belters.

• Ep7 (Is this what you wanted Vaughn to be the ruler of a dead world?!), 
• Ep5 (They're coming at us from both sides.), 
• Ep4 (Throb throb throb throb throb, plink, plink plink, plink... who-ee woo)
• And of course ep 6 (It's the Cybermen. We've just seen 100's of them, coming up out of the sewers. Clong, clang, clung. Denk, dink, donk, dunk, denk, dink, donk, dunk, (repeat) )

A thought I had while watching this in the marathon blog context was this. How much better is the end of ep6 The Invasion than anything in ep4 of The War Machines?? The time 2.5 series....from mid 1966 to about Nov/Dec 1968.

The Invasion is a milestone and a landmark and a great example of what DW can be. It will be bettered. It will be copied. It is itself a rehash of previous attempts. Nowadays it's a curious and out of date B&W tv serial. But it's a classic DW B&W tv serial.



ABM Rating 3.49/4.00 
LJM Rating 4.40/5.00
SPJ Rating 8.20/10.00

No. 5 (out of 46)

Link to Cumulative Rankings


Rankings Scoreboard

045 The Mind Robber

Started 02-Dec

It 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 some much more DW before this marathon is over including some which are at the very summit of DW greatness. Before this he was uncredited Production Assistant on The Rescue, The Romans, The Time Meddler and The Ark. Later he was producer of favorites such as Blakes 7 and the John Duttine version of The Day of the Triffids. He died a bit too young in 2006 at the age of 63. Probably DW's no.2 most accomplished director.

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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