Doctor Who - The Mind Robber [1968] [DVD]

The Mind Robber, a story that until a couple of years ago I never watched, what on earth was I thinking? This is classic Pat Troughton and what a little stunner the Mind Robber really is. When I first read the reviews of this classic tale, I thought to myself that the overall plot was great and the idea fascinating, but as usual with Doctor Who, script to screen can suffer badly. Well, I can now say that having viewed the Mind Robber, its fantastic visually, truly some of the best design work done on the show. It really impressed me when I finally got around to watching it on the fabulous BBC DVD release. I know that the stories of the 60's were made on a shoestring budget but the Mind Robber is something unique. It pulls off so much that it makes you think that you are watching some kind of film that the BBC pinched from some archive somewhere. As you can probably tell, I have no issues with the visual effects production side of this story. So, is the Mind Robber totally perfect?

Well... yes. Peter Ling's script {with Derrick Sherwin's tweaking} is brilliant. The concept is highly entertaining and with Pat Troughton, Frazer Hines and Wendy Padbury on top form, what else can you ask for. The quest cast are all great too, especially Emrys Jones "Master", quite a unique character and for once not a run-of-the-mill villian, just a normal newspaper / comic strip writer who was too great for his own good and so was abducted by the Brain, some kind of imagination god and enslaved to create practically everything that humans imagine.

The Mind Robber is also a stand out piece as its production was so troubled. Originally a 4 part story called "The Fact of Fiction", the serial changed titles 3 times and gained an episode. Although, the total run time is 100 minutes, the same run time as a 4 part serial, this confused me for years as I thought where is the fifth episode coming from, until I researched its background and found out that the episodes have been cut by between 4 and 6 minutes respectively. This then created the 18 minute long fifth episode, which stands as the shortest episode of Doctor Who ever. The reason why an extra episode was added to the Mind Robber is because the previous story "The Dominators" was cut from 6 episodes to 5, the extra episode had to go somewhere and thank god it went to the Mind Robber and not the Krotons or the dreaded Space Pirates.

The BBC DVD of the Mind Robber is simple enough, remembering that the BBC released the Mind Robber without the assisstance of 2-entertain. So as you would expect, the DVD is slightly lacking in bonus content, unlike the newer releases. But, that aside, the main documentary "The Fact of Fiction" is a fans dream, all remaining cast and crew come together and discuss the making of the story and also its troubled production. This is a really nice extra feature to watch after viewing the 5 part Mind Robber as it finishes off the evening nicely. As does the very insightful "Highlander" documentary, this 30 min doc concerns a mr Frazer Hines and his character Jamie. Its lovely to see and know that back in the day, Frazer and Pat were inseperable, the two were like siblings, always joking about and getting on all the producers nerves. It is lovely to know though that both actors confess to Doctor Who being there favourite piece of work and the happiest time both stars ever had was working with each other. Lovely.

In the end, the Mind Robber stands out as classic Doctor Who and surely is some of the best television produced in that whacky decade, the 60's. I cannot recommend this great piece of British television enough, even if you are new to Doctor Who and are just having a gander at the classic beginnings of this great show, you shall not be disapointed.

Many thanks to you all your time in reading this observers review, its greatly appreciated,

M.B.

After the slightly disappointing release of Horror of Fang Rock, this is much improved. The story is great. Although the story was recorded at a time of great strain for the programme, it prospers. Great performances and an unusual story. The remastering of the story is first rate. I watched the VHS version after this and it is remarkable how much better it is on DVD. In many ways, this makes the old black and white stories so much more important to own on DVD.

The special features are better than the previous effort this year. The documentaries are more meaty and the Basil Brush feature is amusing, if not terribly relevant. The commentary is good but not the best I have have heard.

All in all, a good buy.

With many of the best Patrick Troughton stories missing or fragmentary, it's wonderful to get to know this marvellous story from the late sixties, an era when the series was evolving into a rather groovy, loose-limbed style. The Doctor Who season containing The Mind Robber was by all accounts somewhat chaotic behind the scenes, much like the social trends of the age generally. But this story retains a remarkable integrity and manages to reflect the show's best traditions of adventure and excitement while energetically breaking new story-telling ground. I had never seen this particular story until buying the DVD recently, and enjoyed it more than I ever expected. While there are some places in the 2nd and 3rd episodes where the story on first viewing seemed to veer into over-indulgent territory, the triumphant concluding episodes wrapped up and the earlier action beautifully. The final duel of the storybook heroes made me almost fall off my chair laughing, and was a delicious reward for staying with this story to the end.