Boom goes the TARDIS!
The Doctor (Patrick Troughton), Jamie (Frazer Hines), and Zoe (Wendy Padbury) discover the TARDIS damaged after the battle with the Dominators and are forced to take the TARDIS out of reality to repair. Once there, the Doctor and his companions find themselves trapped when the TARDIS explodes and surrounded by a world where fantasies are reality and dangerous. The source of the danger is a mysterious man calling himself the Master (Emrys Jones), the Doctor must uncover the secret of the Master and find a way to get himself and his companions to safety!
Doctor Who: The Mind Robber aired during the sixth season of the long running BBC series. The serial aired in five episodes from September 14, 1968 to October 12, 1968. Following Doctor Who: The Dominators, Doctor Who: The Mind Robber has been collected as part of The Patrick Troughton Years as Story #45.
I love the TARDIS more, Jamie!
Patrick Troughton was an interesting Doctor, and I rather liked Jamie and Zoe as his companions. What was lacking in later Doctor Who stories is still here…a balance of fun and drama (generally not very heavy). Watching stories like this one, really makes me wish that more of Patrick Troughton’s Doctor Who had survived just so I could get a better handle on the characters.
Another unfortunate trend of Doctor Who is the tendency to make the episodes too long. This story does have its moments with the creepy kids, the destruction of the TARDIS, the alternate Jamie, and Medusa, but it is very slow at the start. I like the final showdown between the Doctor and the Master Brain, but I wish that it had come sooner and there was more fallout from it instead of just wrapping up the serial.
Tell me a story!
The best part of this storyline is the fun aspect of the “real” fiction characters and the idea that the land is a place where fiction becomes reality. I do find it rather odd who the writers limited the story to since the concept left it wide open to characters, but I’m guessing they were trying to work within financial restraints and preexisting costumes.
Doctor Who: The Mind Robber is a fun story that should have only been four (if that) episodes long. The serial is entertaining, but doesn’t really have much long term impact on the Doctor Who mythos since it essentially takes place “out of time”. It would be could to see this concept return and a revamped storyteller show-up with a bigger budget and bigger story reserve to draw from. Doctor Who: The Mind Robber was followed by Doctor Who: The Invasion.
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