Synopsis:
The TARDIS is on the 'Island of Death', on the planet Dulkis. A volcanic eruption has been triggered, and the Doctor and his companions see a mass of molten lava flowing rapidly towards them...
The TARDIS is soon engulfed as the Doctor struggles to dematerialise due to the rising temperatures - the fluid links overloading. He decides to employ a seldom-used emergency unit and fits it to the console - only to hesitate. This component takes the ship outside normal Space / Time, to a dimension which is little understood and potentially dangerous.
Fearing they will certainly perish if they stay where they are, Jamie makes up his mind for him and forces him to activate it.
The TARDIS dematerialises, though they notice that it sounds different this time.
The Doctor explains that they are now nowhere - in no time and in no place. The readings are all at zero, and the scanner is blank.
Zoe is intrigued to know what lies outside, despite the Doctor's warnings.
He goes through to the ship's power room to check on the systems, advising his companions that the component has a built-in safety system. An alarm will sound, warning them when they have to leave. It is too dangerous to stay where they are for any longer than is necessary.
Jamie goes to freshen up, suggesting Zoe does the same.
Later, she goes to speak to the Doctor in the power room, and he sees that she is still curious about what lies outside the ship. He warns her again of the dangers which lie there.
Jamie is alone in the console room when he sees an image begin to appear on the scanner. As the picture clears, he sees the Highlands of Scotland.
Zoe enters and the image fades.
He tells her what he saw, but she refuses to believe him. As he studies the console for confirmation to back up his claim, Zoe then sees an image form. This is of a futuristic city, however - her home.
By the time Jamie looks up, the scanner is blank again. Each has seen their home, and thinks the other is mistaken in what they saw.
Jamie decides to go and tell the Doctor about this.
Zoe once again sees the City appear on the scanner. Coupled with her desire to know what lies beyond the TARDIS doors, she opens them and goes outside. Beyond the doors lies only a white void, which soon swallows her up...
In the power room, the Doctor is alarmed to learn that both of his companions saw different things on the scanner - in each case their home. Someone, or something, clearly wants to tempt them outside.
They return to the console room and see the doors lying open. The warning on the emergency unit sounds its first alarm. Before the Doctor has a chance to stop him, Jamie rushes outside to look for Zoe.
He too disappears into the white void.
The Doctor then hears a strange vibration, which gets louder and louder, penetrating his mind. He sits down and concentrates on fighting it.
Zoe is wandering lost in the void when she hears Jamie and guides him towards her. They realise that they do not know the way back to the TARDIS as there are no landmarks to follow.
They decide to remain where they are and call out for the Doctor to guide them both back.
Alone in the TARDIS, he is still fighting the mental assault but can hear their distant shouts.
Jamie and Zoe get the feeling that they are being watched. They are indeed being observed - by White Robots.
She sees the City once again, but moments later Jamie has seen Scotland through the mist. They agree that they cannot both be seeing these things as they can't just vanish like this.
They suddenly find themselves surrounded by four of the robots, and see an image of themselves, dressed all in white, beckoning them to come towards them.
The Doctor witnesses this in his mind's eye. A voice urges him to rescue his companions while there is still time.
He decides to leave the ship and find them as the final warning sounds.
They, meanwhile, are being subjected to a form of hypnotic ray, emanating from chest-mounted weapons on the robots.
The Doctor finds the pair, still clad in the white versions of their outfits. He pushes them towards the TARDIS - now also white - as the robots use their rays once more.
The Doctor shoves his companions into the ship, where they appear to be back in their normal clothing.
He closes the door, then listens - pointing out the vibration, now faint.
He tells Jamie and Zoe that they have been subjected to mental images - pure imagination.
As he studies the console, Jamie elects to have a nap. The Doctor notes that they are using more power than they have stored, and decides to use the power-boost component.
Jamie is having a troubled sleep. He wakes up and tells them of a dream he has just had, of a charging horse with a horn in the centre of its forehead. Zoe tells him this must have been a unicorn.
The vibration begins to get louder, and now all three can hear it.
The Doctor urges them to concentrate - but the TARDIS suddenly breaks apart.
Jamie and Zoe find themselves clinging to the console, in the midst of a black void.
She screams as she sees the Doctor spinning slowly away from them.
The console then sinks down, disappearing into a strange mist...
Written by Derrick Sherwin (uncredited)
Recorded: Friday 21st June 1968 - Television Centre Studio TC3
First broadcast: 5.20pm, Saturday 14th September 1968
Ratings: 6.6 million / AI 51
VFX: Jack Kine & Bernard Wilkie
Designer: Evan Hercules
Director: David Maloney
Additional cast: John Atterbury, Terry Wright, Ralph Carrigan, Bill Wiesener (White Robots)
The Mind Robber, as a story overall, is credited to Peter Ling, but this opening instalment was entirely the work of script editor Derrick Sherwin.
Sherwin, Terrance Dicks and Ling all worked on the Midlands-based motel soap Crossroads for a time, and often commuted by train between London and Birmingham together. Ling had co-created Crossroads. During one of these journeys, Ling told the others of how many viewers treated the soap characters as though they were real people. It was also the case that hundreds of people wrote to 221B Baker Street every year, asking Sherlock Holmes for advice - such that the business based closest to this fictitious address employed a worker to answer the volume of letters.
Ling's talk of people confusing fact with fiction stayed in Sherwin's mind and, when he later approached him for a story idea, this formed the basis.
Ling had been resistant to writing science-fiction, but came up with a visit to the Land of Fiction, where characters from novels and fairy tales were real. This was presided over by a figure known as the Master, who was based on Charles Hamilton. Under his pen name of Frank Richards, he was the creator of Billy Bunter of Greyfriars School, who appeared for over three decades in boys' adventure publications including The Magnet and The Gem.
(Doctor Who had gotten into trouble with Hamilton's estate over the character of Cyril in The Celestial Toymaker due to the obvious similarities with Bunter - the one story which just happens to be the closest the classic series ever got to a story such as Ling's).
Ling's proposal was titled "The Fact of Fiction", and would run to six episodes. This was then refined to become a story titled "Man Power" (sometimes written as "Manpower"), which was a four-parter.
"Man Power" opened with the TARDIS in flight, with Jamie still upset at the departure of Victoria and not warming to new companion Zoe - a name devised by Ling which the production team accepted. They pass through a magnetic storm which causes the TARDIS to break up - sending each of the time travellers off in different directions. The Doctor finds himself falling towards a light. He ends up in a dark forest where he is being observed by a monster - a faceless brain creature which uses its hands to sense its surroundings. It is joined by other similar creatures, who transform into soldiers and report back to a control centre. The Doctor then meets a man in 18th Century garb - a traveller from 1726. Two of the soldiers interrogate the Doctor with a series of puzzles, which allow him to restore Jamie from being a cardboard cut-out. Together they rescue Zoe from a huge glass jar in a forest of words, but are then given away by the traveller. They are shepherded by the soldiers into a night zone, where they are menaced by a unicorn.
Sherwin gave feedback to Ling, suggesting that the Doctor come under some sort of mental attack from the Master before the TARDIS breaks up, and that the soldiers be kept back for the end of the episode, with a group of children now delivering the riddles for the Doctor to solve. It was his idea that the traveller - actually the title character of Gulliver's Travels - should only speak words given to him in the book by its author Jonathan Swift.
Sherwin also suggested that the TARDIS interior and the Master's control centre should be filmed at Ealing instead of in the recording studio.
Ling revised the soldiers to be specifically clockwork toy ones, of early 19th Century appearance, with a light built into their shako hats. Gulliver's identity would be held back to the second episode.
If you've been reading these "Episodes" in order, you'll know what happened next...
The Dominators was reduced to five episodes, its latter half heavily rewritten by Sherwin and Dicks. Rather than see the season lose an episode, Sherwin decided to write a new first instalment for Ling's story, which would bridge the gap from events on Dulkis but mean that "Man Power" would not have to be restructured too heavily. He elected to do this as a "staff submission". Script editors weren't usually allowed to commission themselves, but could step in if it was an emergency as they knew the series and could develop something quickly. His experience of writing short half hour plays would prove invaluable. (One of these plays would have a direct bearing on this story, as you'll see below).
Ling's opening script would now become Episode 2, following Sherwin's contribution - which would enable him to add some of his recommendations to Ling like the mental attack. He also added small continuity points such as the use of the mercury fluid links and the power-booster element for the TARDIS.
He would have no budget to speak of, so relied on existing sets and the regular cast. Other than the console room, Sherwin requested only white and black voids, using relevant cycloramas in a bare studio, and the TARDIS power room - which would have banks of storage cells and meters.
He would have no budget to speak of, so relied on existing sets and the regular cast. Other than the console room, Sherwin requested only white and black voids, using relevant cycloramas in a bare studio, and the TARDIS power room - which would have banks of storage cells and meters.
He also introduced a set of robots, which would replace the clockwork soldiers in some of the later episodes. These would come from stock - see Trivia below.
The director chosen to helm these five episodes was David Maloney. He was already familiar with the complexities of the series having worked as a Production Assistant during the Hartnell era - on The Rescue, The Romans, The Chase, The Time Meddler, The Myth Makers and The Ark.
Special effects were to be handled by Jack Kine and Bernard Wilkie, the founders of the BBC's Visual Effects Department. Wilkie had previously contributed to The Ice Warriors, but both had offered advice to designers on Doctor Who since the very beginning, including the development of the Daleks. Kine managed the department, whilst Wilkie handled more practical matters.
Back in 1963 they had initially refused to service the programme unless given more staff and resources - hence the use of outside contractors like Shawcraft Models. The department only took over with The Evil of the Daleks. Despite the earlier problems with Shawcraft on The Faceless Ones, Kine and Wilkie elected to use them again on this story, but under strict supervision.
This would be designer Evan Hercules' only Doctor Who story - a great shame as he comes up with some suitably imaginative sets in this story.
Model work took place at the Puppet Theatre in Television Centre over Monday 10th and Tuesday 11th June. This included the use of the one third size TARDIS being engulfed by lava - that Doctor Who VFX staple of fire fighting foam - as well as a smaller model which would be seen to break up and fly apart. Also filmed was a small model of the console, with figures of Jamie and Zoe lying across the top of it. Unfortunately these figures can clearly be seen to have disproportionately long arms.
Filming for the opening instalment of The Mind Robber began at Ealing on Thursday 13th June, for scenes set in both the black and white voids. Frazer Hines and Wendy Padbury were taken out of rehearsals on The Dominators to film the sequence of their characters beckoning in white versions of their costumes, to be used as an insert and to be superimposed over a shot of Troughton during the episode. They then filmed the sequence where they lie across the TARDIS console, against black drapes. Padbury wore a distinctive new outfit - a sparkly blue catsuit which had its zip at the front for ease of costume changes. She liked the outfit - until the zip broke whilst she lay on the console. She had suffered similar wardrobe malfunctions with her Dulcian outfit.
Troughton had been horrified to learn that only he, Hines and Padbury were to carry this entire episode alone, thinking this to be far too much of a strain - especially for himself and Hines who had been working on the series almost continually for nine months, since the location filming on The Abominable Snowmen.
The star had only had a couple of weeks holiday in that time. He protested the burden being imposed on the trio, and even threatened to go on strike or demand more money as the programme was saving on other actors. He was placated somewhat when informed that the plan was to reduce the episode lengths down to roughly 20 minutes. This episode has a runtime of 21' 27". Episodes 3 - 5 will be under 20 minutes, with the final one becoming the shortest in the series' history.
Rehearsals for the final story of the fifth recording block began at St Helen's church hall on Monday 17th June. On Wednesday 19th, during a readthrough of the third episode, Troughton and guest artist Emrys Jones recorded "thinks" tracks - voiceovers for the mental assault in this episode.
It had originally been intended that this episode would be recorded at Lime Grove Studio D, but Maloney and Hercules argued that the first two instalments needed the bigger space of Television Centre to achieve what was planned, and so TC3 was used instead.
Maloney was able to secure the services of the BBC's best camera team, who were more used to recording prestige dramas. They knew the director from his Production Assistant days and were happy to oblige when he pointed out that this would be a more imaginative - and fun - assignment for them.
The robots were repainted shades of yellow and grey to appear white on screen. Hexagonal weapons had been fitted to the chests, with triangular perspex panels which opened out from a central barrel.
Maloney did not realise that these were reused costumes.
Recording began with a reworking of the closing scene of the previous episode.
For the first time ever, no writer credit appeared on screen.
Hines and Padbury wore their costumes from The Dominators in scenes set in the TARDIS, which now included photographic blow-up walls. Props including an orrery and the wooden chest seen in The Wheel in Space dressed the set, along with a chair that had previously been used in The Chase.
Smoke was used to indicate the mercury vapour as the fluid links overheated.
A large power meter dial was added to the console, as well as a socket for the Emergency Unit to be plugged into.
When the TARDIS dematerialised, the screen whited-out. It was originally going to go negative through camera overexposure (as with the Dalek extermination effect), which Maloney felt suggested the ship and its occupants becoming "fictionalised".
The first recording break allowed for Hines and Padbury to change into their new costumes.
The TARDIS power room housed our old friend the "Morok Freezing Machine" prop - last seen as the X-Ray laser in The Wheel in Space.
Stock images of a Highlands scene and a futuristic city were shown on the scanner, or superimposed over the faces of the actors. Sherwin had suggested a photograph of Brasilia for the City.
Outside the TARDIS was the plain studio with white floor and cyclorama. When someone went out through the doors, an inlay effect made them appear to vanish.
Two further recording breaks allowed for Hines and Padbury to change into white versions of their costumes, then back into the normal ones.
The hypnotic ray fired by the robots comprised concentric circles from a spinning light box, superimposed over their weapons or their victims.
The white Police Box prop was one of the dummies used in The Celestial Toymaker.
As the Doctor pushed his companions back inside the TARDIS, we see part of the end credits on the scanner - Producer Peter Bryant's. The Doctor and his companions really have been fictionalised... (And is this why the White Robots look like ones from a couple of BBC dramas?).
For the episode's conclusion, Troughton sat against black drapes on a revolving podium.
This episode has obvious parallels with the story The Edge of Destruction, in that it had to be written as an emergency submission by the series' script editor, and he had little or no budget for sets, costumes or guest artists. The action therefore takes place mostly within the confines of the TARDIS, featuring only the regular cast. There is a white void to be seen outside when the doors are open - but we do get to see a new area of the ship we haven't seen before. The Doctor and companions come under some form of psychological attack, and the TARDIS scanner throws up images of places which aren't actually outside the ship.
As with David Whitaker's episodes, the end result is remarkable. The Edge of Destruction is an oddity, but The Mind Robber (1) is one of the greatest single episodes of the classic era.
Many actors and behind the scenes staff have commented on the way in which the series continually rose to the challenge of scarce resources, using imagination and skill to overcome the lack of time and money.
Other than some extras in reused costumes, this story relies entirely on the three regulars, mainly based in the TARDIS console room, with a brief visit to a plain white void. Other than the robots, the threat is all psychological - the Doctor's unease about where they may be, and the odd sounds.
Much of this is expressed entirely through Troughton's performance.
The episode climaxes, however, with the shocking image of the ship apparently blowing apart. Zoe and Jamie are left clinging to the console, rotating in darkness whilst the Doctor appears to drift away from them. The TARDIS has always been a place of safety, a sanctuary only very rarely ever violated up to now.
Sherwin was blessed here, in that the following four episodes were to have taken the Doctor and his companions into a realm of fantasy.
When you consider what he had to play with - remembering also that this episode had to link in with the ending to the previous story - then he does a wonderful job. Apart from the White Robots, there is no visual connection with the rest of the story - and yet it works. It never feels like a standalone episode, tacked on to another story.
Though not made specially for this production and being merely man-in-suit robots, the White Robots have a distinctive look. There's something proto-Cyberman about them, with their head mounted handlebar and chest unit. If indeed it is the case that everything which follows is just a dream, then the robots may be a manifestation of the Cybermen from the minds of the Doctor and his companions, as all three have encountered them. However, some argue that they represent Daleks, and the clockwork soldiers whom we'll meet next week are the Cybermen.
Their reputation has come to exceed their actual impact in the programme thanks to their inclusion in the first Weetabix Doctor Who promotion, just like the Quarks. Unlike them, however, they wouldn't get to feature in their own comic strip adventures.
As well as Troughton's excellent performance, the companion actors naturally have a lot to do this week. Zoe's scientific curiosity gets the better of her, after already signposting her desire to know what lies beyond the TARDIS doors - despite the Doctor's warnings.
Jamie is proactive in getting the Doctor to operate the Emergency Unit, and characteristically rushes out to rescue Zoe when she wanders outside the ship.
Despite their desire to travel with the Doctor, there's the suggestion that they have a subconscious longing for home as that is how the Master choses to entrap them - despite Zoe coming to realise that her childhood in the City had been corrupted through mental conditioning.
We get some humorous interplay between her and Jamie as he describes her ragged appearance as a "wee mclarty" or ragamuffin. We use the word "clarty" in Scotland to mean dirty or muddy, but McLarty is actually a clan name that Jamie would be familiar with as they were kinsmen to the MacDonalds and Lords of the Isles.
Jamie takes a nap, despite everything that is going on at the time - something which we'll see him do on other occasions this season.
- The ratings so far for Season 6 had not been very strong, but here we see a rise of more than half a million viewers on the previous week's instalment. The appreciation figure only just manages to stay about the 50 mark.
- From October, ITV would be pitching their new Gerry Anderson series against Doctor Who - Joe 90.
- The episode was praised at the BBC's weekly programme review meeting on Friday 20th September. Shaun Sutton thought it one of the series' best ever scripts, though attributing it to Peter Ling.
- Younger viewers seemed to like it as well, according to Junior Points of View that same day, with one person asking for the episodes to be twice as long, whilst another thought it should be on for "six hours a day, eight days a week".
- As mentioned above, the White Robots were pre-existing costumes which had already appeared twice on TV. The first time was in The Prophet, an adaptation of an Asimov story (Reason) for the Out of the Unknown sci-fi anthology series, which was broadcast in January 1967. Designed by Richard Henry and built by Jack and John Lovell, numbering nine in all, the robots were dark in colour, with identification codes painted on the chest. In December of the same year, at least one of the costumes was reused in Metal Martyr, an instalment of Thirty Minute Theatre, which featured Barry Jackson (The Romans, Mission to the Unknown and The Armageddon Factor). This was written by Derrick Sherwin - so he would have known all about the existence of these costumes. Sadly both these dramas were wiped, and we only found out about the robot's appearance in the latter play when the photograph below turned up.
The Prophet
Metal Martyr
- Radio Times had its usual feature on the new story, accompanied by a photograph of David Cannon as Cyrano de Bergerac, who only appears very briefly in the final episode:
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