Episode 219: The Mind Robber (5)

Synopsis:

The Doctor looks on helplessly as White Robots trap Jamie and Zoe between the pages of a gigantic book...

The Master explains that they have been turned into fictional characters, but if the Doctor consents to take his place then he can release them from this fate.

He once again refuses, and the Master summons two White Robots.

The Doctor flees by clambering up a bookcase, and finds himself outside on the battlements of the citadel.

He is confronted by Jamie and Zoe - but his initial relief turns to sorrow as he notes that they keep repeating things they said earlier.

He finds a skylight which looks down into the Apparatus Room and sees a typewriter there, connected to the master tape which is narrating all that happens here. If he can use it then he can manipulate things to his own advantage.

He cannot get the window open and states aloud that he would need the strength of Karkus to get it free. The Germanic superhero suddenly appears, and tears the whole window off when ordered to open it. The Doctor then wonders how he is going to get down into the room - and a young woman offers him a rope. 

He discovers that it is Rapunzel, offering her hair.

He uses it to climb down into the room below, and begins typing. This is being observed by the Master, who is pleased by his actions.

The Doctor suddenly realises that what he has written so far will make things worse - as he has nearly fictionalised himself.

A Clockwork Soldier enters the room, and the Doctor rapidly ascends Rapunzel's hair back up to the battlements.

He looks for Jamie and Zoe but they are no longer here. Gulliver and the six children, whom he had met earlier in the forest, arrive.

His companions are in the control centre, standing impassively by whilst the Master concocts a new narrative in which they have realised that the Doctor is evil and must be opposed.

Unable to think of a way out of this predicament, the Doctor is being pestered by the children whilst Gulliver and Rapunzel attempt to advise him.

The TARDIS suddenly appears, and Jamie and Zoe emerge to usher him inside.

The Police Box turns out to be fake - another photographic cut-out. It falls away to reveal that he is trapped within a glass cube with a transparent helmet covering his head, connected to electronic components. His limbs are constrained.

Jamie and Zoe rub their hands with glee at having ensnared him, whilst the children mock him.

The cube transports itself into the control centre.

The Master explains that, as he had refused to help willingly, he has been forced to incorporate him into the Master Brain itself.

The Doctor demands to know the reason for all this, and is told that the Brain wishes to conquer the Earth by mentally enslaving its inhabitants. They will be transferred here, leaving behind all of the planet's natural resources to plunder.

Now that he is part of the computer, the Doctor realises that he can exploit this. It can create whatever he thinks - a situation which alarms the Master.

They prepare for a mental duel.

First he urges Jamie and Zoe to free themselves and return to reality.

His companions wander away from the others on the battlements.

Realising the danger, the Master summons White Robots to protect the Master Brain, and sends Soldiers to stop Jamie and Zoe, who have now freed themselves from the giant book they had been trapped in.

The Doctor summons the Karkus, who destroys the Soldiers with his ray gun. The Master counters by having him then train the weapon on Jamie and Zoe.

The Doctor quickly has the gun's energy depleted.

The Master then sends the poet-swordsman Cyrano de Bergerac to attack his companions - against which the Doctor has them protected by the young Musketeer D'Artagnan.

As the pair duel, Jamie borrows Rapunzel's hair so that he and Zoe can descend into the citadel.

The Master replaces Cyrano with Blackbeard the Pirate, whose cutlass easily knocks aside the rapier of D'Artagnan - so the Doctor has him replaced by Sir Lancelot, on horseback and in full armour.

He easily overpowers the pirate.

The Master Brain then decides that the Doctor is expendable and no longer suitable - despite the Master's protestations. His own, gentler, personality is sometimes showing through.

However, he is compelled to order the White Robots to switch their weaponry from hypnotic beam to destructor ray.

The Doctor finds it impossible to extricate himself without fictionalising himself in the process. The robots remove him from the glass cube and prepare to kill him.

He then sees Jamie and Zoe enter - and orders them to overload the computer.

As they begin punching buttons randomly, the White Robots - which are programmed to defend the Master Brain - open fire on them. Ducking out of the way, the robots begin wrecking the computer instead.

The Doctor reminds his companions that the White Robots have been ordered to destroy - and they are destroying everything.

They rush from the control centre, taking the bewildered Master with them - now free of the computer's influence. He is quite confused and asks if they are in the offices of the Ensign magazine. They find themselves in a dark void, and the Doctor hopes that they will be sent back to where they came from the moment the Land of Fiction collapses.

They vanish as the realm explodes around them.

As it does so, the exploded TARDIS reassembles itself...

Next time: The Invasion 

Data:

Written by Peter Ling

Recorded: Friday 19th July 1968 - Television Centre Studio TC3

First broadcast: 5.20pm, Saturday 12th October 1968

Ratings: 6.7 million / AI 49

VFX: Jack Kine & Bernard Wilkie 

Designer: Evan Hercules 

Director: David Maloney 

Additional cast: John Greenwood (D'Artagnan & Sir Lancelot), David Cannon (Cyrano de Bergerac), Gerry Wain (Blackbeard)

Critique:

Of the four new characters introduced this week, to fight the climactic battle of wills, three are actually based on real individuals. However, they had been the subjects of works of fiction and in some cases are better known through those works rather than as genuine historical figures - see Trivia below.

The fictionalised versions of Jamie and Zoe mostly spoke lines from earlier in the story.

A number of cuts were made to the script prior to recording, to get it reduced in length. These included a scene in which Gulliver and the children first appear on the battlements, a scene between Gulliver and the companions, the Master observing the Doctor working at the typewriter, and a couple of scenes between the pair in the control centre.

On Monday 15th July, Derrick Sherwin wrote to Peter Ling to apologise for not keeping in touch recently - due to being busy working on the upcoming Cyberman story The Invasion. He was able to tell the writer how well his work was being handled by David Maloney, and they discussed further story ideas. Sherwin suggested other fantastical premises, whilst more straightforward sci-fi stories with monsters be left to writers "with unoriginal minds"...

Filming for this episode began at Ealing on Wednesday 12th June. This included the appearance of the Karkus, firing upon the Clockwork Soldiers on the battlements of the citadel. Shots were then captured of the White Robots for the sequence in which they begin attacking the Master Brain.

The following day, work began on the big battle of fictional characters. This was arranged by John Greenwood, who would be playing both D'Artagnan and Sir Lancelot in the sequence. Greenwood was an actor and fight arranger who had worked on Olivier's Richard III (1955) as well as the BBC productions An Age of Kings (Shakespeare's run of plays from Richard II to Henry VI Part 2) and The Spread of the Eagle (comprising the playwright's Roman plays Coriolanus, Julius Caesar and Anthony and Cleopatra). He was working on a stage production of Hamlet when invited to join the programme by Maloney, who knew him from An Age of Kings.

Joining Greenwood were stuntmen Gerry Wain and David Cannon, and a number of publicity shots were taken of their characters - other than Sir Lancelot.

The filming on the battle sequence was completed on Friday 14th June.

 

For the final week of the fifth recording block of Doctor Who, recording returned once more to Studio 3 at Television Centre. This came about purely by chance as an edition of the monthly astronomy programme, The Sky At Night, had been cancelled.

Martin Baugh stepped down from designing costumes, to be replaced by Susan Wheal.

Recording began with the sequence in which Jamie gets transformed into a cardboard cut-out after attacking a Redcoat soldier - rescheduled from 28th June due to Frazer Hines' illness that week. This would be edited into Episode 2.

As the episode would need a great deal of cross cutting and editing, it had been decided to capture it on 35mm film.

The reprise of the cliffhanger was remounted and shown on a large Eidophor projection screen on the control centre set, which could be fed images from different cameras.

Christopher Robbie, returning as the Karkus, removed a lightweight prop skylight, whilst a camera run-on allowed Troughton to move to the Apparatus Room set. It was originally intended that a Clockwork Soldier would be stationed there the whole time - feeding images to the Master.

Maloney had hoped that the picture could have been split diagonally, showing the Doctor typing in the upper section whilst we saw what he was typing in the lower one.

The close-up of the Doctor's hands were actually performed by typist Trish Philips. She typed as the lines were read to her by a production assistant.

The entrapment of the Doctor in the glass cube required three recording breaks. The first was to remove the actual TARDIS prop and replace it with the cube, which had a photographic blow-up of the Police Box placed in front. The cube and Troughton then transferred to an area with black drapes so that it could be seen to fade away when superimposed on the vacated battlements set. The last was to then set the cube in the control centre set.

The next recording break allowed Hines and Wendy Padbury to move from the battlements to the giant book set.

A huge fan of the composer, Maloney used Bruckner's Symphony No7 in E Major to back the filmed fight sequence.

As the Master Brain overloaded, the Eidophor screen showed quick clips of Medusa and the unicorn from earlier episodes, some in reverse.

The final recording break was to have the regulars and Emrys Jones move to the black drape area, which had a fog loop superimposed over it to simulate the fires from the exploding computer.

The characters then faded away, and the clip of the TARDIS breaking up from Episode 1 was reused, played back in reverse.

With the episode completed, the regular cast then embarked on their summer break which, for Troughton and Hines especially, was much needed. They had been working almost continuously since location work in Snowdonia for The Abominable Snowmen.

When they returned at the beginning of September, it would be for the final time.

This would prove to be the only Doctor Who story to be written by Peter Ling. He and Terrance Dicks did discuss a second story in which the Doctor visited a world where everything ran backwards, but this didn't come to anything.

In 1983 the writer was approached by John Nathan Turner, who had a proposal to revive his Compact fashion magazine soap - under the title Impact. JNT invited Ling to submit a story idea, presumably to help sweeten the deal, and he came up with a six part story titled "Hex". In this, the Fifth Doctor encountered the bee-like Hexagorians. Much work was done on it, cutting it down to four episodes, and then as two 45 minute episodes for the Sixth Doctor, before it was finally abandoned. Whilst JNT was keen on it, Eric Saward was not. 

Compact never did get revived.

The Mind Robber was sold to the usual territories - North America, Australia, Singapore, Gibraltar, New Zealand and Hong Kong. The BBC kept the 35mm recording of this final episode, but the original video tapes of the other four instalments were wiped by the early 1970's. 

In 1977, it was discovered that 16mm prints of the missing episodes had been retained by BBC Enterprises.

The big question about The Mind Robber is: did this adventure really happen? If yes, was it all of it - or only episodes 2 to 5, after the TARDIS appears to break up? Or is it everything from the moment the Doctor activated the emergency component?

As far as the five episodes themselves go, there's nothing to say that any of this isn't real. It's more with hindsight. For a start we will see the Doctor and his companions back in the TARDIS at the beginning of The Invasion, and they talk of the closing moments of the previous week - "Hey Doctor, it's alright. It worked" says Jamie, whilst Zoe asks if they are actually on their way, or stuck somewhere.

The thing no-one mentions is the Master, who was with them at the end. Presumably he has been sent back to where he started - at his desk on a hot summer's day in 1926.

There's also Zoe's complete lack of knowledge about candles in The Space Pirates. She literally doesn't know what they are or how they work - yet in Episode 3 of this story, on first entering the labyrinth, she says: "Well there must be someone here. These candles are alight...". 

It's no doubt due to the fact that Terrance Dicks did a lot of work on the later story, and none at all on this, that we have this discrepancy - but we do have to go by the on-screen evidence, and it's contradictory.

It looks like Jamie's quote above refers to the operation of the emergency unit, and Zoe's talk about getting on their way also refers back to only the opening moments of The Mind Robber - when the TARDIS fails to dematerialise due to the overheating fluid links.

This suggests that everything from the moment the Doctor operates the unit is purely in his mind - or possibly a shared dream.

I've mentioned before the theory that the White Robots and the Clockwork Soldiers might be manifestations of the Daleks or Cybermen. The Doctor has encountered deadly robots and dangerous computers in the past, so the material for his own personal nightmare is all in there. He is also well-read and familiar with Earth literature and mythology.

Being manipulated and trapped - no longer able to travel and explore - would be real fears for the Doctor. We'll hear in the next story how much he hates computers. Redcoats and unkillable robotic enemies would be Jamie's. Dimly lit caverns full of monsters would certainly be amongst Zoe's, coming from her well-ordered, high-tech society.

If it is a shared dream, it's one which all three immediately forget.

But what did the production team themselves intend? The answer lies in Sherwin's notes for The Invasion Episode 1: " We see the Dr seated in his chair where we left him before the TARDIS broke up in the previous story".

He, therefore, seems to have intended that the whole white void section of the opening episode actually happened. The next episode also begins with a replay of the TARDIS coming back together again, with the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe all then seen in the positions they were in at the point just before the ship breaks apart.

The lines of Jamie and Zoe mentioned above fit this version equally well. They're talking about the increased power working - not the emergency unit. It is only the actual Land of Fiction itself (the forest of words, the citadel and the various literary characters we met) which never existed - in which case there is, somewhere in another dimension, a white void that is still populated by White Robots, with some powerful controlling force which tries to lure unwary travellers outside. (Might it have actually been the Toyroom...?).

The episode itself rattles along at a (very) brisk 18 minutes. Maloney has since said that he felt there was a lack of incident and too much dialogue in the last two instalments - but I don't see that here.

We have a mental duel between the Doctor and Master, and physical duels between Cyrano, D'Artagnan, Blackbeard and Sir Lancelot. Jamie and Zoe get to be evil for a few minutes, and most of the nicer fictional characters we met earlier make a final appearance. The White Robots get more to do as well, and actually turn out to be instrumental in the story's denouement - destroying the Master Brain. Finally, the isn't-really-a-villain-at-all is redeemed and gets to go back to his old life. The Doctor and his companions have actually carried out a rescue mission, whilst saving themselves.

Overall, it's one of the very best Troughton stories. A brilliant first episode, made in the face of adversity. The clever way of getting round Hines' illness. An eclectic mix of fictional characters - some genuinely scary, and an interesting villain. We don't even know if what we saw was real or not. 

If the Land is real, we are left wondering who lay behind it - machines have to start with someone building the first one. Even an artificial intelligence has to have an initiator.

The only story anything like it is The Celestial Toymaker, which also sees the TARDIS travellers trapped in a bizarre domain, populated by unreal characters but overseen by a powerful lone protagonist. There, however, the threats were not terribly well realised - just silly games to be played. Failure in the Toyroom rendered you a plaything, whilst failure here renders you fictional - both nightmare scenarios.

Of the two, The Mind Robber is the superior fantasy.

Trivia:

• The ratings see a fall this week of around half a million viewers, and with the appreciation figure dropping below 50 once again.
• ITV opposition to the show was now Joe 90 in southern regions including London, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea in the North West, and Tarzan in the Midlands and North East.
• This is the shortest ever regular instalment of Doctor Who.
• Thursday 5th December saw the publication of a BBC Audience Research Report on this episode, comprising the views of some 238 respondents. Around a third thought the acting to be below standard - other than the performances of Troughton and Hines. Many thought that the fantasy element was "getting out of hand", and this story was "too silly for words". Some believed that the programme had had its day.
• The Mind Robber was selected for a repeat screening on BBC2 in early 1992, representing the Troughton era. Episode 1 was broadcast on Friday 31st January, with subsequent episodes running over the next four Friday evenings. Episodes 1, 2 and 5 were shown at 6.50pm, with 3 and 4 at the later time of 7.40pm due to coverage of the Winter Olympics. 
• Viewing figures for the repeats were (1) 2.57m, (2) 2.64m, (3) 1.5m, (4) 1.5m and (5) 3.46m. The story had already been released on VHS, which may have impacted the audience.
• Evan Hercules based the battlements set on Knole House, which is located near Sevenoaks in Kent. It has literary connections, being the birthplace, in 1892, of writer Vita Sackville-West.
• Blackbeard was the nickname of Henry Teach, who was born in Bristol in 1680. It is believed that he had been a sailor on privateer ships, who had settled in the Bahamas. It was in this region and along the eastern seaboard of America that he was most active, after being promoted by the pirate Benjamin Hornigold to command one of his captured ships. Hornigold retired in 1717, but Teach carried on with two of his ships. One of these he made his flagship - the slave vessel La Concorde, which he renamed Queen Anne's Revenge. After accepting a royal pardon and settling in North Carolina, Teach was soon lured back to his old ways. The Governor of Virginia arranged for a party of soldiers to hunt him down, and he died in the skirmish - on 22nd November 1718. Subsequently he became a stereotype for bloodthirsty pirates (though he always tried to avoid violence wherever possible), and gets a mention in Treasure Island - one of the books in the Apparatus Room.
• The D'Artagnan we see here is clearly based on the fictional character created by Alexander Dumas for The Three Musketeers (1844). But he was inspired by the real life Count D'Artagnan - Charles de Batz de Castelmore d'Artagnan. Born in 1611, he was commander of the Musketeers of the Guard under King Louis XIV. His political protector was Cardinal Mazarin, for whom he carried out various espionage assignments. He was actually a contemporary of Cyrano de Bergerac and fought alongside him in the 1640's. He was killed in June 1673, at the siege of Maastricht. He has a statue in the Dutch city.
• Edmond Rostand's 1897 play Cyrano de Bergerac centres of the title character attempting to woo a young woman named Roxane through a handsome young proxy, as he is ashamed that she will reject him because of his prominent nose. Being a poet as well as a soldier, he feeds the young man the words to say to Roxane - but she falls in love instead with his stand-in, not so much because of his looks but because of his poetry. As we've seen, the character was based on a real figure - Hector Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac - who did indeed have a prominent aquiline nose. Born in 1619, he was a poet, playwright and novelist as well as following a military career. He was also a libertine who was notorious for duelling. The circumstances of his death in 1655 are unclear. One theory is that he was badly wounded in a failed assassination attempt, his health already compromised after a long spell in an asylum into which he had been forced by his enemies - who included his own brother. 
• Sir Lancelot was one of the Knights of the Round Table in Arthurian myth, of which there are many versions. His first appearance is in the 12th Century romance novel Erec, by Chretien de Troyes. Though a close friend of Arthur, he entered into an affair with Queen Guinevere. Lancelot was supposedly the orphan son of King Ban, and was raised by the Lady of the Lake but kept unaware of his true parentage. Seduced through witchcraft, he became the father of Galahad, who had all of his strengths but none of his flaws. It is these flaws, including his adultery with the queen, which helped contribute to the fall of Arthur's kingdom. Different versions of the myth have him going into self-imposed exile after the death of Arthur.
• A White Robot was one of the figures to be collected in the first Weetabix promotion:

• And a robot based on one featured in the frontispiece of the final Troughton annual (note also the Dominators' drilling machine):