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| The Master (Roger Delgado) wants revenge on the Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee) in the latest DOCTOR WHO DVD: The Mind of Evil. Images: BBC. |
DOCTOR WHO: THE MIND OF EVIL (Two-disc DVD)
Starring Jon Pertwee as the Doctor and Katy Manning as Jo Grant
Written by Don Houghton
Directed by Timothy Combe
Available 3rd June from BBC DVD
Reviewed by Scott Weller
Weapons of the mind and of physical carnage are the latest problems for our heroic DOCTOR WHO as the battle against his sworn enemy, dangerous fellow Time Lord singularly known as the Master, continues, in the classic six-part 1971 adventure of prisons and peace conferences: The Mind of Evil, finally available in restored full colour on two-disc DVD from the BBC.
Whilst all of the shows Doctors and eras are being well catered for in the BBC’s DVD releases during the Fiftieth Anniversary, Jon Pertwee’s era has shined the brightest so far, what with this and the prior release last month of another of that period’s most regarded stories, the nightmare parallel Earth story Inferno.
Trailer: Mind of Evil - Doctor Who DVD - YouTube
A solid and hugely successful second script from that story’s same writer, Don Houghton, The Mind of Evil is just as thoroughly entertaining but goes for a less depressing scenario-here we’re firmly entering James Bond-esque territory mixed with prison drama intrigue and an interesting sci-fi monster of the week twist that proves an original new threat to our hero. Mind is a satisfying hybrid in many ways, mixing the Quatermass style realism of the show’s previous season with the fantasy elements that would become so indicative and enjoyed of the Terrance Dicks and Barry Letts’ full creative takeover of the series with Season Eight- keeping the big concepts, but making them further audience friendly, in a more fast paced, flashy comic book style than had been seen before. It’s also one of the few six-parters of the time that successfully maintaining its story duration, and never flags.
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| Prime Pertwee! The Third Doctor begins his investigations. |
Star Pertwee clearly enjoys the seriousness of the dilemmas and dangers the Doctor faces here, but also has the chance to show some charm and humour, especially in his scenes with the Brigadier (the Wise to his Morecambe) or with relatively new companion Jo Grant (the always endearingly sexy Katy Manning), their relationship starting to blossom whilst captured in Stangmoor Prison, during their examination of an unusual new device to temper hardened criminals, planned to replacing capital punishment, which soon goes awry-alien interference and manipulation quickly discovered behind the stone walls and confinement cells.
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| The Master (Roger Delgado) revels in the chaos. |
Arch-foe Roger Delgado as the Master makes the most of his season-long guest star appearances, and is very much the Bond villain here, what with his chauffeur and limo, a big cigar to puff down on and a femme fatale, in the shapely form of the controlled Chinese delegate liaison (played by Don Houghton’s wife Pik-Sen Lim), to do his bidding. Never has the clicking of fingers been more sinisterly effective.
Away from his Nehru high-collared suits, “the Doctor’s Moriarty” has the world’s fate in his vice like grip, stealing a deadly nerve gas missile and planning to attack a vital World Peace Conference that’s simultaneously taking place. (As a continuity side-note, world diplomatic relations with the Chinese reaches a state of escalating tension by the next season, and the return of the Skaroan tinpots, in Day of the Daleks.)
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| Jo Grant (Katy Manning) and the Doctor (Jon Pertwee) feel the mental terror of the Keller Machine. |
Of all is appearances in the Pertwee years, this is the closest that the Master gets to almost defeating his pest of an enemy, and he certainly puts the Doctor through the ringer at numerous times: beaten up psychologically by the alien inhabiting Keller Machine, and physically by the prison thugs enjoying their freedom in the madhouse.
And the Master’s “pet” in the Keller Machine – an equal mind of evil to him- is certainly one of the most formidable monsters of the shows era, despite its box-like appearance. The concept of a creature that feeds on fear and terrifies victims to death remains a strong one- its on-set realisation pretty effective, accompanied by some memorable sound design from Brian Hodgson and a hauntingly dangerous electronic whirly-gig theme of Machiavellian malevolence from the series then regular composer, Dudley Simpson, effectively utilized in the scenes that show the device disappearing and re-appearing to drain and kill its victims.
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| Prisoner Branham (Neil McCarthy) is an early victim of the Keller Machine. |
Soon, the out of control Keller machine is freed from even the Master’s enslavement, as the classy villain once again, despite his determined abilities and grand ambitions to destroy the Earth in front of the Doctor’s eyes, makes a complete mess of things and is forced to rely on his rival and former friend to help him contain its influence.
In the midst of all this, the Master’s other plans for the planet, namely the takeover of a nerve gas missile, gather momentum, and it's here that the Doctor’s loyal friends at the top secret UNIT organisation come into story play.
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| The impressive nerve gas missile stolen by the Master. |
A more cozy set-up than what had been previously shown last season, our small band of Britain’s finest alien-fighting troopers show their mettle by the end of the story, though early on they prove no match for the abilities of the Master’s assembled, hardened criminals when they attack their missile convoy- of which even our friendly Sergeant Benton (John Levene) gets seriously hurt in the battle, whilst Captain Mike Yates (Richard Franklin), who should never be put anywhere near a motorbike!- becomes a captive of the renegade Time Lord for a brief period.
From all this chaos, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart’s leading from the front attitude- a rallying call for his brave soldiers- proves its worth in a successful Trojan Horse-style attack on Stangmoor Prison (represented in some lovely location filming at Dover Castle) to seize the missile and rescue the Doctor. The sequence is easily one of the character and actor Nicholas Courtney’s finest moments in the series, effectively utilizing Derek Ware’s at-their-prime stunt team, HAVOC.
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| Mailer (William Marlowe) plans to kill the Doctor. |
A fine supporting cast caught in the drama and conflict includes THE GENTLE TOUCH’s William Marlowe, always at his best when playing hardened baddies, Michael Sheard, in his second of several appearances throughout the series classic era, as a friendly prison doctor taken prisoner, and Neil McCarthy, making a worthy impression as brain-sapped gentle giant Barnham, a survivor of the Keller Machine’s early operation, who also plays an important part in its defeat by story’s end.
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| The Doctor has no choice but to incapacitate Barnham. |
Having steered WHO success the year before with his directing of the hibernation emerging Silurians, Timothy Combe’s work on Mind is fast paced and has some great angles. It’s a real shame that unforeseen filming problems and some expensive additional shooting on this already over budget big story meant that he was never to return to direct future episodes of the show – a policy decision made by the BBC at the time that was well and truly wrong, and one which, to this day, haunts and clearly upsets the director, having been involved in so many previous and successful WHO stories in various behind the scenes capacities. Combe clearly gave one hundred per cent to this story and was surely a much missed creative force during the Pertwee era.
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| The inmates have taken control of Stangmoor Prison. |
Bringing extra greatness to little money, and stretching the BBC studios to their fullest resources, Combe, under the gun all that time, is capably assisted by designer Raymond London, showing greater range here than he did on his previous B/W Patrick Troughton story- the woefully budget inadequate The Krotons.
There’s really only one very small negative to this otherwise superb adventure: a mythical Chinese dragon monster that appears in hallucinatory but deadly form at the end of episode two/the beginning of episode three, which is more cute-looking than ferocious, affectionately and derogatorily nick-named Puff the Magic Dragon at the time by Terrance Dicks!
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| A selection of stills from the excellent colourised episode one work. |
Dream dragon aside, it’s truly a shame that The Mind of Evil doesn’t exist in its original pal 625 line state-of all the Pertwee tales this is one of the most deserving. Though, in some respects, its earlier B/W life did give it some story-telling atmosphere. The new colourisation, a lengthy time-consuming process which delayed the release until pretty much the end of the WHO DVD run, is a visual marvel, done with the best available technology. Episodes One, Four to Six show the best overall quality, though the middle episodes regrettably have some so far uncorrectable streaking problems. However, colour detail pulled out in the best sequences-especially within the prison interiors- is very good. Full marks to Stuart Humphryes, Jonathan Wood and Peter Cricker for all their dedicated efforts, and to stalwart Mark Ayres for the audio restoration.
Beyond the huge behind the scenes work, the overall extras accompanying the release are solid if not quite as expansive as previous releases. There’s a big-time audio commentary from Katy Manning, Pik-Sen Lim, Fernanda Marlowe (who played UNIT Corporal Bell in several Season Eight adventures), Timothy Combe, Barry Letts, Terrance Dicks and Derek Ware that proves a rewarding listening experience, moderated by Toby Hadoke.
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| Barry Letts, Fernanda Marlowe and Pik-Sen Lim, with Timothy Combe, return to Dover Castle in The Military Mind documentary. |
But the standout is the all-new documentary, The Military Mind, taking many of the cast and crew back to Dover Castle for some happy (and not so happy) reminiscing (a then and now look at the location is also included as a separate featurette). Contributors here include Nicholas Courtney and Barry Letts (recorded several years before their sad passing), Pik-Sen Lim, Fernanda Marlowe and Timothy Combe. Combe once again proves very enthusiastic about his time on WHO and his sadness at not doing more directing for it shows through at the end. Another fine production from producer/director Chris Chapman.
From the archives comes an intriguing 24 minute day in the life documentary from 1971 on the now sadly defunct BBC television Centre, at its iconic powerhouse drama and comedy making best (shot at the same time that WHO’s eighth season was continuing studio production). It’s a fascinating slice of nostalgia from a time when TV, in the days before iPlayer and DVD recorders, really did mean something to its audiences.
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| The Keller Machine wants your mind! |
PDFs of the RADIO TIMES and a 1971 Kellogs Sugar SmacksWHO promotion are there for downloading, there’s a surviving off-air recorded voice over trailer for the story from 1971, a photo gallery of mostly BW images, and production info subtitles that shore things up. And there’s a spiffing trailer for the next Jon Pertwee release- the all-film Blu-ray release-a first for the Classic Series- of his debut adventure against the plastic-loving Autons menace, in Spearhead from Space!
KOOL TV RATING: Exciting and efficiently made, The Mind of Evil is another genuine All-Time Classic WHO making its brain-drain presence felt on DVD. Overall rating: 4.5 out of 5
Get hold of The Mind of Evil here:
