The Mind Robber

"We're nowhere. It's as simple as that."

Writer: Peter Ling

Format: TV 

Broadcast: 14th September - 12th October 1968

Season: 6.02

Featuring: Second Doctor, Jamie, Zoe

Synopsis 

Escaping from a volcanic eruption on the planet Dulkis, the Doctor is forced to use the TARDIS Emergency Unit, which takes the craft out of normal time and space... and out of reality itself! The time travellers arrive in a mysterious world peopled by fictional characters but also by creatures from mankind's worst nightmares.

Verdict 

The Mind Robber was a second consecutive serial of excellent quality to continue the start of season six. Continuing directly on from the climax of The Dominators with the island on Dulkis becoming a volcano, it was nice to immediately start off a brand new story with danger and a serious threat. The TARDIS was being buried in volcanic lava and I loved the irony of the Doctor when in an extreme emergency with Jamie and Zoe panicking, he paused over using the emergency measure switch in the TARDIS. As Zoe pointed out, isn't that what it's for? With those wretched fluid links overpowering again, the only thing the Doctor could do was exit the universe. Not quite how the Eleventh Doctor entered the bubble universe in The Doctor's Wife, they literally left the universe and any attached bubbles behind. I liked how the companions once again explicitly ignored instructions given out by the Doctor. He'll come to learn that it's a recurring theme during future adventures. The Girl in the Fireplace an immediate example. Whenever faced with the concept of nothingness being outside the TARDIS I find it incomprehensible. Surely it's impossible to be nowhere? And if they'd landed, they must be somewhere. I do think that within the Whoniverse, nothing is something. The fact that images of the respective homes of Jamie and Zoe were shown on the TARDIS scanner, attempting to lure them outside, suggested evil was at work. I found Jamie's reaction to seeing Scotland quite surprising though I'm not entirely sure why. He'd been travelling with the Doctor for a very long time (it does seem an age since I blogged The Highlanders!) and not once to my recollection has he hinted at missing home. Zoe's city looked very impressive too. Speaking of Zoe, this was her second full adventure as companion now and after the impressive debut in The Wheel in Space I'm slightly disappointed with how she's performing. I thought she'd provide the Doctor with an intellectual challenge and have some brilliant banter with Jamie due to his lack of high intellect but despite hints, we haven't had much of that yet, if any. The White Robots were an intriguing bunch and I loved the fact that we were frightened of them despite them barely saying a word. Jamie and Zoe's capture resulting in the Doctor exiting the TARDIS into nothingness was great. The setting of the Land of Fiction was just brilliant - what an idea! It's certainly a unique one but it's also a fantastic one. A world of fiction is something but I loved the threat in the climax of the Doctor becoming fiction himself. That was something he couldn't allow himself to do! The fictional threats of the Karkus, Madusa and the Minotaur were superb! I wasn't overly keen on the Madusa scene being used as a cliffhanger though because it had already been established that all that was needed to be said was that it didn't exist and it would cease to be a threat. The Master of the Land of Fiction was good and I thought our first glimpses of him were very The Keeper of Traken-esque. The fact the master brain actually controlled him and harnessed his imagination, as he had wrote many stories, to create and sustain this fictional land was brilliant. The attempt to get the Doctor to take his place was also good. Patrick Troughton provided us with some good humour here and I loved how the Doctor couldn't make up Jamie's face! A very efficient way of dealing with an actor's illness. Gulliver and Rapunzel helping the TARDIS trio out is a sentence that perfectly depicts how bonkers this serial really was! Overall, a very strong story with a wonderful setting. I thought the ending was a bit abrupt though! 

Rating: 8/10