Mawdryn Undead

"Spare me the endurance of endless time."

Writer: Peter Grimwade
Format: TV
Broadcast: 1-9 February 1983
Season: 20.03

Featuring: Fifth Doctor, Nyssa, Tegan, Turlough, Brigadier

Synopsis 

A warp elipse draws the TARDIS off course. The Doctor's companions are separated from him, not in space but in time. He also has to deal with a treacherous schoolboy named Turlough. But why does the Doctor's old friend, the Brigadier, not remember him at all?

Verdict

Mawdryn Undead was an absolutely superb serial and definitely the best story I have watched thus far on my random BritBox watch mission. I really enjoyed everything about this one from start to finish and it was an easy one to watch the four parts pretty much back to back. It was gripping and intriguing from start to finish and I thought the format of so many different backstories worked wonders. There wasn't one scene that was disinteresting. This story is crucially important because we have the debut of Turlough, the Black Guardian back for revenge and the Doctor being reunited with the Brigadier for the first time in his fifth incarnation. It really is splendid. The introduction of Turlough is intriguing and if I was blogging this having watched without any knowledge whatsoever of events to come, I really doubt I would consider him a companion at this stage. He's a pawn of the Black Guardian's and I think that works well. Of course, there's more to come from that particular story which isn't just contained within this serial, but this serves as an excellent genesis. The moment the Doctor and the Brigadier meet again isn't initially as wonderful as it should have been due to the Brigadier having a memory block, but the reasons for that are soon explained. Nicholas Courtney gives a sublime performance in a dual role as two different versions of his Brigadier character six years apart. Splitting much of the first three parts between 1977 and 1983 was terrific and I really liked the differing dynamics of having scenes alternating between the two. We had Nyssa and Tegan in 1977 whilst the Doctor was in 1983. The moment the Brigadier revealed that he already knew Tegan was tremendous, but one of the story highlights for me was the flashback sequence of the Brigadier recalling a number of encounters with the likes of Yeti, Cybermen and previous incarnations of the Doctor. The way the Doctor mentioned a number of past companions to break through that mind block was also magnificent. Peter Davison was brilliant as the Fifth Doctor in this one and I was also happy with the cliffhangers. I loved the naturalness of the resolution at the start of part two whilst the cliffhanger for the third part was fantastic. Onto Mawdryn, and I thought he made a very good character. It was a tad farfetched to believe that his crisped body may have been the Doctor as his appearance was clearly not that of our Time Lord hero, but his efforts to convince the companions that he'd regenerated were tremendous. That was such a good concept. Mawdryn being a scientist attempting to discover the secret of regeneration was fantastic and that is something right up my alley in terms of what I would like. The fact that there were then a team of eight with the Doctor having eighth regenerations remaining tied everything up perfectly. It was a superb revelation and something wonderful to play with. Mawdryn had stolen the regenerator machine from Gallifrey (I'd love to know how) and that made it easy for them to get what they wanted. They had initially wanted immortality, but now they wanted to die. The Doctor was prepared to do that which was remarkable, but that was because of the mutation being passed onto Nyssa and Tegan in a disturbing ageing scene in the TARDIS that saw them revert to being children momentarily! This serial really did have it all. In my eyes, it's a hidden classic. The ending was brilliant with the two Brigadiers touching to bring about the Blaenovitch limitation effect and it was that power at the right time that gave Mawdryn and co what they wanted. Death. My only slight issue was that the Doctor didn't say a fitting farewell to the Brigadier and seemed more focused on Turlough. Overall though, a sensational serial!

Rating: 10/10