6.2: The Mind Robber
- Doctor: Patrick Troughton
- Companions: Jamie, Zoe
- Creators: Peter Ling (Writer), David Maloney (Director), Peter Bryant (Producer)
- Season 6
What's the rating?
Must See. (To my shock!)
What's interesting about it?
I hated this story when I first watched it years ago, so much so that I was tempted to skip it in this go-round. I just vaguely recalled some extremely childish and silly storylines and acting, and I also had the impression that it was at the bottom of everyone else's list as well, right there with The Web Planet.
Wow, how wrong could I be, and on both counts?
It turns out this is a fantastic story, possibly the best so far of the Troughton era. It's filled with both visual and verbal cleverness (driven by financial desperation on the part of the producers and writers!) And it turns out it's a favorite of many fans as well.
The show dares to return to the spare Beckett-like storytelling landscape first explored in The Edge of Destruction (and for the same budgetary reasons) -- but this is a vastly more satisfying trip.
From the first moments it establishes much better footing, easing us into the situation as the TARDIS enters a nowhere space filled with infinite whiteness, accompanied by suitably creepy story beats as the crew of the TARDIS is tempted to venture into the infinity by images of their respective homelands. Unlike Edge, we are drawn in with the characters and have a sense of what they are going through. While The Doctor of this era has no homeland yet and is aware enough of the situation to put up his best mental fight, beautifully dressed images of Jamie and Zoe beckoning to be saved by him do the trick.
It's a very strong episode (one of the best ever, even) ending with perhaps the first stunning visual sequence in Doctor Who outside of the credits (not something that would happen very often...)
The story explores the connection between fiction and reality, what happens when those streams cross, and the question of whether we're writing our own destiny or some omniscient author is doing so for us, leaving us to just act out the parts. We are treated to an amusing variety of characters, including rather nicely done life-size toy soldiers.
Though the robots that they scrounged up from another BBC science fiction show (once again, because they were out of money) are kind of dorky.
Dorky robots notwithstanding, this is a story not to miss; a story generated from desperation that somehow gelled in ways the creators never anticipated. It's fair to say that if they'd had all the budget and time they wanted, we wouldn't have had this story, and that's something from the land of fiction worth pondering...