The Doctor Who Real Time Marathon: The Mind Robber
The Mind Robber - Episode 1 (14/09/08)
What a bizarre episode! The fluid links started playing up again (and I'm guessing prevented the TARDIS from dematerialising) so the Doctor (or rather Jamie as the Doctor was dithering) pressed a switch that took the TARDIS out of the Space/Time Continuum (something completely different to what normally happens, apparently).
Zoe got changed out of her awful Dulcian garb into a rather fetching lamé catsuit and discussed going outside with the Doctor. He forbade it as wherever the TARDIS is is nowhere and nowhen. Nevertheless, back in the console room Jamie saw an image of Scotland on the scanner, then Zoe saw her home city (BrasÃlia?) and eventually both were enticed outside into a white void. The Doctor, however, came under some form of psychic attack and it took some time before he stepped out of the TARDIS to try and save them, by which point they;d encountered some strange white robots - sort of a Tonka Toy version of the Cybermen, judging by their head-handles, a bit like the ones at the South Pole.
Anyway, the Doctor got them back in the TARDIS and they took off again, but were attacked by a buzzing sound (after Jamie dreamt of a unicorn - very Blade Runner) and then the TARDIS exploded. The last we saw was Jamie and Zoe clinging to the console and the Doctor spinning in a void.
Like I said, a weird one, this week. I wonder if the unicorn dream means that Jamie and Zoe are actually simulants and the originals are still in the white void with the robots? It certainly looked like a couple of copies dressed in white versions of their costumes turned up. Or maybe I'm reading too much into it - after all, Blade Runner won't be made for over a decade and I'm not even sure the unicorn dream features in 'Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?'!
The Mind Robber - Episode 2 (21/09/08)
This story gets weirder! The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe appear to have arrived in a world ruled by word play - very 60s word play; the kind of games my mum grew up with in books and board games at my gran's. The Doctor met some guy from 1699 and some children who ordered him to answer some riddles (including the one that goes "Adam and Eve and Nipmewell went down to the sea to bathe", except they got it wrong and called Nipmewell 'Pinch-me'), then Jamie got turned into a cardboard cutout and now has a new face! And a broader Scottish accent! And a deeper voice! There was no warning that it was going to happen, but I suppose Fraser Hines has been in the series a long time and they've only ever changed the Doctor before.
There seems to be a man in a control room watching everything on some screens, too, and he's captured the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe with some Toy Soldiers (the wind-up type) who took them to a black void where they're now being attacked by a unicorn.
It's a very strange story, this one, and a bit childish what with all the not-particularly-sophisticated-or-clever word play. I think the only thing this story has going for it so far is that you really don't know what's going to happen next.
The Mind Robber - Episode 3 (28/09/08)
Bit of a crap cliffhanger this week. Last week's charging unicorn was stopped by everyone saying "It doesn't exist". This happened again in a maze with a rather naff 'Minotaur' and looks set to happen again with Medusa, except Zoe (clearly aware this was the end of the episode) has decided that Medusa does exist after all.
Jamie has his old face back (and got it back very early in the episode leading me to believe Fraser Hines took an unscheduled holiday last week) and the Doctor has figured out they're in a world of fiction. The stranger they met last week is Gulliver and, escaping the maze, Jamie met Rapunzel, climbed into her 'castle' and found some sort of control room where there are lots of drawers labelled with titles of Classic literature (like 'Swallows And Amazons' and 'The Pit And The Pendulum') and a tickertape machine recording the events that are happening to the Doctor and Zoe like it's a story.
It's a novel idea (f'nar!) but already seems repetitive and dull. Had the writer had the imagination to create a cliffhanger different to the one we got last week (and the one we got halfway through this week's episode) it might have been better. That said, this isn't bad, and at least this season seems to be attempting a variety of ideas instead of last year's monster/base under siege staple.
The Mind Robber - Episode 4 (05/10/08)
The White Robots were back this week. The Doctor and Zoe encountered The Karkus - a comic strip character from Zoe's time - who Zoe beat up and had lead them to the Citadel. They met Jamie and Gulliver and worked out that if they did as the tickertape machine wrote they'd become fiction. Then the robots turned up, took them to the Master - an old man from 1926 who wrote in a boys comic - and found out that he's in the thrall of a ruling machine which wants the Doctor to replace him (the Master) as the brain behind its creativity. Jamie and Zoe tried to escape through the library but were caught in by the robots and crushed in the pages of a massive book.
It's an odd and slightly slow story - about half way through my mind started to wander - but it's okay. I'm glad we don't get this type of story a lot - it's a bit like that one with the Celestial Toymaker. Actually, it's a lot like that one! And the Master has a piece of spittle stuck in the corner of his mouth which makes me queasy. Now we've met the chief villains, though, maybe it'll get better.
The Mind Robber - Episode 5 (12/10/08)
What. The. Fuck? The first half of this episode was woefully shit, then at the very point that it got ridiculously pantomime and unwatchable, it became really good.
Following a scene which had me reaching for the remote, the Doctor was caught and hooked up to the Master Brain and began a stand-off with the Master to save Jamie and Zoe (who had been crushed between the pages of the massive book and become fiction). Creating alternately obscure avatars to fight for them (at one point is was d'Artagnon vs Blackbeard) the Doctor distracted the Master long enough for Jamie and Zoe to free themselves and rescue the Doctor from the White Robots by overloading the Master Brain. The Doctor freed the Master from the machine and they all legged it as the world of fiction imploded. There was some question as to whether they'd survive or not, but the last scene was of the TARDIS reforming. Oh, and there was some gibberish about the Master Brain using the Doctor to take over the Earth.
This episode was better than the last three. I think five episodes works quite well; any more than that and it just gets silly with lots of padding. That said, looking back, this whole story feels like it was padding, as if they hadn't managed to commission enough stories this year and had to tread water for a few weeks! It was a weird one, this, and I'm not entirely sure if I liked it or not. And we've got a three week break before the next story - it feels like we've had a random, weird little 10 week season that wasn't quite real. At least we've had three stories in a row away from Earth! Bet we're back there for the next one, though.
What a bizarre episode! The fluid links started playing up again (and I'm guessing prevented the TARDIS from dematerialising) so the Doctor (or rather Jamie as the Doctor was dithering) pressed a switch that took the TARDIS out of the Space/Time Continuum (something completely different to what normally happens, apparently).
Zoe got changed out of her awful Dulcian garb into a rather fetching lamé catsuit and discussed going outside with the Doctor. He forbade it as wherever the TARDIS is is nowhere and nowhen. Nevertheless, back in the console room Jamie saw an image of Scotland on the scanner, then Zoe saw her home city (BrasÃlia?) and eventually both were enticed outside into a white void. The Doctor, however, came under some form of psychic attack and it took some time before he stepped out of the TARDIS to try and save them, by which point they;d encountered some strange white robots - sort of a Tonka Toy version of the Cybermen, judging by their head-handles, a bit like the ones at the South Pole.
Anyway, the Doctor got them back in the TARDIS and they took off again, but were attacked by a buzzing sound (after Jamie dreamt of a unicorn - very Blade Runner) and then the TARDIS exploded. The last we saw was Jamie and Zoe clinging to the console and the Doctor spinning in a void.
Like I said, a weird one, this week. I wonder if the unicorn dream means that Jamie and Zoe are actually simulants and the originals are still in the white void with the robots? It certainly looked like a couple of copies dressed in white versions of their costumes turned up. Or maybe I'm reading too much into it - after all, Blade Runner won't be made for over a decade and I'm not even sure the unicorn dream features in 'Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?'!
The Mind Robber - Episode 2 (21/09/08)
This story gets weirder! The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe appear to have arrived in a world ruled by word play - very 60s word play; the kind of games my mum grew up with in books and board games at my gran's. The Doctor met some guy from 1699 and some children who ordered him to answer some riddles (including the one that goes "Adam and Eve and Nipmewell went down to the sea to bathe", except they got it wrong and called Nipmewell 'Pinch-me'), then Jamie got turned into a cardboard cutout and now has a new face! And a broader Scottish accent! And a deeper voice! There was no warning that it was going to happen, but I suppose Fraser Hines has been in the series a long time and they've only ever changed the Doctor before.
There seems to be a man in a control room watching everything on some screens, too, and he's captured the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe with some Toy Soldiers (the wind-up type) who took them to a black void where they're now being attacked by a unicorn.
It's a very strange story, this one, and a bit childish what with all the not-particularly-sophisticated-or-clever word play. I think the only thing this story has going for it so far is that you really don't know what's going to happen next.
The Mind Robber - Episode 3 (28/09/08)
Bit of a crap cliffhanger this week. Last week's charging unicorn was stopped by everyone saying "It doesn't exist". This happened again in a maze with a rather naff 'Minotaur' and looks set to happen again with Medusa, except Zoe (clearly aware this was the end of the episode) has decided that Medusa does exist after all.
Jamie has his old face back (and got it back very early in the episode leading me to believe Fraser Hines took an unscheduled holiday last week) and the Doctor has figured out they're in a world of fiction. The stranger they met last week is Gulliver and, escaping the maze, Jamie met Rapunzel, climbed into her 'castle' and found some sort of control room where there are lots of drawers labelled with titles of Classic literature (like 'Swallows And Amazons' and 'The Pit And The Pendulum') and a tickertape machine recording the events that are happening to the Doctor and Zoe like it's a story.
It's a novel idea (f'nar!) but already seems repetitive and dull. Had the writer had the imagination to create a cliffhanger different to the one we got last week (and the one we got halfway through this week's episode) it might have been better. That said, this isn't bad, and at least this season seems to be attempting a variety of ideas instead of last year's monster/base under siege staple.
The Mind Robber - Episode 4 (05/10/08)
The White Robots were back this week. The Doctor and Zoe encountered The Karkus - a comic strip character from Zoe's time - who Zoe beat up and had lead them to the Citadel. They met Jamie and Gulliver and worked out that if they did as the tickertape machine wrote they'd become fiction. Then the robots turned up, took them to the Master - an old man from 1926 who wrote in a boys comic - and found out that he's in the thrall of a ruling machine which wants the Doctor to replace him (the Master) as the brain behind its creativity. Jamie and Zoe tried to escape through the library but were caught in by the robots and crushed in the pages of a massive book.
It's an odd and slightly slow story - about half way through my mind started to wander - but it's okay. I'm glad we don't get this type of story a lot - it's a bit like that one with the Celestial Toymaker. Actually, it's a lot like that one! And the Master has a piece of spittle stuck in the corner of his mouth which makes me queasy. Now we've met the chief villains, though, maybe it'll get better.
The Mind Robber - Episode 5 (12/10/08)
What. The. Fuck? The first half of this episode was woefully shit, then at the very point that it got ridiculously pantomime and unwatchable, it became really good.
Following a scene which had me reaching for the remote, the Doctor was caught and hooked up to the Master Brain and began a stand-off with the Master to save Jamie and Zoe (who had been crushed between the pages of the massive book and become fiction). Creating alternately obscure avatars to fight for them (at one point is was d'Artagnon vs Blackbeard) the Doctor distracted the Master long enough for Jamie and Zoe to free themselves and rescue the Doctor from the White Robots by overloading the Master Brain. The Doctor freed the Master from the machine and they all legged it as the world of fiction imploded. There was some question as to whether they'd survive or not, but the last scene was of the TARDIS reforming. Oh, and there was some gibberish about the Master Brain using the Doctor to take over the Earth.
This episode was better than the last three. I think five episodes works quite well; any more than that and it just gets silly with lots of padding. That said, looking back, this whole story feels like it was padding, as if they hadn't managed to commission enough stories this year and had to tread water for a few weeks! It was a weird one, this, and I'm not entirely sure if I liked it or not. And we've got a three week break before the next story - it feels like we've had a random, weird little 10 week season that wasn't quite real. At least we've had three stories in a row away from Earth! Bet we're back there for the next one, though.
Apart from making a name for itself for being so weird, this story also holds the record of having the shortest episodes, no? And it's not just the hastily written first one, but all of them - if memory serves me I don't think the last episode even notches up 20 minutes. So essentially, even with one episode added to it, there's only enough material for four.
ReplyDeleteRather like The Celestial Toymaker, which is indeed the only thing you can compare it to, this has a strong central idea that's not very imaginatively executed (ironically). It would probably work a gazillion times better these days as a one-off episode with amazing CGI, but as it stands it mostly just feels half-arsed. That said, for an almost literally last-minute filler, the first episode is very atmospheric in a way the rest of the story isn't. And off-putting, in a good way.
On the plus side, it gives us Hamish Wilson for an episode - who it's got to be said has much sexier legs than Frazer Hines.
It seems my original reply has disappeared. Odd.
DeleteI'm glad I'm not the only one to see this story's flaws - I've never really understood the love it gets. The Space Museum often gets accused of having a fantastic first episode followed by a dull and uninteresting story, but (as I noted previously) I actually think the rest of the story is brilliant with some great humour and Vicki starting a revolution single-handedly. The Mind Robber, in contrast, really IS a fantastic first episode followed by four episodes of dirge. As you note, the idea behind it is a great one but so poorly executed and one that would probably work much better these days with CGI and a 50 minute limit. I can only assume that everyone who watches and loves this serial is entranced by the first episode, nod off during the second and wake up during the fifth, thus missing all the tedious repetition and dreary padding. It's of small benefit that the episodes are so short - Episode 3 is the longest at 21:39 and the final episode does indeed barely make it past the 18 minute mark.
But the first episode really is brilliant, full of atmosphere, creepiness, weird visuals and, considering it literally IS padding covering the curtailment of The Dominators, one of the most remarkable episodes of the entire series. It's just a shame the rest of the serial is basically the exact opposite. Ah well, onwards and upwards.