288 The Mind of Evil: Episode Six

EPISODE: The Mind of Evil: Episode Six
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 288
STORY NUMBER: 056
TRANSMITTED: Saturday 06 March 1971
WRITER: Don Houghton
DIRECTOR: Timothy Combe
SCRIPT EDITOR: Terrance Dicks
PRODUCER: Barry Letts
RATINGS: 7.3 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Mind of Evil
EPISODE FORMAT: 16mm b&w film recording recoloured using chroma dot recovery

"Don't forget he's got that rocket full of nerve gas. He can point it at any city in Europe!"

The Brigadier shoots Mailer saving the Doctor. The Keller machine breaks it's bonds but is restrained by the presence of Barnham, who has no negative impulses left in him. The Master escapes during the fighting and returns to the aircraft hanger ready to launch the Thunderbolt missile. The Doctor bargains with the Master offering him his dematerialisation circuit back in return for the Master leaving. The Doctor takes Barnham and the machine with him as an insurance policy, but Barnham is killed by the escaping Master. The machine is destroyed when Unit detonates the missile on the ground. The Master phones the Doctor to confirm his survival and gloat.

MASTER: Ah, Doctor. I was afraid you'd be worried about me, so I thought I'd let you know that I'm alive and well.
DOCTOR: I'm extremely sorry to hear that.
MASTER: I made the safety of my Tardis which, thanks to your generosity, is in perfect working order.
DOCTOR: So, we won't be seeing you for quite some time.
MASTER: Not for quite some time. But one day, I will destroy this miserable planet and you along with it. Goodbye, Doctor. Oh, by the way, enjoy your exile.
JO: What did he say?
DOCTOR: His usual threats.
JO: Never mind, Doctor. You've beaten him.
DOCTOR: Have I, Jo? He's got his Tardis back. He's free to come and go where he pleases, while I'm stuck here on Earth ..... with you, Brigadier!

The start of this episode is a long, LONG reprise of the action sequence from the previous episode with Unit storming the prison, omitting how Mailer took Doctor hostage and jumping to Jo's escape attempt which allows us to see that the shot wasn't fired by Mailer, it was the Brigadier killing him.

We're then treated to the joy that is acting prison governor Benton (what happened to the real Governor?)

BRIGADIER: Right, Sergeant Benton. You'll be in charge of the prison. You can consider yourself Acting Governor.
BENTON: Thank you, sir.
BRIGADIER: Oh, Benton?
BENTON: Yes, sir?
BRIGADIER: Don't get any delusions of grandeur, will you?

It genuinely throws The Master when he rings to talk to the Doctor:

BENTON: Acting Governor Benton here.
MASTER: Who?
BENTON: Stangmoor Prison - Acting Governor Sergeant Benton here.
MASTER: I see. Er, would the Doctor be there by any chance?
BENTON: I'll see, sir. Who's calling, please?
MASTER: Er, just say it's an old friend.

Then there's the bargaining between the Doctor and the Master.

MASTER: Oh, Doctor, do I gather that the tables have turned somewhat at Stangmoor?
DOCTOR: You have gathered correctly. In spite of what I've said, do you still intend to fire that rocket on London?
MASTER: I most certainly do!
DOCTOR: Well, that would start a world war.
MASTER: Exactly! And then later when this planet is in ruins, I shall take over.
DOCTOR: I see. Aren't you forgetting something?
MASTER: Am I, Doctor? What?
DOCTOR: The dematerialisation circuit from your own Tardis. You can't leave Earth without that, can you.
MASTER: Are you offering me a deal?
DOCTOR: I am. Hand me back that rocket and I'll return your circuit.
MASTER: That's very generous of you.
DOCTOR: Leave Earth. Stop bothering us. Go somewhere else and be a nuisance elsewhere. Well, what do you say? Well?
MASTER: Right! But you will bring that circuit to me here at the hanger. You and you alone. At the first sign of treachery, the first sign of interference from your UNIT friends and I launch the missile immediately.

As we were watching the sequence, the Master sunk to the floor in thrall to the Machine, Liz said "Don't let Barnham walk by the machine" at which point he promptly did, weakening it's control and allowing the Master to escape.

To then see Barnham mown down by the escaping Master is quite horrible.

You see little of his previous self in episode one so for the most of this story he's been presented as an innocent. Somehow for him to die, purely because he has the power somehow to restrain the Keller machine and is persuaded by the Doctor into using it to help him, seems really rather wrong.

The missile used in this story is a real missile: a Thunderbird 2 SAGW missile from the 36th Heavy Air Defence Regiment who were based Horseshoe Barracks in Shoeburyness, Essex. Soldiers from the regiment appear as The Masters mercenaries and assist in the storming of the prison scenes.

The helicopter meanwhile looks very familiar. There's similar models in The Invasion, The Silurians and Ambassadors of Death but at least one of these has a different registration, G-AWFL, whereas the one here is G-AWLC! Looking them up online both registrations are for the SA-318C Alouette II Astazou model.

The end of the episode treats us to a nice big explosion, out first in quite a while, when the missile goes up taking the hanger with it. It's a nice piece of special effects but a more memorable explosion will follow later in the season.

Like the Silurians, Ambassadors of Death, Terror of the Autons & The Dæmons this story was shown in colour in the USA and recorded onto domestic video tape. Unfortunately the person who recorded it taped over it, allegedly with an American Football match, so that only three brief colour clips from the start of this episode survive: The storming of the prison through to the Brigadier rescuing the Doctor, in he Governor's office and the Master returning to the hanger. These are found on the end of the BBC video release of this story.

I loved Mind of Evil as a book, released in 1985 & adapted by Terrance Dicks. It was one of the last Pertwee stories to be released as book with just Ambassadors of Death & Time Monster following it. It's also the latest released Doctor Who book that I borrowed from my local library. I've enjoyed it on previous viewings as a black & white recording from UK Gold and the BBC Video. However it didn't grab me so much when I watched this for the An Episode A Day Blog, Perhaps I was expecting it to be just like Inferno, the writer's previous Doctor Who story which I now find is hanging like a shadow over those that follow it. Somehow that time it didn't push the right buttons for me which worried me somewhat as I didn't have either of the next two stories down as ones I liked which meant this was looking like a particularly down patch of stories.

Since then of course the DVD was released on 3rd June 2013 and I can finally see the story in full colour. I probably saw it twice on release, once as a story with Liz and once by myself with the commentary on - Mrs Ayres does not like commentaries - but haven't returned to it since until now. I'm struggling to see what was wrong with it last time I watched and wrote about it! I'm not watching it just four days after Inferno, which helps a lot as anything is going to pale by comparison after that, but thematically Mind of Evil feels more like one of the season 7 stories than the later Pertwee seasons, and feels a bit more realistic too.

Doctor Who Season 8, containing this story, is due to be released on Blu Ray on March 8th.

Two day after this episode was broadcast The Logicians, the 12th episode of Doomwatch Season Two, was shown on BBC1.