The Mind Robber Episode 1

The one where the TARDIS leaves reality and turns white...

The first thing to strike me about this episode is that the TARDIS walls are simply blown-up photographs of the real walls! I realise this is not new or unique to The Mind Robber, but it's been some time since we last saw inside the TARDIS, and as this episode is set almost entirely inside the Ship, it seems much more grating. Back in 1968 of course, people were watching on tiny, scratchy little 625-line black and white TVs with about as much definition as a burnt dictionary, so it wouldn't have been as obvious to them. But in 2018, thanks to it being beautifully restored and issued on shiny DVD... well, those photo blow-ups are really bad!

The Doctor soon tumbles into a state of panic as he seems unable to dematerialise the TARDIS as the Dulcian volcano spews its hot lava towards them. The effect of the TARDIS in the lava is actually very good, even if it does look more like porridge than molten rock. Before we know it, the TARDIS's fluid links are playing up again and start leaking mercury vapour. The last time this happened, the Doctor disconnected the time vector generator (The Wheel in Space) and they had to evacuate the Ship as the inside dimension was separated from the outside shell. That seemed drastic at the time, but perhaps not quite as drastic as removing the TARDIS entirely from reality, as he does here!

The whole idea of nothingness, of a place which is nowhere, nowhen, is fascinating, and a pretty advanced concept for Doctor Who. These days we might refer to wherever nowhere is as the Void, a place between realities, between dimensions, "outside of time and space", as the Doctor says here. Creatures and entities lurk in the Void, so no wonder the Doctor is apprehensive about staying nowhere for too long...

While the Doctor goes off to the hitherto unmentioned Power Room, his companions are left alone, and believe they see their homes outside, via the TARDIS scanner. Jamie sees (a photo) of the Scottish Highlands, while Zoe sees (a photo) of her city on future Earth (the original script suggested a picture of Brasilia, a brand new "futuristic" city created in Brazil just eight years earlier). Zoe is insistent that she saw her home, and that Jamie is wrong, while Jamie believes it was definitely Scotland, and Zoe was confused by the mist. When alone, Zoe is lured outside by the promise of getting back home, and wanders out into the blank void, and disappears!

It's all quite trippy, and although the whiteness of the void outside isn't quite as blank as it should be (thanks again to DVD restoration!), director David Maloney works wonders with Evan Hercules's cyclorama set, managing to create a vastness and an emptiness from what must have been a relatively modest space in the BBC studio. He does this by shooting Frazer Hines and Wendy Padbury from afar, as well as panning the camera up above them and fading back in to the side or below them, giving a sense of confusion, and that you can never really be sure where's up and where's down. He also adds space to the frame by having Hines in the foreground and Padbury in the background. In short, Maloney works hard to sell the conceit here, and succeeds in spades.

Jamie and Zoe are zapped by some mysterious white robots in the void, and are transformed into white versions of themselves, complete with white sparkly jumpsuit for Zoe and kilt for Jamie. These robots are magnificent, I love them. It's well known that they were actually first created for an episode of the BBC2 sci-fi anthology show Out of the Unknown (The Prophet, broadcast January 1st, 1967), although in that they were black, and repainted white for Doctor Who. The robot design is so striking, like a cross between a Cyberman and the Michelin Man, complete with hexagonal weapons.

A mention here also for the splendid sound design by Brian Hodgson for this episode. The gravelly electronic scraping noise which accompanies the arrival of the robots is particularly memorable, and the cacophonous mental attack the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe endure toward the end of the episode is also very effective. And talking of sound, the voice that the Doctor hears in his head, beckoning him outside the TARDIS, must have seemed at the time to be that of the Great Intelligence. It's a hoarse, whispery voice reminiscent of the one used by Wolfe Morris in The Abominable Snowmen, and Jack Watling in The Web of Fear. It's the second time the viewers have been tricked into suspecting a second rematch with the Intelligence, following the very familiar moving spheres in The Wheel in Space. Sadly, there never was a third Yeti story, although there were plans for one in Season 6 which never came to fruition.

This entire episode is like a feverish cheese dream, with the companions turning white, the TARDIS turning white (and doesn't that look strange!), and that creepy bit where white Jamie and Zoe stand in a bubble and beckon the Doctor out of the TARDIS in slow-motion! With no extra sets or characters (except for a disembodied voice and some second-hand robots), writer Derrick Sherwin and director David Maloney manage to conjure a mysterious, slightly unsettling and thoroughly imaginative episode quite unlike anything Doctor Who had done before. I suppose the surreal quality of it places it closest to Inside the Spaceship or The Space Museum's first episode, and maybe The Celestial Toymaker, but the stark, bold design of The Mind Robber's opening episode places it a step above them.

The cliffhanger is a strange one too. It's one of the series' more memorable endings, with the TARDIS seemingly exploding in space, but it's also a bit confusing, leaving the viewer wondering what's going on rather than understanding the jeopardy of the moment. The TARDIS breaks apart, but we can clearly see it's a model and there's nothing inside. Then we see Jamie and Zoe clutching the TARDIS console as it spins independently off into the mist (but we didn't see the console, or Jamie and Zoe, fly out of the TARDIS). Zoe sees the Doctor floating unconsciously in the void, and inexplicably screams (and what a scream!). It's just one big WTF moment. Yeah, it's kinda wonderful.

Ooh, and what's this in the end credits? Emrys Jones as "The Master"! How intriguing...

First broadcast: September 14th, 1968

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: The white robots might be second-hand, but repainted in this way, and with some eerie sound effects, they look splendid in the void.
The Bad: I'm not sure about that exploding TARDIS at the end. It looks too much like a model.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★★☆

NEXT TIME: Episode 2...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Episode 2; Episode 3; Episode 4; Episode 5

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site: http://doctorwhocastandcrew.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-mind-robber.html

The Mind Robber is available on BBC DVD. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Mind-Robber-DVD/dp/B0006PTYOM/.