The Brain of Morbius Part Four

The one where the Doctor loses in a mind-bending contest...

"I can see, I can see again!" exclaims Sarah, before turning around to see the Morbius creature looming over her. She screams and falls back onto the bed. Now wouldn't that have been a far better cliffhanger to part 3 than seeing the monster approach the unwitting Sarah from behind? Just a few more seconds on the end of part 3 would have made it so much better. Although part 3 as it stands is already seven seconds over its time slot, so perhaps some better editing was called for?

It's not long before Mehenderi Solon reveals his true colours when faced with the marauding Morbius monster. "It's Solon, your creator!" he says, before insisting: "I made you!" This is where the Frankenstein parallels reach their peak, with the creature lashing out at its creator, who pleads for mercy. Despite his obvious devotion to Morbius, all Solon has ever really craved is the scientific achievement of bringing Morbius back, and most likely the subsequent recognition. His ego was greater than his devotion, and now he's paying the price.

The Brain of Morbius Part Three

The one where the Doctor rejuvenates the Sacred Flame...

Morbius sounds suspiciously like a Dalek sometimes, occasionally a Wirrn, but he's actually voiced by Michael Spice, not the usual suspects of Michael Wisher or Roy Skelton. Michael would go on to play the disfigured Magnus Greel in The Talons of Weng-Chiang, but both his Doctor Who roles required him to make the most of his vocal performance, for which he was often employed on radio. To be honest, as fine a vocal performance as it is, I would have preferred a little more nuance and variety in Spice's delivery. Although the dialogue he's given is often irretrievably bombastic and over the top, he could at least have tried to inject some pathos or thoughtfulness into his work here. It would have made Morbius and his condition so much more sympathetic, rather than him just being your cut-out-and-keep raving madman.

Mind you, I'd be pretty mad if all that remained of me was a flashing brain in a jar of green goo. I love the bubbles which periodically wend their way through Morbius's jar though, as well as the little-seen voicebox contraption that looks uncannily like Lady Cassandra O'Brien.Δ17! But I had to wince at the line: "Even a sponge has more life than I."

The Brain of Morbius Part Two

The one where Sarah is blinded...

You have to admire the wonderful use of the English language in this story. The list of ways Solon insults people is so rich and amusing, and Philip Madoc delivers what could be some very purple prose with the right amount of conviction as to make it work. He describes Condo as a "chicken-brained biological disaster" and a "chattering ape", while his greatest scorn is reserved for the Sisterhood (that "squalid brood of harpies") and their leader, the "accursed hag" Maren, also described as a "palsied harridan"! This wonderful dialogue is surely not the work of Robin Bland, or Terrance Dicks; it has to be from the mind and pen of the great Robert Holmes!

A lot more time is spent with the Sisterhood in this episode, and it must be said that Jean McMillan's make-up is wonderful, whether it's the younger sisters' red and gold faces or the aged make-up for Cynthia Grenville as Maren. Grenville was not an old lady when they filmed this, but was made up to be, and if you look at her when interviewed on the DVD of this story, she still doesn't look as old as Maren more than 30 years later!

The Brain of Morbius Part One

The one where the Doctor's head becomes a trophy for neuroscience...

Anybody who ever writes the title of this story should meticulously double-check what they've written before finishing. The Brian of Morbius doesn't have quite the same ring to it! However, it is the second serial of Season 14 to go out with a writer's pseudonym: Pyramids of Mars was credited to the fictional Stephen Harris (actually Robert Holmes and Lewis Griefer), while this went out credited to the fictional Robin Bland (actually Robert Holmes and Terrance Dicks). Stephen and Robin were never to write for Doctor Who again, but they certainly produced a couple of corkers!

We start with an old friend clambering into view, a Mutt from the 1972 story The Mutants. It seems Kriz (for that is his name) has crash-landed on this doomy planet and needs some urgent help. Sadly, he doesn't get it, as a lumbering thuggish creature appears and shoves him off his mortal coil with quite a disturbing final scream. Poor Kriz. The thug is called Condo, who lops off Kriz's insectoid head and delivers it to his master, who lives in the gothic castle on the hill. So far, so Hammer.

The Android Invasion Part Four

The one where nobody's ever quite sure who is Who...

I love Sarah's complete demolition of the Doctor's plan at the top of this episode, in which she points out that, by zooming down to Earth in the Kraal pods, they could be either burnt up in re-entry, suffocated on the way down, or smashed to a pulp on landing. The Doctor refers to these as "tiny flaws", but despite them, Sarah remains as faithful as ever, resigned to the fact it's their best option. "How long before we start all this?" she moans. As ever, Sarah Jane Smith says it like it is.

The Space Defence Station's control room is as wonderfully Doctor Whoey as I expected. Staffed by just four people (one of whom is, refreshingly, a lady of Asian descent), the vast room is quite the opposite of the hubbub of activity you'd expect a space control room to be. And now that we're seeing the real Devesham on the real Earth, we finally get to see the real Mr Benton. Although we think we're seeing the real Harry Sullivan at this point, actually we're not, and he doesn't truly appear until Ian Marter's very last scene at the end of the episode.

The Android Invasion Part Three

The one where the pretend Devesham is destroyed...

Any time a companion is brainwashed or duplicated and appears to be trying to kill the Doctor, I get nervy. I don't like it, and I suppose that's why it works narratively, because we're seeing our hero's best friend turn against him. It happens a few times - brainwashed Ben in The Macra Terror, brainwashed Dodo in The War Machines, evil Harry in Terror of the Zygons, duplicate Clara in The Zygon Invasion - but it's particularly rattling to see Sarah Jane try to kill the Doctor, as she does here. Or rather her android double does, when it sits up and starts firing at the fleeing Time Lord. The fact her face looks laughably like Sid the computer from Galloping Galaxies does undermine it somewhat though!

We learn an awful lot in this episode, including the fact that Styggron is one of the keenest project managers in the galaxy. He's a stickler for scheduling, and throughout this episode is obsessed with countdowns and timings, stating exactly how many minutes are left until the next phase of the Kraal plan happens. "Nothing will go wrong!" he insists when the Doctor challenges him, the plaintive cry of the ultimate Prince 2 trained project manager!

The Android Invasion Part Two

The one where Harry and Benton come back... or do they?

What a fall from grace this serial takes with part two. After a highly intriguing and quite surreal first episode, this second installment degenerates very quickly into a dull runaround populated by some extremely unconvincing and generic monsters of the week. I've never been the greatest admirer of Barry Letts' work as a director, but his efforts in the first half of this episode to tease the appearance of the aliens (first their nobbly boots, then their hands) pales in comparison to the work of Douglas Camfield on Terror of the Zygons.

You can't help but compare this to Terror of the Zygons because it's all so painfully similar. As well as the rural location, and the presence of a quaint village and a local pub, you've got aliens trying to invade the Earth by stealth, using the duplication of humans as their "bridgehead", and secreting closed circuit cameras inside wall-mounted ornaments. The big difference though, is that the Kraals are rubbish and the Zygons aren't. The monster masks are poorly fitted to the actors, whose moving mouths can be seen quite clearly within, and although they look suitably thuggish and unusual, these space rhinos aren't a patch on their Judoon cousins!

The Android Invasion Part One

The one where a quaint English village isn't all it seems...

The Android Invasion has an odd opening. It starts with a UNIT soldier looking quite zombified, his right arm twitching like he's lashed up to jump leads, walking inexorably through bushes and brambles. He is glassy-eyed and empty, and obviously on his way somewhere, but we then cut away to the TARDIS materialising in a forest clearing and the twitchy soldier's forgotten about for a few minutes.

Mind you, that TARDIS arrival is beautiful, isn't it? What Doctor Who fan doesn't adore seeing that gorgeous blue police box fade into view, then wait expectantly to see who comes out first? It's a rite of passage for all fans, I reckon: you're not a true fan until you feel your heart skip a beat at a TARDIS materialisation! This time, it's in a sunny woodland glade, one of the most perfect environments for it to happen. And then the Fourth Doctor steps out swigging from a bottle of ginger pop. Does Doctor Who get any purer than this?

Pyramids of Mars Part Four

The one where Sutekh places his mind inside the Doctor's...

Sutekh's emerald eye rays seem extremely powerful and painful, judging by the way the Doctor writhes in abject agony. Tom Baker was always very good at playing pain and agony, he always seemed so convincing. Sutekh's powers genuinely appear to be absolute, and some of the things he says are, as Melanie Bush might say, utterly evil. He says that, if he wishes, he can keep the Doctor alive for centuries, racked by the most excruciating pain, or he may choose to shred his nervous system into a million fibres.

The confrontation between the Doctor and Sutekh is well written and performed, with some juicy dialogue for both by the hands of Robert Holmes and Lewis Greifer. Sutekh refers to the Doctor as a "plaything", and justifies his destructive tendencies quite admirably: "Your evil is my good... Where I tread I leave nothing but dust and darkness. I find that good." The subsequent abasement of the Doctor before him is quite upsetting for younger viewers. It must be one of the very few times we witness the Fourth Doctor in such a pathetic, helpless state before his adversary.

Pyramids of Mars Part Three

The one where Laurence's late brother calls round...

The Doctor's coldly alien approach to the loss of human life continues in part 3, first of all when he reminds Laurence yet again that his brother is dead. He describes Marcus as an animated human cadaver, driving his point home as gently as a bull in a china shop. Michael Sheard is really good here, giving a silent nod in agreement as he stifles a sob. Laurence is really put through the emotional mill in this story, and Sheard is more than up to the job. Tom Baker is also on fine form, barely containing the Doctor's anger at Laurence's bungling. "Stay here!" he growls as he heads back to the Priory (although once again, loyal Sarah refuses!).

The scene where Marcus Scarman pays his brother a visit at the Lodge is beautifully played by Sheard and Bernard Archard. It's inevitable what's going to happen, but to see Marcus struggle against Sutekh's influence as he tries to remember when he was human (when he was alive!) is remarkable. "I was... Marcus," he gags. Laurence is desperate, almost pathetically so, in his efforts to "save" his brother, but the Osirian's hold is too strong, and there's only one way this is going to end.

Pyramids of Mars Part Two

The one where Marcus Scarman brings Sutekh's gift of death to his best friend...

Poor Namin's death sounds terribly painful and agonised, doesn't it? Well done to Peter Mayock for making his character's demise sound so convincingly unpleasant, making the viewer squirm in their seat despite the fact the Egyptian was a nasty piece of work. The dark figure becomes the cadaverous Marcus Scarman, who we haven't seen since the first scene of episode 1. He now looks pale and undead, a walking corpse animated by the will of Sutekh. Bernard Archard looks suitably horrific in pale make-up and red raw eyes.

Marcus has arrived so that he can take control of operations in England, and orders the mummies to take up the generator loop canopic jars and position them at the four compass points to activate a barrier to secure borders around the Priory. It might have been wiser if Sutekh had got Namin to do this earlier, to make sure fewer people were trapped inside the barrier.

Pyramids of Mars Part One

The one where the TARDIS lands at UNIT HQ before it becomes UNIT HQ...

Egypt! Somehow Doctor Who and Egypt feel like they go together well, especially during this particular era when stories were barely disguised reworks of favourite horror/ fantasy situations. Pyramids of Mars is obviously a riff on The Mummy, and is the second far-flung Earthbound location in Season 13 so far (yes, back in 1975, having a story set in Scotland was unusual enough to be called "far-flung"!).

It opens with a British Egyptologist discovering a hidden tomb jam-packed with reliquaries and ancient artefacts untouched since the first dynasty of the pharoahs (around 3,000BC). Professor Marcus Scarman typically dreams of plundering these cultural artefacts for his own ends, like every other British explorer of the period. But one thing's for sure: he won't get much help from the locals, as typified by his aide Ahmed, who flees in terror at the very sight of an Eye of Horus hieroglyph. Ahmed's fear doesn't quite make sense, as the Eye of Horus symbol represents protection, royal power and good health, intended to protect the pharoah in the afterlife and ward off evil. So what he's scared of I don't know. Scarman would appear to at least understand the reaction, as he calls Ahmed a "superstitious savage", suggesting there may be something to be feared historically...