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 entire episode is lit beautifully, skillfully and bravely by Peter Catlett, always with a strong eye for a Hammer horror classic, with looming silhouettes, lightning strikes briefly flooding the landscape, and subtle illumination and shadow when and where it counts, to create tension and mystery. Catlett lights Barry Newbery's stunning sets sympathetically so that it's not too obvious that this is the outdoors in an indoor studio, but it doesn't always work, especially when it's made obvious that the rocks are actually made of wood, and it creaks beneath the actors' feet.

Newbery's finest achievement, however, is Solon's castle, which is so interesting to look at and dressed intelligently and with depth and thought (as ever with Newbery). The architecture and choice of styles of furniture are spot on, making it all look exactly like a Hammer horror film set, but on a fraction of the budget.

We know within three minutes of episode 1 starting what the story is going to be about, as Solon says that he craves the day when a humanoid with a suitable central nervous system will arrive on Karn, which is immediately followed by the arrival of the TARDIS! Clever pacing there, Robin!

The Doctor is annoyed by what he thinks is the interference of the Time Lords in sending the TARDIS to Karn. Refusing to be their agent in matters deemed too dicey for them to get directly involved in themselves (as in Genesis of the Daleks), the Doctor goes on strike, while Sarah - ever the curious journalist - does the exploring. While the Doctor sits down and practices his double yo-yo loops, Sarah discovers a graveyard of spaceships and then a decapitated corpse (Kriz), before the pretend rain sets in (I love the fact the Doctor carries an umbrella, but it's broken!).

Our heroes look for shelter at the castle on the hill, and owner Mehendri Solon is more than pleased to welcome them in (well, the Doctor anyway). For the Doctor has a fine head on his shoulders, precisely the thing he's been waiting for for a long time. The ensuing interaction between Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen and Philip Madoc is great to watch, three excellent actors bouncing off one another. An actor of Madoc's calibre adds a real sheen to Doctor Who that can be absent with lesser performers, and his silky tone and natural performance adds such truth to the story. Madoc is an actor who adds tiny little looks, moments and nuances to the given lines, creating a proper, believable character. The bit where Madoc nonchalantly slides the wine decanter out of his camera shot is masterful, and the way he pauses for a beat when he realises the Doctor knows who he is... And then there's the moment where Solon contains his anger at the way Condo serves the wine, and you can almost feel the tension created by the silence and the way Sladen looks awkwardly at Baker. Wonderful stuff.

Solon's admiration for the Doctor's head should ring alarm bells straight away, seeing as they found a headless body in the grounds outside. Solon also has a sculpture of a head pride of place in his hall, the head of Time Lord criminal Morbius, no less! The Doctor succumbs to Solon's drugged wine, but we know that Sarah opted not to drink hers, with a lovely camera shot showing her surreptitiously pouring it away. However, to maintain the illusion and to learn more about what's going on, she pretends to fall asleep. Excellent writing and acting all round.

Elsewhere in the episode we meet the Sisterhood of Karn, a bunch of red-robed space witches who are slaves to the Sacred Flame which creates the Elixir of Life. Or rather, it should do, but as leader Maren shares with deputy Ohica, the flame is faltering, and no elixir has been produced for some time. This elixir seems to be important, as it prolongs the life of both the Sisterhood, and the Time Lords of Gallifrey. Could this possibly be an explanation for the Time Lords' ability to regenerate and live for hundreds of years?

As the elixir is now very scarce, Maren fears the Time Lords have sent the Doctor to take the final drops for themselves, so straight away the viewer is wondering why the Doctor has been sent to Karn - is it to retrieve the Elixir of Life, or is it to stop Solon recreating the criminal Morbius? On the face of it, it must be the latter as the Doctor would never think to steal the last elixir from the Sisterhood for the good of his philandering brethren back home. It's an interesting juxtaposition of plot points though. The Sisterhood say only the Time Lords equal them in mind and power, and we see Maren and her girls transport first the TARDIS, then the Doctor himself, using only mental power. I've never seen a Time Lord manage that before!

Some other points:

• The close-up shot of Kriz's reanimated head is really gruesome, especially for the younger viewers. This was shown at 6pm on a Saturday, and it somehow feels a bit much. As I've said before with some of the Doctor Who stories of this time, occasionally I do wonder whether TV clean-up campaigner Mary Whitehouse was right...
• The "silent gas dirigibles of the Hoothi" are mentioned by Maren. It was actually scripted as Moothi, but Cynthia Grenville misread it, and then Doctor Who fandom was stuck with it. So much so that writer Paul Cornell featured the Hoothi (not the Moothi!) in his book Love and War.
• L Rowland Warne's costumes for the Sisterhood are gorgeous, and exactly the quality of work you'd expect from a man who had previously designed for the Festival Ballet and Young Shakespeare Company, and worked alongside designers Harry Popper and Norman Hartnell (William Hartnell's second cousin).
• It's a universal truth that whenever you've finished watching an episode of The Brain of Morbius, you'll hear the whisper of "Sacred fire... sacred flame" in your head for the rest of the day.
• There's a delightful nod to the past when the Doctor says his previous head was an old grey model. "Some people liked it," he adds, and Sarah grins: "I did!" Lovely, lovely, lovely! Plus, it nicely forecasts the moment in The Five Doctors when Sarah is reunited with the Third Doctor and refers to him becoming "all teeth and curls".
• Solon dragged the injured Condo from the wreck of a Dravidian starship, but this does not mean Condo is a Dravidian. Doctor Who spin-off fiction dictates that the Dravidians are a grasshopper-like species, first featured in Justin Richards' 2009 book The Planet of Oblivion, but the insectoid race did get a second mention within the show itself, as part of the Carrionites' Love's Labour's Won in The Shakespeare Code ("The light of Shadmoch's hollow moon doth shine / Onto a point in space betwixt Dravidian shores").
• The casual way Solon tells Condo to kill Sarah is chilling. He has no need for this girl ("What girl?") or her head; all he can see and think of is the Doctor's mighty bonce!
• As moody as it is, Dudley Simpson's contributions to Doctor Who are getting a little repetitive now. In this episode alone I heard echoes of his work on Robot and Pyramids of Mars. And to think there's another four years of him scoring Doctor Who yet. The show really would have benefited from some variety...

First broadcast: January 3rd, 1976

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: Barry Newbery's splendid sets and Peter Catlett's expert lighting.
The Bad: It's no big thing, but the overlaid rainfall is pretty unconvincing (made up for by the real downpour at Solon's door!).
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★★☆

"Would you like a jelly baby?" tally: 05

NEXT TIME: Part Two...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Part Two; Part Three; Part Four

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/2014/07/the-brain-of-morbius.html

The Brain of Morbius is available on BBC DVD. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Brain-Morbius-DVD/dp/B001A47GD4