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."

As good as Elisabeth Sladen is at depicting blindness, Sarah manages to achieve an awful lot while without sight. In episode 2 she managed to stumble her way down the long stairs to the castle's basement without breaking her neck, and here she manages the unlikely feat of locking Morbius in the basement using two door locking mechanisms, neither of which she's ever seen before. She then stumbles her way all the way back upstairs, out of the castle's main door and out into the rocky landscape, all without any serious injury. It's a reflection on Sarah's loyalty to the Doctor that she does actually go through all of this to try and save him, but when she's caught by Condo, her efforts are in vain.

It looks like Colin Fay is quite rough with Sladen and her hair here, although I hope that it's all expert thespian technique I'm seeing, and Lis actually came to no harm at all.

Meanwhile, the Doctor is back at the Sisterhood's shrine, where he's captured using a flimsy crochet net (a method similarly beloved of the Rezzies in Paradise Towers). He tries to convince Maren that he believes Morbius to be at large once more, despite the fact she watched him dispersed into atoms at his execution. The Doctor does point out that Solon was on Karn at that time, suggesting he managed to remove Morbius's brain first, but I'm pretty sure the thousands of life-forms that came from across the galaxy to witness his execution would have noticed that Morbius was missing a pretty vital organ. Morbius being the despised war criminal that he was, he would have been protesting his sentence to the bitter end, but without a brain, surely he'd have been suspiciously quiet?

Morbius had promised his legion of followers the secret to the Elixir of Life, which would have made his burgeoning Cult both invincible and immortal, so I'm glad the Time Lords stopped him when they did. But discussion about the elixir suggests that it is not, as I previously surmised, the secret to Time Lord regeneration, as the Doctor says that the elixir has only ever been used in the rare instance of there being "some difficulty in regenerating a body". Which is exactly what it is used for in The Night of the Doctor to ease our hero's transition from his eighth body to his ninth.

Suspicious that the Time Lords are on their way to finish him off for good, Morbius insists Solon helps him get away from Karn by placing his brain inside an experimental brain case, attached to the monstrous body the neuroscientist has been keeping comfy in bed in his laboratory. This indication that the Time Lords may be on their way - despite being only Morbius's delusion, not a fixed plot point - promises something that we know does not come to pass, which is a shame. It would have been a marvellous finale to have the Time Lords turn up on Karn to clash with both the Sisterhood and Morbius, but we'd have to wait a little longer for our next encounter with the Doctor's race...

The transportation of Morbius's brain from the basement to the lab is comically intrepid. Solon empties the brain jar of all of the fluid, allowing the brain to flop unceremoniously on its side, before he and Condo carefully carry the jar all the way upstairs, across the hall and into the lab. Surely the lack of suspension fluid, or any connection to exterior life support, would leave the brain, well... braindead? And then Condo goes and knocks the brain onto the floor with an irreligious splat, which is both hilarious and yucky all at the same time!

This causes Solon to shoot his slave Condo in anger, not just once but three times. Despite this, the giant survives long enough to crawl his way out of the lab, and I'm sure we haven't seen the last of him as we don't see him actually die. It's a tragic demise for poor Condo, who has only tried to do his best throughout for his master, despite his limited intelligence. All he wanted was his arm back, and when he saw that Solon had sewn his arm onto the Morbius creature's torso, he was understandably vexed. It's a lovely little turn from Colin Fay, who manages to portray Condo's sadness and pain despite the somewhat hackneyed make-up and wig, and Igor-style delivery.

But what's that? As Solon forces Sarah to help him attach the brain case to the body, the doorbell rings. Ah! It's the Sisterhood of Karn, with a delivery of a new head (ie the Doctor's). I find it very amusing that these all-powerful witches bother to ring the doorbell before entering! Why do they go to the trouble of physically delivering the Doctor though? Why not just do some more chanting and arm-waving and transport him there mentally, just as they took him?

As Sarah's sight begins to return, the Morbius monster rears up behind her, ready to claim its first victim, but I think the moment would have been better if Sarah had actually turned to see the creature in time for the cliffhanger. It's so much more gruesome that the first thing Sarah sees upon regaining her sight is a monster! It's a pity the cliffhanger couldn't have stretched that little bit longer.

First broadcast: January 17th, 1976

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: The Sisterhood of Karn ringing Solon's doorbell. I love that!
The Bad: It's hard to believe that Sarah could get up and down those stairs, and double-lock the basement door, completely blind.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆

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

NEXT TIME: Part Four...

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