The Mutants Episode One

The one where the Time Lords employ the Doctor as an intergalactic postman...

An old, bedraggled man with long white hair and torn clothes runs breathlessly through petrified trees, clearly on the run. He clutches his chest as he pauses for breath, then heads off in a new direction as shouting from the distance draws nearer. This man is being hunted, and seems desperately afraid.

But the creepy atmosphere is almost completely ruined by the mildly comical figure of Paul Whitsun-Jones striding out of the fog dressed in typical Nazi-esque black uniform and jackboots and spouting dialogue like he's in The Tomorrow People. The direction by Christopher Barry can't be faulted, but the ripe performance from Whitsun-Jones undermines it all. When they find their quarry's body, it is mutated with a bony spine, but the gruesomeness of this is erased by the emergence of two more stilted performances, from Christopher Coll as Stubbs and Rick James as Cotton.

Oh, Rick James. Wherever did they find him? He's an astonishingly poor actor, with a delivery like pure oak. He recites his lines as if reading them from cue cards, and barely ever gets close to actually acting or performing the part. One good thing I will say though, is that it's embarrassingly rare for Doctor Who to have a named, speaking black actor at this point in its history, rather than black extras or short-lived characters designed to be killed off (Jamaica in The Smugglers, Ralph in The Moonbase, Kemel in The Evil of the Daleks, Toberman in The Tomb of the Cybermen...). It's refreshing to see a bit of diversity, but it's a shame they picked one of the poorest actors registered with Equity!

Meanwhile, in the Doctor's ever-regenerating UNIT lab, he's busy tinkering with a new circuit for Bessie when, out of the blue, materialises a big football thing. It transpires this is a delivery from the Time Lords, who have sent the capsule to the Doctor for him to deliver to the recipient on their behalf. It will only open for the intended recipient, and nobody else, not even the Doctor ("I couldn't even if I wanted to," he says, leading to a very rare Pertwee fluff where he says the same line twice!). What I don't understand is why the Time Lords have sent the sphere to the Doctor to deliver. Why can't they just materialise the capsule right in front of the intended recipient instead?

The Time Lord-controlled TARDIS takes the Doctor and Jo to a Skybase in orbit around the planet Solos, a colony of the Earth Empire in the 30th century. The Skybase sets, designed by Jeremy Bear, are clinically futuristic, and the walls are made of that triangular design that will soon become prolific and ubiquitous across BBC Television drama productions, and beyond! The model work for the Skybase and Solos are impressive too, and I like the computerised typeface used for signage around the base.

Elsewhere, the indigenous people of Solos are holding a conference with their Earth Overlords who, after 500 years of colonial occupation, intend to award Solos its independence. Thanks to a gloriously sensible and serious performance from Geoffrey Palmer as the Earth Administrator, we discover that the only real reason Earth is handing Solos back is because "we can't afford an empire any more". This news does not please the Marshal though (oddly, he's not given a proper name), who is told that he will be found other duties, "something clerical". Understandably, the Marshal fears for his future career, and less understandably, colludes with Varan, the acquiescent leader of the Solonians, to assassinate the Administrator.

Although he denies any link, it seems that the Marshal has been carrying out "atmospheric experiments" on Solos which have been affecting the breathable air, and in turn leading to genetic mutations among its people (hence the bony-spined "mutt" at the start, and the gammy-handed Solonian guard who's shot dead by Stubbs). So while Earth gains credit for wanting to give independence to Solos, it loses considerably more for allowing their Marshal to poison the planet and corrupt their genetic make-up.

There's more world-building (empire-building?) when the Doctor says that Earth has become a ball of grey sludge by the 30th century: "Land and sea alike, all grey. Grey cities linked by grey highways across grey deserts... Slag, ash, clinker. The fruits of technology."

It's another of those regular warnings to the future that the Pertwee era often rewards us with, and although to some it may sound preachy, from the perspective of almost 50 years later, it's a warning that has lost none of its edge.

The final moments are rather action-packed as rebellious Solonian Ky incites a protest against the Administrator (if he'd only listen, he'd know there's no need to protest), Varan's nameless son shoots a deadly dart at the Administrator, and in his haste to escape the guards, Ky brushes past the Time Lord capsule, which partly opens. Ky is obviously the intended recipient, and Jo rushes after him, followed by guards. Ky then takes Jo as a hostage and makes for the transfer pod, as the guards open fire on them both.

There's been a lot to get our teeth into in episode 1. There seems to be an interesting story, weighed down by some clunky and over-ripe performances, but I hope I can see past Rick James's woodenness and Paul Whitsun-Jones's OTT choices to enjoy a promising narrative.

First broadcast: April 8th, 1972

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: Geoffrey Palmer is an oasis of professionalism amid a desert of ill-judged acting.
The Bad: Rick James and Paul Whitsun-Jones.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆

"Now listen to me" tally: 17
Neck-rub tally: 6

NEXT TIME: Episode Two...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Episode Two; Episode Three; Episode Four; Episode Five; Episode Six

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/2014/05/the-mutants.html

The Mutants is available on BBC DVD. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Mutants-Jon-Pertwee/dp/B004DNWDYQ