Mawdryn Undead Part Three

The one where Mawdryn and his mutants emerge from their chrysalis...

Tegan, Nyssa and the 1977 Brigadier are arguing over whether they think the mutated creature wandering about the TARDIS dressed as the Fourth Doctor is actually the newly regenerated, Sixth Doctor. The Brigadier and Nyssa are willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, but good old Tegan remains highly suspicious, and as ever, says all the things I'd be saying or thinking. She points out that the Doctor regenerated into a human last time, but Mawdryn ripostes: "Is a Gallifreyan human?" There's nothing to say that the Doctor wouldn't regenerate into a non-human form. One thing's for sure though: Mawdryn's clothes regenerated with him, like when Hartnell became Troughton and Baker became Davison. Unless those flowing robes are part of Mawdryn...?

Mawdryn insists on going back to the ship alone, claiming the presence of another being could harm its restorative qualities. Tegan is adamant she's not letting Mawdryn/ the Doctor go alone, and physically stops the compliant Nyssa from opening the TARDIS doors. Tegan holds her resolve as long as she can, but loses in the end, and Mawdryn is allowed to leave alone. Janet Fielding is wonderful in these scenes, demonstrating why Tegan is one of the best companions of the classic era. She has opinions, she has guts, she has principles, and she sticks by them. She's fiercely loyal, but also fiercely independent.

This third episode sadly falters a little in that it's slowly degenerating (ironically) into a tiresome runaround. It's great that the narratives are converging gradually to meet the cliffhanger at the end, but the journey through episode 3 is slightly laboured.

The Doctor, Turlough and the Brigadier need to get away from 1983 and back to the ship using the transmat, and the Doctor has to tinker with its controls in order to make this happen. There's a lot of talk of homing beacons and a warp ellipse which I'm sure flew over the heads of 95% of the viewing audience, and may or may not make real sense. I do wish they'd found ways of making the gobbledegook bits sound authentic, or at least convincing, rather than throwing a load of long, sciencey words at the script and hoping the actors can make them work. Not being able to understand science-fiction is one of the reasons lay viewers turn off, but there are clever ways to make sci-fi make sense to a broader audience, if only the writer took time to write it more clearly (or the script editor).

The scenes aboard the inexplicably bigger-on-the-inside transmat capsule are lovely though. Peter Davison and Nicholas Courtney have an instant rapport together, sitting hunched up together on the steps as if the passage of time between their characters has melted away. I also like how the Doctor remains wary of wily Turlough, ushering him politely away when he starts to watch him at the controls. The Doctor trusted this boy far too quickly, and now perhaps he's starting to realise he can't be fully trusted. Maybe that's why he sends him off back to the TARDIS to stay with Nyssa and Tegan (although Turlough fails to do this straight away!).

Despite being told that the presence of another being might spoil Mawdryn/ the Doctor's recovery, the Brigadier decides to go looking for him on the ship, ordering Tegan and Nyssa to stay behind in the TARDIS as if he's commanding a military platoon. Worryingly, the girls obey, sulkily, which rather goes against character, especially Tegan's. I expected them to creep out of the TARDIS after the Brigadier had gone, but no: they just slump moodily with their arms crossed watching him go on the scanner screen. It's odd, because the girls don't really know who this guy is. He claims to know the Doctor and the regeneration process, but for all they know he could be just as much an imposter as Mawdryn. Why do they trust him so quickly? Basically, because we know he's the Brigadier, and can be trusted. But that's not the case within the fiction (remember the deleted scene in Battlefield where Ace mistrusts the Brigadier before she really knows him? That was better, but sadly not used!).

Mawdryn crawls his way around Stephen Scott's beautifully designed ship, which is a real feast for the eyes: patterns and carvings, ornaments and floral displays, statues and pictures, chair, lamps and stairways... So much thought has gone into it. It's such a shame this was his only Doctor Who job.

Ailing Mawdryn tries to communicate with the spooky pictures on the wall, declaring: "I, Mawdryn, have returned! It is time for The Awakening!" No, not quite yet, that's next season.

Turlough, thanks to a particularly eerie manifestation from the Black Guardian, manages to open the chamber where Mawdryn's mutated mates are sleeping. This scene is so spooky, nicely lit by Don Babbage, and directed by Peter Moffatt with a gentle sweep which reveals multiple mutants surrounding Turlough. And they start to wake up, moaning like sleepy zombies as Turlough turns tail and scarpers (who can blame him?). It's a wonderfully unnerving little scene.

There's a lot of info-dumping in this episode, but it's all quite juicy info, and doesn't feel too clunky. When the Doctor and Brigadier find Mawdryn's regeneration chamber, he establishes the fact there are eight of Mawdryn's kind altogether. We also learn that Mawdryn stole a metamorphic symbiosis regenerator from Gallifrey (how?) to try and extend his and his comrades' lives indefinitely. But their quest for immortality was doomed, as they have endless life but perpetual mutation. The vital part they needed was denied to them by the Time Lords (maybe because they'd stolen from them?), and the octet of scientists was exiled from their home planet.

What is interesting is the suggestion that Mawdryn and his men don't necessarily look humanoid, they only look humanoid now because they came within Earth's orbit, and the regenerator copies the form of the closest life form as the ship makes its merry way through the universe. Mawdryn's species is never revealed, either on TV or in spin-off fiction, so we can only imagine what different physical forms Mawdryn has taken over the centuries.

As the other seven scientists tip-toe purposefully into the chamber and take their places at each of the regeneration beds, it becomes implicitly clearer that there are eight people here wanting to regenerate. And how many lives does the Doctor have left? Well, as far as was known in 1983, he had eight left, and as the episode draws to an end, our hero exasperatedly tells Tegan that if he agrees to help them, it would be the end of him as a Time Lord. It's a great idea to explore the concept of regeneration in this anniversary season, and of course the theme of immortality rears its ugly head again in The Five Doctors.

Some other observations:

• Why doesn't the 1983 Brigadier remember being on board the ship before, as the 1977 him? It could be a plot hole, but I'm hoping for a water-tight explanation in part 4...
• Again, Mark Strickson doesn't have a lot to do in this episode except prowl around looking suspicious, but he does it so well, and never gives less than 100% in his performance.
• The Black Guardian's plan is all over the place. At first he wanted Turlough to kill the Doctor. He failed, so now the Guardian craves the "total humiliation of the Doctor" (I guess he's referring to the choice he's going to have to make between his own future and saving Mawdryn and his men). By the end of part 3 he's demanding that Turlough, who is no longer needed, has to "witness the nemesis of the Doctor" (Mawdryn, presumably).
• I adore the scene where Tegan insists she goes to look for the Doctor - "the real Doctor" - and then he runs in and starts operating controls as if nothing ever happened. It's so very Doctorish, something I think Davison has really got to grips with in Season 20. Later, when the Doctor learns that the 1977 Brigadier is on the ship, he shouts at poor Tegan: "How could you be so stupid?", to which his companion snaps: "What?!" The chemistry between Davison and Fielding, and their characters, is so organic.

Mawdryn Undead is fizzing with great ideas, and Peter Grimwade is just about managing to juggle them, despite a tendency toward bafflegab, so I'm hoping for a satisfying conclusion. Will the Doctor donate his remaining eight regenerations to Mawdryn and his mutants?

First broadcast: February 8th, 1983

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: Using the concept of regeneration and perpetual mutation is an ingenious idea for a story in Doctor Who's 20th year.
The Bad: GIVE TURLOUGH SOMETHING TO DO!
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

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.

Mawdryn Undead is available as part of the Black Guardian Trilogy BBC DVD box set. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Guardian-Terminus-Enlightenment/dp/B002ATVDBY