Doctor Who "The Brain of Morbius" (Spoilers)

[Big Orange]

I've got the DVD for "The Brain of Morbius" and it is my second proper contact with the Golden Age Baker/Holmes era, after "Genesis of the Daleks". I'd give it a solid score of 8/10 and it seems a great example of very creative minds being severely limited by 1970s TV technology and a penny pinching BBC (but some thought and creativity went into the gothic sets and props, despite the embarrassing production limitations in places).

The acting is great, with Phillip Madoc (who played Solon) being the standout of these episodes and the fate of his character being unusual, even by NuWho standards (a human looking character being first degreed murdered by the Doctor). I found his rabid devotion to the equally rabid Morbius to be interesting and pathetic.

For something PG rated, it seems a bit too edgy for under twelves (with a badguy getting graphically shot in the stomach and an alien getting decapitated, it's head wired up to the mains). The backstory for Morbius and Solon is well written, and conviningly described by the characters in the present tense, leaving bags of room for creative fanfiction.

The best extras on the DVD is the concept and production sketches (with the more intriguing ones being a pre-debrained Morbius as a Hitlertarian warlord and a surgical robot searching through the ruins of spaceships).

[NecronLord]

I've added Doctor Who to the title. So people know what the hell you're talking about.

And it came out in 1976. How the hell is that spoilers?

What's next: Spoiler

Darth Vader kills Obi-Wan

?

[Patrick Degan]

The best moment is the climatic mind-wrestling contest between the Doctor and Morbius.

This one was largely a Robert Holmes re-write of a Terrance Dicks script and a very extensive one —so much so that little of Dicks' original material is seen in the final product. The mindbending duel however is one of the Dicks elements that was retained, as was the name of the planet (Karn): both derived from Dicks' DW stage play The Seven Keys To Doomsday, which toured the national theatre circuit for a time in the mid-70s with Trevor Martin starring as the Doctor.

Definitely one of Phillip Madoc's best villain parts in the series: he really plays Solon to the hilt in this one and seemed to be enjoying himself from start to finish. Michael Spice loans his well-honed voice for the character of Morbius, conveying at turns the character's menace, charisma, pain, and insanity. Also impressive in the cast is Cynthia Greenville as Maren, leader of the Sisterhood and the keeper of the terrible, dark secret of the Order's eventual doom. An ancient woman who, despite her power, remains terrified of the rest of the galaxy and resists even the idea that Morbius might still be alive because the prospect is too nightmarish to bear.

And Elisabeth Sladen... well, she is simply her usual, superb self, and the writing is well up to her character: Sarah infiltrating the Sisterhood's sanctum to rescue the Doctor from sacrifice, Sarah stumbling out blind (literally) through treacherous mountain passes to try to save him from the trap he's been sent into by Solon —and being clever enough at the outset not to drink the wine Solon offers and faking her own unconsciousness when the Doctor succumbs and it's become obvious their host is a madman. Fuck the Rose-wankers —Sarah-Jane Smith remains my favourite companion. It's rare when actress and character as so well matched and have the luck of good writing to back them up as well.

A really good little story which was part of an excellent season of Doctor Who and was followed by the even better "The Seeds Of Doom". This was the time when everything was just clicking in place for the programme. Well worth it's 99 minutes.

[mr friendly guy]

I also got the DVD when it came out in Australia. This time I just watched it with the commentary on. It had the whole gang, Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen, Hincliffe and Phillip Madoc. There were lines in the episode such as the Doctor's "can any one spare a cup of water" (after coming in from the rain) which were they mentioned were pure Tom Baker add ons, which I thought made it better.

Just for interest, the next DVDs due to come out are the Peter Davison's story "Four to Doomsday", then Hartnell's "War Machines" and the infamous "Trial of a Time Lord". I am thinking of getting War Machines and possibly Four to Doomsday, although I am not too sure about the last, even though I haven't seen all the episodes before.

[Patrick Degan]

Just for interest, the next DVDs due to come out are the Peter Davison's story "Four to Doomsday", then Hartnell's "War Machines" and the infamous "Trial of a Time Lord". I am thinking of getting War Machines and possibly Four to Doomsday, although I am not too sure about the last, even though I haven't seen all the episodes before.

Believe me, compared to "The Stolen Earth/Journey's End", "Trial Of A Time Lord" will seem like gold.

[DaveJB]

Believe me, compared to "The Stolen Earth/Journey's End", "Trial Of A Time Lord" will seem like gold.

No, it won't, really. Say what you like about those two episodes, but at least they're over and done with after only an hour and a half. After the same amount of time in Trial of a Time Lord, you've still got ten episodes left. Stolen Earth/Journey's End are mindrackingly stupid that's for sure, but Trial of a Time Lord is actually unwatchable to me.

Here's how I'd summarise that trainwreck of a season:

Mysterious Planet (1-4): Boring and blandly inoffensive. You could really skip these, if not for the fact that the last two episodes would make no sense.
Mindwarp (5-8): Not too bad actually, but it makes no sense whatsoever. Worth it mainly for Sil's return, the decent production work, and the shock ending.
Terror of the Vervoids (9-12): Another dull story, made pretty much unwatchable by the godawful production work (including some of the worse sets, special effects and music ever seen in the show) and Pip 'n' Jane's typically horrific dialogue.
The Ultimate Foe (13-14): A mess, really, but at least it's over and done with quickly. At least it has a moderately creepy atmosphere, and a few decent moments.

[Captain Seafort]

Terror of the Vervoids (9-12): Another dull story, made pretty much unwatchable by the godawful production work (including some of the worse sets, special effects and music ever seen in the show) and Pip 'n' Jane's typically horrific dialogue.

Don't forget the first example of Bonnie Langford's scream.

The Ultimate Foe (13-14): A mess, really, but at least it's over and done with quickly. At least it has a moderately creepy atmosphere, and a few decent moments.

And completely buggers up the end of Mindwarp.

[Patrick Degan]

Believe me, compared to "The Stolen Earth/Journey's End", "Trial Of A Time Lord" will seem like gold.

No, it won't, really. Say what you like about those two episodes, but at least they're over and done with after only an hour and a half. After the same amount of time in Trial of a Time Lord, you've still got ten episodes left. Stolen Earth/Journey's End are mindrackingly stupid that's for sure, but Trial of a Time Lord is actually unwatchable to me.

Yes it will, actually. With "Trial", it's stupidity is at least spread out over fourteen episodes so that you get little doses of it at a time and have some decompression intervals in between. While the godfuckinglyawful, unwatchable idiocy that is SE/JE is delivered in a single, compressed hammerblow from which you will never be the same.

And say what you will about it, but nothing in "Trial" really acts to destroy the Doctor's character —or that of the companions— as much as SE/JE does.

For all its idiocy, "Trial" is still recognisably Doctor Who. "The Stolen Planet/Journey's End" is a horrible, horrible Russell Davies wankfest from start to finish. His spooge is all over it.

[Big Orange]

And it came out in 1976. How the hell is that spoilers?

What's next: Spoiler

Darth Vader kills Obi-Wan

?

Good call for including Doctor Who (I was worried it would get sliced off by lack of space ), but I thought giving the plot away would be unfair to newcomers to Doctor Who who were not aware of the earlier stories like longterm fans.

Fuck the Rose-wankers —Sarah-Jane Smith remains my favourite companion. It's rare when actress and character as so well matched and have the luck of good writing to back them up as well.

I don't think Elizabeth Sladen (who's aged incredibly well) or her Sarah Jane character have been hard done by at all in NuWho, especially when she's been given her own popular spin-off that is ironically more deeper than the 'adult' orientated Torchwood and fared better than Rose Tyler or the other recent companions in Russell T. Davies' overblown, fanwanked to the max S4 final (but hey, Steven Moffat is taking over relatively soon, and "Midnight" and "Turn Left" were better quality episodes). I don't think the Doctor has been as compromised as Captain Jack Harkness been post-S1, and he's alone now, with some stranded clone of his in another Universe, which may bite him on the ass later.

The JNT era is somewhat similar to the B&B era for Star Trek (Rick Berman attempted to put Star Trek on hold after Voyager and Jonathan Nathan Turner was prevented from leaving as producer) and they even end up the same, with an attempt of injecting fresh new talent (Andrew Cartmel and Manny Coto) but the horse had already bolted, while ruthless and obnoxious network executives delivered the killing blow (Michael Grade and Leslie Moonves). Both were in bigger objective trouble than Doctor Who is now (which can afford to make mistakes, with the BBC and general public more strongly behind it).