The TARDIS arrives in a white void after making an emergency escape from the volcanic eruption on Dulkis.The TARDIS arrives in a white void after making an emergency escape from the volcanic eruption on Dulkis.The TARDIS arrives in a white void after making an emergency escape from the volcanic eruption on Dulkis.
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- Director
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- Sydney Newman(uncredited)
- Derrick Sherwin(uncredited)
- Donald B. Wilson(uncredited)
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Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThis story was planned as a four-part serial, but was increased to five after the previous adventure, The Dominators, was reduced from six to five episodes. As a result, the first four episodes were only between 19 and 22 minutes in length and episode five was the shortest Doctor Who episode ever at just over 18 minutes. For this to happen, the first episode was cobbled together by the production team, making Peter Ling very unhappy.
- GoofsWhen the Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe re-enter the TARDIS, a caption on the scanner reads "Producer Peter Bryant". The scanner screen is showing the output of the camera that was due to film the episode's end credits.
- Quotes
Jamie: Come on, back to the TARDIS.
Zoe Heriot: Is that the right way?
Jamie: Of course it's the right way... Oh... Err... No, it could be... erm... oh.
Zoe Heriot: We're lost, aren't we?
Jamie: No, I wouldn't say that. We're just err... well, the... um... We're just a...
[beat]
Jamie: You want to know something?
Zoe Heriot: What?
Jamie: I think we're lost.
Zoe Heriot: Oh, this isn't a joke, Jamie!
Jamie: No, you're right. The Doctor was saying that those images we saw on the scanner were put here to tempt us out.
Zoe Heriot: Well, if somebody was trying to tempt us away, where are they? And who are they?
Jamie: Aye. Aye. Well, let's not be in too much of a hurry to find that out, ey?
Zoe Heriot: But, what are we going to do?
Jamie: Well, the TARDIS can't be that far away. No, if we stand here and shout for The Doctor, when he hears us, he can guide us back. Doctor!
Zoe Heriot: Doctor! Can you here us?
- ConnectionsFeatured in The Fact of Fiction (2005)
What can exist outside reality? The thorough-going rationalist would probably answer "nothing", but here the answer is that if you travel outside reality you arrive the in Land of Fiction, a realm where characters from works of fiction come to life and which is presided over by an individual known as The Master. (This is not the same character as the renegade Time Lord played by Roger Delgado, who was to become a regular enemy of Jon Pertwee's Third Doctor). The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe quickly realise that not all the inhabitants of the Land of Fiction are friendly, including The Master who seems to be setting a series of strange tests for them. They face the problem of how they can return to reality without being turned into fictional characters themselves.
Most "Doctor Who" serials can be categorised as science fiction, although some from the time of William Hartnell's First Doctor are really historical adventure stories in which the only sci-fi element is the ability of the TARDIS to travel back in time. "The Mind Robber", however, represents an excursion into the realms of surreal fantasy. What else can one say about a story whose characters include not only Doctor Who but also Lemuel Gulliver, d'Artagnan, Cyrano de Bergerac, Rapunzel, a twenty-first century cartoon superhero and a platoon of life-sized toy soldiers, and which in a world where unicorns, Minotaurs and the Gorgon Medusa all exist. Or perhaps I should say "seem to exist"; we learn that if one ever finds oneself in danger from one of these creatures the best way of dealing with it is to refuse to believe in it. (D'Artagnan and Cyrano were in fact real individuals, but doubtless qualify for citizenship in the Land of Fiction by virtue of the highly fictionalised accounts of their adventures published by Dumas and Rostand).
Indeed, a chance happening made the story even more surreal. Illness meant that Frazer Hines, who played Jamie, was unable to film episode 2. Rather than delay filming or write Jamie out of that episode, the producers drafted another actor and concocted an absurd plot twist, in which the Doctor rearranges Jamie's face, to explain away his sudden change in appearance.
This hurried rewriting was typical of the rather chaotic way in which the programme tended to be produced in its early years. Another example is the way in which "The Mind Robber", originally scheduled to be broadcast in four episodes, had to be extended to five when the decision was taken to shorten "The Dominators" from six parts to five. The story would certainly have worked better in four episodes; it is all too obvious that there was insufficient dramatic material to fill up five and the last three instalments are notably shorter than normal.
The serial does, however, also have its strong points. The whimsical nature of the story is well-suited to Patrick Troughton's quirky Second Doctor; Hartnell's rather grumpy First or Pertwee's urbane Third might not have been so much at home in the Land of Fiction. (I feel that it would, however, have been a natural habitat for Tom Baker's Fourth). Hines's Jamie and the gorgeous Wendy Padbury's Zoe- he male and from the past, she female and from the future- made a great team of companions by the way in which they complemented each other and they way in which they used their individual strengths to assist the Doctor. Most of the Doctor's companions have been female, but Jamie was one of the few memorable male ones, and it always struck me as a pity that neither he nor Zoe survived into the Pertwee era.
The serial's main strength, however, is its sheer barminess, part fantasy, part pure lunacy. It set standards of inventiveness rarely, if ever, equalled in the history of the series. The whole thing comes across as though it had been written by a team consisting of Asimov, Pirandello and Salvador Dali, probably after all three of them had partaken of mind-altering substances.
- JamesHitchcock
- Nov 4, 2014
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- Runtime22 minutes
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- Aspect ratio
- 1.33 : 1