What an odd story. I really wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about it at the beginning. The story felt like a combination of "The Edge of Destruction" and "The Celestial Toymaker", neither of which were favorites of mine.
Harry -
Agreed on both references. And as we learn from the DVD featurette, external influences resulted in even more oddities to this story.
The entire first episode was tacked onto the production, without any money for actors, sets or props. The result, while minimalist to say the least, is an interesting prelude to the story proper. Before we get to that, however, the story starts Hartnell-style, with a continuation from the previous adventure.
Sarah -
The Doctor is forced to use an emergency unit to escape the volcanic eruption on Dulkis, and the TARDIS is removed from normal space and time. The travelers find themselves in an endless void, where they are tempted with visions of home and stalked by white robots. When they return to the TARDIS and believe they are escaping, the TARDIS suddenly explodes. The Doctor is flung into space, while Zoe and Jamie cling to the TARDIS.
That’s a very concise description I’ve typed there, but it doesn’t begin to capture the surrealism of this story. It was a bit thrown together. The Dominators was originally planned as a six-parter, but got chopped down to five. To fill the gap between stories, this episode was hastily created, and somehow it works.
Harry -
After seeing so many Troughton stories begin with the TARDIS landing on Earth and the Doctor frolicking around with his friends, this arresting opener was a welcome change.
Sarah -
As a one-off episode, it’s fun to watch. Everyone gets the chance to do interesting things while in the white void. I especially liked the shot of Jamie and Zoe all in white. It was beautiful, yet frightening. I didn’t know what to think when the TARDIS blew apart, but loved the drifting-through-space visuals. I’ve seen the iconic image of Zoe and Jamie clinging to the TARDIS console, but, never having seen this story before, I never knew the context. It really works well, despite the "bit for the dads" draping of Zoe on the console.
Harry -
Zoe's "bum shot" is legendary, but I liked how the spinning console was silently enveloped in clouds. Meanwhile, the Doctor seems somewhere else entirely, lost in a trance. The eerieness and uncertainty of what we have seen is a great set-up for the story proper.
Sarah -
Loved the silence. It was so much more effective than any sound would have been.
Harry -
Once we get to Episode Two, we find ourselves on more familiar ground, so to speak.
The Doctor and his friends find themselves in a mysterious forest, split up and encountering strange characters and pitfalls. Zoe literally falls into a pit, while Jamie has his face blown away by a Redcoat. Enter Hamish Wilson!
Sarah -
I know Hamish was brought in as a replacement when Frazer Hines contracted chickenpox, but what a brilliant idea! It was clear that the Doctor was selecting the incorrect face for Jamie, but I had no idea it was happening for a non-story-driven reason.
Excellent Job by Hamish Wilson! He wasn’t Jamie, but gave a perfect Jamie performance. Because they had to accept so much, the Doctor and Zoe just rolled with the replacement Jamie.
Harry -
I love Hamish Jamie!
Sarah -
I imagine Frazer would have been motivated to recover had he heard what a good performance Wilson was turning out.
Harry -
The alternate Jamie is one of those moments of pure serendipity in Doctor Who. An awkward situation that produced a memorable performance. I don't think we'll see another companion performed by two different actors until Amelia/Amy Pond, will we?
Sarah -
I can’t think of one offhand. Send Toby a tweet to find out.
Harry -
I wonder if he gets pestered by a lot of Doctor Who casting questions from strangers. He is, after all, the Doctor Who Wiki in human form.
Sarah -
The Doctor also meets A Stranger, who we later discover to be Gulliver. I loved that Gulliver only spoke in lines from Gulliver’s Travels.
Harry -
Simple but brilliant. I can imagine story writer Peter Ling combing through Swift's original text looking for just the right lines.
Sarah -
I found the children creepy and horrid, but quite liked Rapunzel. Christine Pirie was perfect as the princess waiting for rescue. Her disappointment upon discovering Jamie was not a prince there to rescue her is something to which all of us Jamie fans can relate. Her resignation when the Doctor asks if he can use her hair as a rope is perfect, “You may as well, everyone else does..." It made me hope that Rapunzel would end up with Gulliver, or at least Karkus.
Harry -
So many characters! I love this! From literary characters like Rapunzel and Gulliver to mythical persona like Medusa and the Minotaur, to futuristic figures like the Karkus, it's a constant stream of surprises. If I had seen this story as a kid, it might have been my most favourite Who tale ever.
And the whole thing is totally bonkers. From the forest of words to the labyrinth to the citadel, it's one crazy dilemma after another for our friends in this Through The Looking Glass world.
What sucked was that once the Doctor confronted the Master (eep!), everything kind of unravelled. The stream of fictional characters became an avalanche (Cyrano, D'Artagnan, Lancelot, Blackbeard), while the true villain - the alien brain - was just lame. The story sort of petered out and Episode Five ended as inconclusively as anything we've ever seen. What did you make of it all?
Sarah -
The challenge in placing protagonists in this surreal world is that the story will eventually need to be wrapped up. Emrys Jones was fabulous as the Master. He’s got the challenge of speaking for both the author and the higher power that is controlling him and knocks it out of the park.
Harry -
He certainly had an air of dangerous enthusiasm about him.
Sarah -
Alas, it’s not enough to save the story. It’s all rather predictable at the end, as the Doctor manages to save the Master, while Zoe and Jamie overload the computer. The Master is bundled off into the TARDIS and they take off – after what has to be the shortest episode ever.
This story has so many great elements, I can only wish the plot was more than the usual take-over-Earth scenario in the end.
Harry -
Yeah, while the kid in me loved the characters and visuals of this story, the grown-up me couldn't help frown at the weak resolution.
There is an interesting theory floating out there in cyberspace. A while ago, I read someone's suggestion that most of "The Mind Robber" was actually just a nightmare that the Doctor had. As evidence, it was noted that early in the story, the Doctor sits down in a chair in the console room and shuts his eyes. Then, at the start of the next story, "The Invasion", the Doctor is again seen seated in a chair, so all the events between those two moments might have been a phantasm, all in the Doctor's mind. It's an interesting theory anyway!
Sarah -
Works for me!
Best Line: The Doctor, looking for a place to hide in the forest of letters: “Oh, thank goodness for the letter C.”
Favorite moment: Zoe taking on Karkus -- and winning!
Lasting Image: Jamie and Zoe clinging to the TARDIS console.
6/10
Harry -
Best Line: "When someone writes about an incident after it's happened - that's history... But, when the writing comes first - that's fiction."
Favourite Moment: Zoe kicks the Karkus' arse.
Lasting Image: Jamie and Zoe with the white robots.
7/10
Our marathon continues with Story #46 - The Invasion...
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