- The Mind of Evil
-
056 – The Mind of Evil Doctor Who serial 
The Doctor and Jo find themselves locked in a prison cellCast Others- Nicholas Courtney Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
- Richard Franklin — Captain Mike Yates
- John Levene — Sergeant Benton
- Roger Delgado — The Master
- Fernanda Marlowe — Corporal Bell
- Patrick Godfrey — Major Cosworth
- Simon Lack — Kettering
- Pik-Sen Lim — Chin Lee
- Kristopher Kum — Fu Peng
- Tommy Duggan — Senator Alcott
- Raymond Westwell — Prison Governor
- Michael Sheard — Dr Roland Summers
- Roy Purcell — Chief Prison Officer Powers
- Eric Mason — Senior Prison Officer Green
- Dave Carter, Bill Matthews, Barry Wade, Martin Gordon, Tony Jenkins[1] — Prison Officers
- Clive Scott — Linwood
- Neil McCarthy — Barnham
- William Marlowe — Mailer
- Hayden Jones — Vosper
- David Calderisi — Charlie
- Johnny Barrs — Fuller
- Matthew Walters — Main Gates Prisoner
Production Writer Don Houghton Director Timothy Combe Script editor Terrance Dicks Producer Barry Letts Executive producer(s) None Production code FFF Series Season 8 Length 6 episodes, 25 minutes each (mostly exists in black and white) Originally broadcast 30 January–6 March 1971 Chronology ← Preceded by Followed by → Terror of the Autons The Claws of Axos The Mind of Evil is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 30 January to 6 March 1971.
Contents
Plot
The Doctor and Jo visit the remote Stangmoor Prison to examine a new method of “curing” criminality, whereby the negative impulses are removed from the brain using the Keller Machine to enact the Keller Process. Professor Kettering, who is managing the delivery of the Process at the behest of the absent Emil Keller, reconditions a number of inmates including Barnham, a hardened criminal who is reverted to a more innocent and childlike state by the Process. The Doctor’s suspicions about the Keller Machine are heightened following a string of deaths, including that of Kettering himself, which seem to occur when the Machine is operated. Each death seems to be triggered by visions of personal phobias – and the Doctor is seemingly threatened by an inferno when he gets too close to it.
Meanwhile, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart and the troops of UNIT are handling the security arrangements for the first World Peace Conference. Captain Chin Lee of the Chinese delegation, whose delegation leader is dead, is behaving strangely in an attempt to heighten tension in relations with the United States. It emerges that her actions are done under the influence of the Master. She uses the transmitted power of the Keller Machine in her plans against the American delegate, Senator Alcott, who barely survives her attack. Captain Chin Lee is deconditioned by the Doctor, and tells him that Emil Keller is indeed the Master, whom the Doctor had previously trapped on Earth by stealing the dematerialisation circuit of his TARDIS.
Back at Stangmoor a riot has broken out and resulted in a dangerous criminal who was next in line for the Keller Process, Harry Mailer, seizing control of the prison. Jo is briefly taken hostage, but she enables the guards to retake the prison. The Master, who had heard of the Stangmoor riot by eavesdropping on UNIT, arrives and meets Mailer, to whom he supplies enough small bombs for Mailer and his prisoners to retake control of the prison. The Doctor returns to the prison to be captured by the Master, who sets the Keller Machine loose on the mind of his old foe, weakening the Doctor considerably. The Master is losing control of the Keller Machine, which contains a dangerous alien Mind Parasite, and forces the Doctor to help him contain its power. This done, the Doctor is imprisoned once more.
The Master has come to Stangmoor to engage the prisoners as a private army, and uses them to hijack a UNIT convoy transporting a deadly Thunderbolt missile nearby. The stolen missile is then pointed at the Peace Conference and Captain Mike Yates, who was detailed with leading the convoy, is taken prisoner by the criminals. Left in the dark, the Brigadier decides the Thunderbolt missile must be in Stangmoor and comes to the rescue in a ”Trojan Horse” style assault. UNIT troops take control of the prison, killing Mailer and the other leading rioters. A freed Yates makes contact to tell the UNIT that the Thunderbolt is being kept in an abandoned hangar nearby.
The Keller Machine is growing stronger and breaks free of the temporary restraints placed on it by the Doctor. The Doctor contacts the Master, who has gone to the hangar with the missile, and offers to return his dematerialisation circuit in exchange for the missile. The Master agrees to this proposition on the guarantee he alone will come. The Doctor has worked out that Barnham, having been subjected to the Keller Machine once and having no evil in his mind anymore, is immune to its growing power and uses the prisoner as a shield in transporting the Machine to the hangar for his showdown with his enemy. In the ensuing fight the Thunderbolt is triggered and the Machine destroyed, but the wider devastation from the missile is minimal. The Master uses the chaos to escape with the dematerialisation circuit, killing Barnham in the process. He contacts the Doctor by telephone to taunt him that he is now free while the Doctor remains trapped in his exile on Earth.
Continuity
- An insight into the Master's motivation and his relationship with the Doctor is given when the Mind Parasite turns on him and attacks him with images to evoke his deepest fear: the Master is confronted with and recoils from images of a gigantic Doctor towering over him and laughing maniacally down at him.
- The Mind Parasite attacks the Doctor on three separate occasions. The first visions are tongues of flame, enveloping the Doctor's unusually terror-stricken face. He tells Jo as he recovers, "Not long ago I saw an entire world consumed by fire..." This is presumed to be a reference to the recent story Inferno.[2] The images on the two latter incidents are of past monsters (including the War Machines, a Cyberman and a Zarbi). During these hallucinations, Dalek voices are heard chanting for subjugation, extermination, and destruction.
Production
Serial details by episode Episode Broadcast date Run time Viewership
(in millions)Archive "Episode One" 30 January 1971 24:39 6.1 16mm B&W t/r "Episode Two" 6 February 1971 24:31 8.8 16mm B&W t/r "Episode Three" 13 February 1971 24:30 7.5 16mm B&W t/r "Episode Four" 20 February 1971 24:40 7.4 16mm B&W t/r "Episode Five" 27 February 1971 23:34 7.6 16mm B&W t/r "Episode Six" 6 March 1971 24:48 7.3 16mm B&W t/r [3][4][5] - Working titles for this story included The Pandora Machine, Man Hours and The Pandora Box
- Features a guest appearance by Michael Sheard. See also Celebrity appearances in Doctor Who.
- Some exteriors, primarily for Stangmoor Prison, were filmed in and around Dover Castle.[6]
- This serial went so excessively over budget that its director, Timothy Combe, was not allowed to be considered for any subsequent Who work.[7]
In print
A novelisation of this serial, written by Terrance Dicks, was published by Target Books in March 1985.
Doctor Who book 
The Mind of Evil Series Target novelisations Release number 96 Writer Terrance Dicks Publisher Target Books Cover artist Andrew Skilleter ISBN 0-426-20166-3 Release date 11 July 1985 Preceded by ' Followed by ' VHS, CD and DVD releases
- This story is unique amongst the Pertwee-era stories in that the BBC holds no complete colour copies of any of its episodes. Approximately four and a half minutes of colour footage from Episode Six exists on an off-air domestic NTSC Betamax recording.
- As a full set of b/w 16mm film recordings exists, the story was released on VHS in this format, on 5 May 1998. The colour scenes, restored by combining the colour signal from the off-air recording and the geometry from the film recording, were included as a bonus extra after the story. Several color clips from the story (presumably from as yet unreleased restoration of the B/W telerecordings) were included on the 2011 DVD release Day of the Daleks as part of the UNIT family history.[8]
- The original soundtrack for this serial was released on CD in the UK in February 2009.[9] The linking narration was provided by Richard Franklin.
- A DVD of the serial is currently in production and expected for release by 2013. [10]
References
- ^ "Dr Who in Detail 3". A Brief History of Time Travel. http://www.mentalis.f9.co.uk/DWID/JP/Stories/FFF.htm. Retrieved 2008-09-12.
- ^ Cornell, Paul, Martin Day and Keith Topping, Doctor Who: The Discontinuity Guide, Virgin Books, 1995, p. 122.
- ^ Shaun Lyon et al. (2007-03-31). "The Mind of Evil". Outpost Gallifrey. Archived from the original on 2008-05-18. http://web.archive.org/web/20080518101804/http://www.gallifreyone.com/episode.php?id=3f. Retrieved 2008-08-31.
- ^ "The Mind of Evil". Doctor Who Reference Guide. http://www.drwhoguide.com/who_3f.htm. Retrieved 2008-08-31.
- ^ Sullivan, Shannon (2005-05-15). "The Mind of Evil". A Brief History of Time Travel. http://www.shannonsullivan.com/drwho/serials/fff.html. Retrieved 2008-08-31.
- ^ Unsigned, "The UNIT Story: Part One," Doctor Who Magazine Winter Special (UNIT Exposed), 1991, Marvel Comics, Ltd., p. 15, col. 2.
- ^ Unsigned, "The UNIT Story: Part One," Doctor Who Magazine Winter Special (UNIT Exposed), 1991, Marvel Comics, Ltd.,, p. 15, col. 3.
- ^ BBC Warner DVD. B0051V55XA. September 13, 2011
- ^ http://www.timelash.com/tardis/display.asp?1926
- ^ http://www.doctorwhonews.net/2011/05/dwn030511125312-dvd-schedule-update.html
External links
- The Mind of Evil at BBC Online
- The Mind of Evil at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel)
- The Mind of Evil at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
- List of clips from missing Doctor Who episodes with information on clips from The Mind of Evil
Reviews
- The Mind of Evil reviews at Outpost Gallifrey
- The Mind of Evil reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide
Target novelisation
Doctor Who season 8 serials Categories:- UNIT stories
- Third Doctor serials
- Doctor Who serials novelised by Terrance Dicks
- The Master television stories
- 1971 television episodes
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