The Mind Robber facts for kids
Quick facts for kids 045 – The Mind Robber |
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| Doctor Who serial | |||
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Others
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| Production | |||
| Directed by | David Maloney | ||
| Written by | Derrick Sherwin (episode 1, uncredited) Peter Ling |
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| Script editor | Derrick Sherwin | ||
| Produced by | Peter Bryant | ||
| Executive producer(s) | None | ||
| Incidental music composer | Stock music by Anton Bruckner | ||
| Production code | UU | ||
| Series | Season 6 | ||
| Running time | 5 episodes, approximately 20 minutes each | ||
| First broadcast | 14 September 1968 | ||
| Last broadcast | 12 October 1968 | ||
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The Mind Robber is the second serial of the sixth season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in five weekly parts from 14 September to 12 October 1968.
The serial is set outside of time and space in a world where fictional characters and mythological creatures including Medusa and the Minotaur exist. In the serial, the English fiction writer "the Master" (Emrys Jones) tries to recruit the time traveller the Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton) to replace the Master's role as the creative power in this realm because of the Master's advancing age.
Plot
After defeating the Dominators and starting off a volcanic eruption, the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe find themselves and the TARDIS in the path of a lava flow. Upon trying to dematerialise out of the way, the TARDIS experiences a fault in the fluid link. At the insistence of Zoe and Jamie, the Doctor uses an emergency unit that takes the TARDIS into another dimension outside of reality. Upon their arrival into an empty white void, the travellers find themselves assaulted, first subtly then overtly, by an unseen force. The attack results in the TARDIS breaking apart and the travellers being scattered.
The Doctor, after experiencing a series of curious encounters, manages to find Jamie and Zoe. He soon deduces that they are in a world filled with fictional and mythological characters. They finally meet a person called "The Master" who seems to be in charge. It turns out that he is in fact an Earth man abducted and brought to the land of fiction in order to provide creative energies for the unseen aliens who are really in charge. Everything that the Doctor has experienced was a series of tests to prepare him for his rôle as replacement. The aliens' plan is to control everyone on Earth and bring them to the land of fiction, leaving the Earth itself empty for easy colonisation.
The Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe manage to foil the aliens' plans and to rescue the Master, freeing him of his mind control. As the central computer is destroyed, the Doctor hypothesises that everyone will be returned whence they came. In the end, the Doctor, Jamie, Zoe and the Master fade out of the world of fiction and the TARDIS appears to reform itself.
Production
Working titles for this story included Man Power, Another World and The Fact of Fiction. The Mind Robber was originally composed of four episodes, but the preceding serial, The Dominators, was reduced from six to five episodes. This resulted in a sparse first episode being written, as they had to use the limited budget of the replaced episode. This stretching of the story also resulted in the first four episodes only running between 19 and 22 minutes in length, and Episode 5 being the shortest Doctor Who episode ever at slightly over 18 minutes.
During production, actor Frazer Hines contracted chickenpox and was hurriedly replaced by Hamish Wilson for episode 2. This also meant that a scene had to be quickly written to explain Jamie's sudden change in appearance. On both occasions before Jamie gets turned into a cut-out, he shouts, "creag an tuire". Frazer Hines joked on the DVD commentary that this is Scottish Gaelic for "vodka and tonic". It is close to the MacLaren clan's slogan "Creag an tuirc" ("the rock of the boar").
Location filming for The Mind Robber took place in June 1968 at Harrison's Rocks in Sussex and Kenley Aerodrome in Croydon. Other filming took place in the same month in Ealing Studios, while studio recording for episodes one and two also took place in June. Studio recording for episodes three, four, and five took place in July 1968. The white robots that close in on Jamie and Zoe in the void outside the TARDIS had been loaned from a previous use in the British science fiction television series Out of the Unknown.
In print
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| Author | Peter Ling |
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| Cover artist | David McAllister |
| Series | Doctor Who book: Target novelisations |
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Release number
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115 |
| Publisher | Target Books |
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Publication date
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November 1986 (Hardback) 16 April 1987 (Paperback) |
| ISBN | 0-426-20286-4 |
A novelisation of this serial, written by Peter Ling, was published by Target Books in November 1986.
Home media
The Mind Robber was released on VHS in May 1990 and released on Region 2 DVD on 7 March 2005, and in North America on 6 September 2005.
Target novelisation
See also
In Spanish: The Mind Robber para niños
