Day 288: The Mind of Evil Episode 6

I'm going to spend this entry saying farewell to two minor players in the history of Doctor Who, who have nevertheless made an impression on the series.

One of these is the writer Don Houghton. He wrote the episodes Inferno and The Mind of Evil, and while these episodes aren't the most important in the history of Doctor Who, they are certainly remarkably good. They're able to feel like modern scientific thrillers through using odd science fiction ideas and expanding on them, to create new stories where they are explored and investigated. Take, for instance, The Mind of Evil which concerns a machine that can rewrite people's minds by removing their evil thoughts. But by doing so, it means that most of the characters in the story are left vulnerable to attack, and shows the frailty of the human endeavour to always be good, due to the evil thoughts that perpetuate our minds. Houghton uses this idea well, and it will be a shame not to see more of his writing in the future.

Also, we say farewell to Tim Combe, the director of The Mind of Evil and Doctor Who and the Silurians. Both stories are remarkably well directed, with a flair for interesting camera movements. Take the scene where the Keller Machine escapes in Mind, for instance. Instead of just having some special effects around it, he also decides to violently shake the camera from side to side, creating the illusion of great desturction occurring. However, he was removed from Doctor Who for going spectacularly over budget, which is a shame as it would certainly have been nice to see what pther things he could have done for the programme.

Day 287: The Mind of Evil Episode 5

There's another fantastic scene here. But this one's fantastic for different reasons. Whereas the last scene that I mentioned was fantastic due to the duality between the Doctor and the Master, this one is just fantastic because it features the Brigadier mounting an assault on a castle with a handful of UNIT troops. It's the sort of mindless action sequence that we wouldn't normally get in Doctor Who about 50 or so episodes ago, however now the show has changed enough such that we're able to have sequences in the series and not bat an eye-lid. And most importantly of all, it's remarkably fun. The Brigadier decides to inform the people who he's about to shoot at of this fact by shouting at them through a megaphone. They then shoot the megaphone out of his hand, at which point the Brigadier begins to fight the bad guys. As written, it comes across as cheap, however as shot, there's an element of believability and also an element of excitement associated with it, not to mention the fact that it's well directed by Tim Combe. And above all else, this action interlude helped liven up what would have otherwise been a remarkably dull Episode 5 of a story, so in that regard this evolution in how Doctor Who is made is certainly welcome.

Day 286: The Mind of Evil Episode 4

There's a fantastic scene at the start of this episode. Last week's cliffhanger was the Master putting the Doctor under the Keller Machine, with the Doctor under extreme pain because of this fact. The cliffhanger is resolved by the Master turning off the machine and walking over to the Doctor. He feels the Doctor's hearts and discovers that one of them has stopped beating. So the Master resuscitates him and then attempts to convince him both that he should help with the Master's nefarious scheme and also that the Doctor has the power to control the machine. This reveals the complex Doctor-Master relationship, as we see that both are not in complete opposition, instead they are two characters who are keen to convince the other of the virtues of their way of life. And at the end of the day, they both care for each other too much to let the other one truly suffer, instead just leaving them to be prisoners whilst they carry out their own plans. It's a fascinating dynamic, and shows the power of the new villain that we've got in the series.

Day 285: The Mind of Evil Episode 3

The villain in this story is The Master, making a return appearance. A running theme across much of our time with the Master is the issue of him recurring, an event which occurs regularly across the show.  But for now, it makes sense. The Master has been introduced as a force for evil on the Earth, and by having him be free at the end of Terror of the Autons, this could leave an uncomfortable hole in the fact that there is a force for evil loose on the Earth and the Doctor is doing nothing to stop this. By having the Master be the villain here, it reminds the audience of the fact that this person is serious and that he will be a constant pain in the Doctor's side. But I'll reserve judgment on whether his continued appearance is a good thing until after he's come back a few more times.

Day 284: The Mind of Evil Episode 2

The Mind of Evil concerns a machine known as the Keller Machine. It has the annoying side affect of forcing a person who is afflicted by it to live out their worst nightmare. This has caused a man to be drowned in a room with no water, and another to be attacked by rats with none present. But what's remarkably interesting is what happens to the Doctor when he is pitted against the Keller Machine. He sees flames. Flames of a world that he once visited that had a horrible disaster occur. A disaster that he was unable to prevent. It's not explicitly stated, but I interpret this as a reference to the previous adventure written by Houghton, Inferno. It makes sense, because it represents the Doctor's greatest fear. He was forced to watch that world burn despite the fact that he could have saved it. But the damage had already been done and now he was powerless to stop it. It's a nice touch of continuity, as we realise the fact that the show is not one of unconnected adventures and that there are knock-on effects for the Doctor as a course of the actions that he partakes in.

Day 283: The Mind of Evil Episode 1

So begins a new story: The Mind of Evil. It's instantly familiar, because it's written in the style of what we've previously seen for 'modern day' stories. A new scientific discovery has been made, but the Doctor and companion are unsure of what this actually is. In some ways, this isn't very engaging, due to the fact that we've seen several variations on this formula over the years, and it could be time for a change. And yet, it's somewhat comforting because the previous story, Terror of the Autons, marked a jump away from the style of storytelling that was used in Series 7, one that worked, in my opinion. So it's nice to see that the old ways aren't being abandoned, and that the production staff know how to use good methods when they come across them. And that's not forgetting the fact that the storytelling methods may have evolved, so we'll see how they have evolved as the story has developed.

Day 278: Inferno Episode 7

As mentioned before, this story features a trip to an alternate universe. Also as mentioned before, the story is about a scientist going possibly too far, and engaging in forces that man was perhaps not meant to meddle with. At the start of Episode 5, things come to a head. By which I mean, in the alternate universe the forces that man was perhaps not meant to meddle with come through in full power and begin to cause widespread destruction. And the cliffhanger to Episode 6 is the Doctor hurriedly trying to get his TARDIS working as lava begins to flow towards him, along with his new friends from the alternate universe. The next we see of the Doctor is him in his normal universe. But without his friends. Everyone else from that Earth died in flames. We got to know and care for some of these characters and now we suddenly realise that they all died horrifically. And to make matters worse, the Doctor, the man who is meant to make things better, was unable to save them.

There's comfort in the fact that the Doctor is able to save the normal Earth from the destruction that occurred in the other universe, but it's not strong enough. This one moment is the most dark and terrifying moment in all of Doctor Who. Because it reveals to us that sometimes not even the Doctor can save us, and that everything might come to an end because the people who are trying to save the day aren't able to make things better.

Day 277: Inferno Episode 6

When I was about 15, I began to rewatch a bunch of Doctor Who episodes that I had lying around. I then made the decision that the time had come. I was finally going to rewatch Inferno after 6 or 7 years. I was impressed by the quailty of it, the tenseness of the story, the fact that it still remained somewhat frightening to a teenager and for so many other reasons. But there was a part of me that was disappointed. Because there was something missing from when I watched Inferno for the first time.

There was a scene that was in balck and white, probably due to the varying picture quality of the VHS tape that I watched it on, which featured a giant Primord attacking the research complex. Granted, it was a model of the research complex, but the sentiment reamined the same. These things were not to be messed with and they were terrifying.

But people who have watched Inferno will have noticed that this scene is not present in the story. I'd made it up. Or rather, my subconscious had made it up. The night after I finished watching Inferno, I had a nightmare about Primords. My first nightmare about Doctor Who. It's one of the earliest memories that I have of seeing the programme, being terrified of it. So terrified that I wouldn't watch it for years because it was such a traumatising experience. But the fact that my memory had failed me was a little disappointing, showing me that it wasn't as terrifying as I had first thought. Until I saw the ending of this episode. And then I realised why Inferno is one of the most terrifying episodes of Doctor Who ever made.

Day 276: Inferno Episode 5

A Primord (Inferno)

The Grinch (How The Grinch Stole Christmas)

When I was 5, I went to the cinema with my Dad. Before the film that we were going to watch, there were three trailers that would change my life. One was for a film called Chicken Run, which I would later come to adore as one of my favourite movies of all time. Another was for a film called The Magic Pudding, which I would also adore, and come to see as one of my favourite movies of all time. And one was for a film called How The Grinch Stole Christmas. I did not adore this trailer. I was not left with any particular desire to see the film. Or any film for that matter. Because that one trailer left me with a several year long fear of movie cinemas, movie trailer, Dr Seuss, and hairy, green faced creatures.

When I was watching Inferno for the first time, I don't particularly recall being aware that Doctor Who could be scary sometimes. Nothing that I'd seen so far had indicated to me that this series was amongst one of the most terrifying for children to watch. So I watched Inferno and I was terrified to the bone. Because there were Grinches. Tonnes of them. They were terrifying in every possible way, from their design to their way of movement to the sounds that they made as they fought the Doctor. I was invested enough in the story to watch the rest of it, but I was still to frightened to watch it again. Doctor Who had scared me for the first time. And it would be a while until I watched this particular episode again...

Day 275: Inferno Episode 4

It's quite tense on the set of this episode. The director of this story, Douglas Camfield, has suffered a minor heart attack, putting him out of action for the rest of this serial. Camfield likes to cast people that he likes, meaning that the cast has some degree of personal connection to him, thus leaving them all in a constant state of worry over the fate of their director, or in the case of Sheila Dunn, the actress who plays Petra, her husband.

Fortunately, however, the producer has stepped in to take over. Barry Letts is already making a name for himself as an incredibly active producer, production wise. We'll see stories written and directed by him in the future, and it's because he's not afraid to get involved with the actual making of the programme. Instantly, we can see that this era is going to be interesting, with a new Doctor, a new producer and a whole new outlook on the series, we're going to be in for some nice stuff. But tomorrow (in an incredibly rare amount of pre-planning), we'll be looking at some of the not nice stuff in this serial, and how it would affect me in so many ways...

Day 274: Inferno Episode 3

The major reason why this serial is so well remembered is not due to overconfident scientists, or terrifying monsters, but instead due to the fact that the Brigadier wears an eye-patch for a portion of the serial. It's because the Doctor finds himself sent to a parallel universe, where everyone is evil because England is now run by a fascist regime. Which is nice. But the major point of this is that there exists a new feeling of discomfort because we're seeing characters that we know and love twisted beyond all recognition into something completely wrong.

But we have to consider context. This serial comes at the end of series 7, Jon Pertwee's first. The audience will have only known Liz for approximately 5 months, which isn't quite enough time for us to build up a strong enough relationship with her to be uncomfortable with her being evil (although the sentiment still stands). We then get Sergeant Benton, and whilst we will get to know him as a regular UNIT character in the future and it is uncomfortable to see him be ruthless, all of this is retrospectively added as we've barely got a chance to know the character aside from him being in the background a couple of times. It's only the Brigadier who we can claim that the audience has enough of a prior relationship with to be fully made uneasy by, but even then, it's still not been that long that we've known him and we've been uneasy with the character since the Silurians incident. So my hypothesis is that although this twist is rather nice, all of the impact has been retrospectively added by viewers coming to the serial later after already encountering the characters and knowing them for some time, instead of the viewers at the time who would have just seen it as a world where people occasionally wore eye-patches.

Unfortunately, I can't remember what impact this twist had on me when I was a kid. Through cultural symbiosis/Doctor Who: The Television Companion I was already familiar with UNIT and things, and I knew that they were a big deal, so perhaps I wasn't an ideal control to see what impact it would make. Or perhaps my hypothesis was wrong. But one thing that I do know is that this entire concept wasn't the big thing to make an impact on me. And in 2 days, we'll find out what that was...

Day 273: Inferno Episode 2

When I was in high school one of my courses required me to read Frankenstein, watch Blade Runner and then write countless essays on the unchecked nature of science. In some ways, it was a horrible experience (I will certainly delve into why at later points), but in others it was good, because it gave me a topic for today's blog entry.

There's a character in here called Sir Keith Gold. He's the director of the Inferno Project, and he is concerned with how things are proceeding. There are numerous safety issues that have taken place and the nature of the work that is being done (drilling into the centre of the Earth) is too risky to just let things slide. as such, he is trying to put up barriers of red tape in order to keep the world safe. He comes into conflict with Professor Stahlman, who will not accept any delay to his project, to the detriment of his fellow scientists. Whilst the character here is one that we've encountered before, we've never quite encountered this stubborn a scientist, nor someone who is opposed to the discoveries made here that is so easy to sympathise with.

So perhaps instead of watching Blade Runner and reading Frankenstein I should have watched Inferno. Because Inferno is easily able to show that, although science is all about discovery and seeking the future, when unchecked, it can lead to horrible things that can put the entire human race into danger.

Day 272: Inferno Episode 1

This serial begins a new series for We've Got Work to Do called First Experiences. It relates to the first episodes of Doctor Who that I ever saw, watching them on VHS as a 9 year old. There will be 5 entries in this series, and we'll get to them as we come to them. But first: Inferno!

Inferno was either the fourth or fifth serial that I saw. After strongly enjoying some episodes of Doctor Who, I quickly went to the VHS cupboard and went searching for more. Inferno was one of those found, and I want to say that I watched it all over the course of an afternoon or two. Like each of the five stories that I saw on VHS it made a very strong impression on me, for reasons that we'll cover later.

But as a young adult, rewatching this story for the fourth or fifth time, it would appear that the first episode doesn't make as strong an impression. It is remarkably well put together, and very enjoyable, but there doesn't appear to be much that sets it apart from other stories of its ilk. We have an obsessive scientist, the Doctor and UNIT setting up shop in a research base, it all seems intrinsically familiar. But there's hints of something greater. The Doctor travels to a weird limbo area in a nightmarish sequence that shows that this story is hiding something that will make this story unforgettable