‘THE MIND OF EVIL’
Please feel free to comment on my review.
Mind Attack and the Master with the Third Doctor, Jo and U.N.I.T.
After watching ‘Terror of the Autons’ in Season 8 of ‘Doctor Who’, it’s time to check out the second TV story of that season. Are you ready to have your mind brainwashed today?! 😀 Let’s hope the Doctor, Jo and U.N.I.T. can keep cool heads going through the vigour of this gripping TV adventure. 🙂
‘The Mind of Evil’ is a six-part adventure in the Jon Pertwee era of ‘Doctor Who’. Jon Pertwee’s Doctor continues to be exiled to Earth by the Time Lords. It’s amazing how producer Barry Letts and script editor Terrance Dicks managed to keep the variety going with the Doctor being exiled to Earth.
This six-part story is a pretty gritty adventure, filled with realism that’s set in a castle prison and features an alien mind-attacking parasite. There are lot of action sequences in this story and it does feel more grown-up compared to how other ‘Doctor Who’ stories of the early 1970s were handled. 🙂
The story is by Don Houghton, who previously contributed to the ‘Doctor Who’ TV series with his seven-part adventure called ‘Inferno’, which became the season finale for Season 7. I’m surprised Don Houghton didn’t write more ‘Doctor Who’ stories after he wrote ‘Inferno’ and ‘The Mind of Evil’.
‘The Mind of Evil’ is also directed by Timothy Combe, who previously directed ‘Doctor Who and the Silurians’ for Season 7. He delivers a compelling story. I’ve met Tim Combe at ‘Pandorica 2014’ in Bristol, September 2014. ‘The Mind of Evil’ was sadly Tim Combe’s final ‘Doctor Who’ story to direct.
When originally released on DVD back in 2013, ‘The Mind of Evil’ was a 2-disc DVD set. The story was on Disc 1 and the special features were on Disc 2. It’s also interesting to point out that the story only existed in black-and-white for a while. Quite lately, ‘The Mind of Evil’ has been computer-colourised.
This is in a similar fashion to the Laurel & Hardy films, ‘Holiday Inn’ and ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ as they’ve been computer-colourised for DVD and Blu-ray. It’s great that ‘Doctor Who’ stories like ‘The Mind of Evil’ and ‘Planet of the Daleks’ can be fully computer-colourised for the fans to enjoy here. 🙂
I’ve had my DVD cover of ‘The Mind of Evil’ signed by Katy Manning and Richard Franklin at the ‘Valiant 2015’ convention in Sheffield in March 2015. I’ve also had the DVD cover signed by Pik-Sen Lim, who played Captain Chin Lee in the story. I’m happy I’ve had the DVD cover of this story signed.
Like I said, ‘The Mind of Evil’ takes place at a castle-like prison called Stangmoor Prison. What’s interesting is that the prison itself is filmed in an actual castle called Dover Castle. Apparently, real prisons wouldn’t allow the production team to film inside their prisons, which I think is fair enough.
In the story, the Doctor and Jo visit the prison to see a demonstration of a machine that can pacify dangerous criminals. The machine happens to have been created by someone called Professor Keller. But soon, things go wrong when the machine starts its work, causing havoc inside the prison.
Whilst the machine works on one of the prisoners, making him go from aggressive to being child-like and innocent, there are dangerous and horrible things to worry about. When someone is alone in the room with the Keller machine, that person is killed instantly once reacting to his/her worst fears.
It isn’t long before the Doctor and Jo realise that the person responsible for the machine is in fact their old enemy, the Master. The Master starts leading the criminals of Stangmoor Prison as they take control. But can the Master really control the alien creature inside his very own Keller machine?
When watching the story on DVD and recently on Blu-ray, it put me in mind of what I wrote in my Fifth Doctor story called ‘Dawn of the Dwaxi’. By that, I mean that ‘The Mind of Evil’ features some pretty aggressive prison criminals who show no mercy when they take over and are causing trouble.
The criminals become pretty cruel to the Doctor, Jo and the authorities. There’s also the mind-attacking parasite which elevates that aggression and induces fear to anyone in close proximity. The story is quite dark in terms of tone and indicates it’s something not quite suited for younger viewers.
Despite that, it does make the story pretty compelling to watch when viewing it on DVD and Blu-ray. Don Houghton does balance the reality edge as well as the sci-fi elements of mind control and brainwashing well in writing the story. It’s a skill not often acquired in a lot of sci-fi related dramas. 😐
I’m not sure where the Master got the alien mind-numbing parasite machine from, but it’s clearly effective, evil and malicious in acquiring the evil nature it wants in people. It seems like it’s hard to negotiate with this creature and even the Master can’t control the parasitic nature of the monster. 😐
The action sequences are pretty compelling, especially once the prison riots break out as well as the U.N.I.T. soldiers fighting the prisoners in ‘Episodes Five and Six’. The director Timothy Combe knows how to direct an action story and the socio-political elements of the adventure are so well-balanced.
Like I said, I’ve met Tim Combe in real-life at a convention in September 2014. It’s a shame ‘The Mind of Evil’ was his last ‘Doctor Who’ story as a director since I enjoyed how he directed both this story and ‘The Silurians’. I wonder why he wasn’t asked to direct more stories by producer Barry Letts.
Mind you, there were quite a number of challenges in getting this story completed on time with all the action sequences going on. This included helicopters and battle scenes with jeeps and motorbikes. It was feared the story was going to go over budget like ‘The Ambassadors of Death’ did.
Jon Pertwee delivers a superb performance as the Doctor in this adventure. At this stage, the Doctor seems to be getting used to his exile on Earth. He gets frustrated, especially when he witnesses the prison authorities’ attempting to wipe out the criminals’ evil aspects when using the Keller machine.
Somehow he knows it’s wrong and that the Keller machine is evil. The Doctor gets to experience that evil himself when the mind parasite attacks him and sees images of fire, Daleks, Cybermen, Zarbi and War Machines before his eyes. He’s also forced to help the Master in his evil schemes for this story.
I like the interaction Jon’s Doctor has with Jo Grant in this adventure, especially when they get locked up in a prison cell by the prisoners. Once again, Jon’s Doctor is good in working things out, especially in tackling the Keller machine with the mind parasite inside and dealing with the Doctor. 🙂
Katy Manning is wonderful as Jo Grant in this adventure. Jo gets to demonstrate her spy skills, especially when she uses a gun to silence and ward off criminals, which was a surprise for me to see in watching the story on DVD/Blu-ray. She also forms a very close connection with the Doctor in this.
I like how Jo forms a connection with Barnham, once his mind gets affected by the brainwashing machine. There are a number of scenes where Jo and the Doctor are locked up in prison cells and I like how they talked to each other before finding a way out of the dangerous situations they’re in. 🙂
Jo could easily be the only female character featured in ‘The Mind of Evil’ if Captain Chin Lee and Corporal Bell weren’t in this story either. I also like how Jo has her own voice, being independent and not really being the screamer. She can still be quite feminine whilst being strong too.
Nicholas Courtney is equally brilliant as the Brigadier in this story. He gets frustrated when things don’t go his way in some of the U.N.I.T. operations they conduct, like the World Peace Conference that takes place and which he’s to partake. He’s quite off when talking to Mike Yates in the TV story.
The Brig gets annoyed with the Doctor at times, especially when they visit a Chinese delegate. I found it funny when the Doctor could speak some fluent Hokkien to Kristopher Kum as Fu Peng, the new Chinese delegate. The Brigadier is often ignored by Fun Peng when he wants to speak to him. 😀
For me, the highlight of the Brigadier in this story is when he dresses up as a lorry driver to bluff his way into Stangmoor Prison and rescue the Doctor and Jo from their captivity by the prisoners. The Doctor’s annoyed about the Brigadier’s arrival time and I like how the Brig is pleased to see him too.
Roger Delgado is marvellously villainous as the Master in this six-part adventure. He’s clearly spent some time developing the Keller machine since his last encounter with the Doctor in ‘Terror of the Autons’. He also acquires a snazzy car; a chauffeur; tends to smoke cigars; and dresses well with a tie.
The Master is determined to use the Keller Machine for his own purposes, thinking he can control it as well as using the Thunderbolt missile. He forms a working relationship with head criminal Mailer and seems determined to have the Doctor help him in controlling the alien parasite machine he has.
It was intriguing to see the Master alone with the Keller machine, hoping to overcome it trying to induce fear into him. It doesn’t work when the Master sees his worst fear: the Doctor laughing at him and towering above him. Apparently the Master cannot bear to be mocked by the Doctor in this.
Richard Franklin is very good as Captain Mike Yates in this TV adventure. He has it rough when his convoy escorting the Thunderbolt missile gets attacked by the prisoners of Stangmoor Prison. But he gets on a motorcycle and chases after the criminals stealing the missile to find out what’s happening.
Unfortunately, Mike Yates gets captured when he falls off his motorcycle in trying to get away from the criminals that spot him. Apparently Richard Franklin did fall of that motorcycle. The motorcycle drove off into the distance never to be seen again. I’m sure Richard didn’t have a severe injury here.
I enjoyed it when Mike Yates had a really good confrontational scene with the Master in the story. Fortunately, Mike uses his initiative and manages to escape in order to get back to a mobile U.N.I.T. HQ and warn the Brigadier about what is happening with the Thunderbolt missile and the Master.
John Levene is equally very good as Sergeant Benton in this adventure. Benton gets to dress up in civilian clothes and go undercover as a spy, similar to what he did in ‘The Invasion’. He’s ordered to follow Captain Chin Lee by the Brigadier as it’s suspected she might be up to some dodgy dealings. 😐
Unfortunately, Benton messes it up once the Keller Machine via Chin Lee attacks him in the story. I don’t think Benton should be entirely blamed since he didn’t know Chin Lee would have a connection to the Keller Machine. It came totally unexpected when it attacked Benton in that scene.
Benton does get scorned for his efforts by the Brigadier when he reports his failure. Thankfully, Benton is determined to make up for his mistake when he escorts the Thunderbolt missile as well as help to attack the Stangmoor Prison castle in order to save the Doctor and Jo from the evil criminals.
There’s a new U.N.I.T. family member in the Jon Pertwee era of ‘Doctor Who’ and it’s Fernanda Marlowe as Corporal Bell. Bell doesn’t have a major role in the story as she mainly performs secretarial duties at U.N.I.T. HQ. She only appeared in two stories – this one and ‘The Claws of Axos’.
It would have been nice to have seen more of Corporal Bell, since a lot of the U.N.I.T. stories in the 1970s don’t represent a lot of woman working for the military then. Jo Grant has the strongest development of a female character in U.N.I.T., but Corporal Bell does seem pretty limited in her role.
Pik-Sen Lim guest stars as Captain Chin Lee, who represents the Chinese people during the World Peace Conference in the story. I’ve met Pik-Sen Lim in real-life at a few conventions and she happens to have been the then wife of writer Don Houghton, who recommended her to be cast as Chin Lee. 🙂
I’ve also seen Pik-Sen Lim in the film ‘Johnny English Reborn’. I enjoyed her in that. Captain Chin Lee seems to be a highly-strung individual at first before it turns out she’s being controlled the Master. She also gets to be the focal point for the Keller machine and kills delegates at the peace conference.
The story also features Neil McCarthy as George Patrick Barnham. Barnham is a prisoner who gets his mind totally affected by the Keller machine when he goes from being aggressive to being calmer, child-like and innocent. I do like how Barnham becomes essential in destroying the Keller machine. 🙂
I’ve seen Neil McCarthy before in a ‘Some Mothers Do ‘Ave Them’ episode where he played Mr. Bedford. He would later go on to appear in the ‘Doctor Who’ story ‘The Power of Kroll’ with Tom Baker. It’s sad when Barnham ends up being killed in the story and Jo becomes very upset about it. 😦
The story also features Raymond Westwell as the prison governor who I think is called Victor Camford in the Target novelization by Terrance Dicks (I’ve yet to check it out by this point). There’s also Simon Lack, who would later appear in ‘The Androids of Tara’ with Tom Baker, as Professor Kettering.
There’s a young Michael Sheard as Dr. Summers who attends to Barnham in this story. Michael Sheard was previously in ‘The Ark’ with William Hartnell. He would appear in the stories ‘Pyramids of Mars’, ‘The Invisible Enemy’, ‘Castrovalva’, ‘Remembrance of the Daleks’ and ‘The Stones of Venice’.
And of course there’s William Marlowe as Mailer, the lead prisoner at Stangmoor Prison who works with the Master. He’s a nasty piece of work and could easily be a Dwaxi in my opinion. 😀 He wants out of prison when assisting the Master. Nothing’s going to stop him, even if it means killing people.
The story concludes with the Doctor and U.N.I.T. thwarting the Master’s plans. But the Master has managed to escape, taking the dematerialisation circuit for his TARDIS from the Doctor. The Master phones the Doctor to let him know he’s alive and well. The Doctor is quite irritated by the story’s end.
The original DVD special features were as follows. There was a mono sound audio mix option for the story and there was a DVD audio commentary with Katy Manning, Pik-Sen Lim, Fernanda Marlowe, director Timothy Combe, producer Barry Letts, script editor Terrance Dicks and stunt arranger Derek Ware, moderated by Toby Hadoke. There was also an info-text commentary option to enjoy.
There was the making-of documentary called ‘The Military Mind’, featuring behind-the-scenes cast and crew interviews from 2009, including Nicholas Courtney and producer Barry Letts. There was also the ‘Now & Then’ featurette which looked into the filming locations of ‘The Mind of Evil’. There was ‘Behind the Scenes: Television Centre’, a 1971 documentary that looked into the life of the BBC television factory. There was also a photo gallery of the story and PDF materials including a ‘Radio Times Listings’ of the story and the 1971 ‘Kellogg’s Sugar Smacks’ promotional material (which was also on the ‘Terror of the Autons’ DVD). There was also a ‘coming soon’ trailer for the ‘Spearhead From Space’ Blu-ray with Jon Pertwee, Caroline John and Nicholas Courtney.
On Disc 2 of the ‘Doctor Who – The Collection – Season 8’ Blu-ray, the mono sound audio mix option; the DVD audio commentary; ‘The Military Mind’ making-of documentary; the ‘Now & Then’ featurette, the ‘Behind the Scenes: Television Centre’ 1971 documentary and the ‘Radio Times Listings’ PDF can be found on there. The info-text commentary option and the photo gallery for ‘The Mind of Evil’ have been updated for 2021 on the Blu-ray.
The new special features on Blu-ray include the ‘Behind the Sofa’ feature on ‘The Mind of Evil’ with Katy Manning (Jo Grant) and Stewart Bevan (Clifford Jones) as well as Sarah Sutton (Nyssa) and Janet Fielding (Tegan) as well as Anjli Mohindra (Queen Skithra from ‘Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror’ and Rani Chandra in ‘The Sarah Jane Adventures’) and Sacha Dhawan (The Master). There’s a ‘Blue Peter’ item, which is a visit to the make-up van; BBC trailers and continuity announcements for the story; a BBC South East feature and a ‘coming soon’ trailer for ‘The Claws of Axos’ with Jon Pertwee, Katy Manning, Nicholas Courtney, Roger Delgado, Richard Franklin and John Levene (taken from ‘The Ambassadors of Death’ DVD).
On the PDF front, as well as the ‘Radio Times Listings’ of the story, there are production documents, scripts for the story which also include Don Houghton’s original draft scripts for ‘The Mind of Evil’, and ‘The Pandora Machine’ story breakdown. You need a special Blu-ray computer drive for that. The 1971 ‘Kellogg’s Sugar Smacks’ promotional material PDF is available on Disc 8 of the Season 8 Blu-ray box set of ‘Doctor Who’.
‘The Mind of Evil’ is a pretty gritty, realistic ‘Doctor Who’ adventure from the Jon Pertwee era. It’s action-packed and it has some amazing performances from Jon Pertwee, Katy Manning, Roger Delgado and the rest. I found it pretty compelling, especially with the prisoners that caused trouble.
It’s also a story that is pretty mind-boggling, especially when the mind parasite started attacking people and nearly killed them, including Jon Pertwee’s Doctor. I’m glad ‘Doctor Who’ fans can watch this story in colour form instead of black-and-white as I commend the colourisation team for that. 🙂
‘The Mind of Evil’ rating – 8/10
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Bradley's Basement 
Fantastic in depth review Tim, i always enjoy these type of stories were UNIT have to deal with some type alien on earth, great action, interesting story, brilliant performances & it builds on the UNIT family’s relationships, i love the scene were the Master hallucinations the Doctor laughing at him it shows how serious a threat the Master sees the Doctor.
And the colourisation is impressive, i remember owning the vhs video & B & W was the only version available.
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Hi Simon.
Very pleased you enjoyed my review on ‘The Mind of Evil’.
I can tell you enjoy the Jon Pertwee era stories of “Doctor Who’. I believe I’ve reviewed all the TV stories of that era on my blog. Glad you like the scene where the Master sees the Doctor as a threat in his hallunications.
Yes the colourisation is impressive. I’m glad the effort’s been put into the colourisation of this story.
Thanks Simon for your comments.
Tim. 🙂
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This is a great review Tim.
I found ‘The Mind of Evil’ to be quite compelling and dramatic. The special effects and character performances certainly made it all work. It was sad that Barnham got killed at the end because I felt rather attached to him like Jo. I enjoyed seeing Michael Sheard in the story as Dr. Summers. I am planning on seeing part 3 of ‘Castrovalva’ later which he is in, and today or tomorrow, I will see him in ‘The Empire Strikes Back’.
I burst out laughing when the Doctor and Jo waved to the security camera in episode 1. I also laughed at Sarah and Janet’s scenes in ‘Behind the Sofa’. It was funny when Janet tried to control Sarah’s mind and failed which is ironic considering that Sarah said her mind could be easily controlled. Sarah often seems to have a habit of insulting her own intelligence.
Also, is it just me or is each Collection box set wider than the last.
Have a good day, WF92.
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Hi WF92,
Glad you enjoyed my review on ‘The Mind of Evil’. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the story. Yeah it is sad Barnham got killed. Glad you enjoyed Michael Sheard’s performance as Dr. Summers. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on ‘Castrovalva’ soon once you’ve finished the story. 😀 Yeah it was funny when the Doctor and Jo waved at the security camera in ‘Episode One’. 😀
I enjoyed Sarah Sutton and Janet Fielding in the ‘Behind the Sofa’ items for Season 8. I’m currently enjoying Sarah, Janet and Peter in the ‘Behind the Sofa’ items for Season 24. I’m looking forward to reuniting with Sarah again soon at Bedford which hopefully will take place in October this year.
I’m not sure if each Collection box set is getting wider and I’m glad they’re re-releasing the seasons in smaller standard Blu-ray box sets lately.
Many thanks for your comments.
Tim. 🙂
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