“The
mind of evil, Jo. I should have realized. That creature feeds on the evil
impulses of the brain.”
Written by Don Houghton
Three
situations that are linked together and it is nothing to do with the involvement
of UNIT with all these scenarios or is it. In fact while he is trapped on Earth due to
the fact of The Doctor stealing his dematerialization circuit from his Tardis
The Master is up to no good trying to take over the Earth and he has a very
complex and ingenious plan on achieving that goal. First he is trying to disrupt the World Peace
Conference by getting the Chinese and Americans to go to war against one
another by killing off each countries delegates. Then there is the missile that
has nerve gas and is scheduled to be dumped into the ocean where it will be
safe from being used against humanity.
The Master plans on stealing this missile and aiming it at any European city.
Then there is Stangmoor Prison where the
mysterious Keller Machine resides. It is
a device that takes the evil out of the prisoner’s minds and makes them
pacifist and able to rejoin society. But
an unexplained rash of strange deaths like drowning in a dry room and eaten by
rats in a ratless building has The Doctor thinking that all these events could
be related. So when these types of
deaths is happening at the conferences and the prisoners take over the jail The
Doctor and Jo are trapped by The Master and are an added bonus to his plans of
world domination. That and the Keller Machine has a mind of its own as The
Master will eventually lose control of its alien ally and that is a bigger
threat to his plans.
I
had to dig through my collection to retrieve the VHS copy of The Mind of Evil
as it does not come out on DVD until June.
Another curious thing is that my copy is in black and white as The Mind
of Evil does not exist in a color copy.
The color version was never recovered but thankfully the foreign market
still required a black and white copy so thankfully this version was recovered
for us to enjoy. The DVD release in June
will have a colorized version of the story and it will be pretty interesting to
see this classic story the way it was intended.
I
did enjoy this story. I enjoyed it a lot
as it was one of those six part stories that were not dull, full of filler or
boring. I found it to be pretty
interesting with all the main characters having equal parts. You had Benton playing spy, you had Mike
Yates being the action hero and actually doing a lot more than he normally
does. The Brigadier got the chance to be
a hero in a raid on the prison. It was really a good time seeing everyone taking
part rather than being regulated to background visuals.
Roger
Delgado is really good in The Mind of Evil.
From being driven around in his car while smoking a cigar to acting
extremely evil at the prison he gives one of his best performances as The
Master. Especially when The Keller
machine turns on him and you see him shrieking from a vision of The Doctor
laughing at him. That is quite a
poignant scene and you really get a hint of the hatred and jealousy The Master
has for The Doctor.
I
like how the Mind of Evil is separated into three storylines. It is refreshing to see a long story like
this one to keep things moving and having different plot lines for us to enjoy
without over complicating it. Plus they all blend together pretty well. Plus there was a good amount of action. I did like watching how The Doctor and The
Master had to work together to try and stop the Keller Machine. It never fails how much The Master tries to
be evil he always has a change of heart and ask and the help The Doctor to fix
matters and for a split second he does that in The Mind of Evil.
The
Mind of Evil is one of those classic stories where everything goes right. It is a pretty strong story that also ties in
with real life scenarios of the day. It
has a pretty good science fiction feel to it and the mystery aspect is pretty
good also as you try and figure out how all these situations will tie in
together. I liked the concept of The Keller Machine and how it feeds off of the
fears of the person it attacks. It is a
pretty scary alien that needs to satisfy its need for evil thoughts to
survive. The Keller Machine is a pretty
freaky idea that works really well. It is a really strong story and a fun one
to watch as there are some great moments, one that comes to mind was when the
Brigadier saves The Doctor at the last minute from Mailer and The Doctor
showing his gratitude by saying “What kept you.”
So
if you want to watch a story that gives you the feel of what The Third Doctor
UNIT was like then “The Mind Robber” is a good story to watch. Plus unfortunately if you’re new to the show
you’ll have to wait till June for the DVD release.
Grade
A
©BBC
Doctor Who 1963
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