By Peter Ling
“Who
are you? Who are you? Where are you? What do you want with me?
No,
no, I must fight. I must fight! I will fight!”
The
Land of Fiction is a magical place where anything that is written becomes a
reality to those who inhabit it. Where the TARDIS is blown to pieces and Jamie
has a different face. Where the White
Robots are like police and wooden soldiers walk among us. The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe have gotten
themselves in a pickle and the ending might have already been written for them
if The Master of the Land of Fiction has his way it won’t be a happy ending.
The
Mind Robber is one of those classic stories that can be watched over and over
again. It is a story that one would call a true
classic a gem of the classic series and one of the finest stories ever. The Mind Robber is a wonderful story that
takes us to a land of imagination where The Doctor has to match wits with an
advisory that has planned everything out like in a story book. There are lots of fairy tale and literary
characters around to confuse The Doctor and it is just a wonderful concept that
works very well. The Mind Robber has a
great atmosphere to it which helps in telling the story. I believe that even though it was filmed in
black and white that it helps in making The Mind Robber feel that more
sinister. The story does have a great
vibe to it that is almost magical in a way.
Patrick
Troughton gives one of his best performances in The Mind Robber. He uses a great mix of comedy and seriousness
that has been a stable of his Doctor’s character. Even more so in this story as it does have a
darker tone at times. More noticeable is
when he is doing the puzzle for Jamie’s face and he gets it wrong. A good scene that shows how good he is by the
facial expressions he uses to show the comedic presence and gravity of the
situation. Patrick Troughton is
definitely the master of changing his expressions and moods at the drop of a
hat and The Mind Robber is a good example of him doing that.
The
Mind Robber is also famous for the two Jamie’s. During production of The Mind Robber Frazer
Hines came down with the chicken pox and had to be replaced. So that is why they had the puzzle of putting
Jamie’s face back together. So they
hired another actor for part of part two and for part three in Hamish
Wilson. Hamish Wilson played Jamie and
did an ok job. But the solution did work
out pretty well as in The Land of Fiction anything can happen especially when
someone is plotting against you in book form.
The
Mind Robber is one of my all-time favorites and second
only to The Tomb of the Cybermen as my all-time favorite Patrick Troughton
story. It is such a fun story to watch
with lots of plot twists in it to keep you guessing and amused. It has a lot of fun characters and an ending
that in itself is quite clever. I love
how the story begins with the white void and the temptation to leave the
TARDIS. The dark undertones in episode
one really sets everything up and The Mind Robber does not disappoint in the
least. The Mind Robber is a story that new
fans to the show should hunt down and buy the DVD as it is one of the all-time
classic stories and is a prime example of what is good and what they did right
in the classic series.
Grade
A
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