mood
PLOT
The Time Lords(or the TARDIS) dispatch the Doctor to yet another mission: the renegade
Time Lord Morbius (or more specifically, his brain) has been located on the planet of Karn and it's up to him and Sarah to make sure he doesn't regain full physical form via the insane Dr. Solon.
ANALYSIS
Unlike Pyramids Of Mars and Planet Of Evil, which were more obscure in what they were riffing, The Brain Of Morbius shows its source material everywhere and I don't care, because this is one of the best pieces of television ever produced. It's set in a mad scientist's laboratory in a haunted-looking old castle on a
stormy night! There's a talking brain in a jar!! Witches, hunchbacks, mad wig-wearing scientists! What more could the soul want?!
It's beyond incredible that only one story after finding one of the most wonderful Doctor Who stories ever, I would find one twice as good! Okay, one and a half. But no lower!
CHARACTERS
Tom Baker is absolutely mesmerising in his role, effortlessly matching his comedic talent with the
terrifying fury and determination of a Time Lord. This is an actor in his prime, guys. Stand back before your heads explode from the awesomeness that is the Fourth Doctor. I mean every word, he is just so strong and so real in the role(you know what I mean when you see it) that you realise you're not looking at the actor, you're looking at your Hero.
Sarah Jane is funnily girly in this one, constantly needing the Doctor to back her up. Don't worry,
she's not in any way diminished, in fact I love her even more because of this. There's nothing that warms a man's heart more than a damsel in distress(a REAL damsel in distress, not the whiny type).
James Spice("He who controls the Spice controls the universe!!") puts in the best voice acting performance in the show thus far minus John Dearth as the BOSS.
Morbius just feels real in a way not many of the villains do. Yes, he's megalomaniac, but for the most part, he's just concerned with feeling physical anything again and doesn't really care about revenge or anything like that until he gets a body(unlike other, lesser well defined villains who'd just see being stuck in a brain as an inconvenience).
Philip Madoc returns to the show after a long while(last seen as the War Lord in The War Games) to bring us another spellbindingly well thought-out performance as Dr. Solon, the Frankenstein stereotype obsessed with bringing the "brilliant" Morbius to an even greater glory than before. His interplay with Tom Baker and James Spice is some of the best exchanges of dialogue you will ever see.
Maran is a character that's almost as old as the Doctor himself, the one who initially distrusts him, yet ultimately helps him immeasurably in his goals. The only thing I can say is that the performance is very naturalistic and you even sort of see her POV, which is always nice. What I'm saying is, she doesn't feel like a fool.
Now, I'm not the biggest fan of Condo. I think they made him a little too goofy-looking to be tragic.
Yes, I felt really bad for him and it was a really good performance, but the character should've been just a bit better written(he keeps saying the same things over and over and it aggravates because I keep expecting him to actually develop in amidst all these perfectly multidimensional characters) and given more normal-looking make-up(think Jaws from the Bond movies)
NOTES
*Considering that Karn is right next to Gallifrey and that Morbius is a hugely infamous criminal, why would the Time Lords not just send some official there to arrest him? The whole idea of the Doctor's employment with the Time Lords is that they send him to places they can't be seen to interfere themselves. Who would question the Time Lords' right to arrest or at least check for Morbius? And why didn't they give the Doctor some intel about what he's supposed to do(it's really dumb when they just send him somewhere and expect him to find the truth out on his own).
*And yes, I am aware that the Time Lords' involvement was never confirmed, but then why keep bringing them up?
*I love that the Doctor's noticed how often Sarah seems to think he's died. It happens twice in this story too.
*When Solon explains about Morbius going crazy, the Doctor just goes "Oh COME ON!" in the middle of his talk and goes after him. Thumbs up.
*Here's the big one: the Doctor's "other faces". To be honest, you barely need to squint your eyes to think they are Morbius's faces. There's never any admission over who actually won(the Doctor almost dies, but Morbius looks pretty screwed up himself) and Morbius rants over the later faces, so I'd argue they're his.
*How did they succeed in not burning Tom Baker alive during the Doctor's execution scene?
*All of the previous Doctors' faces are from The Three Doctors' promotional photo.
*So, the Doctor is currently around 720? That's nice to know.
*Why is the sonic screwdriver in the TARDIS? I know they were trying to limit its use, but that's a bit daft.
*That cellar door looks like it could easily be opened from the inside. I mean, why else have that wheel there?
BEST QUOTE
"Events seem to have moved along since I fell asleep."
(I would also add Philip Madoc's "the pun was irresistible", but the pun itself wasn't very funny and it seems kind of OOC anyway)
CONCLUSION
The crowning jewel in Doctor Who's horror history, scriptwriting, acting, set design, everything. It's only a shame it didn't last six episodes.
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