Mawdryn Undead (1983) Review

"So how's life treating you, Doctor?"
"My companion's dead, my confidence is gone and I snack on celery."
"But do you still do it five rounds rapid in the sack?"
"Shut up."

Mawdryn Undead actively frustrated me. In four episodes, it went from being one of the most enjoyable Davison adventures to an embarrassingly convoluted, self-aware mess of storylines. 

WRITTEN BY

Peter Grimwade of Time-Flight fame. Why does he make his stories so hard to follow?

PLOT

Do you really want to know? Alright, a convoluted space phenomena traps the Doctor's TARDIS(this was dodgy back in the 60s) on a spaceship that just happens to contain a bunch of immortals who want his regeneration energy to die(???) and have a transmat inexplicably aimed near a school on Earth where Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart teaches maths and an alien just happens to be exiled in(never explained) and he just happens to become the tool of the Black Guardian!

ANALYSIS

It started off so well. The concept of having the story take place simultaneously in two time-zones is a great idea and I love that the Brigadier is so involved with it. The Black Guardian's return is properly ominous, Mawdryn himself is a terrifying villain and it all moves at a fast, enjoyable pace. 

But once all the characters return to the spaceship, the story becomes incomprehensible. Which time zone is the spaceship in? How can the clearly broken transmat cross time periods with nothing, but the Doctor's homing device? Where did that thing even come from? What is a warp ellipse? How does the two Brigadiers meeting short it out and how does that kill Mawdryn and his people? What the heck is the Black Guardian even doing? Why would Mawdryn infecting Tegan and Nyssa with the regeneration mutation cause them to age or deage depending on whether the TARDIS moved in time?

I'm sure all these questions have a good answer, but they just kept piling up until I threw in the towel and just let the story wash over me. It's one of the most disappointing experiences I've had watching Doctor Who, because it started out so great. After all the blandness we've had lately in the Davison era, this was a boost of energy. Shame it overloaded and became this schizophrenic disaster where stuff just... happens. Characters say and do things, but nothing adds up to any sort of logic or consistency. 

And did I mention this is a corridor runaround like no other? How many bloody times do they have to walk around the ship looking for one another? Is it really that big? I swear, the 1977 Brigadier spent like two episodes just wandering around aimlessly. Not to mention Turlough, who spends like half of the story shouting at thin air aka the Black Guardian. Nobody even questions his presence there! He's supposed to be a schoolboy and yet they all just take it as a matter of fact that he's an alien! 

Oh, to hell with it. 

CHARACTERS

Peter Davison puts in a rather charming performance. I imagine he was quite over the moon to be working with Nicholas Courtney. 

And speaking of Courtney, seeing the Brigadier again was easily the highlight of the episode. I especially loved the montage from his previous stories and seeing him step out of the TARDIS on an alien surface for the first time. Perhaps it was not intentional(without the mustache, he's like a different man), but I liked that the older Brigadier came across as slightly more bumbling and less ordered. 
Seeing him and the Fifth Doctor together was quite odd, because their dynamic was very different from the ordinary snappy back-and-forth we're used to between these characters. Davison's youth was quite noticeable in these scenes as well.

Perhaps it's because of the reused writer from season 19, but Tegan's character development seems to have gone a little backwards. She's started whining again and that does not make me happy. I was becoming really fond of her as a companion. At least she had a very touching moment at the end, where she thanked the Doctor for being willing to sacrifice himself for her. In any case, she's grown leaps and bounds. 

Sarah Sutton remains a little stiff and awkward, and despite massive improvements in her character this season, I'm really not gonna be sad to see her go. People like to say that Adric was the third wheel in season 19, but in my mind it was always Nyssa. I'll elaborate in the next review. 

David Collings gave a really great performance as Mawdryn, and I feel like the script let him down somewhat. He was so convincing as the fake Doctor that I actually felt annoyed whenever they gave unsubtle hints towards the opposite(when he melodramatically insisted that Nyssa take the TARDIS back to the ship, for example). As a villain, he was multilayered: a repenting criminal forced to do more crime. That's definitely not your everyday megalomaniac, and the character constantly swayed between dark and light so as to keep you guessing. 

Valentine Dyall returns as the Black Guardian. Now, I was very fond of the Key to Time arc and Dyall himself is suitably menacing in the role, but unfortunately, this story really does not function well as his return because it already has a villain with an equally complicated backstory behind him - Mawdryn. After we've established the Guardian's influence on the school and his plot to kill the Doctor, he takes a back seat to Mawdryn and only occasionally appears to berate Turlough, leaving his comeback very unsatisfying and even unjustified. 

I mean, there's no universal threat this time. The Black Guardian is simply being petty and wants to kill the Doctor. Considering the events behind his last appearance, I would've expected his revenge to be cataclysmic. Something like The Celestial Toymaker on steroids. This sort of assassination seems way too lowkey for who is possibly the most powerful enemy the Doctor has ever faced. 

And besides, was it really wise to bring him back now, anniversary season or not? If anyone who viewed the show in the 1970s is reading this, tell me: was the Black Guardian a popular villain? Did The Armageddon Factor really make such an impact that people were ready for him to dominate the anniversary season four years later over the iconic monsters? Or did Ian Levine just bring him back because he wanted the story arc tied up?

And my thoughts on Turlough as the new companion? I like him. I think Mark Strickson is a bit over-the-top as an actor, but he's got an interesting screen presence and I can imagine him becoming quite a fun character once this story arc is done. The only real issue here is that absolutely nothing about him is explained or even questioned by the other characters. He literally just joined the TARDIS crew, as the Doctor put it.

NOTES

*The direction in this story is pretty poor. An obvious example is the colorful background used in the Black Guardian scenes, but I'd also like to note the bizarre wide angle close-ups during the scene where Hippo and Turlough steal the Brig's car. Plus, the director might also be partially responsible for all the confusion I went through in the later half of the story. 

*I must say, I've gotten tired of the Davison era habit of talking about the previous story at the start of the next one. It worked in the Hartnell era, because they tended to end the previous story on a cliffhanger as well so we'd be excited to see the story continue, but here, it feels like they're just doing it for the sake of doing it. 

*Another problem in the Davison era is the overuse of boring technobabble. It worked in Season 18 and Castrovalva because of Chris Bidmead's presence, but now, it just's tiresome to listen to the Doctor and Nyssa constantly shout about warp ellipses and transduction barriers. At least give me an idea of what they mean!

*I hated the implication that the Brigadier wanted Hippo flogged for damaging his car. I know he's got a military mind, but that's just a big no. He also berates Hippo for his "disgusting body" later on. That's the Brigade Leader right there!

*When the TARDIS returns to Earth only to disappear again, I love the Doctor's little head shake to the Brigadier, basically saying "I got no clue". 

*The Brigadier has a bald spot. Le gasp!

*Okay, this part really made me chuckle: when the Doctor announces that he knows about UNIT, the Brigadier hushes him since he's talking about a secret organisation. I have to ask: since when? Who didn't know about UNIT back in the Pertwee era?? 

*Apparently, the original idea for this story was to have Ian Chesterton return, which went nowhere since William Russell was unavailable. Chibnall, the ball is in your court now! Make it happen while it still can!

*I wonder if professor Yana's memories slowly coming to the surface was based on the Brigadier's in this story, because they both hear the important names whispered in their heads in a tense sequence. 

*But in this case, it is followed by an absolutely amazing montage of the Brigadier's past adventures. It really hit me(especially since I was watching the improved special edition... don't judge me, that was the only one available on the internet) that I've been on this marathon since 2013. 

*I've also never understood why the Brigadier seems incapable of comprehending the concept of time travel. I mean, does he not watch TV or read any books? You'd think regeneration was harder to swallow.

*Why did Turlough leave behind the Black Guardian's crystal when he escaped from the school? At that point, he was under the Guardian's direct control, wasn't he?

*Whilst thinking the Doctor is Mawdryn, the 1977 Brigadier asks this: "How did his features change so quickly?" Um... what? Jon Pertwee became Tom Baker in about a second.

*How does Mawdryn know so much about the Doctor? Did he steal the Time Lords' databanks as well? Do the Time Lords know about UNIT and all that?

*If Tegan and Nyssa are aged or de-aged depending on where the TARDIS goes, can't they just transmat to Earth?

CONTINUITY ADVISOR

1) Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart makes his first appereance since Terror Of The Zygons.

2) Tegan still has bad dreams about the Mara, and the Doctor finally explains that Dojjen didn't destroy the Great Crystal because it was necessary to trap the Mara with it to destroy it permanently. Couldn't they spend two lines on this in Snakedance?

3) Nyssa reminds Tegan that she simply walked into the TARDIS obliviously back in Logopolis. I presume somebody told her the story afterwards, since she wasn't there. But it's always nice to see Tegan put into her place.

4) Nyssa wishes they still had the Zero Room to help Mawdryn. An utterly pointless callback to Castrovalva.

5) The Doctor namechecks Sergeant Benton, Harry Sullivan, Jo Grant, Sarah Jane Smith and Liz Shaw and the Yeti in an effort to boost the Brigadier's memory. A great scene(I especially liked what happened to Benton).

6) The Brigadier assures Tegan and Nyssa that he's seen regeneration twice before(technically once, but he was there for the after-effects of the other time). This occurred in Spearhead From Space and Robot, respectively. 

7) After recovering from his regeneration, Mawdryn dresses himself in the Fourth Doctor's burgundy coat. Always nice to see that lovely bit of clothing.

8) The Deadly Asssassin's 12 regenerations rule is affirmed in this story. People sometimes criticise this decision, but I think it's a good idea to give the Doctor some natural limitations(even if it's just an illusion - we all know he'll continue to regenerate as long as the show lasts).

9) The Doctor once again reverses the polarity of the neutron flow. Ah, what the heck, it's the anniversary season.

BEST QUOTE

"Someone's walked over my grave." - The Brigadier. A great saying, and one that I've never heard before.

CONCLUSION

It's a cocktail of stories that could've easily been great on their own, with possibly the weakest plotting I've ever seen on Doctor Who.