Doctor Who: The Mind of Evil: Episode Five (not 'Part 5') starts as the Keller machine decides the Doctor (Jon Pertwee) & Jo (Katy Manning) don't have enough negative emotions to bother with & instead goes after Mailer (William Marlowe) thus their lives being spared. The Master (Roger Delgado) heads back to Stangmoor after successfully stealing the Thunderbolt missile & convinces the Doctor to take care of the alien parasite inside the Keller machine which is no longer under his control & is becoming a threat to his plans, meanwhile the Brigadier (Nicholas Courtney) has organised a raid on Stangmoor using his UNIT soldiers to regain control. UNIT & the escaped inmates engage in a gunfight while Mailer takes the Doctor & Jo hostage at gunpoint, Jo tackles Mailer but he overpowers her & decides he only needs one hostage so points his gun at the Doctor & shoots...
Episode 9 from season 8 this Doctor Who adventure originally aired here in the UK during February 1971, directed by Timothy Combe I've quite enjoyed The Mind of Evil so far. The script by Don Houghton has been a little complicated & convoluted, I'm certain a lot of plot points were just thrown into it to stretch the story out over six episodes & right now I'm trying to think why the Master invented the Keller machine & for what purpose but either I can't remember or it has never been satisfactorily explained, probably the later as I can't think of a single reason why he needs the Keller machine & since it's out of control why doesn't he just destroy it? The plot is a little bit scattered & we haven't seen or heard anything from the World Peace Conference for ages, tell me again why did the Master kill the Chinese delegate? The cliffhanger ending to this episode is the best one so far in this story. This is an odd Doctor Who & I'm enjoying a silly espionage thriller with a few sci-fi elements rather than a typical Doctor Who story, basically I like it but not as Doctor Who if that makes sense.
The production values on The Mind of Evil have been surprisingly good with decent sets although those stair rails are still wobbling & the 'solid steel' prison doors also wobble a surprising amount! There are several detailed sets, there are quite a few extras, a fair amount of location filming & the end of Episode Five sees an impressive action scene as UNIT storm Stangmoor prison which is pretty violent as UNIT shoot dead several prisoners. The makers were refused permission to film at a real prison so Dover Castle was used as Stangmoor Prison which, somewhat obviously, is why it doesn't look like a prison. I would have thought that The Mind of Evil was a pretty expensive story to make all things considered. The Mind of Evil only exists in black and white but the BBC video tape of the story had a few seconds of colourised clips as I think I'm right in saying that a few seconds of American colour recordings were 'placed' over the black and white 16mm film to give a few seconds of detailed colour clips, UNIT storming Stangmoor at the end of this episode is where the colour clips are from & they look great & while I wasn't minding watching this in black and white these brief colour clips really make me wish the whole thing was in colour & are a tantalising snippet into what it should look like. I'm hopeful the DVD release will be fully re-colourised.
The Mind of Evil: Episode Five is another good part in a good story that I've liked so far. A must for fans & I could also see other more casual viewers enjoying this because of the lack of traditional Doctor Who elements like pointless technical jargon, awful looking monsters & embarrassing special effects.
Episode 9 from season 8 this Doctor Who adventure originally aired here in the UK during February 1971, directed by Timothy Combe I've quite enjoyed The Mind of Evil so far. The script by Don Houghton has been a little complicated & convoluted, I'm certain a lot of plot points were just thrown into it to stretch the story out over six episodes & right now I'm trying to think why the Master invented the Keller machine & for what purpose but either I can't remember or it has never been satisfactorily explained, probably the later as I can't think of a single reason why he needs the Keller machine & since it's out of control why doesn't he just destroy it? The plot is a little bit scattered & we haven't seen or heard anything from the World Peace Conference for ages, tell me again why did the Master kill the Chinese delegate? The cliffhanger ending to this episode is the best one so far in this story. This is an odd Doctor Who & I'm enjoying a silly espionage thriller with a few sci-fi elements rather than a typical Doctor Who story, basically I like it but not as Doctor Who if that makes sense.
The production values on The Mind of Evil have been surprisingly good with decent sets although those stair rails are still wobbling & the 'solid steel' prison doors also wobble a surprising amount! There are several detailed sets, there are quite a few extras, a fair amount of location filming & the end of Episode Five sees an impressive action scene as UNIT storm Stangmoor prison which is pretty violent as UNIT shoot dead several prisoners. The makers were refused permission to film at a real prison so Dover Castle was used as Stangmoor Prison which, somewhat obviously, is why it doesn't look like a prison. I would have thought that The Mind of Evil was a pretty expensive story to make all things considered. The Mind of Evil only exists in black and white but the BBC video tape of the story had a few seconds of colourised clips as I think I'm right in saying that a few seconds of American colour recordings were 'placed' over the black and white 16mm film to give a few seconds of detailed colour clips, UNIT storming Stangmoor at the end of this episode is where the colour clips are from & they look great & while I wasn't minding watching this in black and white these brief colour clips really make me wish the whole thing was in colour & are a tantalising snippet into what it should look like. I'm hopeful the DVD release will be fully re-colourised.
The Mind of Evil: Episode Five is another good part in a good story that I've liked so far. A must for fans & I could also see other more casual viewers enjoying this because of the lack of traditional Doctor Who elements like pointless technical jargon, awful looking monsters & embarrassing special effects.
