Doctor Who: The Mind Robber (Story 45)
List Price:
Our Price: $8.47
You Save: $6.51 (43%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $8.13 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD details
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD details
Actor: Emrys Jones, Frazer Hines, Patrick Troughton, Wendy PadburyBrand: Warner Brothers
Producer: Peter Bryant
Writer: Sydney Newman
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; English (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 99 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2011-03-08
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Model: E2316
Studio: BBC Worldwide
Product features:
- A quick escape from the path of molten lava sends the Tardis to "nowhere" where anything that springs to mind may become reality.Running Time: 99 min. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION Rating: NR Age: 794051231628 UPC: 794051231628 Manufacturer No: E2316
DVD Reviews of Doctor Who: The Mind Robber (Story 45)
DVD Review: The Doctor in the land of fiction with a touch of Agatha Christie
Summary: 5 Stars
The penultimate pair of releases for 2005 in the Doctor Who catalogue brings together two stories made almost a decade apart from two different eras of the Doctor's long running saga. But both The Mind Robber and The Horror of Fang Rock do have a connection is so much as they come from troubled periods of the show's history.
The older adventure, The Mind Robber, was the second story from Patrick Troughton's final season as the intrepid Time Lord. Having spent three years in the role during the era when the show was almost continually on air, Troughton was tiring of the punishing schedule of turning out a weekly episode and in addition the show itself was considered by the BBC to have run it's natural course. Ratings were beginning to dip and viewer satisfaction with the series was waning. And yet, despite the rather lacklustre atmosphere surrounding the show, The Mind Robber proved to be one of the most innovative and original stories ever created for the show. Set in the world of fiction, this story really highlights the creativity of the production team and is a very unusual and brave attempt to do something well beyond the normal sci-fi genre. Visually, the show is astounding and even with the very limited budget, studio space, monochrome broadcast and technology; the land of fiction created by the designers is really very effective. Introducing characters from fiction that can only speak the lines of their text and conjuring up disturbing images and problems for the Doctor and his companions to solve, the show really is quite complex and works very well.
That's not to say there aren't challenges. Originally commissioned as a six-part story, the writer struggled to make it barely fill the amended requirement of four episodes. At the last minute, a fifth episode was needed, so the show's script editor (and later producer) Derrick Sherwin had to tag on another stand-alone episode to open the adventure, using nothing but the regular cast and the Tardis set. Subsequently, each episode runs for well under the normal twenty-five-minute length, with episode five coming in under seventeen minutes in length. At least the tedium of some of the longer six-parters is avoided! Frazer Hines was struck down with chicken pox before episode two recording could begin and producers came up with a truly brilliant way of replacing him with another actor for an episode and a half. Plus there are the usual goofs, continuity errors and fluffs that make the black and white era of Doctor Who so charming, but all in all, it really works very well.
The same can be said for The Horror of Fang Rock, the companion release made almost a decade later and featuring Tom Baker as the fourth Doctor. Opening the show's sixteenth season, Baker's fourth, this story was penned by Terrance Dicks, who although an infrequent writer for the show, as the script editor on the show from the final Patrick Troughton days through the entire Jon Pertwee era, he is probably the most prolific writer associated with the show. Always able to pen a script at short notice, this story was pulled together in record time when his earlier script (about vampires) fell through. Set entirely in a lighthouse and it's surrounding rocks, the claustrophobia of the piece is wonderfully atmospheric. Rather `Agatha Christie' like in it's set up, the story deals with the sudden one-by-one murders of the characters as the Doctor and his companion Leela try to work out the alien menace attacking the crew.
Although the season opener, this was the second story recorded in this block and is the first to go out under the production aegis of Graham Williams. Williams had been brought into the show when Philip Hinchcliffe had moved on after three years at the helm and arguably had taken Doctor Who to new heights and overseen it's most successful period. His reign had been deemed too controversial by the BBC and Hinchcliffe left the show on a ratings and critical high but not with much BBC support. Newcomer Williams had a very different view of the show and seemed to prefer slapstick and whimsy to the darker production style of Hinchcliffe. Williams certainly encouraged the playful side of Tom Baker who never took the role seriously from this point forwards and became more and more outrageous in his performance and dominant of the show. But this was early days and is certainly superior to much of what came later.
The restoration of the master tapes is as always flawless, with the earlier story being "vidfired" to recreate the original broadcast quality. Both stories have a number of extras included on the disc, most notably two truly interesting retrospectives of Terrance Dicks and the making of The Mind Robber. The commentaries are perhaps not as enjoyable as other releases, particularly for the earlier story featuring Frazer Hines & Hamish Wilson (Jamie), Wendy Padbury (Zoe) and director Michael Ferguson. It must be hard for the crew to recall what is happening almost forty years after the story was made, so this is forgivable, and Dicks, Louise Jameson (Leela) and a guest actor do a good job on the later story. Other extras about the careers of Frazer Hines and Paddy Russell are also quite interesting. The most bizarre inclusion is a sketch from another BBC classic "The Basil Brush Show" which seems to have no relevance at all to the Mind Robber or the era, other than it features a Yeti, seen in Doctor Who a year before this release. But it's a silly piece of nonsense that's certainly highly enjoyable.
All in all, a good pair of releases, but with only three more Troughton stories in the archives available, I think we'll be looking for more classic Tom Baker releases to fill the gaps in future issues.
Description of Doctor Who: The Mind Robber (Story 45)
A quick escape from the path of molten lava sends the Tardis to "nowhere" where anything that springs to mind may become reality.Bestsellers in DVD
![The Story of Jeremiah [VHS] Image](/images/noimg.gif)
The Story of Jeremiah [VHS]Vision Video; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Wresting With God [VHS]by Vision Video
Vision Video; Published: 1990-10-01; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
Study Bible Video with Workbook [VHS]Spring Arbor Distributors; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $7.95
Price in other shops:
Tempo:Childrens TV Favourites Video [VHS]HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $9.17
Price in other shops:
Tempo.Herbs:Parseley'Sb/ Party Video [VHS]HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video
![Strike the Original Match [VHS] Image](/images/Strike-the-Original-Match-VHS-0001374079-X.jpg)
Strike the Original Match [VHS]New Liberty Films; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
![Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS] Image](/images/Medjugorje-The-Miracles-and-the-Message-VHS-0001373293-X.jpg)
Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS]JPN Film Production; Release date: 1995-12-15; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $29.99
Mayo Clinic Echocardiography Review Course for Boards and Recertification DVD 2008by Mayo
DVD
Price in other shops:
Pediatric Diagnostic Imaging DVD: Single Userby Oakstone
DVD
Price in other shops:
Cost Accounting [VHS]by Charles T. Horngren, George Foster, Srikant M. Datar, Howard Teall
Pearson Canada, Toronto; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Similar DVDs, VHS Video, Audio CDs
Doctor Who: The Time MeddlerWarner Brothers; Release date: 2011-03-08; DVD
Best price: $12.25
Price in other shops:
Doctor Who: The Seeds of Death (Story 48)Warner Brothers; Release date: 2004-03-02; DVD
Best price: $21.66
Price in other shops:
Doctor Who: The Web Planet (Story 13)Warner Brothers; Release date: 2006-09-05; DVD
Best price: $12.75
Price in other shops:
Doctor Who: The Invasion (Story 46)Warner Brothers; Release date: 2010-03-02; DVD
Best price: $21.95
Price in other shops:
Doctor Who: The Dominators (Story 44)Warner Brothers; Release date: 2011-01-11; DVD
Best price: $17.79
Price in other shops:
Doctor Who: The Claws of Axos (Story 57)Warner Brothers; Release date: 2011-03-08; DVD
Best price: $8.10
Price in other shops:
Doctor Who: The Dalek Invasion of Earth (Story 10)Warner Brothers; Release date: 2009-03-24; DVD
Best price: $17.44
Price in other shops:
Doctor Who: The War Games (Story 50)Warner Brothers; Release date: 2009-11-03; DVD
Best price: $33.99
Price in other shops:
Doctor Who - The Aztecs (Story 6)Warner Brothers; Release date: 2009-03-24; DVD
Best price: $8.41
Price in other shops:
Doctor Who: The Beginning (An Unearthy Child / The Daleks / The Edge of Destruction)Warner Brothers; Release date: 2009-03-24; DVD
Best price: $21.35
Price in other shops: