Hogan Reviews

Always a pleasure to return to the Third Doctor era with this mini-marathon, and especially always a pleasure for it to be an Earth-based UNIT-laden Master-roaming six parter! The Mind of Evil was one of, if not THE last Third Doctor story I saw but it was a good one to go out on, the setting in a prison is a unique one and there’s still plenty of guns, explosions and an alien creature to keep you entertained, even if the alien creature is a teleporting box… Let’s take a look!

Even for an Earth-based Third Doctor UNIT story this serial is very oddly played straight, with UNIT serving only to protect delegates at a United Nations Peace Conference and serve as guards for a special type of missile that’s being transferred, meanwhile The Doctor and Jo head to a prison to oversee a new form of capital punishment being displayed. Now it doesn’t take long for The Master to pop up and stick his alien mitts into both storylines, mind-controlling the Chinese delegate’s assistant Chin Lee (Pek-Sen Lim) in order to kill other top-brass and get his hands on the travelling missile while being the “Professor” behind the new prison device that wipes all evil thoughts from convict’s minds… which turns out to be an alien mind parasite in a box, essentially. Even with all this going on though the main crux of the story is based around prison riots, prisoners taking over the prison, the missile going missing when the convoy gets attacked, and political shenanigans as U.N. delegates start dropping.

Ah, an evil Chinese character. I mean, that makes a change from an evil Russian one, at least…

The prison part I always enjoy, there’s a full set of various rooms and hallways and they’re used to great effect, plus the several riots / takeovers often include The Doctor and Jo knocking some people out or struggling to get guns off people and the like so are good fun as well. Plus one of the big finale scenes where UNIT assaults the prison en masse sees The Brigadier disguise himself as a milkman in order to sneak his men into the courtyard, how can you not love that? Benton gets to be a survivor and a bit of a hero (after being berated by The Brigadier when he falls victim to a bit of brainwashing early in the story) and Capt. Yates also gets his own mini story when he’s captured by The Master and interrogated by his right-hand man / prisoner escapee Mailer (William Marlowe) before escaping his clutches.

As for the titular “Mind of Evil” inside the Keller Machine, as it’s known, it plays a central role in the story as it gains more and more power the more minds it devours and eventually mentally attacks The Doctor, showing him not just some past adversaries but also the alternate Earth that got destroyed in the TV story “Inferno”, a memory he greatly fears. What’s fun is that it soon becomes too much for even The Master to handle and he’s shown his worst nightmare: The Doctor towering over him and laughing at him, showing his insecurities about being seen as lesser than his old school chum really is at the heart of his character (and continues to be, to be fair!) Eventually the Keller Parasite begins being able to teleport to different parts of the Prison but still within its grey cylinder which leads to weird scenes where a small grey machine just appears in a hallway, some prisoners scream in pain and fall to the floor before the harmless-looking object vanishes again.

“Doctor, I think I’ve misjudged my ability to control an alien species again!” “Yes… seems like it.”

I’ll also mention new character Barnham (Neil McCarthy) who starts off as a violent criminal but after being attached to the Keller Machine is left with a purely good mind, though one that also gives him the personality of a child. He grows close to Jo and treats her like a mother and becomes the only person able to pick up and negate the effects of the Keller Parasite because he has no evil for it to focus on. It’s a slight disturbing idea that has a rather… crap end (see the spoilers!) but it adds to the rather odd story well. As for any bad parts of the story? Well, for a longer serial it changes pace enough without much slow down, though the amount of on-and-off rioting is a little silly in retrospect, and the picture quality is ropey even on the Blu-Ray but apparently this serial was only recovered in black and white and not on any kind of master copy so a lot of colour restoration had to be done alongside best-as-can-be restoration. Frankly I didn’t really notice once it gets going, I mean you just adjust don’t you, but I thought it was worth mentioning as even among its fellow early 70s TV serials it looks worse for wear.

The Continuity:

A guard twists and contorts in terror at the sight of the teleporting Keller machine.

The Master being stranded on Earth in this story is a direct result of scenes in the previous serial, “Terror of the Autons” while a second U.N. Peace Conference is held in the later Third Doctor TV serial “Day of the Daleks”. That’s about your lot though! Well, apart from The Doctor referencing the end of Season 7 story “Inferno” as a great fear, as mentioned earlier…

Overall Thoughts:

“Yes, I’m a milkman.” “Okay, what’s your name?” “The Brigadier!” “Um…” “Oh yes, drat. Gave the game away a bit there…”

The Mind of Evil is a good night in for me. Even at six parts I don’t find it drags much, just a fun Earth-based UNIT story with all the usual suspects and a unique setting with some fun twists and turns along the way. Admittedly the weird final scene with Barnham still confuses me, but that’s only a minor gripe. The Mind of Evil is one story I’ll never complain about having to sit down and watch.

Eventually The Master has his missile and although he can’t control people via the Keller Machine anymore he still feels like he’s won until The Doctor and Jo arrive in a helicopter, Barnham plops down the Keller Machine allowing it to attack The Master’s mind while the Doctor and Jo stop the missile in its tracks. Apparently it’s the hiring of a real helicopter that put this story way over budget and led to the director never being hired again… whoops! Good shot though, if that makes him feel better…

The Doctor just can’t be arsed with The Master at this point in the story, and I love the body language here displaying that!

Sadly, and really weirdly, just as everyone is about to escape Barnham breaks away from the Doctor and Jo, suddenly runs and tries to help The Master only to give the villain a chance to escape into a nearby van and run him over, killing him. It’s like the writer went “oh hang on, how can The Master get out of this one?” and quickly wrote a scene where Barnham ignores the advice from the people he’d been listening to all serial and then gets killed off for his troubles. Was there any need to kill him? Could he not have just had a happy ending and then not get seen again? The scene just comes out of nowhere and is just … weird. Oh well. Jo mourns Barham as she and The Doctor get back on the chopper.