The next somewhat random Fourth Doctor serial to get reviewed is the “Masque of Mandragora”, another one of those stories I can’t remember the last time I watched due to an overriding feeling of it just being “okay”. It is a rare Fourth Doctor “pseudo historical” and set in Italy’s past no less, but despite sentient time energies, evil cultists and swashbuckling scenes it’s… yeah, still just “okay”. Let’s take a look anyway!
The story opens up with The Doctor (Tom Baker) and Sarah (Elisabeth Sladen) walking around the TARDIS and soon popping into a new control room for the hell of it where they notice the ship being drawn towards a strange anomaly in the Vortex, leading to the craft materialising inside the “Mandragora Helix”, a strange dimension filled with deadly energy. The Doctor and Sarah have a quick look before heading back inside and materialising on Earth in 15th century Italy, but some of the Helix energy follows them. After wondering how they can understand Italian (yes, this is the first story that the fact they can understand all language thanks to a “Time Lord’s gift” is explained!) Sarah soon gets kidnapped by robed monks after wandering off (naturally) while The Doctor is also unsurprisingly captured by suspicious court guards. Speaking of the court, we’re quickly caught up with the current goings on in as the Duke of San Marino is dying in bed surrounded by his son Giuliano (Gareth Armstrong) and his friend Marco (Tim Piggott-Smith) and they suspect the Duke’s brother Count Federico (John Laurimore) to be behind his illness after the court astrologist and Federico’s ally Hieronymous (Norman Jones) had predicted the death ahead of time. Classic court politics! The Doctor is brought to the court by Federico’s other friend and Guard Captain Rossini (Antony Carrick) where he is quizzed but fails to convince them of the impending threat of the Mandragora Helix and is instead sentenced to beheading for being a spy.
An iconic image… from a un-iconic story. Does that make sense? What? No? Oh well.
Meanwhile Sarah is dressed in a white robe and told she’ll be sacrificed to the god Demnos as the moon rises, so… not a lot of good going on right now for our lead duo! The Doctor of course manages to escape and soon coincidentally ends up in the catacombs where Sarah is about to be stabbed by the masked leader of the “Cult of Demnos” and he manages to save her and the two make their escape as the Helix energy arrives and creates a pillar of red light, declaring the cult leader to be its chosen representative on Earth and that he will be given untold power as a result. The leader takes off his mask and reveals himself (to the audience) as Hieronymous… dun-dun-dun! I guess? Well, anyway, The Doctor and Sarah are eventually brought to Giuliano and he says he’s worried Federico will suppress knowledge which given they’re on the verge of the Renaissance worries The Doctor, especially as the Helix could use this brittle part of the timeline to change all of history for the worse. With no other choice they head to the catacombs to destroy the Helix Energy but not only is the Doctor attacked by it but Giuliano is cornered by his brother’s men and Sarah is once again captured by the purple robed cultists.
Is the Doctor helping Sarah or very gently choking her? You decide!
Hieronymous hypnotises Sarah into wishing to kill The Doctor with a poison needle before heading back to court, where Federico’s worry over his brother and his planned gathering of intellectuals might harm his future, which given his recent ascension to Godhood only angers the court Astrologist, leading to a fallout between the two. The Doctor escapes the Helix and helps fight off the guards with Giuliano before the two head back into the catacombs and find Sarah, who can’t remember anything since she was captured. They make their way to Hieronymous’ chambers in the castle and confront him but as The Doctor fights off Sarah and snaps her out of her hypnotic trance the astrologist escapes out of a hidden exit as Federico’s guards arrive to exile him. Their main prize having escaped the guards instead capture The Doctor, Sarah and Giuliano and send them to the dungeons, while at the same time some of the brightest minds of the age begin to gather at the palace for Giuliano’s Masquerade, just as the Helix wishes…
There are moments that are fun, with some good acting all round (for the kind of slightly-cheesy period drama setting anyway) but as you can tell it’s very much a “get captured, escape, move the plot on ever so slightly, get captured again, repeat” story with very little else going for it.
The Continuity:
“Oh yes, I suggest doing this clearly evil thing!” “Yeah, yeah…”
The Seventh Doctor comic “The Mark of Mandragora” is unsurprisingly a sequel to this story, and that was followed by two books, a First Doctor novel called “The Eleventh Tiger” (though the Doctor doesn’t get the name of the mysterious energy they encounter to keep continuity intact!) and the Tenth Doctor novel “Beautiful Chaos” where the Mandragora Helix is met once again and there are references to all three previous stories, which is nice. So there are a lot of direct sequels / prequels for what is really not that interesting of a story…
Overall Thoughts:
The Doctor attempts to write a more interesting story.
The Masque of Mandragora has its moments and I like the “hard-to-grasp energy from the early days of the universe” aspect, it’s just the occasionally awkward attempt at period drama and the constant capture/escape plot used to fill the four parts that drag it down. It’s not bad, but it isn’t first on my list to re-watch when I feel like putting a Tom Baker story on.
The Doctor manages to convince Federico of Hieronymous’ evil and to prove it to him the Duke and the Doctor sneak into a Demnos meeting where the Helix energy imbues the head and his followers with even greater power. Undeterred Federico marches up to Hieronymous and takes off his mask while calling him a traitor only to reveal no head under the mask, just a glowing ball of energy. Federico is zapped by Helix energy and reduced to ashes as The Doctor slips out unnoticed, returns to the dungeons and informs everyone of the Duke’s death and the greater threat of the cult. The guards switch their loyalty to Giuliano and place Rossini under arrest as The Doctor tells everyone to prepare for the Demnos cult’s attack. Later that evening Giuliano’s Masquerade ball with all the intelligent locals goes ahead while The Doctor comes up with a plan to syphon off the Helix energy before it can spread across the planet.
“AAAARRRRGGGHHHHH!!!”
The Doctor and Hieronymous face off, the latter trying to zap him but it not working, his strength slowly vanishing before he himself does thanks to The Doctor using a metal breastplate and some wire to syphon off the energy. Despite this Hieronymous seemingly arrives at the ball as his men zap some innocent people to death but soon a mass of energy arrives, absorbs all the cultists and then vanishes into the sky harmlessly heading back to the dimension it came from. The cult leader removes his mask to reveal a smiling Doctor, whose plan has worked perfectly (but also resulted in a lot of death, including some innocents he watched get zapped by his “own followers” while disguised, so… not sure he should be quite so thrilled…) With history saved The Doctor and Sarah depart, though The Doctor claims the Helix Energy will be able to return in 500 years when the stars align just right once again…
Hogan Reviews 