It's a good thing that The Dominators didn't spoil my appetite, because I was blown away by the next story down the pipe. I know it's more than a bit of a cliché to say it at this point, but The Mind Robber is what The Celestial Toymaker could have been, had it been any good.
Lest we forget that it's the 1960s, we get a healthy helping of psychedelia right from the off. I was kind of left staring stunned at my screen when the TARDIS flew to pieces. It's remarkable that the first episode of this serial was basically cobbled together from nothing to fill the gap left by editing down The Dominators, to Peter Ling's objections. I think it serves the story well, to be honest. It serves up a spoonful of surrealism which certainly helps to pave the way for the Land of Fiction afterwards.
The entire conceit of the Land of Fiction is just brilliant, and it suits sort of story that Doctor Who is. It very much leans on the fourth wall - and knocks, too. We know, of course, that the characters whose adventures we are following are fictional, so having them threatened with becoming fictional characters diegetically as a consequence of failing to stop the Master of the Land of Fiction is just really, really funny. For a few episodes, it seems almost like the Doctor knows he's a fictional character, but won't just settle for being pages in a storybook like Gulliver, who can only speak lines that Swift wrote for him. Doctor Who - and his TV show - cannot be constrained so easily.
The Doctor is on rare form in The Mind Robber, with Troughton seeming to absolutely thrive in this bizarre little story. He sells the bizarreness of it all excellently, and has so many tremendous moments alongside the rest of the cast. The companions are great, too. I think I fell in love a little bit with Zoe when she beat the hell out of Karkus and made him cry uncle. No disrespect intended, but you sure wouldn't see Victoria doing that! The bit in Episode Two where the Doctor accidentally puts Jamie's face back together incorrectly to help cover for Frazier's illness had me splitting up. Hamish Wilson's performance doesn't feel exactly as good as Frazier's, but props to him for clearly pulling off the same character despite having a blatantly different look and voice. It's clever, and fitting for a story where the line between fiction and reality is so very thin.
The story has the appropriate awe for the Doctor's "ageless" status, pointing out that he is ideally suited to serve as the new Master of the Land because he exists outside of time and space. It's the most mythical the Doctor has ever been up to this point which, again, is appropriate in the circumstances. It feels like we're building up to something big in terms of the Doctor's identity and origins.
The Mind Robber is very much a magical story, and I find it difficult imagining it happening at any point later in the Classic series. Very soon, Doctor Who is going to become even more firmly rooted in the science fiction tradition, and curiosities like this will fall mostly by the wayside. Accordingly, it feels very wholesome having it here in the last stretch of the 1960s marathon, because it's the most magical parts of this era distilled, very much the spiritual successor to what was happening during Verity's tenure. And it's also supremely fitting that it is without a doubt the finest story the program has had so far.
I remain very hopeful and excited, because The Invasion is on its way next.
(Modified from the original posted at Gallifrey Base on 13 March 2021.)
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