Classic Doctor Who TV Hour-ish: The Mind Robber, or The Second Doctor Gets Trippy Right Out Of Reality

      At the end of the preceding serial, The Dominators, a volcanic eruption is set off on the planet of Dulkis. The Mind Robber picks up with the Second Doctor & companions Jamie McCrimmon & Zoe Heriot in the TARDIS as it is being surrounding & slowly swallowed by a river of molten lava, blowing a fluid link (an essential component that provides power to the ship) in the process. Reluctant but out of options, the Doctor employs an emergency unit that is designed to move the TARDIS out of normal time & space, out of reality itself, transporting the TARDIS & crew to the White Void (or just "the Void"). While the Doctor works to repair the fluid link, Jamie & Zoe are lured outside by images seen on the scanner, each seeing their home, where they come in contact with strange White Robots. The Doctor manages to get his companions back on board & they attempt to return to reality. Instead, the TARDIS explodes & scatters the travelers into nothingness.

The Doctor never forgets a face. Except when he does.

     The Doctor, Jamie & Zoe wake up, separated, in a mysterious forest. After facing a series of riddles, the Doctor finds Jamie, who has been turned into a cardboard cutout version of himself, only without a face. Given a mix-and-match selection of eyes, noses & mouths, the Doctor tries to reassemble Jamie's face but ends up changing it instead. (The story behind this was pure genius in my book. Frazer Hines, who played Jamie, had contracted chicken pox & had to quickly be replaced for the second episode. The writers came up with this interesting explanation as to why another actor, Hamish Wilson, had to temporarily step in.) Jamie & The Doctor soon find Zoe, apparently trapped behind a brick wall painted to look like a door. The Doctor solves this riddle as well - "When is a door not a door? When it's ajar (a jar)!" - causing the brick wall/door to dissipate & revealing Zoe trapped in a giant jar.
     The trio soon encounter various fictional characters (such as Lemuel Gulliver, Rapunzel, the Minotaur, Medusa & a unicorn) & discover that they are in  a "Land of Fiction" being run by one that is called "the Master" (not The Master, who would make his first appearance two years after this aired). They are able to escape from the unicorn (Jamie had mentioned in the first episode a dream of being charged & killed by a unicorn), as well as the Minotaur & Medusa, by declaring that the creatures didn't actually exist, which turned the figments of fiction into statues. They eventually find themselves face-to-face with the Master, a kidnapped writer from Earth who faced the same riddles & fictional creatures when he first arrived. He explains that he is getting old & wants to Doctor to replace him as the source of creativity for the Land of Fiction.

The Doctor hooked up to the Master Brain.

The Doctor refuses & tries to escape, while Jamie & Zoe (who had snuck out of the room & into a nearby library while the Doctor & the Master talked) encounter the White Robots again & become trapped in a giant book. The Master hypnotizes the companions into trapping the Doctor, whom he then hooks up to the Master Brain. The Doctor & the Master proceed to battle each other by summoning various fictional characters to fight. The Doctor manages to prevail. He then releases Jamie & Zoe, who overload the Master Brain, leaving the White Robots with only the command to "Destroy". The Doctor unplugs the Master from the Brain & all four of them hide in another room while the White Robots destroy the Master Brain. Then, the TARDIS comes back together & normality is restored.
     The Mind Robber, which was first broadcast in five weekly parts between September 14th & October 12 1968, is the very first Second Doctor serial that I've watched & perhaps the oddest, trippiest Doctor Who episode I've watched yet. I adored the utterly weird first episode, which ended with the TARDIS exploding & was apparently cobbled together rather quickly due to the previous serial being shortened an episode, thus causing this serial to have to be extended by one episode This also resulted in the last episode being the shortest Doctor Who episode to date, clocking at just over 18 minutes, as well as episode 1 being the only episode in the series' history to have no writer's credit. The Land of Fiction was pretty groovy as well; I liked the idea of various riddles & especially the face-changing of Jamie, which didn't feel as if it was a last minute cover for Hines' inability to film. It was interesting, and befitting, that Lemuel Gulliver could only speak in lines written by Jonathan Swift, which seemed to lay down the basic rules of the Land of Fiction. Being a writer myself, the concept of this place intrigued me & I am going to track down the novels & audio dramas where the Land of Fiction is re-visited.
     It's interesting to note that it has been debated whether or not the events in The Mind Robber ever actually occur. When the serial ends, the Master is with the TARDIS crew, yet his absence (along with any of the events of this story) are not remarked upon at the start of the next serial, The Invasion. Its possible the entire escapade was a figment of imagination brought on by the White Void, although that possibility has never been explored.
     Peter Davison, Colin Baker & Matt Smith (or Doctors Five, Six & Eleven) have each stated that the Second Doctor is their favorite, and its terribly easy to see why. Patrick Throughton is a perfect "cosmic bum", equal parts comedy & seriousness, confirming my suspicions that there really is no one "better Doctor" & that each actor has been utterly brilliant in the role. From here on out, anytime someone asks me "Who's your favorite Doctor", my response will forever be "The Doctor".

The Doctor, Zoe & Jamie (here played by stand-in Hamish Wilson) square off against...a unicorn?