The Mind of Evil
Encyclopedia
The Mind of Evil is a serial in the British
science fiction
television series Doctor Who
, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 30 January to 6 March 1971.
Meanwhile, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
and the troops of UNIT
are handling the security arrangements for the first World Peace Conference. Captain Chin Lee of the Chinese delegation, whose delegation leader is dead, is behaving strangely in an attempt to heighten tension in relations with the United States. It emerges that her actions are done under the influence of the Master
. She uses the transmitted power of the Keller Machine in her plans against the American delegate, Senator Alcott, who barely survives her attack. Captain Chin Lee is deconditioned by the Doctor, and tells him that Emil Keller is indeed the Master, whom the Doctor had previously trapped on Earth by stealing the dematerialisation circuit of his TARDIS
.
Back at Stangmoor a riot has broken out and resulted in a dangerous criminal who was next in line for the Keller Process, Harry Mailer, seizing control of the prison. Jo is briefly taken hostage, but she enables the guards to retake the prison. The Master, who had heard of the Stangmoor riot by eavesdropping on UNIT, arrives and meets Mailer, to whom he supplies enough small bombs for Mailer and his prisoners to retake control of the prison. The Doctor returns to the prison to be captured by the Master, who sets the Keller Machine loose on the mind of his old foe, weakening the Doctor considerably. The Master is losing control of the Keller Machine, which contains a dangerous alien Mind Parasite, and forces the Doctor to help him contain its power. This done, the Doctor is imprisoned once more.
The Master has come to Stangmoor to engage the prisoners as a private army, and uses them to hijack a UNIT convoy transporting a deadly Thunderbolt missile nearby. The stolen missile is then pointed at the Peace Conference and Captain Mike Yates
, who was detailed with leading the convoy, is taken prisoner by the criminals. Left in the dark, the Brigadier decides the Thunderbolt missile must be in Stangmoor and comes to the rescue in a ”Trojan Horse” style assault. UNIT troops take control of the prison, killing Mailer and the other leading rioters. A freed Yates makes contact to tell the UNIT that the Thunderbolt is being kept in an abandoned hangar nearby.
The Keller Machine is growing stronger and breaks free of the temporary restraints placed on it by the Doctor. The Doctor contacts the Master, who has gone to the hangar with the missile, and offers to return his dematerialisation circuit in exchange for the missile. The Master agrees to this proposition on the guarantee he alone will come. The Doctor has worked out that Barnham, having been subjected to the Keller Machine once and having no evil in his mind anymore, is immune to its growing power and uses the prisoner as a shield in transporting the Machine to the hangar for his showdown with his enemy. In the ensuing fight the Thunderbolt is triggered and the Machine destroyed, but the wider devastation from the missile is minimal. The Master uses the chaos to escape with the dematerialisation circuit, killing Barnham in the process. He contacts the Doctor by telephone to taunt him that he is now free while the Doctor remains trapped in his exile on Earth.
, was published by Target Books
in March 1985.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
television series Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 30 January to 6 March 1971.
Plot
The Doctor and Jo visit the remote Stangmoor Prison to examine a new method of “curing” criminality, whereby the negative impulses are removed from the brain using the Keller Machine to enact the Keller Process. Professor Kettering, who is managing the delivery of the Process at the behest of the absent Emil Keller, reconditions a number of inmates including Barnham, a hardened criminal who is reverted to a more innocent and childlike state by the Process. The Doctor’s suspicions about the Keller Machine are heightened following a string of deaths, including that of Kettering himself, which seem to occur when the Machine is operated. Each death seems to be triggered by visions of personal phobias – and the Doctor is seemingly threatened by an inferno when he gets too close to it.Meanwhile, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart
Brigadier Sir Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, generally referred to simply as the Brigadier, is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, played by Nicholas Courtney...
and the troops of UNIT
United Nations Intelligence Taskforce
UNIT is a fictional military organisation from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures...
are handling the security arrangements for the first World Peace Conference. Captain Chin Lee of the Chinese delegation, whose delegation leader is dead, is behaving strangely in an attempt to heighten tension in relations with the United States. It emerges that her actions are done under the influence of the Master
Master (Doctor Who)
The Master is a recurring character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. He is a renegade Time Lord and the archenemy of the Doctor....
. She uses the transmitted power of the Keller Machine in her plans against the American delegate, Senator Alcott, who barely survives her attack. Captain Chin Lee is deconditioned by the Doctor, and tells him that Emil Keller is indeed the Master, whom the Doctor had previously trapped on Earth by stealing the dematerialisation circuit of his TARDIS
TARDIS
The TARDISGenerally, TARDIS is written in all upper case letters—this convention was popularised by the Target novelisations of the 1970s...
.
Back at Stangmoor a riot has broken out and resulted in a dangerous criminal who was next in line for the Keller Process, Harry Mailer, seizing control of the prison. Jo is briefly taken hostage, but she enables the guards to retake the prison. The Master, who had heard of the Stangmoor riot by eavesdropping on UNIT, arrives and meets Mailer, to whom he supplies enough small bombs for Mailer and his prisoners to retake control of the prison. The Doctor returns to the prison to be captured by the Master, who sets the Keller Machine loose on the mind of his old foe, weakening the Doctor considerably. The Master is losing control of the Keller Machine, which contains a dangerous alien Mind Parasite, and forces the Doctor to help him contain its power. This done, the Doctor is imprisoned once more.
The Master has come to Stangmoor to engage the prisoners as a private army, and uses them to hijack a UNIT convoy transporting a deadly Thunderbolt missile nearby. The stolen missile is then pointed at the Peace Conference and Captain Mike Yates
Captain Mike Yates
Captain Mike Yates is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, played by Richard Franklin. He was adjutant of the British contingent of UNIT , an international organisation that defends the Earth...
, who was detailed with leading the convoy, is taken prisoner by the criminals. Left in the dark, the Brigadier decides the Thunderbolt missile must be in Stangmoor and comes to the rescue in a ”Trojan Horse” style assault. UNIT troops take control of the prison, killing Mailer and the other leading rioters. A freed Yates makes contact to tell the UNIT that the Thunderbolt is being kept in an abandoned hangar nearby.
The Keller Machine is growing stronger and breaks free of the temporary restraints placed on it by the Doctor. The Doctor contacts the Master, who has gone to the hangar with the missile, and offers to return his dematerialisation circuit in exchange for the missile. The Master agrees to this proposition on the guarantee he alone will come. The Doctor has worked out that Barnham, having been subjected to the Keller Machine once and having no evil in his mind anymore, is immune to its growing power and uses the prisoner as a shield in transporting the Machine to the hangar for his showdown with his enemy. In the ensuing fight the Thunderbolt is triggered and the Machine destroyed, but the wider devastation from the missile is minimal. The Master uses the chaos to escape with the dematerialisation circuit, killing Barnham in the process. He contacts the Doctor by telephone to taunt him that he is now free while the Doctor remains trapped in his exile on Earth.
Continuity
- An insight into the Master's motivation and his relationship with the Doctor is given when the Mind Parasite turns on him and attacks him with images to evoke his deepest fear: the Master is confronted with and recoils from images of a gigantic Doctor towering over him and laughing maniacally down at him.
- The Mind Parasite attacks the Doctor on three separate occasions. The first visions are tongues of flame, enveloping the Doctor's unusually terror-stricken face. He tells Jo as he recovers, "Not long ago I saw an entire world consumed by fire..." This is presumed to be a reference to the recent story InfernoInferno (Doctor Who)Don Houghton came to Terrence Dicks with an idea for the story based on the real life Project Mohole. A smaller budget for the serial drove the idea of a parallel world, where the studio could use the same actors in multiple roles...
. The images on the two latter incidents are of past monsters (including the War MachinesThe War MachinesThe War Machines is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in 4 weekly parts from 25 June to 16 July 1966...
, a CybermanCybermanThe Cybermen are a fictional race of cyborgs who are amongst the most persistent enemies of the Doctor in the British science fiction television series, Doctor Who. Cybermen were originally a wholly organic species of humanoids originating on Earth's twin planet Mondas that began to implant more...
and a Zarbi). During these hallucinations, Dalek voices are heard chanting for subjugation, extermination, and destruction.
Production
- Working titles for this story included The Pandora Machine, Man Hours and The Pandora Box
- Features a guest appearance by Michael Sheard. See also Celebrity appearances in Doctor WhoCelebrity appearances in Doctor WhoThis is a list of actors who have made guest appearances in Doctor Who.-First Doctor stories:-Second Doctor stories:-Third Doctor stories:-Fourth Doctor stories:-Fifth Doctor stories:-Sixth Doctor stories:-Seventh Doctor stories:...
. - Some exteriors, primarily for Stangmoor Prison, were filmed in and around Dover CastleDover CastleDover Castle is a medieval castle in the town of the same name in the English county of Kent. It was founded in the 12th century and has been described as the "Key to England" due to its defensive significance throughout history...
. - This serial went so excessively over budget that its director, Timothy Combe, was not allowed to be considered for any subsequent Who work.
In print
A novelisation of this serial, written by Terrance DicksTerrance Dicks
Terrance Dicks is an English writer, best known for his work in television and for writing a large number of popular children's books during the 1970s and 80s.- Early career :...
, was published by Target Books
Target Books
Target Books was a British publishing imprint, established in 1973 by Universal-Tandem Publishing Co Ltd, a paperback publishing company. The imprint was established as a children's imprint to complement the adult Tandem imprint, and became well known for their highly successful range of...
in March 1985.
VHS, CD and DVD releases
- This story is unique amongst the Pertwee-era stories in that the BBC holds no complete colour copies of any of its episodes. Approximately four and a half minutes of colour footage from Episode Six exists on an off-air domestic NTSC BetamaxBetamaxBetamax was a consumer-level analog videocassette magnetic tape recording format developed by Sony, released on May 10, 1975. The cassettes contain -wide videotape in a design similar to the earlier, professional wide, U-matic format...
recording. - As a full set of b/w 16mm film recordings exists, the story was released on VHSVHSThe Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
in this format, on 5 May 1998. The colour scenes, restored by combining the colour signal from the off-air recording and the geometry from the film recording, were included as a bonus extra after the story. Several color clips from the story (presumably from as yet unreleased restoration of the B/W telerecordings) were included on the 2011 DVD release Day of the DaleksDay of the DaleksDay of the Daleks is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 1 January to 22 January 1972.-Synopsis:...
as part of the UNIT family history. - The original soundtrack for this serial was released on CD in the UK in February 2009. The linking narration was provided by Richard Franklin.
- A DVD of the serial is currently in production and expected for release by 2013.