Mindwarp

What is more important, my well being or your wealth?

Kiv

Synopsis

The Doctor and Peri arrive on Thoros-Beta, the home planet of his old foe, Sil.

Review

As I enter the latter half of watching through Trial of a Time Lord for the first time, I find myself really wondering where this is actually going. I know the major plot beats of this arc, however, I believed that Mindwarp was one of the stronger installments in this season.

I think that Mindwarp really betrays the chaos going on behind the scenes during Season 23, as I’m not entirely sure that anyone involved in the making of this story really knew where this block of stories or, in fact the whole arc, was going. I think this is a bigger issue in this story as the audience is presented with events that the Doctor disputes the veracity of. I think that Philip Martin has created a dark and sinister story that could work really well if handled and produced correctly, however, that is not the case here. I must stress that I am writing this whilst knowing vaguely where this series goes but not the finer details, and I have not yet seen Terror of the Vervoids or The Ultimate Foe, so I’m not sure where the finer points are going. One thing that frustrates me, and it is not exclusive to this story but the season as a whole, is that the Doctor is on trial and being shown scenes from the Matrix as part of his prosecution, but the Inquisitor seems adamant that the Matrix cannot be tampered with. This all calls into question the point of holding a trial like this if the Time Lords put such stock in the infallibility of the Matrix.

The story also shows the hypocrisy of the Time Lords. They are prepared to put the Doctor on trial for his interference in the events on other planets but do not bat an eyelid at getting themselves involved when events might challenge their position in the universe. When it becomes clear that Crozier’s research will offer up immortality, the Time Lords interfere, slowing down time to extract the Doctor, slow down time and ultimately send in Yrcanos to do their dirty work by killing everyone and presumably destroying the technology involved. We have always known the Time Lords are bad news since their first appearance in The War Games or their plans to stop the creation of the Daleks in Genesis of the Daleks, but this really depicts how much further they are willing to go.

That being said, Mindwarp has at least one distinct advantage over The Mysterious Planet in that the lighting seems to have been fixed. Where the first story in the season appeared to be overlit to the extreme, this one is full of dark and dingy-looking corridors and caves, which suits the tone of this story much better. An effect that I was less convinced by was the pink sea in the first episode, which I’m sure looked really impressive at the time and certainly works well in the establishing shots to make this feel like a truly alien environment but it doesn’t work so well when we get our shots of the Doctor and Peri walking along the beach, especially clashing with the Doctor’s coat. The situation behind the scenes probably didn’t help Jones, who is not renowned for being the show’s best director anyway, but the fact that actors such as Patrick Ryecraft admits not really knowing how he should play the part, which is something a good director should be able to do. I appreciate that nobody really seems to have been certain as to where this series long arc is going, but it should, at least, have some form of cohesion to lend itself to a coherent finished product, which I don’t think Mindwarp does.

That being said, I think that there are two real stand-out performances. The first comes from Nabil Shaban, reprising his role as Sil, who continues to be disgusting and reprehensible and his laugh is just horrible. Some of this story’s best scenes come with Shaban and Baker together, where the Doctor, presumably attempting to ingratiate himself with Sil and Kiv, is using his knowledge of future events to make them money. His relationship with Kiv is intended as a damning indictment of capitalism, which works to some extent, as they clearly value their wealth over the lives of others. The fact that they have no qualms about using a dead body or later Peri for Kiv’s brain shows their disregard for the sanctity of life and the lack of value they put in the lives of the poor. The other standout performance is that of Brian Blessed, as King Yrcanos. I will admit that I’m not the biggest fan of Blessed in general and approached his character with a degree of uncertainty, but I think that he is perfectly cast as this loud and brash warrior King and actually quite a lot of fun.

I’m not sure that the idea of the Sixth Doctor turning evil is as shocking as the production seems to want to convince us that it is, and it is all the more frustrating that we do not get answers immediately as to why he is acting in the way that he is. We have had a season of this Doctor being spiky and not pleasant towards his companion, with one story where the relationship seems to have been at least partially mended, but it is not surprising that he seems to sell her out again here. I think that the situation behind the scenes impacts on Baker’s performance as he doesn’t seem to entirely know how to play the Doctor here. Baker can play the unhinged Doctor really well and I am not opposed to the show using the protagonist in a different way so long as there is a clear motivation and reason for it to do so.

Ultimately, though, we have to talk about Peri, as this is her last television appearance. I do like Peri as a companion and feel that she has an exceptionally poor rap throughout the Colin Baker era, constantly being a victim to mad scientists and experimented on throughout, and Mindwarp makes a point of mentioning this, specifically her transformation into a bird in Vengeance on Varos. I wrote in my recent review of Frontios that my frustration with the tenure of Eric Saward as script editor is that he equates sophistication with violence and cruelty, which I think in the Baker era is mostly focused on giving Peri the worst possible ride of any companion in the show’s history: it’s little wonder that Peri mentions wanting to go home in this story. The story gives Peri a horrific fate, having her brain removed to give Kiv a new body so that he can survive, and then being murdered by a vengeful Yrcanos. Peri doesn’t even get a farewell scene with the Doctor and in fact, the last time the characters come face to face, the Doctor appears to sell her out. The fate of Peri lays firmly at the door of John Nathan-Turner, Philip Martin and Eric Saward, and the fact that the show later tries to backtrack on her ultimate fate almost goes to show the lack of confidence with the writing and direction that the show was going. The character deserved more, and once her fate was sealed in this story, a suitable solution wasn’t reversing it and stating that she was married to a character with whom she shared a small amount of screentime and questionable chemistry. Then again, it’s not the first time that a companion gets married off to someone they’ve just met.

Verdict: I wish I could like Mindwarp more than I did. Ultimately, I found it to be quite incoherent and jumbled. Brian Blessed and Nabil Shaban give good performances though. 5/10

Cast: Colin Baker (The Doctor), Nicola Bryant (Peri Brown), Michael Jayston (The Valeyard), Lynda Bellingham (The Inquisitor), Brian Blessed (King Yrcanos), Nabil Shaban (Sil), Christopher Ryan (Kiv), Patrick Ryecart (Crozier), Alibe Parsons (Matrona Kani), Trevor Laird (Frax), Thomas Branch (The Lukoser), Gordon Warnecke (Tuza) & Richard Henry (Mentor).

Writer: Philip Martin

Director: Ron Jones

Producer: John Nathan-Turner

Composer: Richard Hartley

Parts: 4

Original Broadcast Dates: 4th – 25th October 1986

Behind the Scenes

• This story had the working title of The Planet of Sil.
• Colin Baker found himself very confused about whether the sequences taking place in the story were real or being tampered with, and stated that neither Ron Jones nor Philip Martin knew either. Due to issues behind the scenes, he was not able to ask Eric Saward and John Nathan-Turner was apparently ambivalent.

Cast Notes

• Christopher Ryan would go on to play Sontaran General Staal in The Poison Sky/The Sontaran Experiment and Commander Stark in The Pandorica Opens.
• Alibe Parsons would go on to voice Nora in The Lost Resort.
• Trevor Laird would go on to play Trevor Jones, Martha’s father in Smith and Jones, The Sound of Drums and The Last of the Time Lords.

Best Moment

The scenes between Kiv and Sil are really wonderfully written.

Best Quote

You…killed…Peri…

The Sixth Doctor

Previous Sixth Doctor review: The Mysterious Planet

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