PLOTLINE  

To escape a catastrophic volcanic eruption the Doctor takes the TARDIS out of space and time - and into a void he can only describe as 'nowhere'. But the crisis is far from over and when the time-machine's circuits overload, the TARDIS explodes. The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe come to in a dark unearthly forest. There they encounter a host of characters who seem somehow familiar: a beautiful princess with long flaxen hair, a sea traveler dressed in eighteenth-century clothes, and a white rabbit frantically consulting his pocket watch...What is happening to the three time-travelers? What strange power guides their actions? In the Land of Fiction who can really tell?

COMMENT - PENDING SUBMISSION

This is an unabridged reading by Derek Jacobi (The Master shortly before John Simm took over, remember) of the DOCTOR WHO TARGET paperback adaptation of DOCTOR WHO - THE MIND ROBBER published in 1987. Written by CROSSROADS veteran Peter Ling, the man who wrote the original serial, this was his only work on DOCTOR WHO but we're in safe hands. This Troughton five-part gem was broadcast in 1968: it was the second story to air in Season 6 (Troughton's final season as the Doctor) and followed the stodgy THE DOMINATORS. The story was released on VHS cassette in the UK in 1990 and finally released on DVD in 2005.

This tale is set in what was subsequently defined (in DOCTOR WHO fiction produced much later) as an artificial 'pocket universe' called the Land of Fiction in which fictional characters are brought to life to amuse their creator(s). The Doctor arrives by chance in a wince-provoking fashion: dodging a volcanic upheaval (set up in the last episode of the previous story) which for some reason is defined as a serious threat to the TARDIS. Oh well, it was 1968.

The Doctors primary foe is confusingly referred to as 'The Master' but this issue is touched on in the narrative: note the phrase 'master tape ' to understand where Ling is coming from (and remember that the Master would not be adopted as the label for Pertwee's arch nemesis until 1971). This 'Master' is later identified as a writer of British boys' fiction from the 1920s with a prolific output, who is being used to 'build' the Land of Fiction and he is set on passing on this responsibility to the Doctor with a view to capturing the entire population of the planet Earth.

The story works as a surreal adventure because anything can happen: we are not in the terrestrial comfort zone we might associate with Pertwee, say; this is an environment which is controlled by the Doctors' enemy to such a degree that one is at a loss to determine how the Doctor may triumph as he battles the mind games of The Master. In that sense, the story feels like Hartnell's THE CELESTIAL TOYMAKER. If this thing has a serious defect, it's that its plot rather than character driven: Troughton's Doctor, Jamie and Zoë have all been presented to better effect elsewhere. But this is a very good plot and Ling has the capacity to throw in many intriguing touches.

The opening sentence sets the comic edge to the story ('It all began with a bang.') the Master's '5,000 words a week for 25 years' could be a nod towards veteran boys comics writer Frank Richards (creator of Billy Bunter). The Karkus is defined as a 'superhero' but he's an odd concept of one; and his name is pronounced 'carcase'. The Doctor's comment about Earth in the year 2000 -- 'A nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there' seems strangely wrong; and the quip 'I've yet to meet a robot that can climb' has dated badly.

Jacobi's avuncular delivery compliments Troughton's perfectly and while his robotic reading of the Karkus' dialogue seem misjudged this BBC AUDIO release is pretty near-perfect.

Read the review of the DVD release of THE MIND ROBBER