216 The Mind Robber: Episode Two

EPISODE: The Mind Robber: Episode Two
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 216
STORY NUMBER: 045
TRANSMITTED: 21 September 1968
WRITER: Peter Ling
DIRECTOR: David Maloney
SCRIPT EDITOR: Derrick Sherwin
PRODUCER: Peter Bryant
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who: The Mind Robber

Jamie & Zoe each find themselves in a maze like series of rock columns. Jamie is attacked by a soldier turning into a picture. Zoe finds a large wooden door but falls into pit. They are watched by an observer who searches for the Doctor. The Doctor wakes up and calls out for his friends, but quickly realise there are soldiers searching for him, life size toy soldiers. The Doctor is confronted by a stranger speaking a foreign tongue, but he persuades him to speak English. He says he set sail Bristol on May 4th 1699 and lost his companions on voyage before he leaves the Doctor. Next The Doctor finds a group of children, who ask him riddles. He finds Jamie's picture but the face is missing. He has to re-assemble the face from puzzle pieces but gets it wrong giving Jamie a new face. They find Zoe and answer another riddle freeing her. When Zoe stops for a rest, Jamie climbs a column for a better view and discovers he's standing on a letter, in a forest of words. He reads the words to the Doctor who deduces they are proverbs. The stranger returns but speaks loudly giving them away to the soldiers who find them and the take time travellers away. They find themselves in black void where they are charged by the unicorn from Jamie's dream.

That's certainly the oddest episode for a long while. In many ways it's similar to the Celestial Toymaker trapping the Tardis crew in a very strange environment with some echoes of childhood thrown in.

The stuff with Jamie's face was inserted at the last minute: Fraser Hinds went down with the Chicken Pox. The actor that replaced him, Hamish Wilson, is not Fraser's cousin as is frequently claimed. The brief scene with Fraser Hines was filmed later in the series when Hines returned to work. Fraser's Hines brother, Ian, does appear in this series as a guard. One of the children in this episode is Sylvestra Le Touzel now a noted actress. The Stranger, identity to be revealed later in the series, is a first Who appearance for Bernard Horsfall who'll be back for the War Games, Planet of the Daleks and The Deadly Assassin, all three directed by David Maloney.

The Unicorn in this story is, of course, a horse with a horn attached to it's head. It was filmed at night on location. Unfortunately the wrong colour horse was supplied. So the horse made up using white Blanco!