Customer Reviews

Doctor Who: The Brain of Morbius (Story 84)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Season Thirteen.
Much to the Doctors chagrin the Time Lords have taken control of the TARDIS, sending the Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith into very dangerous ground upon the stormlashed spaceship graveyard planet of Karn.
Sheltering from the rain in a castle atop a mountain, the Doctor encounters the surgeon Mehendri Solon, and his simple minded slave/assistant Condo conducting gruesome experiments on living flesh, but for what reason?
And now as a storm approaches, great evil from the depths of Time Lord history plots its return to the land of the living.
But can even the Doctor's mind, be a match for The Brain of Morbius.
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Four episodes of sumptuous gothic filled suspense, suspense that will suspend your everyday worries and cares, well at least for ninety minutes anyway. Mr Baker and Ms Sladen are on sparkling form, as is Philip Madoc, marvellously getting his teeth into a role he can go gloriously over the top with. Welsh born Madoc was a; "Who" semi regular, featuring in stories like The War Games as The War Lord, The Krotons as Eelek, and The Power of Kroll as Fenner. As well as the second Peter Cushing Dalek film. And with the passing of time, even writer Terrance Dicks no longer feels so bland towards this story anymore. For people like myself who finds the extras a nice touch, I did feel the extras were a bit on the weak side compared to some other releases.
Warning to the parents of little ones, the scene where Solon shoots Condo reveals a bit of blood, so a bit of parental discretion may be called for there.
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DVD Extras
Commentary by Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen, Philip Madoc, Philip Hinchcliffe and Christopher Barry .
Getting a Head:~ A new documentary about the making of the programme featuring Christopher Barry, Philip Hinchcliffe,writer Terrance Dicks, designer Barry Newbery, composer Dudley Simpson, and actors Philip Madoc, Cynthia Grenville, Colin Fay and Gillian Brown, with narration by Paul McGann
Designs on Karn: How the planet Karn was created, with designer Barry Newbery
Set Tour Take a walk around the studio sets with this 3D CGI reconstruction
Radio Times Billings: Listings from Radio Times on Pdf DVD Rom
Photo Gallery
Sketch Gallery
Coming Soon Trailer
Production Information Subtitles
Digitally remastered picture and sound quality.
Originally broadcast:~ 3rd January 1976 - 24th January 1976.
(Region 2 version now on sale at amazon.uk)

I out-and-out love this story. I've taken the typical "Doctor Who" fan's path to this point of view, however. I was riveted at age 11, embarrassed at age 16, and now celebrate it in all its campy glory. When the disembodied brain of Morbius fell onto the floor with an audible "splat!" late in Part Three, I actually cheered.

What's most impressive about the DVD release is the Restoration Team's attitude to the story. Now that the classic series DVDs have been coming out for almost ten years, and the greatest of the great stories have long since been released, and the available remaining stories come from deep in the third tier (and now, with the imminent release of Doctor Who: Four to Doomsday (Episode 118), the fourth tier), it is hard to predict what editorial slant the DVD extra features will take. I've been surprised, for example, by the coldness toward Doctor Who - Black Orchid (Episode 121), and I nodded along to the wistful revelation that Doctor Who: The Invisible Enemy/K9 and Company: A Girl's Best Friend just hasn't aged that well at all.

Fortunately, the DVD producers appear to love Morbius, and for roughly the same reasons that I do. They're perhaps a little too enamored of Philip Madoc's Shatner-esque turn as this story's Dr. Frankenstein stand-in, Solon. But everyone loves the dimly heroic Condo, the one-armed manservant standing in for Igor. Even Terrance Dicks, who took his name off the final version of the story, seems to have warmed up to it considerably -- and we know from many other past DVD releases that Uncle Terry isn't shy about picking a fight with a 35 year-old bit of TV history.

All in all, "Brain of Morbius" blends two elements of "Doctor Who" greatness. First, a terrific script by Robert Holmes, full of memorable insults ("That palsied harridan!") and throw-away world building (the lone reference to "the silent gas dirigibles of the Hoothi", which 15 years later was resurrected for Love and War (The New Doctor Who Adventures). And second, there's that fearless 1970's mentality that "We're going to get away with putting a rubber brain in a fishbowl and mounting that on an ill-fitting costume with chicken feathers and an enormous lobster claw".

The only curiosity is that, while the text commentary accurately describes Terrance Dicks' novel-writing career as including the Past Doctor Adventure Warmonger (Doctor Who), the writer curiously fails to mention that it was in fact a prequel to this story. Just as well, however. Unlike this DVD, you might want to give that book a miss.

Oddly memorable, perhaps not the best or worst of the Hinchcliffe-Holmes era, but filled with all the hallmarks that made Who such fun to watch.

I always enjoy the extras, having seen these episodes for decades. The restoration team/production team have been spicing up the extras on all DVDs very nicely. When Hinchcliffe, Baker and Sladen are on commentary it is always a treat. Philip Madoc also appears on the commentary, having made such a memorable performance.

"Getting A Head" is a nice little extra to illustrate all the ideas and work that went in behind the scenes. Poor Terrance Dicks describes his original idea which was put through the delectable Holmes sausage grinder. His original idea was actually quite solid, but too expensive or difficult to make, then rewritten by Holmes and labels as written by Robin Bland. Hearing all the main actors describe their experiences is many times quite humorous.

For $[...] this is a gem for anyone that enjoys the series, or anyone looking for a matinee entertainment. On Saturday afternoon PBS in the 80's it fell into a cultural null for any non-sports fan. These days it might look dated and clunky, but the writing of "Morbius" is still stronger than most TV in current broadcast, and it is more fun than most modern cinema since effects were limited and the actors and situations blazed forward.

Good stuff.

It doesn't take long until the viewer realizes that "The Brain of Morbius" is an unlikely concoction, a hodgepodge homage to any number of classics and not-so-classics, the chief ingredient being of course one of the key progenitors of the science fiction genre, Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein"--with a dash of late 20th-century paranoia, "They Saved Hitler's Brain" tossed into the brew for good measure. The risks taken here by the show's writers and producers, namely that the story collapse into a muddied incoherent mess or else come off as a stitched together patchwork of rip-offs, were significant but well worth it. What we have instead is a brilliant specimen of Doctor Who that draws on several interesting sources in good measure and synthesizes them into something highly original, thrillingly riveting, immensely entertaining, and uniquely characteristic of the show.

Who else, after all, could get away with a story so morbidly gruesome and yet so hilarious? "The Brain of Morbius" gets about as rough and gory as Saturday evening BBC TV in the 70's would allow, with a chilling premise underlining it all: an ingenious but twisted surgeon working to construct a body from spare parts for the preserved brain of his master, a Time Lord dictator presumed executed and long dead (All he needs is a good humanoid cranium, when who should show up at his castle door but the Doctor and Sarah Jane?). And yet moments of clever wit and cerebral comedy punctuate the story without defusing the horror in the least, nor does the overall horrific and moody atmosphere render the humor any less funny. Again, an unlikely combination of mutually conflicting elements somehow sublimates into a wonderful compound greater than the sum of its parts within the crucible of these four episodes. Indeed, this is a vividly memorable tale from early in Tom Baker's tenure as the fourth Doctor, one beloved by a vast majority of the show's fans--myself definitely included.

And what a fine release for October, just in time for Halloween!

Always loved this episode. Always will. Pure Doctor Who, this one will have your kids hiding under their beds, and rightfully so. Sacred Fire....Sacred Flame!!!! I can still hear that in my sleep. This one is well acted, well conceived and well received by the fans despite being a hodgepodge of many a story and a set. Baker, brilliant as always engages in a very curious battle of the minds with the villain. Is this Doctir really the 4th? Have there been more? The darkness in this episode works to great effect, but Baker's charm and wit never lets it get too scary. Pure fun!!!!

It's hard to believe it's been 30 years since Doctor Who came back to America in the form of Tom Baker, I missed the Pertwee episodes from their 1973 run (and in DC they were preempted that summer by the Watergate hearings).
I'd rush home from high school to see the show, a little fuzzy from the station in Baltimore.
But I was captivated.

This episode was one of the many great ones. Great mood that overcame any small defects.

I wonder if for this DVD they fixed the problem with episode one. In the epsiodic and combined version I saw, the first episode was missing the music and sound effects. It's fascinating to see from a technical standpoint how the sound and music contribute to the atmosphere and mood of a televised show.

I grew up watching Doctor Who on PBS. One of my earliest memories is the Wirrin falling out of the closet at the end of Part 2 of "Ark in Space". I never really got into "The Brain of Morbius". Until now. And now I know why. This story was apparently so controversial when it aired in Great Britain, that many UK, US and Australian viewers never saw the entire four-part story. I was one of those deprived viewers who, until I bought this DVD, thought that "The Brain of Morbius" was a choppy, poorly edited two-part adventure. This story is simply magnificent in its uncut four-part form and is truly one of the greatest stories of the early Tom Baker era if not the entire classic series. If like me you have expressed apprehension about buying this story on DVD because you owned the 1980s/1990s VHS release, go for it - you'll be glad you did!

Tom Baker is still the best Doctor in my eyes. This episode just shows his charm and wonder all over again. With faithful Sarah Jane at his side as always. Outside of Rose from the new show I think Sarah Jane was one if not the longest companion on the show. That's one thing I would love to see on the new show, a companion that last for four or five seasons with some other companions that come and go.

It's the mad scientist and Rocky Horror (w/o the sex) meets Dr. Who and the BBC. There's something for everyone! Cult worshippers, Sara Jane goes blind, the Dr. almost gets his head cut off... there's large insects combined with humans.... it's lots of fun!

The Tom Baker era episode entitled "The Brain of Morbius" the Doctor and Sarah have somehow managed to land on the desolate planet know as Karn. The Doctor is upset since he did not choose the planet or the destination. He realizes that the Time Lords have sent him there but without so much as a clue he must find out why. Meanwhile the sole inhabitants the Sisterhood of the Flame have felt the TARDIS land and fear that the Time Lords are after the very thing they protect the sacred flame and with it the exliar of life reserved for there high priestiess Marain. A woman who has feared the Time Lords since the days of the renegade known as Morbius. A Time Lord that left Gallifrey to conquer the universe and found the sisterhood and thier eilixr that would ensure those that follow him would be able to live forever.
Also on the planet is Doctor Solon a man who has gone to seclusion along with his lowly servent Condo. There he is working on an experiment and still looking for one last componet.
Sarah discovers a graveyard of downed spaceships. Its latest victim a deacpated insectoid creature. A storm begins and from the lightning they discover a castle a castle that Solon lives. While making thier way the sisterhood has brought the TARDIS to them and they realize that the Time Lords are here but not knowing who the Doctor is and why he is here. Meanwhile The Doctor and Sarah have been invited by Solon into thier home and he is overjoyed that two people have come to Karn. Solon has designs on the Doctor's head and even more so he thinks it will be the crown jewel in the expirment. To bring his master Morbius back to life. Solon secretly stole his brain moments before he was going to be atomized by the Time Lords for his crimes against them and the lesser races. Morbius is yearning to rise again but with word given to him that The Doctor is here he fears that the Time Lords have found him. Worse still he think the sisterhood maybe onto Solon. Will Morbius arise to take his claim of the planet and then the universe?