Sunday 6 March 2011

Dr Who: The Mind of Evil








'Mind Of Evil' was the second story of Jon Pertwee's second season as The Doctor, and ran from the end of January to the middle of March 1971. At six episodes, it's rather long winded and repetitive, but its basic premise, a mind control device designed to cure hardened criminals goes haywire in a high security prison, is a good one, and there are some excellent and quite ambitious scenes, including an action packed and rather violent UNIT assault on Dover Castle.

When I think of this particular story, I always think of the numerous scenes of people pulling faces as they fall under the control of the Keller Machine (it shows them what they fear most) and wonder why they didn't try harder to just stay away from the bloody thing.

This story only exists in black and white (thanks, BBC), although some attempts at colourising it have been made with varying results. I rather like it for the most part, but I'm sure the various superimposition shots used in the Keller Machine sequences would look suitably trippy in polychrome.

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