i've always liked Mawdryn Undead, but it had been so long since i'd seen it that i couldn't really remember why, and i was willing to be proved wrong. the first ten minutes of the thing led me to believe that maybe i had been wrong, as the Turlough and Hibbotson Steal The Brig's Car theme and sequence seem to foreshadow (no pun intended) a miserable pace, but pretty soon thereafter things get moving. i was pleasantly surprised at how briskly the story progressed and how efficiently the plot twists. as it turns out, i actually liked this story at least as much as upon previous viewings. i'm not usually quick to fawn over a story, and certainly not one from this particular era of DW, but this is pretty solid stuff. certain new Doctor Who episodes are conceived with much less care, and deliver much less. and yes, of course i am turning a blind eye to the silly plot resolution and the tedious uselessness of the Black Guardian. "yay, the 2 Brigadiers touching each other saved the day!"
you try working that sentence into any other conversation.
the design, props and fx are all fun and unusually not-embarassing, and the characterizations work for me almost without fail. it scores extra points for being a story that is marginally about Time Lord stuff that doesn't get bogged down by that fact. the very idea of the alien scientists lusting for death as they live forever in regenerative torment is great fun for the whole family.
Peter Davison is much maligned as being wrong for the part, or as Norma Norman put it, "not Doctor-ish enough", but i think if we're being honest, it's more a case of "not being Tom Baker." in this episode he more than once reminded me of the Second Doctor in a good way. i just accidentally typed "in a food way" and tried to convince myself to back up that argument somehow. anyway, when push comes to shove, i believe Davison has the skills to pay the bills in his own right; a smart balance of familiar and unique.
when you fall unconscious and wake up in what appears to be a bad special effects generator and a man with a stuffed bird on his head scowls at you and immediately blackmails you into killing someone, you can't be surprised to find out they're a bad-guy. unless yr Turlough, i guess. if he was written/acted to be not very likeable, then they did a real bang-up job. is it me or did everyone seem very passe about his advanced knowledge of sci-fi technology?
just why did the Black Guardian choose to enlist Turlough, of all people? why suddenly worry about the Doctor just then? hadn't the randomizer been uninstalled for some time? were they hoping to cast Burgess Meredith as the Black Guardian, but had to settle for casting Valentine Dyall as Burgess Meredith? Does the Tall Man from Phantasm go out drinking with the Black Guardian? if the answer to all of these questions is YES, it still doesn't make any sense.
wasn't it established before and after this story that The Brigadier has a wife? i'm sure this is explained away in a later adventure or somesuch, but really- the Brigadier sat around at a boys' school for at least 7 years? teaching math??? i'm just not feeling that at all. Norma Norman purports to be a fan of the Brigadier and who can blame her? i refuse to be drawn into the UNIT dating thing here, because that would be a waste of time and i don't need any help with that, thanks. oh and the black and white flashback of monsters the Brigadier has fought makes me drool and clap.
Tegan's outfit is so hot that it almost makes up for her character, but i say that about alot of people. really though, she's less annoying than usual in this story. full disclosure: i have never been able to care much for her, as a character, but Norma Norman says she is at least comparable to Nyssa quality. i put this down to her not having been exposed to enough Tegan to know any better. Nyssa is not only well-characterized, but bringing sexy back in this one too, foreshadowing (sorry again) her striptease in the next story. Mawdryn is a a great supporting character with great character design, well-written and well-performed. neat.
"that music!"
apart from that wretched joyride theme it's not half-bad, positioned though it is in an era of almost indisputably dodgy incidental music. 'interesting music performed competently with much less interesting sounds', to put it as harshly as possible.
the bottom line:
Norma Norman went "WHAT!?" in sheer disbelief at the plot thickening at least 3 times. when asked if she liked it she said, and i quote, "yeah, it was good."
the DW Heretic Rating: 8/10
B is for "Brigadiers touching each other"
