Day 301 — October 28th 2021
Mawdryn Undead Parts Three and Four
Mawdryn Undead — Part Three
There’s a lot of interesting ideas introduced in this episode, but I’m not sure they’ve landed for me quite as well as the ideas in the last one did. The key thing introduced here is the idea that Mawdryn and his followers are in their current situation because they tried to steal regeneration from the Time Lords as a plot to extend their own lives and it’s backfired on them by leaving them in a state of permanent regeneration and decay.
Mawdryn: ‘The atmosphere of the Tardis was suitable. But without those influences we degenerate.’
Nyssa: ‘But can never die?’
Mawdryn: ‘It is the Time Lords’ curse.’
Doctor Who: ‘It’s the result of your own criminal ambition.’
I think the problem is that I need a bit more context as to exactly who these people are. Presumably they weren’t Time Lords in the first place, in which case how did they get hold of the machinery from Gallifrey? Maybe this is something which will come up in the next episode, but it could do with a line from Doctor Who here saying that he’s heard legends of these people but never believed in them. Mawdryn says that the ‘Elders’ of his world exiled them because of their condition — is the implication there that they weren’t necessarily exiled for stealing the technology in the first place? Could the idea have been initially sanctioned by those very same Elders? After four episodes in which Christopher Bailey built a society I totally believed in and could imagine a full history for, this one feels like it’s skimming over details and leaving me with more questions than answers.
All the same, the idea itself is sound, and I love the bitterness that Mawdryn has about the Time Lords letting them linger on like this when they have the capability to help them. The design of the degenerates here is great, and I love the way the almost appear to float around the ship — I think they’re definitely an inspiration for the Cloister Wraiths in Hell Bent.
I do have an issue with all the hand-wringing our companions do about Mawdryn’s identity, though. They spend a solid two thirds of this episode debating whether or not to believe the creature in front of them is Doctor Who going through a troubled regeneration or someone else pretending to be him. Tegan acts as the prosecution (and does a good job at it, too) while Nyssa is the defence. The ’77 Brigadier hedges his bets but ultimately comes down with caution on Nyssa’s side.
But there’s no drama or tension in any of this for us watching at home — we know he’s not Doctor Who, because we’re following Doctor Who’s story at the same time. I think this is the kind of thing you could get away with were Peter Davison to sit an episode out. Have him go into the transmat capsule, have Ny6ssa and Tegan find the burned body inside it later on, and then spend 25 minutes wondering what the truth is. You can even give Doctor Who a proper hero moment, turning up for the cliffhanger to reveal that they’ve been in the company of an imposter.
6/10
Mawdryn Undead — Part Four
I’ll tell you what, David Collings is very good as Mawdryn. There’s a moment in this one where, in spite of the silly make up and ‘sci-fi’ costume, you get some genuine emotion from him and it’s surprisingly moving;
Mawdryn: ‘It is finished, Doctor. Can this be death?’
Now I come to think of it, the Fifth Doctor Who will echo these sentiments in his own final moments.
It’s also a nice change of pace to have some baddies in this one who aren’t actually evil as such — they’re not forcing Doctor Who to do anything against his will, and they’re only trying to end their own suffering in the only way they possibly can. Even when they confirm that they knew Nyssa and Tegan had been infected and so Doctor Who wouldn’t have much choice to return, it’s still not part of some evil plot, just a side effect of their past actions.
And besides, I don’t think Doctor Who can really claim the moral high ground when it comes to nicking stuff from the Time Lords, can he?
Interestingly — or perhaps oddly — this episode treats the idea of ‘a Time Lord’ as being someone with the ability to regenerate. It suggests that had Mawdryn and his followers been able to make the machinery work then it would have made them Time Lords, and this episode doubles down on the assertion that if Doctor Who runs out of regenerations then he’s not one any more;
Mutant: ‘Do not be afraid. When the moment comes, we will all share in
the life force of the Doctor. Our mutation will end. You will no longer
be contaminated.’
Nyssa: ‘And the Doctor won’t be a Time Lord any more.’
It’s a strange approach to take and I’m not sure I’m a huge fan of it. When he announced in the cliffhanger to Part Three that helping Mawdryn would be ‘the end of me as a Time Lord’ I assumed it was simply because he’d have been helping them where his people had already refused, but no. I’m sure there’s a whole novel or audio out there somewhere which explains all this away, but it has made me wonder if that means Matt Smith wasn’t technically a Time Lord until he’s granted some new lives in his final episode?
There’s some nice stuff in this one, and some bits that I think would have really stuck out for me as a kid. Nyssa and Tegan becoming more and more decayed as the sickness takes hold is genuinely horrible, and for some reason I find the idea of them reverting to children just as creepy. I love the concept of the two Brigadiers touching being the thing which saves the day, but I also wish they’d made more of it. It’s inevitable that it’s going to happen, but there’s no energy or tension in the scenes leading up to it. I want more moments of the two Brigs just missing each other as they explore the ship. And I know it’s churlish of me to do so, but I’m counting the ’77 Brig and the ’83 Brig as separate people for the purposes of my ‘Guest Characters inside the TARDIS’ tracker.
Overall I think this is much stronger than I’d remembered, but I think it could do with a bit of a further polish. Some tighter direction, another going over on the script and this would easily be a proper classic.
7/10
