Who Review: The Brain of Morbius

The Doctor and Sarah emerge from the TARDIS on the planet Karn, a planet the Doctor knows well because he was born nearby–relatively speaking. Much to his annoyance, the Doctor suspects the Time Lords have diverted him here to investigate something. Sarah finds the remains of wrecked ships, and a decapitated mutant creature. Then a thunderstorm forces them to take shelter in a nearby castle. There they are received by Dr. Mehendri Solon, master surgeon, and his assistant, Condo. Solon’s admiration of the Doctor’s head is of passing interest. The fact he has a bust of renegade Time Lord Morbius is more concerning. Morbius was executed by the Time Lords for his despicable crimes, and thought dead. But it seems his brain survived, and now Dr. Solon, a fully-fledged member of the Cult of Morbius,  is creating a new body for him, if only he can find a suitable head. And what more fitting head for a Time Lord brain than that of a fellow Time Lord? The Doctor, aided by the Sisterhood of Karn, must stop Solon before he uses the Doctor’s head to resurrect one of the most evil criminals the universe has known…

SPOILER ALERT!! My comments may (and likely will) contain spoilers for those that haven’t seen this serial. If you want to stay spoiler-free, please watch the story before you continue reading!

Robert Holmes does Frankenstein in another classic Classic Who story. Originally penned by former script editor Terrance Dicks, changes needed to be made due to budget constraints. However, Dicks was on holiday, so Holmes went ahead with his rewrites and polishes. When Dicks read the final script, it was so far removed from his original vision, he asked his name to be removed. In anger, he told Holmes to credit it to “some bland name.” Following BBC rules, Holmes couldn’t be listed as script editor and writer, so he took Dicks’s advice and used the authorial pseudonym “Robin Bland.”

All the elements of the Frankenstein movies are there: the musty old castle, the strangers taking shelter from a thunderstorm, the mad professor, his strong but simple assistant, and, of course, the monster, stitched together by the professor’s own hands. The twist here is that the monster needs a head, and good ones are hard to come by. So the monster lies dormant, while Morbius’s brain sits in a jar of green goo, waiting for its new body.

This story introduces us to the Sisterhood of Karn, a mystic sect of women who guard a sacred flame that gives them the elixir of life. This elixir gives the ladies longevity, a gift they accuse the Time Lords of trying to steal from them. When the Doctor turns up, they immediately accuse him of being sent by the Time Lords to take their elixir. It takes a good amount of the story for the Doctor to convince them that Time Lords only need the elixir in emergency situations, and he is actually there to help. Initially it seems the Sisterhood don’t really serve much story purpose, and are there simply for padding. However, they become embroiled in the plot as Solon tries to persuade them to leave the Doctor’s head for him after they execute him. Later, they help with the Doctor’s rescue, since they are just as opposed to Morbius’s return as the Time Lords. At the end of the story, with the Doctor perilously close to death, the Sisterhood give him the last of the elixir that he might live.

For Classic Who fans, it was a double delight when, in 2013, Steven Moffatt not only brought back the Eighth Doctor for a special mini episode, “The Night of the Doctor,” but he brought him back to Karn. There the Sisterhood again save his life by giving him elixir, this time prompting a regeneration into the “War Doctor.”

It seems redundant for me to say how good the performances are, because for the most part, the main cast of Doctor Who always do really well. But here in particular, we have the inimitable Philip Madoc as Solon, with all the charm and manic overtones his character demands. Of course the Doctor and Sarah (Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen) are wonderful to watch, playing off each other so well. I think Sladen was an underrated actress in her day. She plays Sarah Jane Smith with such conviction and humanity, reacting to even the most incredible situations so convincingly.

Condo is an interesting character. If Robert Holmes had kept Terrance Dicks’s original scripts, there would be no Condo. Condo seems like a brute, but he softens to Sarah, objecting to Solon’s demands that he kill her. He lacks an arm that Solon has promised to replace when he has finished with Morbius. When he sees that Solon used his arm for the Morbius monster, he turns on his master. These are lovely twists of character that add depth to the story.

Dicks’s biggest objection to Holmes’s changes was something about which, I must admit, he’s right. Namely, if Mehendri Solon is the greatest surgeon in the universe, why did he do such a bad job with the Morbius monster? While that’s an important point, it’s easy to come up with reasons why his Morbius body is such a mess (lack of decent parts, inadequate materials, unsatisfactory working environment, Solon’s addled mind, etc.). Perhaps another plot hole that’s glossed over is the fact that when the Doctor challenges Morbius to a Time Lord “mind bend,” Solon just happens to have the appropriate equipment set up and ready for them in his laboratory! What would Solon have used this for?

All-in-all, this is another must-see Classic Who story. There’s humor (Solon’s line regarding Morbius: it will be “my crowning achievement–sorry, I couldn’t resist the pun.”), and great design ideas, like having the brain hooked up to a stretched vocal cord membrane, which is connected to an amplifier, thus enabling Morbius to speak from his jar. And then there’s the infamous mind bending contest, where we see regenerations prior to the First Doctor. Fans have found ways of reconciling that with the later revelation that Time Lords have only 13 lives, but at the time, the intention was that the faces flashing past were all the Doctor.

There is some rather graphic violence, when Solon shoots Condo, and we see blood spurt out. This is very unusual for Doctor Who in any era, even today, and the BBC received complaints at the time. It does reflect, however, the darker, edgier feel the production team were trying to bring to the show, expanding it beyond the domain of children to draw in older members of the family. I think they succeeded.

Buy the DVD. Watch it online. Whatever, no Whovian should miss this one!