The Mind Robber: Episode 1

It seems like only yesterday I was watching this Dr Who adventure on a Saturday night as an 8 year-old, so it was wonderful to see it again over 40 years later. The vividness of scenes like the encounter with the Minotaur and the Dr (wrongly) putting together Jamie's face I distinctly remembered. Patrick Troughton was therefore my first "Dr" although I still consider Jon Pertwee as "my Dr" but Troughton gave the character such life, with that mixture of mischief, childishness and curiosity which you still see manifested in recent Drs like David Tennant and particularly current incumbent Matt Smith. I also was fond of his companions of the time, the pretty but resourceful and spirited Zoe, played by Wendy Padbury and of course as a Scot myself, I related to Fraser Hines as out-of-time Highlander Jamie McCrimmon.

This particular adventure saw the threesome transported to a world where fictional characters somehow become real leading to a showdown between the Doctor and a reluctant head-librarian who wants the Doc to take his place as the guardian of fiction. Whilst some of the story seems padded unnecessarily, never more than when Jamie is replaced by a near- lookalike actor for half an episode (although I've since learned this was due to actor Frazer Hines falling ill during the shoot) and the would-be threatening robots and toy-soldiers wouldn't scare my granny, it just about hangs together even if the literary "guest stars" like Gulliver and Rapunzel seem somewhat arbitrary and you feel much more could have been done with so many other historical characters from which to choose.

That it entertains as much as it does is almost entirely due to the force of Pat Troughton's personality, who has the enthusiasm and energy of an actor half his age and effervesces every time the camera's on him. It really is a sin and a shame that so many of his episodes have been wiped by cultural vandals at the BBC, but then I suppose I should be grateful some episodes exist at all, especially such a good set as this.