The Brain of Morbius - Episode 1

The Brain of Morbius is one of those stories used to highlight the Hinchcliffe era and one of those that was used to beat the show with during calls that it was too violent. This story was written by Terrance Dicks however due to ‘creative differences’ he withdrew his name from the script and Robert Holmes put a rather amusing name. Robin Bland is credited to writing this four part story so there wont be any more reference to Terrance Dicks or the creative issues. After being slightly disappointed with the previous story, I was hoping that the same problem would occur here. Like the first episode of ‘The Android Invasion’, it starts off in quite a dark tone. The opening shot is of what looks like a mutt from ‘The Mutants’ having its head cut off by a strange figure.

This episode sees the return of Philip Madoc. Madoc plays Doctor Solon who is quite obsessed with finding a human head. I love the way that he is being as nice as pie when the Doctor and Sarah arrive at his home. By the end of the episode, the Doctor and Sarah have been drugged just after the Doctor realised that a sculpture was in fact Morbius. The Doctor is conscious long enough for us to learn that he’s not perhaps the nicest person to have ever existed and thus this means that Solon is equally as sinister.

Christopher Barry returns to the directing chair and there is only one shot that really doesn’t work and I would have left out and it’s the blink and you’ll miss it shot of a chandelier falling onto the table. It looks like it has been sped up because it was done slowly and just doesn’t work in the course of the scene and it’s the one thing that lets the episode down.

Apart from Solon, the episode focuses on the Sisterhood who are at this time concerned with the elixir that is burning itself out. The sisterhood are worried that the Doctor has been sent by the Timelords to steal the flame. I have never really been a big fan of the Sisterhood in this story as I felt that they go in the way of the plot.  This time however I think that it actually works in the stories benefit. That’s because it does a great job of making the Timelords to be quite happy to meddle in the affairs of other planets and civilisations.

The cliffhanger is quite a good one as Sarah discovers what we know is Morbius but at this moment in time is a headless creature. It’s been a sound opening episode and I feel a lot more warmly to this episode than I did during the previous four. The performances were all perfect for the setting and I think that Christopher Barry has done a great job. I am optimistic that the rest of this story will live up to this episode and the slight disappointment of the previous story is soon to become a distant memory.