The Masque of Mandragora - Episode 2

The Doctor uses humour to get out of feeling the chop from the executioner. It’s the future as far as Doctor Who during Tom Baker’s time is concerned. After escaping he manages to run around the set of the Prisoner which is worth it because it does look beautiful.  Sarah spends the first part of this episode about to be sacrificed. She is rescued by the Doctor just in the nick of time. There cant be many more ways that Sarah can be put in significant peril so its just as well that it does last too much into this episode.

There is a small bit of interest in what is going on between Giuliano and Federico. Giuliano is worried that if Federico is ruler he will stifle learning. I like Jon Laurimore and think that  his performance is just behind Norman Jones’. Gareth Armstrong’s Giuliano is a bit wetter but due to Armstrong’s performance its not as wet as it could be. Norman Jones returns to Doctor Who as Hieronymous, he had previously appeared as Major Baker and here he is just as intense as he was in the story. His performance is somewhat overshadowed by his huge beard. That is a beard and a half that he wears in this story.

It’s not an episode that feels like it has a lot of padding but I would be at a push to try and describe any of the major points of this episode. The whole thing plods along at a good pace and I thought that the performances of several people helped make this more interesting. I don’t find any to do with predicting the stars and horoscopes and all that stuff so that’s maybe why I have never found this story to be particularly interesting. However it does have a small charm to it and I am still looking forward to the final episodes.