The Mind of Evil - Episode 4

I like the scene where the Master tries to show the machine who is boss and yet he is struggling to stay in control. When the machine is on, we see what his fear is and it’s the Doctor who is laughing at him. It’s a great little scene and it’s done really well. It’s the first time that the Master has shown any fear and it shows that behind the bravado, the Master suffers from the same problems as the Doctor and everyone else. Humiliation seems like odd fear but I suppose if your going to be scarred of someone laughing at you then it would be the Doctor.

Another scene that’s good is when the Doctor and Jo are reunited and the Doctor just wants to rest and the scene ends with Jo sobbing on the Doctor’s chest. It’s a nice emotional scene.

It takes until this episode to see a bit more of the Master’s plan. Luckily the Master shows us what his plan is and how Mailer becomes part of it. It was needed because it was slightly odd that they had taken control of the prison but not left. It was all revealed that the prison wasn’t far off the route that the rocket would be taking. The inevitable attack of on Captain Yates and the rocket was a good scene. It’s good how Yates gets to do something good for once. He starts off by locating the convicts and unfortunately gets caught. After the humiliating moment when he gets punched by Jo in the previous story, this is when he gets to be something close to an action hero. Well maybe hero is stretching it a bit but at least he gets to be a bit more manly than normal.

After three episodes of sitting in the one room, the Keller Machine can now move. This means that it becomes more dangerous than if it were just in the one room. I suppose it was the logical next step as all they would need to do is to just never go in that room again. It’s odd that we know very little about what’s inside the machine apart from the fact that the Master bought it too earth. I think due to what’s going on around the Doctor, the contents of the Keller machine is sort of forgotten.

Sadly the problems from the previous episode were evident again in this episode but it wasn’t as bad as before. Due to the action stuff with Yates and the stealing of the rocket, the episode seems better and as a result the story picked up. The padding was less noticeable than before and there were some good moments from everyone. Jon Pertwee and Katy Manning are really good together and I like how the Doctor makes a joke about how he has an amazing ability to go from being at deaths door to perfectly fine. With two more episodes, it seems like the story is starting to take shape and is heading to a great conclusion. Only time will tell.