Doctor Who: The Brain Of Morbius: The Tom Baker Years 1974

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Title: Doctor Who: The Brain Of Morbius: The Tom Baker Years 1974 – 1981

Region: One

Genre: British Sci-Fi TV Series

Stars: Tom Baker, Elizabeth Sladen, Philip Madoc, Cynthia Grenville, Colin Fey, and Gillian Brown

Writer: Robin Bland

Director: Christopher Barry

Feature length: 99 minutes

Extras: Audio Commentary with Actors Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen, and Philip Madoc, Producer Hinchcliffe, and Director Christopher Barry, Getting A Head Making Of Documentary, Designs On Karn Featurette, Set Tour, Photo Gallery, Sketch Gallery, Production Note Option, DVD-ROM: Radio Times Billings PDF File

Languages: English Monaural Sound

Subtitles: English Subtitles for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired

Packaging: Keep Case

Chapter Stops: 6 Per Episode/ 4 Episodes

Sound: Monaural Sound

Year of Television Broadcast 1976/DVD Release: 2008

Home Video Distributor: BBC Video

MPAA Rating: Not Rated

Reviewer: Mark A. Rivera

With the TARDIS being controlled by the Time Lords, thrusting The Doctor (Tom Baker) and Sarah Jane (Elizabeth Sladen) into dangerous situations, the duo find themselves on the planet Karn, where the Elixir of Life exists and is protected by a sisterhood of immortals determined to protect what left they have at any cost. Long ago, the renegade Time Lord, Morbius, once a member of The High Council, attempted a revolution with thousands of followers, who he promised to share the Elixir of Life with. The Time Lords defeated Morbius and he was executed. Yet the brilliant scientist Mehendri Solon (Philip Madoc) managed to rescue Morbius’ brain and then took it to Karn where no one would be likely to discover it and where he has used bits and pieces of crashed alien travelers, who the sisterhood caused to crash out of fear the ships passing within range, were after their precious elixir. When Solon realizes that a Time Lord has arrived on Karn, he conspires to literally take Doctor’s head to house the brain of Morbius and thus finish the body he has created, which was designed based on efficiency and not aesthetics. Thus the body of Morbius is an abomination. The sisterhood has also been alerted to The Doctor’s arrival, and attempt to kill him because they think he has come to take the last of their elixir. When the Doctor manages to escape death twice, Solon places Morbius’ brain into a dangerous plastic brain case, which is susceptible to static electricity in the cranial cavity and thus can upset the equilibrium and dislocate neural centers.

Doctor Who: The Brain Of Morbius is a great episode for Halloween even though the episode first aired in January of 1976. It is basically a Frankenstein type story that calls to mind the glory days of Hammer Studios too. The episode is also noteworthy for it’s production design, particularly with Solon’s castle interiors. Presented in a (1.33:1) broadcast aspect ratio, Doctor Who: The Brain Of Morbius looks about average for a show shot entirely on 1970s video. There is a bit of video noise from age, but otherwise, the episode looks okay. A clear English Monaural Soundtrack is provided along with English Subtitles for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired encoded as options. An audio commentary for all four episodes is included and it features Actors Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen, and, Philip Madoc, Producer Hinchcliffe, and Director Christopher Barry. Tom Baker may not be The Fourth Doctor anymore, but he still has the great sense of humor that embodied much of his performance as the Doctor during his heyday and at times he has everyone participating in the audio commentary. Elizabeth Sladen makes comments to reflect upon how much classic Doctor Who has informed David Tenant’s performance as the Tenth Doctor in the new series and also remarks on the impact that Star Wars has had on sci-fi feature films and television. An informative production note text commentary can be turned on while watching the program too. Interestingly the original story would have had a robot as the sole survivor of a spaceship crash containing Morbius. Simply following it’s programming to save and protect Morbius at all cost, the robot was to be the one responsible for constructing the Morbius Monster.

With two episodes having already been produced that pitted the Doctor against a robot, it was decided that the story elements needed revising. Forbidden Planet is the inspiration behind the evil renegade Time Lord’s name for the episode. This information is covered with great detail in the making of documentary Getting A Head (32:45), which features interviews with Director Christopher Barry, Producer Philip Hinchcliffe, Writer Terence Dicks, Designer Barry Newbery, Composer Dudley Simpson, and Actors Philip Madoc, Cynthia Grenville, Colin Fey, and Gillian Brown. Paul McGann, who portrayed The Eighth Doctor in the 1996 BBC/American Television movie, narrates the documentary. The documentary is supported by a production design featurette (6:11) and virtual set tour using computer graphics (2:12). The documentary, production design featurette, and virtual tour are all presented in a widescreen 16 by 9 television aspect ratio. Motion photo and sketch galleries and a PDF file containing the Radio Times billings that is accessible for DVD-ROM users wraps up the bonus features on this DVD release. The interactive menus are well rendered and easy to navigate.

Doctor Who: The Brain Of Morbius: The Tom Baker Years 1974 – 1981 will debut on Region One NTSC DVD Video on Tuesday, October 7, 2008 courtesy of BBC Video.

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