The Mind of Evil

A revolutionary new process in reforming hardened criminals is being tested at Stangmoor Prison. Intregued, the Doctor and Jo go to observe and discover that the Keller Machine - named after its creator, Emil Keller - does not exactly function as promised; the latest prisoner is reduced to the mental level of a child, and the machine itself begins to operate on its own and cause mysterious deaths. Meanwhile, the Brigadier and UNIT are charged with not only the security of a tense world peace conference, but with the safe disposal of a nuclear powered nerve gas missile. Both situations appear unconnected until the Master arrives on the scene; creating a prison break to supply him with an army of thugs who will help him steal the missile and threaten the peace of the world. The Doctor finds himself fighting not only the Master, but the evil mind parasite that has began to grow in the Keller Machine, its appetite for human minds growing beyond all control.

Well, Jo seems to be settling into her role nicely as companion and a valuable member of UNIT. Her bumbling from the previous adventure left behind, Jo takes a bit more charge, even foiling the first attempted prison break and holding a gun on the ringleader. The Doctor grow a bit here as well; he's enjoying having Jo as his assistant - that's obvious - and he demonstrates his range of language skills by speaking Hokean to the Chinese ambassador and dropping Mao Tse Tung's name to get past bureacracy. He is still haunted by the spectres of his past as well; the mind parasite attempts to use the memories of his old enemies such as Cybermen, Ice Warriors and Daleks to frighten him and kill him, but it picks out the Doctor's recent visit to parallel Earth in Inferno and uses the fire against him as well. The Doctor's tough, but even this almost kills him. And the Master. Well, he's still evil. And he's now bent on destroying Earth by one way or another; having lost his Nestene allies, he's going to try to plunge the planet into war. Just because he can.

My friend Miriam joined me for the second half of the adventure (episodes 4, 5 and 6) and was puzzled by the episode's lack of colour. Yes, again we have another story with no colour footage save for a few snippets used in the documentary More than 30 Years in the TARDIS and a bit that gets tacked onto the end of the tape; not enough to warrant the same treatment that was rendered for The Ambassadors of Death. Alas, Miriam was a bit on the delerious side from a cold she had and probably thought she was hallucinating most of what she saw. Mind you, when the Doctor examines the mind parasite inside the machine, she suggested poking it in the eye to put a stop to it.

The Master escapes again, taunting the Doctor at his exiled status and promising to return to destroy Earth as he goes. What a charmer. And he's back very soon...

NEXT EPISODE : THE CLAWS OF AXOS