June 27, 2009

Doctor Who #84: The Brain of Morbius

Title: Doctor Who: “The Brain of Morbius
Year: 1976
Network: BBC
Creators: Sydney Newman, C.E. Webber, Donald Wilson
Director: Christopher Barry
Writers: Terrance Dicks & Robert Holmes
Starring: Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen
Music: Ron Grainer (theme), Dudley Simpson
Episodes: 4, at 25 minutes; the 5th story (of 6) from season 13
Synopsis: a mad scientist is assembling a body for an evil brain-in-a-jar
How I saw it: on video (rented from Netflix), October 2008
Subjective Rating: 6/10 (Okay).
Objective Rating: 7/10 (points off for cinematography, special effects/design and acting) c. 2.6/4 (Good).

This is from the era when Doctor Who was in its prime: Tom Baker's Doctor with Sarah Jane, up against sci-fi versions of classic horror stories. It's not a very good episode - one of the worst from the period - but still good.

1 comment:

  1. I think The Brain of Morbius is pretty good, too. Terrance Dicks may have been sufficiently annoyed at the rewrites to demand having his name taken off the scripts, but I'd have been proud to have had *my* name on them.

    And I wish the new series would give us some moments like the one where Condo gets shot in the gut!

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