The Mind Robber

One of the best of the best. Yes, the story meanders, but that's part of its charm. The image of Jamie and Zoe in the white void is terrifying, the duel between fictional characters could have gone on longer, and Bernard Horsfall is hilarious as Gulliver. Despite how tangential and weird everything feels, there is a theme here of the power of imagination and the importance of individuality, two things that define Troughton's Doctor. There's almost always something crazy to see here and it's never boring, especially with so many classic moments (the wishing wrll, the Karkus, Jamie's face, the forest of words, Medusa, etc.). This is the sort of story that can break a lesser series,but Doctor Who rises to the occasion and is all the better for it. The cliffhanger of part one is my all-time favorite in all of Who.

I absolutely love this story. It is one of the strangest pieces of television ever created. The opening is amazing as the TARDIS crew navigate a mysterious landscape of illusions and descend into an abstract nightmarescape. As things become clearer the story cranks the weirdness up a notch in a different direction as fictional characters come to life and the impressionist minimalism is replaced with a mishmash diorama of children's icons. The plot is a bit weaker through the third part but comes back together for a battle of wits as the Doctor must rewrite reality and win the day with the power of imagination. The whole thing is bonkers from start to finish and utterly unique.

This story is very similar in type to the William Hartnell era story The Celestial Toymaker (although this is quite a lot better). It is, like that story, a whimsical trip into a weird make believe world controlled by a sinister power. This idea was returned to again later in the classic series to some extent with aspects of a couple of stories (e.g. Warrior's Gate) and again in recent Moffatt/Matt Smith era series with Amy's Choice and to some extent The Doctor's Wife being derived from the same template.

The excellent first episode has a surprise element with some dramatic and brilliantly unusual happenings such as an exploding TARDIS and an endless white void. It is very well done and provides an enticing, fascinating start to the story. Then there is a thoroughly enjoyable if not quite as brilliant second episode where ideas such as the land of fiction, characters like Gulliver (speaking only lines he spoke in original text, a great idea very well executed) and a maze-like forest of words provide a good amount of interest. After that there is a still very good third episode then a slightly disappointing and occasionally silly 4th episode and a decent but rather unremarkable and not wholly successful 5th episode.

This has a disappointing lack of development after such a promising start. It is much loved by many but for me it goes down as good but a missed opportunity to reach truly great standards overall. I personally think it would have been better as a 3 or 4-parter. Really great first episode though and still a good adventure.

My Ratings: Episode 1 - 10/10, Episode 2 - 9/10, Episode 3 - 8.5/10, Episode 4 - 6.5/10, Episode 5 - 7.5/10

Overall: 8.3/10

The mind robber is fantastic, honestly I believe the mind robber is a brilliant starting point for anyone new to Troughton. I am starting to fall in love with his era due to how darn creative it is. This story features fiction coming to life. If you didn't just think "that sounds awesome" then there is something wrong with you. FICTION COMES TO LIFE AND IS A DOCTOR WHO ENEMY!!! The world building is marvelous and this is probably one of the more visually impressive stories of classic who as the direction is actually incredible.

I'm starting to love Troughton more and more as he's just so damn likable and I love his chemistry with Jamie, as for Zoe.. well I'm starting to like her, I preferred Victoria but Zoe is still pretty good I guess.

Overall this episode is solid. Whoever watches this episode will agree that it's just plain fun.