Production Code UU

First Transmitted:
1-14/09/1968 17:20
2-21/09/1968 17:20
3-28/09/1968 17:20
4-05/10/1968 17:20
5-12/10/1968 17:20

Cast
Paul Alexander : Soldier
John Atterbury : Robot
David Cannon : Cyrano
Ralph Carrigan : Robot
John Greenwood : D'Artagnan and Sir Lancelot
Ian Hines : Soldier
Frazer Hines : Jamie
Bernard Horsfall : A Stranger / Gulliver
Timothy Horton : Child
Richard Ireson : Soldier
Emrys Jones : The Master
Martin Langley : Child
Sylvestra Le Tozel : Child
Barbara Loft : Child
Wendy Padbury : Zoe
Christine Pirie : Princess Rapunzel
Christine Pirie also contributed, uncredited, a voice-over reading of an extract from Little Women in Episode 3.
Sue Pulford : The Medusa
Christopher Reynolds : Child
The surname of these child actors was spelt 'Reynolds' on the closing credits of Episode 2 and 'Reynalds' on the closing credits of Episode 5.
David Reynolds : Child
The surname of these child actors was spelt 'Reynolds' on the closing credits of Episode 2 and 'Reynalds' on the closing credits of Episode 5.
Christopher Robbie : Karkus
Philip Ryan : Redcoat
Patrick Troughton : The Doctor
Gerry Wain : Blackbeard
Bill Wiesener : Robot
Hamish Wilson : Jamie
Terry Wright : Robot

Crew
stock : Incidental Music
B H Barry : Fight Arranger
Martin Baugh : Costumes
Peter Bryant : Producer
Jimmy Court : Film Cameraman
Martyn Day : Film Editor
Ron Grainer : Title Music
and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, arranged by Delia Derbyshire
John Greenwood : Fight Arranger
Evan Hercules : Designer
Brian Hodgson : Special Sounds
John Holmes : Studio Sound
Sylvia James : Make-Up
Jack Kine : Visual Effects
Howard King : Studio Lighting
Peter Ling : Writer
John Lopes : Production Assistant
David Maloney : Director
Derrick Sherwin : Script Editor
Derrick Sherwin : Writer
Derrick Sherwin, as Doctor Who's script editor, received no credit for writing this episode, which thus became the only episode in the series' history to feature no writer's credit on screen.
Edwina Verner : Assistant Floor Manager
Susan Wheal : Costumes
Bernard Wilkie : Visual Effects

Plot Outline from Wikipedia

In defeating the Dominators on Dulkis, the Second Doctor sets off a volcanic eruption. He leaves the TARDIS, along with his companions, Jamie and Zoe, in the way, though, and it gets buried in lava, blowing a fluid link (The Daleks) in the process. This forces the Doctor to use the emergency unit to take the TARDIS away from danger and indeed out of reality itself.

They land in a white void and as the Doctor fixes the TARDIS, Jamie and Zoe are lured outside and are confronted by white robots. The Doctor gets them back inside but, as they try to return to reality, the TARDIS explodes and the travellers are scattered into nothingness.

They end up in a forest where the trees become letters when seen from above. The Doctor, after facing a series of riddles, finds Jamie, but accidentally changes his face. They are soon reunited with Zoe and then encounter Gulliver, who gives them away to life-sized toy soldiers. They are taken to the edge of the forest, where a unicorn charges at them. They manage to turn it into a statue by loudly declaring that ‘it doesn’t exist.’

They continue on and reach a house, where the Doctor brings Jamie back to normal. They discover that the house is the entrance to a labyrinth. Here, while leaving Jamie behind, the Doctor and Zoe encounter the Minotaur and Medusa, whom they deal with in the same way as the unicorn.

Jamie, pursued by a soldier, climbs up a rock face with the help of Rapunzel’s hair and enters a citadel through a window, triggering off an alarm. He hides and finds Gulliver, who cannot see the White Robots who are chasing Jamie.

The Doctor and Zoe exit the labyrinth and encounter the Karkus, a cartoon character from Zoe’s home era. The Doctor accidentally manages to dispel the Karkus' "anti-molecular ray disintegrator" by commenting that no such weapon exists, and the Karkus attacks them. Unfortunately the Doctor can't get rid of the Karkus, because he has never heard of the character before and cannot say for certain that the Karkus is not real. Zoe, however, beats the Karkus into submission with her martial arts skills, and he allies himself with them. He takes them to the citadel, where they find Jamie. Zoe accidentally sets off the alarm again, but the trio do not hide and instead let the robots take them to the main control room.

Here, they meet the Master, a kidnapped Earth writer who underwent the same tests as them when he first arrived. He explains that he is getting old and needs the Doctor to replace him as creative source for the Land of Fiction.

While he is talking, Jamie and Zoe sneak into a library area where they encounter the White Robots again and become trapped in a giant book. The Doctor refuses the Master’s offer and climbs out through a skylight.

The Master hypnotises Jamie and Zoe, gets them to trap the Doctor and links him up to the Master Brain. The two battle, summoning up various fictional characters to fight against one another. The Doctor prevails, releasing Jamie and Zoe who override the Master Brain, causing the White Robots to destroy each other.

The Doctor unplugs the Master from the Brain and they all retreat to a side room. The White Robots destroy the Master Brain, the TARDIS comes back together and normality is restored.

Analysis by Cuisle

The director of this episode had a huge problem in that one of the main stars, Frazer Hines, was laid up with chicken pox and had to be replaced by another actor. This was quite effectively done in an episode that crossed the boundary between science fiction and fantasy and landed the Doctor and his crew in a fantasy world full of fictional characters from fairy tales.

This idea had been played with in The Celestial Toymaker, but this time the story was more elaborate and the characters far more immersed in an alternative universe. The first episode, using only the main cast and the white robots in a white void which did not require any props or set was a good way to stretch the meagre resources.

Having the TARDIS blown to pieces in the alternative universe was a ploy that has been used several times since. The Peter Davison episode, Frontios, had the TARDIS pulled apart by the gravitation of a planet, while in the Jon Pertwee story, Inferno, The Doctor removes the console from the TARDIS and travels into an alternative universe with it. The 2005 episode Father's Day was meant to show the exterior of the TARDIS falling to pieces after the interior has been thrown out of the universe, but they decided instead to simply show it as a plain box with nothing insid. Losing the TARDIS becomes even more of an issue for The Doctor from the 2005 series as it IS the only one left and all he has of his lost world. This is portrayed very well by David Tennant in both Rise of the Cybermen when the TARDIS has lost all power and appears 'dead' and in Impossible Planet when it is lost inside the planet in an earthquake.

The idea of a completely fantasy world created by the imagination is actually an old and a new idea. Alice in Wonderland was nothing more than a dream. So was the Wizard of Oz. In later years we had The Never Ending Story, literally the imagination of children. The Mind Robber fits into the same genre but in a more sinister way. We discover in the course of a less padded six episodes than usual that the world is created by a writer who has become trapped in his own fiction, kept prisoner by the white robots. When The Doctor has proved his worth by solving mind puzzles and games the Master (not to be confused with The Master!) tries to make The Doctor take his place in the trap and escape. But The Doctor is having none of that, unsurprisingly.

Responses from the audience were mixed. Some disliked the fantasy idea and thought the series ought to be pure science fiction while others liked the break from monsters and space stories. As ever the old adage about not being able to please all of the people all of the time is especially true of Doctor Who.