The Mutants (TV story)
- This article is about the Third Doctor serial The Mutants. For the First Doctor serial of the same name, see The Daleks.
Synopsis
The Time Lords send the Doctor and Jo on a mission to deliver a sealed message pod to an unknown party aboard a Skybase orbiting the planet Solos in the 30th Century. Solos is due to gain independence from Earth's empire, but its Marshal is determined to prevent this. He arranges the murder of the Earth Administrator and, with his chief scientist Jaeger, plans to transform Solos's atmosphere into one more suited to humans.
Ky, a young Solonian leader, is falsely accused of the murder, and flees to the planet, taking Jo with him. The Doctor follows and joins them in an old thaesium mine. Ky turns out to be the intended recipient of the message pod, which opens automatically for him. Inside are stone tablets carved with ancient inscriptions.
The Doctor's party then meet Sondergaard, a human scientist leading a hermit-like existence in the mine while searching for a cure for the mutating disease that afflicts the Solonians. The Doctor and Sondergaard decipher the inscriptions, deducing that the mutations are part of a natural life-cycle in which the thaesium radiation plays a vital role.
The Doctor retrieves a crystal from a cave where the radiation is concentrated and returns to the Skybase to analyze it. He is recaptured by the Marshal and, with his friends held hostage, is forced to perfect the machine with which Jaeger plans to transform Solos. Sondergaard meanwhile gives Ky the crystal, which turns him first into a mutant, and then into an ethereal super-being - the ultimate stage of the Solonians' life-cycle. Jaeger is killed when the Doctor sabotages his machine, and the Marshal is vaporised by Ky.
Plot
to be added
Cast
- The Doctor - Jon Pertwee
- Jo Grant - Katy Manning
- The Marshall - Paul Whitsun-Jones
- Varan - James Mellor
- Ky - Garrick Hagon
- Administrator - Geoffrey Palmer
- Jaeger - George Pravda
- Sondergaard - John Hollis
- Stubbs - Christopher Coll
- Cotton - Rick James
- Varan's Son - Jonathan Sherwood
- Old Man - Sidney Johnson
- Warrior Guard - David Arlen
- Solos Guards - Roy Pearce, Damon Sanders
- Skybase Guard - Martin Taylor
- Investigator - Peter Howell
- Mutt - John Scott Martin
Crew
- Assistant Floor Manager - Sue Hedden
- Costumes - James Acheson
- Designer - Jeremy Bear
- Fight Arranger - Terry Walsh
- Film Cameraman - Fred Hamilton
- Film Editor - Dave King
- Incidental Music - Tristram Cary
- Make-Up - Joan Barrett
- Producer - Barry Letts
- Production Assistant - Fiona Cumming
- Production Assistant - Chris D'Oyly-John
- Script Editor - Terrance Dicks
- Special Sounds - Dick Mills
- Studio Lighting - Frank Cresswell
- Studio Sound - Tony Millier
- Theme Arrangement - Delia Derbyshire
- Title Music - Ron Grainer
- Visual Effects - John Horton
References
- Thaesium is a rich fuel mineral mined on Solos.
- The Doctor is sent on a mission by the Time Lords.
Story Notes
- This story had working titles of; Independence and The Emergents.
- Author Salman Rushdie refers to The Mutants in his controversial book "The Satanic Verses" and implies that the programme's characterisation of mutations as evil just because they look different from human beings encourages racist attitudes. He thereby completely misses the point of the story, which in fact has an anti-racist message. This is a widespread misinterpretation of Rushdie's words, which instead refer to the treatment of the mutants as evil by some characters in the story.
- This is not the only Doctor Who story with the title The Mutants - the first episode of the first Dalek serial is also entitled The Mutants, and that serial was generally known by that name, until the broadcast of this one.
- Episode Six of this story is the first in the series' history to bear an on-screen copyright date.
Ratings
- Episode 1 - 9.1 million viewers
- Episode 2 - 7.8 million viewers
- Episode 3 - 7.9 million viewers
- Episode 4 - 7.5 million viewers
- Episode 5 - 7.9 million viewers
- Episode 6 - 6.5 million viewers
Myths
to be added
Filming Locations
- Western Quarry, St. Clements Way, Northfleet, Kent
- Chislehurst Caves, Old Hill, Chisleshurst
- Stone House Farm (caves), Lower Rochester Road, Frindsbury, Kent
- Lime Grove Studios (Studios E), Lime Grove, London
- BBC Television Centre (Studio 3, 4, 4a), Shepherd's Bush, London
Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors
to be added
Continuity
- A mutt briefly appears in one of Jo's flashbacks in DW: Frontier in Space.
- A mutt also appears amongst the space wreckage on Karn in DW: The Brain of Morbius.
DVD, Video and Other Releases
Video Releases
Released as Doctor Who: The Mutants
Released:
- UK February 2003
- Australia May 2003
- US October 2003 (Part of the End of the Universe Collection also available separately)
Novelisation
- Main article: Doctor Who and the Mutants
- Novelised in 1986 as Doctor Who and the Mutants by Terrance Dicks.
External Links
- Official BBC Episode Guide for The Mutants
- Outpost Gallifrey Episode Guide: The Mutants
- Doctor Who Reference Guide detailed synopsis of The Mutants
- A Brief History of Time (Travel) Guide to The Mutants
- The Locations Guide to Doctor Who - The Mutants
- The Tardis Library see here [1] and here [2] For video information on The Mutants
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