Mawdryn Undead (TV story)
Mawdyrn Undead was the third story of Doctor Who's twentieth season. It was the first story in the "Black Guardian trilogy". It also marked the first appearance of Vislor Turlough.
Synopsis
A warp ellipse draws the TARDIS off course. The Fifth Doctor's companions are separated from him not in space, but in time, and he has to deal with a treacherous schoolboy named Turlough. But why does the Doctor's old friend, the Brigadier, not remember him at all?
Plot
Part one
In 1983, the former Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart teaches mathematics at Brendon Public School. A mischievous student, Turlough, convinces his classmate Ibbotson to join him in a joyride in the Brigadier's priceless antique car, which they accidentally veer off the road and crash. While unconscious, Turlough is contacted by the sinister Black Guardian. The Black Guardian knows Turlough is actually from another planet. He offers Turlough transportation off Earth if he will kill his greatest enemy: The Doctor.
At the same time, the Fifth Doctor, Tegan and Nyssa have problems of their own. The Doctor's TARDIS is caught in a warp ellipse and materialises on board an apparently empty starliner locked in a perpetual orbit in time and space. Turlough, on the Black Guardian's instructions, transports himself onto the liner by means of a transmat capsule and encounters the TARDIS crew. The Doctor travels to Earth via transmat, taking Turlough with him, to get rid of the transmat interference trapping the TARDIS on the liner. The source of the interference is not far from the school grounds. As the Doctor is sorting out the device, Turlough, responding to the Black Guardian's exhortations, picks up a large rock and prepares to smash it on the back of the Doctor's head...
Part two
The interference device explodes, knocking the Doctor backwards and forcing the rock out of Turlough's hands. The TARDIS materialises nearby, but vanishes shortly after, seemingly leaving the Doctor stranded. The Doctor meets the Brigadier at the Brendon school, but is puzzled when his old comrade-in-arms does not remember him. He eventually works around the apparent gap in the Brigadier's memory by mentioning Jo Grant, the Yeti and other past adventures. To the Doctor's surprise, the Brigadier claims to remember Tegan, having met her shortly before his nervous breakdown in 1977. The Doctor realises that the TARDIS hasn't disappeared; the destruction of the device knocked the TARDIS off a time track and sent it back six years.
In 1977, Tegan and Nyssa encounter the transmat capsule. Iinside is an alien-looking humanoid whom they initially believe is the Doctor, horribly injured. Meeting the younger Brigadier, they bring the alien and him back to the starliner. Tegan, Nyssa and the Brigadier enter the TARDIS control room. The alien, who is a scientist called Mawdryn, now wearing the Doctor's old coat, turns to face them. The top of his skull is missing, revealing his pulsing brain. Nyssa screams in horror.
Part three
Under the pretence of being the Doctor, suffering a failed regeneration, Mawdryn convinces the others to bring the TARDIS to the ship, claiming it has restorative capabilities. Meanwhile, the Doctor, Turlough and the present-day Brigadier use a TARDIS homing device on the damaged Transmat to bring themselves to the ship, splitting up soon after to search for Tegan and Nyssa. Under the Black Guardian's instruction, Turlough opens a secret room, revealing several humanoids suffering from the same malady as Mawdryn. Mawdryn fools the present-day Brigadier into using a stolen Time Lord device to stabilise his condition. Finding the TARDIS, the Doctor reunites with Tegan and Nyssa. When he learns there are two Brigadiers aboard, he has to try to keep them apart lest the resulting energy discharge prove catastrophic.
The Doctor and Nyssa meet with the present-day Brigadier and Mawdryn. Mawdryn reveals his fellow scientists and he tried to steal the secret of regeneration from the Time Lords, but caused perpetual mutations, leaving them practically immortal but in horrible agony. Tegan is chased into the room by Mawdryn's mutated crewmates. The mutants take their places in the regeneration room and Mawdryn pleads with the Doctor to help them die by giving them his energy. The Doctor refuses, explaining to Tegan that if he did so it would mean the end of him as a Time Lord...
Part four
The Doctor explains that for each of the eight mutants to die would require the Doctor to sacrifice a regeneration. Having eight regenerations remaining, he'd have none left for himself.
Under the Black Guardian's orders, Turlough locates the 1977 Brigadier and locks him in a side room to keep the two Brigadiers from touching.
Trying to leave in the TARDIS, the Doctor discovers that Tegan and Nyssa have been infected by the same malady as Mawdryn and his compatriots. Attempted time travel accelerates their conditions and reversing out of the warp ellipse only regresses Tegan and Nyssa into children. The only cure, it seems, is to do what Mawdryn demands; the Doctor must give up his remaining regenerations. Meanwhile, the past Brigadier escapes the room and encounters Mawdryn and his crew. Fearing the time imbalance, they send him into the transmat. Unbeknownst to them, the transmat cannot make the trip while the TARDIS is on the vessel and the capsule returns to it's station seconds later.
Hooking himself up to Mawdryn's apparatus, the Doctor is about to sacrifice himself when the two Brigadiers meet and touch hands, causing a discharge of temporal energy at precisely the right instant. Tegan and Nyssa are cured, the alien scientists end their undead existence and the Doctor remains a Time Lord. The younger Brigadier, however, will not remember his time with the Doctor until they meet again in 1983. The Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan deliver the 1977 and 1983 versions of the Brigadier back to the school. Turlough is in the TARDIS control room when they return. He asks if he can join them and the Doctor comments that he already has. In space, Mawdryn's ship self-destructs.
Cast
- The Doctor - Peter Davison
- Tegan Jovanka - Janet Fielding
- Nyssa - Sarah Sutton
- Vislor Turlough – Mark Strickson
- Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart – Nicholas Courtney
- The Black Guardian – Valentine Dyall
- Headmaster Mr. Sellick– Angus MacKay
- Ibbotson - Stephen Garlick
- Dr Runciman - Roger Hammond
- Matron - Sheila Gill
- Mawdryn – David Collings
- Mutants - Peter Walmsley, Brian Darnley
Crew
- Studio Lighting - Don Babbage
- Visual Effects - Stuart Brisdon
- Production Associate - June Collins
- Costumes - Richard Croft
- Title Music - Ron Grainer and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop
- Theme arrangement - Peter Howell
- Film Cameraman - Godfrey Johnson
- Incidental Music - Paddy Kingsland
- Production Assistant - Valerie Letley
- Special Sounds - Dick Mills
- Make-Up - Carolyn Perry, Sheelagh Wells
- Studio Sound - Martin Ridout
- Costumes - Amy Roberts
- Designer - Stephen Scott
- Assistant Floor Manager - Ian Tootle
- Film Editor - Chris Woolley
- Writer - Peter Grimwade
- Script Editor - Eric Saward
- Director - Peter Moffatt
- Producer - John Nathan-Turner
References
Anatomy and physiology
- Tegan, Nyssa, and the Brigadier refer to seeing the Doctor regenerate.
- While claiming to be the Doctor, Mawdryn states that Time Lords do not necessarily always regenerate into a form which looks "human".
Culture
- The melody playing when the Doctor visits the Brigadier is a traditional English dance melody called "Lilliburleo". It's sometimes attributed to Henry Purcell.
Individuals
- The Doctor mentions several people and things to try to jog the Brigadier's memory including: Harry Sullivan, Jo Grant, Sarah Jane Smith, Liz Shaw, Yeti and UNIT.
- Sergeant Benton left the army in the 1970s and is now a used car salesman.
- Harry Sullivan went to work with NATO on a project in Porton Down.
Species
- Tegan is still wondering if she'll be free of the Mara.
- During the series of flashbacks the Brigadier sees; The First Doctor, Second Doctor, Third Doctor, Fourth Doctor, a Yeti, a Cyberman, an Axon, a Dalek, K1 Robot and a Zygon.
TARDIS
- The Zero Room is mentioned.
Technology
- Mawdryn stole a metamorphic symbiosis regenerator, used by Time Lords in cases of acute regenerative crisis, but it induced a perpetual, deathless mutation.
Theories and concepts
- The Doctor cites the Blinovitch Limitation Effect.
- The two Brigadiers short out the time differential between themselves.
- The Doctor talks about reversing the polarity of the neutron flow, a catchphrase of his third incarnation.
Transport technology
- Tegan knows a lot about transmats.
- Tegan mentions the Mary Celeste.
Story notes
- Every story during Season 20 included a story element from the Doctor's past. For this four-part story, one such element was the Black Guardian, who last faced the fourth incarnation of the Doctor at the conclusion of the Key to Time saga in 1979.
- David Collings, who played Mawdryn, also appeared in the Fourth Doctor stories DW: Revenge of the Cybermen as Vorus and DW: The Robots of Death as Poul. He would play an alternate Doctor in Big Finish Productions' Doctor Who Unbound audio drama, Full Fathom Five.
- The original intent of the production team was for the character of Ian Chesterton, one of the original regulars from the series' first two seasons from 1963-65, to return for a guest appearance in this story, hence the school setting; Chesterton was a science teacher. However, actor William Russell proved to be unavailable. Some consideration was given to using Harry Sullivan, who was a regular in the programme for a season in the mid-1970s, before the return of Lethbridge-Stewart was eventually decided upon.
- Radio Times credits Nicholas Courtney as 'Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart' in the combined cast for Parts One/Two, and as 'Brigadier' in the combined cast for Parts Three/Four. All on-screen credits read 'The Brigadier'.
- Former producer Graham Williams, the creator of the Guardians, did not know about their return in this season and learned about it only years later during an on-stage interview at a Doctor Who convention.
- Originally the slot that this story occupies was to have been given to the long-delayed "The Song of the Space Whale" (or "Space Whale"), in which Turlough would have been one of a group of colonists. However this was again cancelled and this story took its place.
- Peter Grimwade's previous story, DW: Time-Flight, also takes place in two different times.
Ratings
- Part 1 - 6.5 million viewers
- Part 2 - 7.5 million viewers
- Part 3 - 7.4 million viewers
- Part 4 - 7.7 million viewers
Myths
to be added
Filming locations
- Trent Park campus of Middlesex Polytechnic, Cockfosters, Enfield, Greater London
- BBC Television Centre (Studio 6), Shepherd's Bush, London
Production errors
to be added
Continuity
- The "Black Guardian Trilogy" continues in the story DW: Terminus.
- The Fourth Doctor last encountered the Black Guardian in DW: The Armageddon Factor, in which the Black Guardian swore revenge on the Doctor at that time.
- At the story's opening, Tegan is still unsure if she is finally free of the Mara. (DW: Snakedance)
- It is explicitly stated that the current Doctor is the fifth incarnation.
- Another example of Time Lord technology being used to create perpetual regeneration was seen in DW: Underworld.
- Turlough's origins are finally explained in DW: Planet of Fire.
- Mawdryn finds the red coat worn by the Fourth Doctor in the TARDIS and wears it.
- The Doctor says, "If I reverse the polarity of the neutron flow...", a reference to the Third Doctor.
- There are a series of flashbacks as the Brigadier remembers:
- DW: The Web of Fear: a Yeti,
- DW: The Invasion: a Cyberman and the Second Doctor,
- DW: Spearhead from Space: Third Doctor,
- DW: The Claws of Axos: an Axon,
- DW: Day of the Daleks: a Dalek,
- DW: The Three Doctors: seeing the interior of the Doctor's TARDIS and the First Doctor,
- DW: Robot: the K1 Robot,
- DW: Terror of the Zygons: a Zygon and the Fourth Doctor.
Timeline
For the Doctor and his companions
- This story occurs after MA: Goth Opera
- This story occurs before DW: Terminus
For the Brigadier
- This story occurs after DW: Terror of the Zygons
- This story occurs before DW: The Five Doctors
Home video and audio releases
DVD releases
Released as Doctor Who: Mawdryn Undead
Released:
- 10 August 2009 - Region 2
- 5 November 2009 - Region 4
- 3 November 2009 - Region 1
Special Features:
- Commentary by Peter Davison, Mark Strickson, Nicholas Courtney and Eric Saward.
- "Who Wants To Live Forever?" documentary
- "Liberty Hall" short
- Deleted and Extended Scenes
- Film Trims
- Outtakes
- CGI effects
- Continuity Announcements
- Isolated Music Score
- Photo Gallery & Production Subtitles
- PDF: Radio Times listings, studio floorprints and storyboard sequences.
- Easter Eggs
- Go to the first Special Features page, navigate to Deleted and Extended Scenes and press left to highlight a hidden logo. Press Enter/OK to see a short presentation of interesting facts about the story.
- - Go to the second page of Special Features, navigate down to Set Photo Gallery and press left to reveal a hidden logo. Press Enter/OK to see the studio floorplans for the story (these are also on the disc as a PDF).
Notes:
- Editing for DVD release completed by Doctor Who Restoration Team.
- Available only in The Black Guardian Trilogy boxset.
R4 DVD cover
R1 DVD cover
Box set
Region 1 cover
Video releases
This story was released on VHS in November 1992 in the UK markets, 1993 in Australian markets and 1994 in US markets.
VHS UK cover
VHS Australian cover
VHS US cover
External links
- Mawdryn Undead at the BBC's official site
- Mawdryn Undead at the Doctor Who Reference Guide
- Mawdryn Undead at Shannon Sullivan's A Brief History of Time (Travel)
- Mawdryn Undead at The Locations Guide
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