Who Review #85 - the Brain of Morbius

scene by scene, episode by episode

This story is Frankenstein and "She" meet Dr.Who. (As an aside, I saw "She" recently - the first time since I was a kid. The scenes I remembered were people being thrown into a shaft with lava at the bottom of it, and when Ursula Andress's character grows old in the flame - both nasty, I thought!).

The incidental music is stupendous. Apart from Dudley Simpson's continued excellence, there is a cello movement by Geraldine Stephenson which I particularly like. The sets are quite good; the planet Karn looks decidely creepy at night. Morbius, although a little rubbery, is a great costume - Pot Pourri, the Galactic Ruler, as he is described.

There are good performances by Cynthia Grenville as Maran of the Sisterhood, Philip Madoc as Solon (the Dr. Frankenstein of the story) and Colin Fay as Condo (the Igor type figure).

There are some quite gorey moments in this story: Morbius's brain and when Condo is shot, blood erupting from the entry wounds. Mary Whitehouse, apparantly, was apoplectic at that; she would continue to attack Doctor Who and was one of the reasons - or so it is said - Hinchcliffe left and the show went away from the gothic horror. But more on that later.

The Sisterhood are a bit irritating at times, with their awful sacred flame chant/ritual. (The rich, red costumes they wear are delightful, though.) The Doctor continues his habit of getting knocked out at least once a story, which gets tedious. Those are the very few things I fault with this story. It is atmospheric and throughly enjoyable.
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