Doctor Who (1963) 8.02.04

The Mind of Evil - Part Four

The Master is forced to turn off the machine because it is affecting him and the men under his command. The Doctor recovers long enough to reveal that he knows that there is an alien inside the machine.

The Doctor passes out again and is taken to the cell where Jo is being kept. Jo talks one of the prisoners guarding them into getting Doctor Summers to take a look at the Doctor. Doctor Summers isn't able to do anything for him.

The Master has a talk with the creature in the machine. The creature attempts to harm him with a giant image of the Doctor. The Master is forced to leave the room or suffer a similar fate as those whom the machine has killed.

The Master talks to Mailer and explains his plan to steal a missile and use it to blow up the peace conference. He just needs Mailer and the others to do his dirty work for him. He promises to reward them greatly.

The Doctor and Jo escape from the room in which they are being kept. Mailer and the other prisoners attack the convoy and steal the missile which is being escorted by Captain Mike Yates and Sergeant Benton, among others. Benton is left for dead. Yates recovers enough to follow the prisoners but is later captured by them.

The creature in the machine teleports the machine and attacks some of the prisoners, killing them. The episode ends with the Doctor and Jo writhing in pain as the creature in the machine mentally assaults them.

Thoughts

This is the fourth consecutive story that ends with at least one person writhing in pain due to the machine.

Toby Hadoke (moderator), Timothy Combe (director), Barry Letts (producer), Katy Manning (Jo Grant), Terrance Dicks (script editor), and Derek Ware (stuntman) are on the commentary track for this episode.

Things get a bit wobbly in more than one way in this episode. I'm not so sure about the reveal that the Master has lured an alien to Earth. Isn't that sort of the same thing as in the previous story? How did the alien learn to teleport? Was it always able to do that? I'm okay with the things not going exactly according to plan for the Master but I do feel as though maybe they should have given the alien a voice even if it was trapped inside the machine. How big is the alien supposed to be? That isn't a very large machine. I am happy that there is an abundance of the Master in this episode.