From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu Oct 30 14:03:06 1997 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!eru.mt.luth.se!luth.se!news.algonet.se!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.direct.ca!news.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: Tim Voon Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Retrospective: Doctor Who: The Brain of Morbius (1976) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 13 Oct 1997 04:07:16 GMT Organization: Mariah Lines: 71 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <61s6pk$6pd$1@nntp5.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer18.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp5.u.washington.edu 876715636 6957 (None) 140.142.64.6 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #09310 Keywords: author=voon X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer18.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:8652 rec.arts.sf.reviews:1556 DOCTOR WHO: THE BRAIN OF MORBIUS 1976 A film review by Timothy Voon Copyright 1997 Timothy Voon 1 :-) for the Time Lord My favourite Doctor is not one who works in a clinic or hospital, but one who journeys the universe in a blue telephone booth. This popular BBC science fiction series of the 60's, 70's and early 80's, carries with it the delights of a home made movie. The sets are shoddy, but environmentally friendly. Props are recycled and reused in every episode – that wall looks familiar, and that monster looks like the last one except the hand is where the nose should be. The Doctor always wears the same clothes, which makes him as familiar and well worn as your favourite pair of socks. Lighting seems to be a perpetual problem on the dark woeful planets visited by The Doctor and his companions. Most of the time the cast seem to be stumbling about in a dark haze, groping about in caves, leaving the viewer wandering whether they need to develop exceptional night vision in order to see what is happening. What about the special effects? Well, it has the same feel of a churning washing machine come thunderstorm. Despite it's shortcomings, I continue to enjoy the look, the feel, and above all the adventures of these familiar household characters at play in the backyard. Tom Baker with the characteristic hat and scarf is almost synonymous with The Doctor, although the character has had been played by up to 7 different actors. If you are wandering what I'm mumbling about, The Doctor is a Time Lord travelling through time and space, battling the likes of any evil alien thrown in his path. In this particular episode, the villain is Morbius, an ex-Time Lord executed by the High Council for being evil. Naturally, Morbius has a band of followers to help resurrect his "let's take over the universe" bid. They manage to save his brain after execution - thus the title "The Brain of Morbius". Amidst all this excitement, the Doctor’s ever changing, intellectually stimulating, but never physically touching companion, is none other than the lovely Sarah Jane (Elisabeth Sladen). This lass, carries the same dim wit of a damsel in distress. She stumbles about after going temporarily blind, and screams the likes of "Doctor, Doctor where are you?" "I can't see, I'm going blind." "Please don't hurt me, please don't hurt me." In which case I had the incredible urge to respond, "The doctor is still strapped to the sacrificial table, sit down and have a cup of tea before you .... watch out for that wall! Ouch!" Poor Sarah Jane. She spends the majority of the movie being sexually harassed by a deformed giant, followed by physical harassment by a walking, talking brain. Morbius, wants the body of The Doctor, which is the only host compatible for his brain. When this becomes unattainable, he is placed in a temporary host of assorted body parts. Mostly made up of the arms, legs and trunk of various unfortunate aliens captured by the mad scientist Solon (Phillip Madoc). The creature is meant to be reminiscent of Frankenstein, but with a claw here, some fur there, it remains as huggable as a teddy bear. On the same planet are The Sisters of the Flame. These immortal virgins who are prickly around males, are experiencing some problems with their eternal flame. They naturally blame The Doctor, who has the doubly difficult task of calming the angry threats post-menopausal women, and at the same time battling the likes Morbius. So if you understood my ramblings, then you have captured the jist of this tele-movie. I have always enjoyed any tale concerning The Doctor and his wondrous travels, and this is no exception. The poor production, but otherwise intriguing story line, is all part in parcel of the unique flavour created by The Doctor and his makers. Timothy Voon e-mail: stirling@netlink.com.au