Doctor Who - The Brain of Morbius (Collector's Edition) | Dr. Who, Tom Baker

Doctor Who - The Brain of Morbius (Collector's Edition) | Dr. Who, Tom Baker | Great adaptation of the classic Frankenstein story

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	Doctor Who - The Brain of Morbius (Collector's Edition) Dr. Who, Tom Baker 20th Century Fox, 1997 average customer review:based on 22 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Atmospheric and Memorable Episode from the Doctor's Gothic Period

Like a lot of people who grew up in the 70s and 80s, for me Tom Baker is THE Doctor, and Sarah Jane is one of the two best companions he ever had (the other being Leela). And Brain of Morbius is one of their best adventures together -- a very vivid and atmospheric episode. So the plot steals heavily from "Frankenstein" - who cares? That's a great story! But Brain of Morbius also blends into the plot a cult of immortal women who protect the elixir of life from all outsiders. The leads in the supporting cast (Marah the High Priestess and Solon the mad scientist) are very good in this episode - actors with some real gravitas who bring total conviction to their performances. They play off each other and Tom Baker really well. For a more detailed plot description and other information go to one of the Dr. Who fan websites, like 'Outpost Gallifrey.' One warning to those who are not familiar with the original show: Dr. Who was always done on a tight budget in a studio. The special effects were always crude, even according to the standards of the time, so don't expect 21st century production values. Also, Dr. Who was ostensibly a children's show, but this particular episode is definitely NOT for young children because the themes can be very disturbing - dismemberment, burning alive, some other stuff that I won't say because I don't want to spoil the story. I saw it over 25 years ago, when I was around 14, and never forgot it. Hopefully it will be available on DVD soon but for now you can only get it in video form. I recommend getting the so-called 'Collector's Edition.' There are no extras like actors' commentary or behind-the-scenes features, but it has the full four installments of this story as originally broadcast by the BBC. I understand the non-collector's edition version is heavily edited, and what would be the fun of that?

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Great adaptation of the classic Frankenstein story

I watched this story last night for the first time since seeing it on TV in the late seventies. What a great story! The sets were well done, the actors stayed within their roles (Who is known for actors hamming it up), and the music and script ideas are sufficiently eerie to make a great Gothic atmospheric piece. Philip Madoc, who also played a strong character known as The War Lord in The War Games, Troughton's last story as the full-time Doctor, played a convincing Doctor Frankenstein, though the character's name was changed to Solon.

(If only the production team for the Sylvester McCoy era would have watched and studied this Baker classic they may have done a much better job capturing the eeriness they strived for instead of the muddle muck they ended up producing.)

Fun, fun story. Highly recommended.

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One of Baker's best!

Tom Baker admitted on his web page that this is rip off of Hammer Horror films.

Regardless of this, it very fun and entertaining! It has a lot of feeling and emotion in it as Solon (a mad scientest) tries to put the evil timelord Morbius in a new body -- only his brain has been living on big jar!

A lot happens in this very well known 4 parter story. Tom's head is examined by Solon, Sarah goes blind, sacrifices take place and everyone has an issue of missing limbs or "holy grails" like that gives life to the sisterhood!

Philip Madoc (Solon) does a great job has the mad scientest! He makes it all see so real and he is desperate to find Morbius a new body! You just eagerly watch it and wonder what's going to happen next! I have seen him in other stories like The War Games (Patrick Troughton), and The Power of Kroll (as Fenner) and this his best performance ever!

This is the typical era of Tom where he plays about puts people in their place! This is the kinda story you'd invite your friend to see to introduce them to Doctor Who!

I think people criticize this too much and just should enjoy it! This is one of his best, probably his best along with City of Death and Warriors Gate... Yes, right to the end Tom was legendary at with the role of The Doctor (alias Jon Smith ;) on Doctor Who! GO TOM! :) Thanks for givine me years of enjoyment with your great role on the show.

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One of the Best

This episode is hard to find and much disparaged, but it is actually one of the best stories ever presented on the long running series. In the folds of a seemingly standard monster/mad scientist tale we get glimpses of the role of the Time Lords in interstellar affairs, the horror of totalitarianism, and affects of telepathy. This is one of the few original series Dr. Who stories in which women play a prominent role and actually are the slayers of the villain.

Great Fun! A True Classic!!

I absolutely love this episode. It was written by Terrance Dicks, who gave a rough draft to the script editor Robert Holmes. Holmes made significant revisions to the story and because Dicks was on vacation, Holmes was unable to get a hold of Dicks until the entire story had been significantly altered. Originally Dicks had intended Solon's part to be played by a robot, but as Solon the mad scientist worked out so well, I think a robot playing the part would have been a grave mistake. Because Robert Holmes had such a large role in the story, Dicks requested that the pseudomym Robin Bland be used as the credit for the series.

The story borrows a great deal from the mythos of Frankenstein, only I think the idea of Morbius is even more frightening than Frankenstein was. The reason is because the Frankenstein monster had no intellect, where as Morbius is portrayed as the greatest Timelord ever, although completely corrupt of course.

Onto this theme is thrown in the Sister hood of Kahn who in there own way have mind power equal to the Timelords and are paranoid of everyone, as they suspect that there is a plot to steal the Elixiar of Life. The atmosphere in Solon's Castle is superb and greatly enhances the plot as does the orchestrated music which is 200% better than the radiophonics used in the 1980's.

There is plenty of drama and action in this one. When it was first released it was edited to remove some of the violence. The collector's edition is the original and complete series. This series does contain some of the most realistic violence ever seen in Doctor Who. In one seen a charactor is shot with a hand gun 3 times and thier shirt is shown soaked with blood. Several scenes shown different charactors being choked. This is one of the episodes that the Powers to be at the time put heat on the series to tone down the violence. Of course by todays standards there is nothing shown here out of the ordinary.

Overall a well polished story with plenty of memorable Doctor lines. Of interest is the fact that during the Time Wrestling scence, Morbius's previous incarnations are portrayed using photos of the production crew. One of the photos used was of Producer Philip Hinchcliffe.

Because this series combines horror with Sci-Fi, this show would be an excellent introduction story to anyone unfamiliar to Doctor Who!

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

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