Mawdryn Undead

No, no, no, no! Stay away from my nightmares spaghetti head guy!!!

This is part of a series of reviews of Doctor Who in chronological timeline order.

Previous Story: Resistor

What a treat to see the Brigadier again after so long and Nicholas Courtney effortlessly slips back into the role. It's like he never left. The chemistry between him and Peter Davison is great, they immediately seem like best friends (well, after the Brigadier remembers him, that is) and capture the same dynamic the Brig has had with every other Doctor.

This is one of the first real example of a timey-wimey Doctor Who story in my opinion. The way events are slowly revealed through the Brigadier's own memory of them is a fascinating concept and something I could easily see in New-Who. It was at times hard to follow, but when you understand it all it's really clever.

The setting of an 80s school was decently interesting, and it's definitely not where I expected the Brigadier to reside by this point. I really have to commend this story for it's soundtrack, it was full of energy and generally something I didn't expect from ths point in Classic Doctor Who, but I am pleasantly surprised.

This story marks the introduction of Turlough, he's not won me over in this story but then I suppose he's currently working for the Black Guardian so he's not supposed to be immensely likeable just yet. Still, I'm keen to see where his story arc goes and I'm really happy to see the return of the Black Guardian. He's a villain with a lot of potential and he was great in the audios The Pursuit of History / Casualties of Time.

Next Story: Terminus

turlough time!! i thought he was simply a snobby schoolboy at first but there does actually get to be more to him - we will have to see how that evolves to see if i will like him as a character. what i don't like this story for is the brigader. him being into cars is strange because that never came up when he was hanging out with three, a definite motorhead and him encouraging corporeal punishment is accurate for the time but horrible to see from a sympathetic character. i think him retiring to be a maths teacher is quite sweet though. the time loop stuff with things happening in 1977 and 1983 is pretty clever and experimental for doctor who at this time so thats very enjoyable. nyssa's outfit is really really sick (she might have started wearing this in snakedance but still). it does feel strange for the doctor to refuse to give up his regenerations to the mawdryn though, or at least figure out a solution. they're in so much pain and he can help. it is a big sacrifice for him but he has already lived so much life at this point that it does not feel justified for him to hang onto having even more in the face of others' suffering. also the doctor not sussing out turlough is pretty crazy, this is such an actively suspicious boy

also

!!LIZ SHAW MENTION!!

Mawdryn Undead is a fun enough romp and was my first ever Fifth Doctor story that I had stumbled upon. There's memorable aspects to this serial, like the introduction with Turlough in the car, and the Doctor getting to meet the Brigadier was great, too.

Some of the effects, dialogue, and acting, however, do leave quite a bit to be desired. It's not perfect, and the whole Black Guardian corrupting Turlough thing kind of makes the Doctor and crew seem a bit like chumps for trusting this new companion, but I do get the Doctor is just kind of stringing him along to figure things out. The inconsistency of this serial holds back what could have been great, but I still had fun overall and some of the ideas here were around regeneration and even the Black Guardian's return was all pretty compelling. Final point - Tegan and Nyssa didn't feel like they had much to do here but were pleasant enough presences.

Wonderful to see the Brigadier again for the first time in many years. Re-joining forces with The Doctor feels like a rite of passage for Davison’s Doctor. I don’t think Lethbridge-Stewart is particularly well served in the initial school environment we meet him. His newtered, difficult to pin down role in an unrelatable private school is kind of meh. The unrelenting poshness of it gave me K-9 and Company vibes and I think a different setting could have better served the plot.

Once we get out of there though he drives, in younger and older forms, an interesting runaround for our TARDIS crew, including a new, darker, duplicitous companion. Turlough is an interesting character. Clearly a rotten, compromised person who nearly killed himself and a friend through his own recklessness - then lied about it! He is then given a second chance at life by the Black Guardian and forced into doing his dirty work (trying to kill The Doctor). I look forward to seeing how he develops. His school friend however, who looks about 10 years too old for the role, is a horrific actor. I’m glad we won’t see him again!

I’m surprised they brought the Blavk Guardian back as I only vaguely remembered him from The Armageddon factor, though I appreciate that he had been mentioned other times before and after that story. I think the production team believes him to be a more prominent character than he is.

The story was an entertaining one and improved as it went along, but it was ultimately a rompy runaround which focused on characters - nothing wrong with that!