Stories Television Doctor Who Season 6 Classic Who S6 Serial: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 The Mind Robber 1 image Overview Episodes Characters How to Watch Reviews 11 Statistics Related Stories Quotes 2 Transcript Overview First aired Saturday, September 14, 1968 Production Code UU Written by Derrick Sherwin, Peter Ling Directed by David Maloney Runtime 100 minutes Time Travel Alternate Reality Tropes (Potential Spoilers!) Clockwork, Lost the TARDIS, Robots, The Doctor Falls Location (Potential Spoilers!) The Land of Fiction Synopsis To escape from the volcanic eruption on Dulkis, the Second Doctor uses an emergency unit. It moves the TARDIS out of normal time and space. The travellers find themselves in an endless void where they are menaced by white robots. Having regained the safety of the TARDIS, they believe they have escaped — until the ship explodes. They find themselves in a land of fiction, where they are hunted by life-size clockwork soldiers and encounter characters like Rapunzel, the Karkus, and Swift's Lemuel Gulliver. Watch Watched Favourite Favourited Add Review Edit Review Log a repeat Skip Skipped Unowned Owned Owned Save to my list Saved Edit date completed Custom Date Release Date Archive (no date) Save 5 Episodes Episode 1 First aired Saturday, September 14, 1968 Runtime 20 minutes Written by Derrick Sherwin Directed by David Maloney UK Viewers 6.6 million Appreciation Index 51 Synopsis The TARDIS arrives in a white void, having made an emergency take-off to escape the volcanic eruption on Dulkis. The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe find themselves in the Land of Fiction, where characters from the imagination come to life, and The Master, the mysterious ruler, chooses the Doctor to take his place. Episode 2 First aired Saturday, September 21, 1968 Runtime 20 minutes Written by Peter Ling Directed by David Maloney UK Viewers 6.5 million Appreciation Index 49 Synopsis With the TARDIS destroyed, the Doctor, Jamie and Zoe find themselves in a strange forest patrolled by mysterious soldiers. Episode 3 First aired Saturday, September 28, 1968 Runtime 20 minutes Written by Peter Ling Directed by David Maloney UK Viewers 7.2 million Appreciation Index 53 Synopsis The Doctor realises that the travellers are trapped in a world where fiction is real and where creatures are a threat if people believe in them. Episode 4 First aired Saturday, October 5, 1968 Runtime 20 minutes Written by Peter Ling Directed by David Maloney UK Viewers 7.3 million Appreciation Index 56 Synopsis The Doctor, Jamie and Zoe reach the citadel at the centre of the land, where they finally encounter the Master of the Land of Fiction. Episode 5 First aired Saturday, October 12, 1968 Runtime 20 minutes Written by Peter Ling Directed by David Maloney UK Viewers 6.7 million Appreciation Index 49 Synopsis With Jamie and Zoe having been turned into fiction, the Doctor must find a way to save them without suffering the same fate or becoming part of the Master Brain. Show All Episodes Characters Second Doctor Patrick Troughton Jamie McCrimmon Frazer Hines Zoe Heriot Wendy Padbury Medusa First Appearance Minotaur First Appearance The Karkus First Appearance Show All Characters (6) How to watch The Mind Robber: Watch on iPlayer DVD The Mind Robber VHS The Mind Robber (VHS) Reviews Add Review Edit Review Sort: Date (Newest First) Date (Oldest First) Likes (High-Low) Likes (Low-High) Rating (High-Low) Rating (Low-High) Word count (High-Low) Word count (Low-High) Username (A-Z) Username (Z-A) Spoilers First Spoilers Last 11 reviews 20 March 2025 · 59 words Review by Scottybguud A fun story. Unlike new who were fictional characters sometimes turn out to be real, here they're written and controlled by the Master (not thee master). We also get Jamie played by another actor as he has a face change for a short while. But Troughton is the stand out as always. One of my favourites of his tenure. Scottybguud View profile Like Liked 0 14 March 2025 · 42 words Review by Azurillkirby when did the second doctor get good This was great! Reminds me a lot of The Celestial Toymaker, which I also loved. Really, really fun and imaginative. Also, best excuse so far for a cast member being absent for a week. A+. Azurillkirby View profile Like Liked 0 26 February 2025 · 179 words Review by dema1020 Spoilers This review contains spoilers! The Mind Robber reminds me a lot of The Celestial Toymaker, yet a much better version of it. On the one hand, both stories are creative. Plus, The Mind Robber has better, and makes much better use of its companions. Jamie and Zoe make for highly effective a highly effective TARDIS team with the Second Doctor. Production also puts a lot more effort into production, so The Mind Robber looks great and holds up a lot more than The Celestial Toymaker on every front. In both stories, we face these larger than life threats that are imaginative and very creative. The Land of Stories is a very cool setting that shows just how different the setting of the Doctor Who universe can be. With all that being said, this feels like a longer serial than five episodes, and that definitely has something to do with how repetitive this story can be. At a certain point, we get it, and it feels a little drawn out after a while. I did like the stuff with Rapunzel, that was pretty silly. dema1020 View profile Like Liked 0 28 January 2025 · 378 words Review by DanDunn Spoilers 3 This review contains spoilers! Out of all the Second Doctor stories and given how so few of them managed to survive the junking period with all their episodes intact, thank god this was one of them! This is one particular story that wouldn’t have worked nearly as well without the visuals, The Mind Robber is a wonderfully creative and bizarre story where the Doctor and company are pulled out of reality and find themselves in the Land of Fiction. I won’t dare ruin any of the various characters and scenarios our heroes come across because frankly you should just go watch it for yourself, it’s the Second Doctor story I’ve revisited the most and I have so much fun watching it every single time, honestly the only problem I had with The Mind Robber was that I was sad when it was over, I totally could’ve watched six parts of this story, even for a five-parter it’s remarkably short. As I said earlier the different characters and situations the Doctor encounters are so much fun and creative to watch which play off brilliantly with Patrick Troughton’s comically cartoonish personality. The winner being how the story manages to work around the actor for Jamie, Frazer Hines, needing to take a week off to recover from chicken pox, I won’t give away how they do it but it’s incredibly inventive and funny. This story is like a Doctor Who version of Alice in Wonderland, you just don’t know what the Doctor’s gonna find around the next corner. It’s unpredictability and how it plays fast and loose with logic make it a highly engaging story, from its foreboding and atmospheric opening episode with one of the best cliff-hangers of all time, to an absolute blast of a climax with the Doctor’s mind battle against the intelligence controlling the Land of Fiction. This is arguably the most creative Doctor Who story ever written and has more imagination than the whole of Modern Who combined. If you’re a fan of Doctor Who and have never seen The Mind Robber before, put this high on your watchlist, in fact don’t even bother doing that, just stop reading and go watch it right now! DanDunn View profile Like Liked 3 22 November 2024 · 105 words Review by Dogtor Spoilers 3 This review contains spoilers! “You know he’s a fictional character” Mes critiques sont de plus en plus courtes mais que dire sinon que Ling flippait, et que pourtant l’histoire qu’il écrit est aussi magique que décisive. En fait c’est vraiment une parenthèse certes fauchée (et un peu improvisée), mais quand même très avant gardiste dans ce tout qu’elle dit de la série Le Docteur est encore n’importe qui, et il peut donc être toutes les histoires possibles. Pourtant, avec le seul pouvoir de son imagination, il se bat pour ne pas être qu’une histoire. Dogtor View profile Like Liked 3 Show All Reviews (11) Open in new window Statistics AVG. Rating473 members 4.30 / 5 Trakt.tv AVG. Rating492 votes 3.87 / 5 Member Statistics Watched 816 Favourited 198 Reviewed 11 Saved 6 Skipped 1 Related Stories Main Range • Episode 133 City of Spires Rating: 3.37 Story Skipped Audio Drama Reviews(2) More Actions View Sets Close Related Sets Set of Stories: Big Finish Main Range Set of Stories: Big Finish Main Range 101-150 Set of Stories: Main Range: Sixth Doctor Add Review Edit Review Skip Skipped Unowned Owned Save to my list Saved Tales of the TARDIS (Minisode) The Mind Robber (TOTT Minisode) Rating: 4.05 Story Skipped Minisode Reviews(1) More Actions View Sets Close Related Sets Set of Stories: Tales of the TARDIS Add Review Edit Review Skip Skipped Unowned Owned Save to my list Saved Virgin New Adventures Conundrum Rating: 4.20 Story Skipped Book Reviews(1) More Actions View Sets Close Related Sets Set of Stories: Virgin Books Set of Stories: Virgin New Adventures Add Review Edit Review Skip Skipped Unowned Owned Save to my list Saved Other adaptations of this story: We define an adaptation as a recreation of a similar story but on a different medium or with different characters. Target Collection Doctor Who: The Mind Robber Rating: 3.76 Story Skipped Book Reviews(1) More Actions View Sets Close Related Sets Set of Stories: Target Collection Add Review Edit Review Skip Skipped Unowned Owned Save to my list Saved Other variations of this story We define a variation as another way of experiencing the exact same story - like an autiobook, a reconstruction or an omnibus edition. Tales of the TARDIS • Episode 2 The Mind Robber (TOTT version) Rating: 4.15 Story Skipped Television Reviews(3) More Actions View Sets Close Related Sets Set of Stories: Tales of the TARDIS Add Review Edit Review Skip Skipped Unowned Owned Save to my list Saved Quotes Add Quote Link to Quote Favourite DOCTOR: Which way, do you think? ZOE: To the right. DOCTOR: They both look equally unattractive to me. ZOE: But it must be to the right. I've been working it out as we went along. JAMIE: Doctor. DOCTOR: Shush. How? ZOE: Well, as soon as we avoided the dead ends, it soon fell into a clear pattern. One left, two right, three left, four right and so on. It's a simple arithmetic progression. JAMIE: Yes, but Doctor. DOCTOR: Shush, Jamie. DOCTOR: What it is to have an arithmetical brain. What do you want? JAMIE: The thread's run out. Now, should we not go back? DOCTOR: No, you stay here. JAMIE: Ah. DOCTOR: And Zoe and I will explore a little further. There must be another way out of this maze and I mean to find it. — The Mind Robber Show All Quotes (2) Open in new window Transcript Needs checking Episode One [Outside the TARDIS] (The former atomic test island on Dulkis is having a small volcanic eruption.) JAMIE: Doctor, come on, will you? Look!DOCTOR: Oh, my word! Come on, Jamie. Into the TARDIS, quickly! [TARDIS] Show Full Transcript Open in new window
