Mawdryn Undead (TV story)

A warp ellipse draws the TARDIS off course. The Fifth Doctor's companions are separated from him not in space, but in time, and he has to deal with a treacherous schoolboy named Turlough. But why does the Doctor's old friend the Brigadier not remember him at all?

Synopsis
In 1983, the former Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart teaches mathematics at Brendon Public School, where Turlough is a student. In the aftermath of a car accident, Turlough is contacted by the sinister Black Guardian, whom the Doctor thwarted during the quest for the Key to Time. Seeking revenge, the Black Guardian offers Turlough transportation off Earth if he will kill the Doctor.

Meanwhile, the Fifth Doctor, Tegan and Nyssa have problems of their own. The TARDIS is caught in a warp ellipse and materializes on board a starliner locked in a perpetual orbit in time and space. Turlough, under the Black Guardian's instructions, transports himself onto the liner from Earth by means of a transmat capsule and encounters the TARDIS crew. The Doctor travels to Earth via transmat, taking Turlough with him, to get rid of the transmat interference that is trapping the TARDIS on the liner. Unfortunately, when the TARDIS tries to materialize on Earth, it vanishes. The Doctor meets the Brigadier at the Brendon school, but is puzzled when his old comrade-in-arms does not remember their time together at first. When the Doctor says he has to find Tegan and his TARDIS, the Brigadier remembers meeting her in 1977. The Doctor realizes that the TARDIS is right there - just six years earlier - and tries to get the Brigadier to remember the events that led to his nervous breakdown in 1977.

In 1977, Tegan and Nyssa encounter the transmat capsule, but inside is an alien-looking humanoid whom they initially believe is the Doctor, horribly injured. Meeting the younger Brigadier, they bring him and the alien back to the starliner, which is actually the prison of a group of alien scientists who had been trying to discover the Time Lord secret of regeneration. As Mawdryn, the leader of the group explains, they only succeeded in trapping themselves in a cycle of perpetual mutation and regeneration and now long for death. When the Doctor finds out that there are two Brigadiers aboard, he has to try to keep the two apart lest the resulting energy discharge prove catastrophic.

Trying to leave in the TARDIS, the Doctor discovers that Tegan and Nyssa have been infected by the same malady as Mawdryn and his compatriots. The only cure, it seems, is to do what Mawdryn demands: the Doctor must give up the energy from his remaining regenerations. Hooking himself up to Mawdryn's apparatus, the Doctor is about to sacrifice himself when the two Brigadiers meet and touch hands, causing a discharge of temporal energy at precisely the right instant. Tegan and Nyssa are cured, the alien scientists succeed in ending their undead existence, and the Doctor remains a Time Lord. The younger Brigadier, however, will not remember his time with the Doctor until they meet again in 1983...

After returning the Brigadiers to their respective time zones, Turlough asks if he can join the Doctor in his travels. The Doctor agrees, apparently not realizing he is taking an assassin into the fold.

Plot
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Cast
The Doctor - Peter Davison

Tegan Jovanka - Janet Fielding

Nyssa - Sarah Sutton

Turlough – Mark Strickson

Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart – Nicholas Courtney

The Black Guardian – Valentine Dyall

Headmaster – Angus MacKay

Ibbotson - Stephen Garlick

Dr Runciman - Roger Hammond

Matron - Sheila Gill

Mawdryn – David Collings

Mutants - Peter Walmsley, Brian Darnley

Crew
Studio Lighting - Don Babbage

Visual Effects - Stuart Brisdon

Production Associate - June Collins

Costumes - Richard Croft

Title Music - Ron Grainer and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop

Theme arrangement - Peter Howell

Film Cameraman - Godfrey Johnson

Incidental Music - Paddy Kingsland

Production Assistant - Valerie Letley

Special Sounds - Dick Mills

Make-Up - Carolyn Perry, Sheelagh Wells

Studio Sound - Martin Ridout

Costumes - Amy Roberts

Designer - Stephen Scott

Assistant Floor Manager - Ian Tootle

Film Editor - Chris Woolley

Writer - Peter Grimwade

Script Editor - Eric Saward

Director - Peter Moffatt

Producer - John Nathan-Turner

Story Notes

 * Every story during Season 20 had the Doctor face an enemy from each of his past incarnations. For this trilogy, the enemy was the Black Guardian, who last faced the fourth incarnation of the Doctor at the conclusion of the Key to Time saga in "The Armageddon Factor" (1979).
 * The Doctor cites the "Blinovitch Limitation Effect" (first mentioned in the Third Doctor serial, "Day of the Daleks") as the reason for the temporal energy discharge resulting from the meeting of the two Brigadiers. However, the Effect must not apply to Time Lords, or at least can be mitigated, as the Doctor has met and made physical contact with his prior incarnations on several occasions.
 * The original intent of the production team was for the character of Ian Chesterton, one of the original regulars from the series' first two seasons from 1963-65, to return for a guest appearance in this story, hence the school setting as Chesterton was a science teacher. However, actor William Russell proved to be unavailable. Some consideration was given to using instead the character of Harry Sullivan, who was a regular in the programme for a season in the mid-1970s, before the return of Lethbridge-Stewart was eventually decided upon.
 * David Collings, who played Mawdryn, also appeared in the Fourth Doctor serials "Revenge of the Cybermen" as Vorus and "The Robots of Death" as Poul, and would himself play an alternate Doctor in Big Finish Productions' Doctor Who Unbound audio play, "Full Fathom Five."
 * The Black Guardian Trilogy continues in the serial "Terminus".

Ratings
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Myths
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Location Filming
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Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

 * "Mawdryn Undead" has the unfortunate distinction of contributing to one of the biggest and most widely discussed contradictions in the Doctor Who universe: the "UNIT dating controversy".
 * "Mawdryn Undead" also makes the first explicit statement in the series that the current Doctor is the fifth incarnation, contradicting earlier stories such as "The Brain of Morbius" where previously unseen incarnations were apparently shown.

Continuity

 * The Doctor last encountered the Black Guardian in "The Armageddon Factor," in which he also hinted that what he thought was the White Guardian in "The Ribos Operation" may have been the Black Guardian posing as his counterpart.
 * At the story's opening, Tegan is still unsure if she is finally free of the Mara, a reference to the previous story, "Snakedance."
 * Turlough's origins are finally explained in "Planet of Fire."

DVD and Video Releases
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Target Novelisations
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