The Brain of Morbius (TV story)

"How far, Doctor? How long... have you lived?"

- Morbius

Synopsis
Mad scientist Mehendri Solon is building a body from spare parts to house the disembodied brain of the evil Time Lord Morbius, and fancies the Doctor's head as the final piece...

Episode One
On a dark, rocky, remote planet, an injured alien crawls from the wreckage of a space capsule. He doesn't get far, as a brutish killer with a hook in place of a hand emerges from behind a rock and raises his knife...

The Doctor emerges from the TARDIS in a rage. He is sure that some external influence, most likely the Time Lords, has caused them to land on this planet, which he recognizes as Karn, a planet not too far from Gallifrey. Resentful at being expected to do the Time Lords' dirty work, the Doctor sulks while Sarah Jane explores, and she discovers a vast plain where lay the wreckages of dozens of spaceships. Before long they find the decapitated corpse of the alien crash victim, which the Doctor Identifies as a Mutt.

The hook-handed murderer, Condo, brings the alien's head to his master, Mehendri Solon, who finds it unsuitable for his purposes. The presence of the Doctor and Sarah is observed by a red-robed woman, Ohica of the Sisterhood of Karn. She reports to their High Priestess Maren, who suspects that their arrival must be connected to their Sacred Flame. A product of superheated gas, the Flame produces the Elixir of Life that makes them immortal. However, the Flame has been steadily dying, and without the Elixir the Sisterhood is doomed.

The Doctor and Sarah arrive at Solon's castle. Solon greets them, awkwardly remarking on the Doctor's "magnificent head." He dispatches Condo to bring wine. The Doctor recognizes Solon as a distinguished scientist, and a genius in the field of organ and tissue transplantation before his reputation was destroyed by his rumored connection to the followers of Morbius, a tyrannical Time Lord executed for his crimes, which Solon dismisses as professional jealousy. A burst of wind blows open the front door, blowing the cover off a clay bust. The Doctor recognizes the face on the bust as that of Morbius, and senses the presence of Morbius' mind before suddenly passing out; Solon has drugged the wine. Sarah has not partaken of the wine, but feigns unconsciousness anyway. Solon urges Condo to prepare, and they carry the Doctor to the lab. Meanwhile, the Sisterhood form a circle of meditation and focus on the TARDIS, which they teleport into their chamber. They identify it as Time Lord technology, and are convinced that the Time Lords are plotting to steal the last of the Elixir of Life.

Solon and Condo go to repair the generators in advance of the operation, and while they are away, the Doctor disappears. Sarah Jane sneaks into the lab, looking for the Doctor. Opening a curtain she is confronted with a monstrous creature, a patchwork of sewn-together alien body parts, only missing a head...

Episode Two
Returning to find him gone, Solon realizes the Doctor has been captured by the Sisterhood, and goes with Condo to fetch him back. Sarah secretly follows them to the Sisterhood's lair. The Doctor awakens and is accused by Maren of being an agent of the Time Lords sent to steal the Elixir. In the past, the Sisterhood willingly shared the Elixir with Time Lords suffering post-regenerative trauma. But now, protecting the last few drops, the Sisterhood have used their collective psychic energy to crash any passing spaceships (which Solon then scavenges for body parts). His denial isn't believed, and he is sentenced to burn at the stake. During the ceremony, Solon and Condo burst in. Maren, furious at the intrusion, refuses Solon's request to preserve the Doctor's head, as well as refusing to accept Condo in the Doctor's place. They sheepishly exit, and the ceremony continues. Sarah manages to free the Doctor before the flames reach him. A flash of power from Maren's ring, however, blinds her as they escape.

Condo angrily confronts his master about being offered in the Doctor's place. Solon begs for his life, and promises to replace Condo's hook with his real hand. This calms the hulking servant for the moment. The tension is broken when the Doctor arrives with Sarah for a consultation. Solon informs the Doctor that the Elixir is the only remedy for her blindness. The Doctor resolves to return to the Sisterhood to obtain it. Solon sends Condo with a message to the Sisterhood, again attempting to bargain for the Doctor's head. Solon, in a secret lab, talks to an unseen voice who berates him for the many delays in finishing the body. Solon persuades the voice, whom he refers to as Morbius, for more time, as he now only requires the Doctor's head... As Solon exits, Sarah hears the voice and follows it into the lab. We see, though she doesn't, that the voice emanates from a disembodied brain kept alive in a large vat. The brain accuses her of being an agent of the Sisterhood sent to destroy him.

Episode Three
Solon finds Sarah and rushes her out of the lab. From outside the door, she overhears their plan. Once he has the Doctor's head, he will transplant Morbius's brain into the body of spare parts he is creating, freeing him once more to wage galactic war. She locks Solon in, and stumbles out to find the Doctor.

The Doctor is captured and brought to Maren again. He realises that he's been duped by Solon; Sarah's blindness is only temporary. He persuades Maren to let him examine the Sacred Flame, convinced that there must be a natural reason for the Flame's dwindling. He drops a firecracker down the shaft which dislodges a buildup of soot, and the Flame is restored to its full height.

Condo unlocks the lab door, and Solon sends him to retrieve Sarah. Condo finds her, and is prepared to dispatch her, but takes pity on her blindness and returns her to Solon's castle. When Solon mentions that the Doctor is also a Time Lord, Morbius panics. The Time Lords, he thinks, have tracked him down. Desperate, he compels Solon to operate immediately, using an artificial brain case in place of the Doctor's head. As Solon prepares to operate, Condo recognizes one of the creature's arms as his own. In a blind rage he attacks Solon, and so doing he knocks over the tank, causing Morbius' brain hits the floor with a splat. Solon pulls a gun and shoots Condo several times. He drafts the unwilling Sarah into helping him operate, not knowing the extent of the brain's damage.

During a break in the operation, Solon finds the Doctor's apparently lifeless body left by the Sisterhood, and reflects bitterly on the irony. Meanwhile in the lab, Sarah's eyesight returns as Morbius rises behind her...

Episode Four
The operation has restored Morbius's motor functions, but his higher cerebral functions have yet to be connected, and the result is a savage monster. Solon is attacked, and Sarah is saved only by the wounded Condo's self-sacrifice. The Doctor awakens and convinces Solon that the creature must be hunted down. Together they find and tranquilize the creature, but not before it kills one of the Sisterhood. Solon convinces the Doctor that he's going to dismantle the creature, but instead locks the Doctor out of the lab, leaving him free to complete the operation. The Doctor injects cyanide gas into the lab, killing Solon, but not before Morbius arises fully sentient. Morbius confronts the Doctor and explains that he now has the lungs of a birastrop, rendering him immune to the cyanide. He boasts that despite his monstrous appearance, his followers will rise to join him once more. The Doctor challenges Morbius to a potentially deadly mindbending contest, which overloads after a fierce contest of wills. The Doctor falls, inert, and Morbius reverts to his earlier savagery. The Sisterhood, armed with torches, corner Morbius and drive him over a cliff to his death. The Doctor's life is restored with the help of a fresh draught of Elixir produced by Maren's self-sacrifice to the Sacred Flame. The Doctor gives Ohica a pack of firecrackers in case they have any more trouble, and he departs with Sarah in the TARDIS.

Cast

 * The Doctor - Tom Baker
 * Sarah Jane Smith - Elisabeth Sladen
 * Voice of Morbius - Michael Spice
 * Solon - Philip Madoc
 * Maren - Cynthia Grenville
 * Condo - Colin Fay
 * Ohica - Gilly Brown
 * Sisters - Sue Bishop, Janie Kells, Gabrielle Mowbray, Veronica Ridge
 * Kriz - John Scott Martin
 * Morbius Monster - Stuart Fell

Crew

 * Assistant Floor Manager - Felicity Trew
 * Costumes - L. Rowland Warne
 * Designer - Barry Newbury
 * Incidental Music - Dudley Simpson
 * Make-Up - Jean McMillan
 * Movement - Geraldine Stephenson
 * Producer - Philip Hinchcliffe
 * Production Assistant - Carol Wiseman
 * Production Unit Manager - Janet Radenkovic
 * Script Editor - Robert Holmes
 * Special Sounds - Dick Mills
 * Studio Lighting - Peter Catlett
 * Studio Sound - Tony Millier
 * Theme Arrangement - Delia Derbyshire
 * Title Music - Ron Grainer
 * Visual Effects - John Horton

Story Notes

 * Some fans have noted some stories which share similar ideas:
 * Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein, in which a scientist attempts to create new life by joining together the organs of a number of deceased bodies.


 * Curt Siodmak's 1942 novel Donovan's Brain, in which a scientist tries to keep the disembodied brain of an evil billionaire alive.
 * H. P. Lovecraft's Herbert West - Reanimator, in which a chemist and his fearful assistant attempt to resurrect the dead.


 * At the end of Part Four the TARDIS dematerialises instantaneously, with a flash and a puff of smoke, rather than fading away gradually, and the dematerialisation sound is played at a higher speed than usual.
 * Colin Fay, who played Condo, was an opera singer.
 * Many of the faces in the mental battle between the Doctor and Morbius are members of the crew who worked on this story.

Ratings

 * Part 1 - 9.5 million viewers
 * Part 2 - 9.3 million viewers
 * Part 3 - 10.1 million viewers
 * Part 4 - 10.2 million viewers

Myths

 * Episode 4 of this story is the source of the long running speculation that there are incarnations of the Doctor that precede the first. While the identity of the other faces in the mind battle are never explicitly stated, it's far more likely that they are other incarnations of Morbius, also a Time Lord. In fact during the Mind Bend, we see the present day faces of Morbius and the Doctor switching back and forth, giving further credibility to the idea that the unknown faces were incarnations of Morbius, not the Doctor. The myth persists to this day, despite The Five Doctors (also written by Terrance Dicks), Mawdryn Undead, the 1996 TV movie, The Next Doctor, and other episodes stating clearly that all of the Doctors' incarnations have been accounted for in the TV series.
 * MA: Cold Fusion suggests that one of these "Morbius Doctors" was the incarnation who was active at the time of Susan's birth. It is possible that the "Morbius Doctors" were a reincarnation of the Other before becoming the Doctor. However, NA: Lungbarrow further muddies the waters by claiming that Gallifreyans such as the Other weren't capable of regeneration, and that, while the Doctor was a sort of "second coming" of the Other generated by the Loom, he was not the same person. Of course, no reference to the Other, the Looms, or Lungbarrow has appeared onscreen, so Occam's Razor would disregard that entirely and simply conclude that the other faces in the mind battle are Morbius's prior incarnations.


 * Implying that the Doctor had earlier incarnations may have been the production team's intent, although this was never followed up on. The Cartmel Masterplan would not come until much later.


 * Barry Newbery's sets for this story were inspired by the work of the Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi. They weren't, although at director Christopher Barry's request Newbery did look at some of Gaudi's work during the course of his research.


 * Maren mentions a race called the Hoothi who travel in silent gas dirigibles. They are called the Muthi, according to Terrance Dicks's script, but Cynthia Grenville pronounces the name as "Hoot-eye". This is quite clear on the DVD. Author Paul Cornell featured the creatures in his original Doctor Who novel Love and War.


 * Sarah calls the Doctor "Tom" at one stage (during the mindbending sequence). She is actually stammering the word "Doctor".

Filming Locations

 * BBC Television Centre (Studio 1, TC3), Shepherd's Bush, London

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

 * Morbius' globe head falls apart when he tumbles over the cliff edge, and the camera bounces. He's just been through a fight and is falling off a cliff. He's entitled to a structural defect after that. The camera bounce can simply be indicative of the dramatic nature of his falling.
 * Why doesn't Solon just put the brain into the Doctor's head? Because Solon wanted to give Morbius various other biological advantages in his new body. However, a simple transplant would have likely given Morbius the ability to regenerate again, so Solon's decision is still suspect. Solon does not know how many bodies the Doctor has left and he probably does not want to risk the possiblity that he is on his last. Furthermore, Solon is a deranged egotist with a perverse artistic streak, who expresses great pleasure at the notion of "creating" Morbius anew. Building a new, albeit hideous body, would be a far more effective way for him to demonstrate his full range of surgical expertise and (twisted) creativity.

Continuity

 * NA: Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible expands on who the Sisterhood are, how they came to be and their animosity with the Time Lords / Gallifrey.
 * PDA: Warmonger covers much of Morbius's reign before he was captured by the Time Lords.
 * The Hoothi, briefly mentioned in this story, play a significantly greater role in the novel, NA: Love and War.
 * In PDA: Verdigris Iris Wildthyme reveals she was one of part of the Sisterhood of Karn yelling "Death" at the Doctor.
 * The Doctor's killing of Solon marks one of the few occasions in series history (and possibly the first) in which the character is shown directly and deliberately killing another humanoid being. Other examples include the Fifth Doctor shooting the Cyberleader in Earthshock and the Sixth Doctor smothering Shockeye in The Two Doctors.
 * A Mutt appears. They first appeared in DW: The Mutants.

DVD, Video and Laserdisc Releases
DVD releases


 * Region 2 21st July 2008
 * PAL -


 * Region 4 2nd October 2008
 * PAL -


 * Region 1 7th October 2008
 * NTSC -

Notes:
 * Editing for DVD release completed by Doctor Who Restoration Team.

Video Releases

Released:


 * UK July 1984 (Heavy edited movie edition)
 * US July 1987 (Heavy edited movie edition)
 * Australia November 1987 (Heavy edited movie edition)
 * UK July 1990 (Unedited)
 * Australia January 1991 (Unedited)
 * US February 1997 (Unedited)

As noted above, initial home-video releases of The Brain of Morbius used a heavily edited omnibus movie print, with a running time of less than an hour. This was apparently in an attempt to make the serial acceptable for young viewers (in the US it was released on Playhouse, a children's imprint of the CBS Fox label). This edit was heavily criticised and eventually an uncut version was released (though American viewers had to wait a decade). Similar edits were not released for other serials.

Laserdisc Release

The Brain of Morbuis was one of the few episodes to be released on Laserdisc. As with most early Laserdisc's, This release is known to suffer from Severe "Disk Rot". It is also labelled as a "Laser Vision" Disk, Not a Laserdisc.

Released in July 1984 as "The Brain of Morbius".

Novelisations

 * Main article: Doctor Who and the Brain of Morbius


 * Novelised as Doctor Who and the Brain of Morbius by Terrance Dicks in June 1977
 * Also novelised in a book for younger readers, Junior Doctor Who and the Brain of Morbius, also by Dicks, in 1980.