“Mawdryn Undead” is an adventure of the twentienth season of “Doctor Who” classic series, the first of the mini-arc known by the global title “The Black Guardian Trilogy”, which aired in 1983. It follows “Snakedance” and it’s a four parts adventure written by Peter Grimwade and directed by Peter Moffatt.
The story
Turlough (Mark Strickson) is an alien who lives in exile on Earth under a false identity. He attends a school but doesn’t like his life on Earth and often gets in trouble. He persuades a fellow student to have a ride in the vintage car that belongs to Brigadier (retired) Lethbridge-Stewart (Nicholas Courtney) but the two have an accident. While Turlough is unconscious the Black Guardian of Time offers to take him away from the Earth if he kills the Doctor.
The Tardis is forced off course, materializes on a spaceship and can’t leave. The Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison), Tegan (Janet Fielding) and Nyssa (Sarah Sutton) are forced to use a transmat capsule to go to Earth to find out where’s the source of interference with the Tardis. The group meets Turlough, who received information from the Black Guardian to find the Doctor.
Extras
This DVD contains a good amount of extras. There are typical contents such as BBC continuity, a PDF file with the Radio Times Billings, production subtitles, a gallery of pictures from this adventure, another gallery of pictures of the sets and the announcement of the DVDs to be published shortly.
There are comments in the adventure alternative audio track by protagonists Peter Davison and Mark Strickson, actor Nicholas Courtney and script editor Eric Saward.
Who Wants To Live Forever. A documentary on the production of this adventure with interviews with cast and crew
Liberty Hall. A pseudo-interview with General Lethbridge-Stewart created specifically for this DVD.
Deleted And Extended Scenes. Scenes deleted partly or completely from the final version.
Movies Trims. Alternative versions of some scenes.
Out-takes. Some bloopers.
CGI Effects. The option to see the adventure with some new special effects. In particular, the scene at the beginning with the Black Guardian and Turlough is greatly improved because the original special effect for the background was bad even for the era.
Storyboards and CGI studio floorplans. Some drawings for the new special effects and the drawings for the original sets.
Isolated Score. The option to see this adventure with music by Paddy Kingsland in an isolated audio track.
There are also two “Easter eggs”: they’re nothing special but you can look for them through the menus.
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For the twentieth anniversary of “Doctor Who” it was decided to have in the adventures of the seasons characters from the past, especially villains. The Black Guardian of Time appeared in “The Armageddon Factor“, the last adventure of the season known as “The Key To Time”. On that occasion the Fourth Doctor had stopped him from taking possession of the Key to Time and from that time for a period his destinations were random to make the Black Guardian lose track of him.
Producer John Nathan-Turner decided to create a trilogy that reprised the story in which the Black Guardian found the Doctor and put in place a plan to kill him. In the season “The Key To Time” we already saw that the Guardians of Time don’t act directly but through someone so a new character was introduced who physically had to kill the Doctor.
Actor Mark Strickson is blond and John Nathan-Turner thought he looked like Peter Davison but that wasn’t good. The first possibility considered was that the actor shaved his hair bold but this might have caused him some problems in finding new parts after he finished working on “Doctor Who”. Strickson asked to be payed an extra as a compensation but at the time such an idea was unthinkable for a low-budget production so eventually the actor’s hair was dyed red.
Since his introduction, Turlough shows he conceals secrets and various ambiguities. Originally, being untrustworthy was to be part of Adric’s personality but that idea was abandoned. Since Adric had been dropped because he didn’t work as a companion, producer John Nathan-Turner decided to try to put that personality trait in Turlough.
The first appearance of Turlough and the beginning of the Black Guardian trilogy were originally scheduled in a different adventure but as it happened several times in the production of “Doctor Who” problems had arisen which led to a change of plans. Thus it was decided to produce “Mawdryn Undead” by Peter Grimwade, who already worked in the series primarily as a director.
The base idea of “Mawdryn Undead” is inspired by the legend of the Flying Dutchman only in this case it’s a starship in space. Inside there are eight beings who achieved immortality but suffering from continual mutations that make their lives painful so they want to die.
Because the story of “Mawdryn Undead” is partly set in a school, the original plan was to have Ian Chesterton, one of the original companions of the First Doctor. Actor William Russell however wasn’t available so eventually the character from the past who appeared in this adventure was Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart.
After retiring from UNIT, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart became a teacher but he suffers from partial amnesia, which is at the center of the plot. The events are soon split in two timelines – one in 1977 and in 1983 – in which we follow what happens to Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, the Doctor and his companions. At the end of this adventure not only the story of the immortals will have and ending but the mystery of what happened to the Brigadier will also be revealed.
Thus in “Undead Mawdryn” the plot is important in the way it takes place in two different years. It’s therefore necessary to follow this adventure with some attention to see in what year the various scenes are set. In this you’re helped by the fact that appropriately Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart has a look a little different in 1977 and 1983.
For me it’s genuinely difficult to rationally rate “Mawdryn Undead”. I discovered “Doctor Who” with the Fourth Doctor’s first adventures in which there was also Brigadier Lethbridge-enough so the fact that he’s one of the protagonists of this adventure is enough for me to raise its value.
The plot of “Mawdryn Undead” is sophisticated, though in some moments it’s burdened by some technobabble. Being set partly in a school and partly inside a spaceship, this adventure is good from the point of view of the aesthetics as well and the new special effects made for the DVD correct some problems.
From the aesthetic point of view it’s a shame that the Black Guardian’s costume is ridiculous with that sort of crow on his head and it’s just actor Valentine Dyall’s booming voice that saves the character.
Overall, I think “Mawdryn Undead” is definitely a very good adventure in which both the plot and the characters are interesting. It’s therefore a very solid start for the Black Guardian Trilogy.
Because this DVD is part of “The Black Guardian Trilogy” box set – available on Amazon UK
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