The Seeds of Doom

Six episodes
Aired between 31st January 1976 and 6th March 1976

Written by Robert Banks Stuart
Produced by Phillip Hinchcliffe
Directed by Douglas Camfield

Synopsis

Two scientists named Winlett and Moberley discover a seed pod frozen under layers of ice in Antarctica.

After analysis by the base Botanist, Stevenson, they reckon it's about 20,000 years old.

A day or so later, the word of this find gets to London and the Doctor is called in on behalf of UNIT to the World Ecology Bureau.  He meets a guy called Richard Dunbar who gives him the info on the pod and agrees to have the Doctor flown all the way to Antarctica.

The Doctor is very serious and in an ominous way, tells Dunbar to get word to Antarctica not to touch that pod under any means.

Even though the Doctor's message gets to the base, Stevenson decides to meddle with the pod anyway, putting it under ultra violet light to thaw it out.  To his amazement, it grows a little.  Winlett is a little perturbed by this and tries to convince Stevenson to leave it alone, but the Botanist is convinced that this should be their big discovery, not some crank from London's.

Unbeknownst to the Doctor and the Antarctic base, Dunbar goes to see Mr Harrison Chase, an eccentric millionaire who is obsessed with plants to the point that he thinks creating Bonzai trees is torture.

He sells the location of this possible extraterrestrial pod to Chase, who is most excited about it.  Once Dunbar's left, Chase sends two of his henchmen off to the Antarctic.

That night, the pod opens up and stings" Winlett's arm as he lays sleeping near it.

His screams alert Stevenson and Moberley but they are too late.  He has collapsed and is covered in green marks.

The Doctor and Sarah Jane arrive just a few hours afterwards, in the midst of a blizzard.

The team fill the Doctor in on the situation and remark how unusual it is that the Doctor's not wearing any cold weather clothing.  He presses them to see the body asap.  Winlett's body temperature is dropping, as is his pulse.  His body is plagued by some kind of green fungus that's growing at an alarming rate.

The team tell the Doctor that a medical team are on their way, but the Doctor fears that may be too late.  He asks Moberley to get a sample of Winlett's blood and he goes outside with Sarah and Stevenson.

He gets Stevenson to take him to where the pod was found and after a bit of digging, he comes up with another pod.  He seems to know what he's dealing with and mysteriously says that they always come in two's like policemen.

They return to the base and put the new pod in the freezer, then the Doctor examines the blood sample.

It seems that the blood has no platelets to it, and is replaced by schizophyres - organisms like plant bacteria.

The group are suddenly surprised by the sound of engines roaring overhead.  They go and see, expecting it to be the medical team.  As the others are gone, Sarah asks the Doctor what they're dealing with.  He tells her the creature that once was Winlett is now a Krynoid a form of deadly plant life that settles on planets and devours the mammals it finds.  He's not sure how they came to be on Earth, but suspects some kind of explosion that shot them into space.

Stevenson and Moberley return, bringing with them two men, Scorby and Keeler.  They claim they took a private plane but got lost and wound up at the base.  Now the base crew are back, the Doctor impatiently tells them to come with him and check on Winlett, leaving the men behind.

Winlett's condition is critical as he's almost consumed by the plant bacteria.

The Doctor suggests the only way is for Moberley to amputate Winlett's arm.  Moberley is hesitant but agrees.  they all go off to get the supplies but Winlett rises from his bed and attacks Moberley in the corridor, killing him.

Whilst the Krynoid wanders about outside, we discover that Scorby and Keeler are the men Mr Chase sent after the pod.  Scorby finds the bases rifle and disables it.  Keeler naively thinks that they're just there to find the pod, but Scorby explains that they're there to take the pod and kill the men with it, making it look like an accident.  Keeler's unhappy about it but is forced to obey or else Scorby will kill him too.

Sarah finds the dead Moberley in the corridor, prompting her, the Doctor and Stevenson to go out looking for the Krynoid.  They wander about for a bit and check the generator hut, purposefully built a little way from the base because of a powerful new fuel cell they are using.  They don't find the Krynoid and are forced to return to base.  Unknown to them however, the Krynoid saw them coming and hid until they'd gone, then it made its way into the generator hut.

With everyone gone, Scorby and Keeler go looking for the pod.  They find the open one and hear over the radio that the weather has cleared and a medical team is on its way.  Scorby tries to bluff his way, telling them not to bother, but ends up tearing the wires out of the set when they don't buy it.

Keeler explains that the pod has germinated and Scorby is insistent that they get the plant.  They capture the Doctor, Sarah Jane when the group return to base and tie them up.  Scorby questions them about the plant and the Doctor tries to tell them about Winlett becoming a Krynoid.

Scorby thinks he's playing daft and almost kills them until he captures Stevenson too.  Stevenson tries to fire with the base rifle and realises it's empty.  Scorby captures him too and under questioning, Stevenson eventually tells them about the second pod.

With the second pod in hand, Scorby insists that Sarah takes them to the generator hut and leaves the Doctor and Stevenson tied up.  He lets them know he intends to leave them to die.  Once they've gone, the Doctor manages to knock over a lamp and use the glass to cut Stevenson's ropes.

Sarah is forced to take Scorby and Keeler to the Generator hut where Scorby plants an explosive and ties Sarah up.

The bomb will cause a chain reaction that will destroy the entire base.  Keeler can't sanction this murder and attacks Scorby but the man is stronger and easily subdues Keeler, forcing him to leave with the pod.

Now free, the Doctor instructs Stevenson to contact someone and send a medical team whilst he goes and stops Scorby.  As the Doctor leaves, the Krynoid turns up and kills Stevenson whilst he's on the radio.

The Doctor sees Scorby and Keeler's plane take off, and he rushes to the hut, finding Sarah tied up with the bomb on a countdown.  He manages to free her, but the Krynoid finds them.  They manage to escape and lock the thing into the hut, running clear just as the entire base explodes.

The Doctor and Sarah make it back when the rest of the base's personnel find them and help them get back to England.

Dunbarr goes to Chase's mansion and confronts him about the lethal tactics he's used to get hold of the pod.  He explains that the Doctor and Sarah have survived and are planning to meet with Dunbarr and Sir Colin Thackery in two hours.  Chase tells him to keep his cool and everything will be fine.

At the said meeting with Dunbar and Sir Colin, the Doctor explains again what a danger this pod poses, and makes an accusation that Scorby and Keeler were somehow tipped off about the pod.  The Doctor demands that Dunbar helps him get to the Botanic Institute as the Doctor is sure the pod is somewhere in England.  Dunbar agrees and calls for a chauffeur to take them.

Once they get near a deserted quarry however, the driver stops and points a gun at them.

The driver tells them to get out so he can take them into the quarry and kill them.  As the Doctor gets out, he manages to knock the gunman over and he and Sarah run off into the quarry, managing to lure the chauffeur into the place and knocking him unconscious.

The Doctor and Sarah make their way back to the car and look in the boot, finding a rare painting from a Mrs Amelia Ducat, a leading flower artist.  They take the car and go and find Mrs Ducat who tells them she sold that particular painting to Harrison Chase, a millionaire who loves plants.

He never actually paid her for it though.

Over at the mansion, Chase orders Keeler to try and get the pod to germinate by injecting it with some fixed nitrogen.  Keeler is reluctant but knows that Chase is a dangerous man, so does as he's told.

The Doctor and Sarah end up bluffing their way into the grounds of Chase's mansion, but get chased and captured by armed guards working in the grounds. In a typical Bond Villain style, Chase meets the Doctor and is rather charming with him.  He even shows them round the grounds, and his laboratory.

Chase's butler, Hargreaves, interrupts the tour and tells Chase that the pod is germinating.  Chase orders Scorby to take them away and kill them.

Scorby does as he's told, but again, the Doctor manages to assault Scorby and make a break for it.

He lowers Sarah Jane over the mansion wall and tells her to go get help whilst he tries to find the pod.  It's not long however before Sarah is captured again by guards and taken to Chase.

The Doctor manages to climb onto the roof and finds the skylight to the secret lab where Chase is working with Keeler.

Chase, feeling particularly evil, holds Sarah's arm next to the pod and refuses to listen to Keelers calls to stop.  He doesn't care if Sarah dies, he must know what happens with the pod when it opens.

With little choice, the Doctor jumps through the skylight and down into the room, fighting off Scorby and rescuing Sarah Jane.  They lock the door as they rush out and run off into the grounds.  In all the distraction, the pod opens and stings Keeler in the arm.

He begs Mr Chase to call for an Ambulance, but Chase is far more interested in watching the effect it has on his unfortunate henchman.

Once free of the guards, the Doctor tells Sarah to hide whilst he goes back and tries to get the pod.

Eventually unlocked from the room, Chase gets his butler, Hargreaves, to take Keeler to an old cottage on the grounds.  As they do so, Chase observes that the bacteria seem to be eating all the protein from Keelers body, so orders him fed with meat.

The Doctor gets back to the lab but now finds it deserted, containing only the shell of the second pod.  Scorby finds him again and with a couple of guards, takes the Doctor down to the composting room where a huge grinder is used to recycle dead plant matter back into Chase's greenhouse.

It's also fantastic for getting rid of bodies.  Luckily, the Doctor is kept alive in there until Chase can see him again.

It just so happens that Ms Ducat calls to Chase's mansion and insists on seeing him about payment for her portrait.  Chase is annoyed but agrees to see her, delaying the Doctor's execution.

Sarah Jane meanwhile goes out and finds the cottage that Keeler was taken to.  By the time she gets there, he's tied to a bed and almost totally green.

He rants at her when she refuses to free him.  She is forced to hide in the wardrobe when she hears Hargreaves bringing the meat for Keeler, and luckily, Keeler is in too much of a state to reveal her presence.  Once Keeler has eaten, he drops into a coma, allowing Sarah to slip out of the cottage quietly.  She goes up to the house to find the Doctor but instead fins Ms Ducat as she's being shown out of the grounds by Scorby.  She manages to snatch a couple of seconds with the old woman to ask her to contact UNIT as soon as she can.

Ms Ducat is shown out of the compound and enters a car with Dunbar and Sir Colin.  She explains to them that it's as they feared, the Doctor and Sarah Jane are in trouble and the pod is in there.  Dunbar tells them to wait a few more minutes whilst he goes in and tries to talk Chase out of anything foolish, seeing as he's made a huge mistake.

In the meanwhile, Chase has had a chance to go see the Doctor whom they've tied up and placed on the feeder for the compost machine.

Foolishly though, they've left him to get composted alone, so Sarah is able to shut the machine off just in the nick of time when she stumbles upon the room.

Out at the cottage, Hargreaves brings more meat but runs away in terror as Keeler has now transformed into something wholly inhuman and frees himself from the straps holding him to the bed.

Chase is met by Dunbar who tries to get him to see reason but Chase thinks everything's under control.  Hargreaves enters a split second later and tells them that Keeler's free, which causes Dunbar to leave, threatening to get help to kill the Krynoid.  Chase calls for Scorby to "get Dunbar!"

Now free, Sarah takes the Doctor to the cottage but they find Keeler gone.  The Doctor grabs a sword from above the fireplace and they go out searching for the Krynoid.

As Dunbar is being chased by Scorby and the remaining guards, he runs into the creature that now resembles more of a tree than a man.  He is killed and his screams attract both Scorby and his goons, as well as the Doctor and Sarah.

The Krynoid advances on the Doctor whose sword is next to useless.  Luckily, Chase's guards panic and fire their guns, distracting the plant enough for the Doctor and Sarah Jane to escape to the cottage.  They're joined not long after by Scorby and a couple of men.

Scorby is sceptical that the Krynoid was once Keeler, but does believe that it's a dangerous thing.  He calls Chase at the main house to tell him to get help but Chase orders that the plant is to be unharmed.  The Doctor tries one last time to talk sense into Chase, but he hangs up.

Suddenly, a booming voice speaks from outside. it's the Krynoid.  It says that if the Doctor will allow himself to be infected, it will let all the others go free.  Scorby is happy to consider this, but the Doctor violently points out that without him there's no chance of them surviving at all.  He gets Scorby to go and make some molotov cocktails so they can try to get away.

Meanwhile, Sir Colin has gone back to his office with Amelia Ducat and tries to contact UNIT but the Brigadier is away.  He eventually gets hold of Major Beresford who agrees to help.  With little else to offer, Ms Ducat is sent off home.

Back at the mansion, Chase goes down to the cottage with a camera to take some pictures of the Krynoid.

It turns on him but he manages to convince it that he's always been on its side and only wants it to flourish.

As the Doctor and co see Chase outside, they decide to strike.  Scorby throws the molotov outside, distracting the plant enough for the Doctor to run out and get to the limo, driving off.  Sarah and Scorby manage to leg it to the main house  Once there, they begin barricading the house from the plant life that also seems to be coming to life.

The Doctor once out of the estate, goes to Sir Colin's office where he meets him and Major Beresford.  The Doctor once again tries to explain and get people to help, but UNIT commander says he can't do anything without proof.  The Doctor is soon able to show him proof as reports begin to flood in of people getting killed by vegetation near Chase's estate.

Once he's got UNIT convinced, he calls Sarah Jane at the house and explains that they are planning to attack the Krynoid with a high powered laser.  The animated plants cut the conversation short by tearing out the phone lines.

The siege at the house goes on for a bit, with the plants getting thicker and thicker.  Chase eventually turns up, having had some kind of awakening from his encounter with the Krynoid.  He says that the plants will come to rule the earth as they should.  He ends up in his greenhouse, sat on the floor, talking to his plants.

Scorby, Sarah Jane and Hargreaves all try to talk sense into him, but he believes that humans are just parasites and plants should be the real rulers.  It turns out that the greenhouse plants are also animated and they surround the survivors as they try to talk to Chase.

The plants ensnare them and begin to strangle them, but luckily, the Doctor turns up with a UNIT Sgt. carrying some experimental defoliant.  They spray the plants and kill them off, freeing the others (Hargreaves isn't so lucky).  Chase is outraged but manages to escape.

The defoliant kills the greenhouse plants but it all gets used up in the process.  The Doctor leads them all back to the lab where they can remove the remaining plants.  Everyone takes them outside but Chase turns up again and locks them all outside where the Krynoid finds them, as it towers over the house.

With another stroke of luck, the rest of UNIT turn up and shoot the Krynoid with the laser.  It doesn't kill the thing, but it's enough of a distraction for the group to get back into the house through another door.

They are set in for another siege but this time, Chase keeps wandering around messing up things and manages to knock the UNIT Sgt. unconscious and feeds him to his plants through the compost machine.

As the Krynoid tries to break its way in again, Scorby ends up succumbing to despair and makes a blind run for it, fighting his way through the jungle of animated plants.  He makes it a fair distance into the grounds before he falls into a pond and the pond weed pulls him under, drowning him.

As the Doctor repairs a loudspeaker that Chase trashed, Sarah goes off to look for the missing UNIT soldier.  She encounters Chase at the composting machine and gets knocked out too.

The Doctor finishes his repairs and contacts Major Beresford, telling him they've about fifteen minutes left before the Krynoid shoots out pods all over the place and puts the entire Earth in peril.  He tells them their only chance is to order an air strike on the thing, forsaking the Doctor and the rest as necessary casualties.  Beresford reluctantly agrees and orders the strike.

With nothing left to do, the Doctor realises that Sarah Jane is missing and goes to look for her, eventually finding her in the compost machine, tied up as the conveyor pushes her closer to the blades.  As the Doctor struggles with Chase, he manages to free Sarah Jane and shut the machine off, but Chase starts it again and pulls the doctor onto the conveyor belt with him.  The Doctor eventually fights his way off the conveyor and Chase is pulled into the machine, despite the Doctor trying to rescue him.

Together, they try to get out of the house but the plant life is too thick.  They use a steam pipe to scald the vegetation enough to get out and run just as the jet fighters come in and destroy both the Krynoid and the house.

Some time later, the Doctor and Sarah Jane debrief Sir Colin who asks the Doctor to make a speech at the Horticultural Society.  The Doctor declines and instead offers to take Sarah Jane to Cassiopeia.  They get in the TARDIS and Sarah Jane dresses ready for the beach but when they run out of the doors, it turns out they've gone to Antarctica as the Doctor forgot to reset the coordinates.  They both laugh and exclaim "have we been here before, or are we yet to come?"

Trivia

• The original title of this story would have been the Seeds of Death but thankfully fan societies pointed out that title had already been used!

• The final story for Season 13 was supposed to be The Hand of Fear, Lis Sladen's final story, but the scripts weren't ready.   She agreed to hang around a tiny bit longer because she wanted to give her character a proper send off and there was talk of a Doctor Who movie

• The movie idea was floated by Tom Baker and Ian Marter (Harry Sullivan).  It was to be called Doctor Who and the Scratchman.  It ended up being part crowd funded thanks to Tom but the BBC weren't keen on this so Tom was made to give all the money back again to the fans who'd donated.

• In the first true indication of how difficult he would become, Tom Baker showed very plainly that he hated the script for this story partially because he said the dialogue was very corny.  Robery Holmes had to negotiate with Tom, who eventually agreed to play it mean to add gravitas to the lines

• This is the last time Douglas Camfield would direct for Doctor Who

• This story's horror movie themed inspiration is Thing from Another World but you could also maybe argue Day of the Triffids

• Part of the Krynoid forms was an Axon re-painted green

What worked

• The Arctic scenes are reasonably experimental.  It's nice to see something other than a quarry or a sleepy English village 

• The Doctor's angry approach does indeed add gravitas to the situation, making you believe the threat is as big as what he's suggesting

• There's lots of deaths in this that also help build the stakes on this

• I've got to say it, Chase is wonderfully insane too.  There's tension in his unpredictability

• Even though she is a bit of dotty comic relief, Ms Ducat is fun 

• Keeler's initial state after the pods sting is a bit worrying actually

What didn't work

• There's parts of a quarry where fake snow hasn't been stuck on it

• There's a lot of back and forth in this story, especially towards the end when there's lots of siege's in the same places

• Half of the special effects for the plants look alright and half look absolutely terrible

• The end bit of Chase pottering about is really annoying as nobody just finds him and sorts him out 

• How come whenever anyone is killed in the composter, there's no blood on the blades?

• How can the TARDIS go to Antarctica when they were taken there by aircraft?

Overall Feelings

The Seeds of Doom starts out looking like an international political romp trying to get back alien pods.  The start of it, just like the horror movie it's based on is great at setting up a claustrophobic tension.  Tom Baker's playing it straight helps a lot with this, as does Scorbiy's love of violence and intent to kill everyone.  Indeed, the body count is high in this one, and although that's not a good thing for a family programme in 1976, I think it does add a level of maturity to it.  Kids aren't being talked down to on this one.  They're expected to watch from between their fingers as horrible death by horrible death, we're shown just how much of a madman Chase is and the consequences of failure.  That is great.  I mean, even the Doctor hospitalises the chauffeur by smashing his face in!

Without a doubt, this is one of the best of Tom Baker's run, and possibly worthy of a top ten spot in the entire run of Doctor Who.  What this lofty title doesn't take wholly into account is that it degenerates into bond villain death traps and lots and lots of besieged scenes.  Chase is a smart man, Scorby less so but there's got to be a point where even he realises he calls for the Doctor's death in one breath then captures him the next.  It does get a little tiring, but there's no denying the tension, horror and downright eccentricity of Chase more than make up for its shortfalls.

Rating

9 out of 10

Rewatchability Factor

7 out of 10

Watch this if you liked...

• The Seeds of Death

• The Claws of Axos 

• Robot

• Black Orchid (Well, it's got plants in it!)

• Terror of the Vervoids 

• The Thing from Another World

• The Day of the Triffids

Consulting the Matrix

Do you think Scorby should have survived and redeemed himself?

The Brain of Morbius

Four episodes
Aired between 3rd January 1976 and 24th January 1976

Written by Robin Bland
Produced by Phillip Hinchcliffe
Directed by Christopher Barry

Synopsis

It's a dark and stormy night on the planet of Karn.  On the rocky, mountainous landscape, an injured Mutt creature crawls along, having just survived it's ship crashing.

It is unaware of a large hulking man who stalks behind it and kills the creature, beheading it.

The man, Condo, brings the head back to his master, who chastises Condo for the head is unsuitable for his needs.

Back out on the mountainside, the TARDIS materialises, and the Doctor emerges in a temper as he believes the Time Lords have taken control of his ship again and brought him here.

Although he doesn't know where "here" is, he can guess that it's only a couple of billion miles from Gallifrey.  In a huff, he sits down and refuses to do the Time Lords dirty work.

Sarah Jane leaves him to sulk but doesn't go far before she sees a great plane containing dozens of crashed spaceships.  Not long after, she finds the body of the Mutt.

The Doctor and Sarah don't realise they are being watched from afar by a woman in red robes.  Her name is Ohica and she is part of the Sisterhood of Karn, a religious order that lives on this planet and guards the sacred flame, a strange fire set in a rock that produces an elixir of youth.

As Solon goes about his research, he catches Condo looking for the arm that he severed to save the lumbering man's life.  He replaced it with a metal hook and promises to replace the arm, only when he's found Solon a suitable head for his experiments.

Ohica goes back to her temple and warns the head of their order, Maren about the Doctor's arrival.

 Maren assumes that the Doctor has been sent by the Time Lords to find the secret of the elixir, but the sacred flame is currently burning at an all time low, and there's a real danger that the elixir will be no more.

The Doctor and Sarah Jane get caught in the outbreak of rain from the storm and are forced to look for shelter.  They come across a great castle on the mountainside - the home of Condo and his master, Mehendri Solon.

They are unaware that before their arrival, Solon was cursing the desolate planet, and forsaking his chances of ever finding a human head.  His eyes practically light up then when Condo answers the door to the Doctor.  Solon becomes very attentive to them both and takes the Doctor's coat, pausing to remark on what a superb head the Doctor has.  The Doctor quips that he's had several.

Once introductions are out of the way, Solon orders Condo to bring some wine.  The Doctor recognises Solon and remarks that he was renown as a genius in organ and tissue transplantation before his reputation was ruined by the rumour that he'd joined the cult of Morbius - a criminal Time Lord that tried to overthrow the High Council.  Solon assures the Doctor that it was all just jealousy on his accusers part, but it did force him to hide away on the desolate planet of Karn.

Back with the Sisterhood, Maren leads a ritual to scrye on the Doctor as she believes him to have gone to Solon's castle.  Sure enough, she sees him there.

The Doctor recognises the Sisterhood of Karn's powers as a sudden great wind whips through the castle, blowing off a cover to a bust of a man that Solon had been working on.  The Doctor examines the statue, saying that it looked familiar, believing it to be Morbius.

Unfortunately, he soon after discovers that his wine has been drugged and he falls unconscious.  Sarah Jane pretends to be unconscious as she failed to drink the wine.  She hears Solon excitedly announce that he finally has the head he wants and orders Condo to prepare the Doctor for an operation.

Condo obeys and takes the Doctor away.

Over at the Sisterhood, they perform another ritual, this time to teleport the TARDIS over to them so that the Doctor must come looking for it.

In Solon's castle, Condo is ordered to go and switch on the generator whilst Solon prepares the equipment.  They leave the Doctor on the operating table whilst they do so.  As they are gone, the Doctor is teleported over to the Sisterhood's temple by yet another ritual.

Sarah meanwhile, sneaks into the theatre, trying to find the Doctor, instead coming face to face with a headless monstrosity!

The Doctor regains consciousness only to find that he's going to be burned at the stake for trying to steal the elixir of youth.  The Doctor admits that the Time Lords have used the elixir in the past to treat post-regenerative trauma, but that was always done with the Sisterhood's permission.  He asks why this isn't the case now.  Meran explains how the elixir is down to its last few drops and the Sisterhood have begun protecting it by psychically crashing any ships that come near Karn onto its surface.

Back at Solon's castle, Sarah just manages to escape and Solon finds the Doctor gone.  He blames Condo for not using enough of the drug in the wine and comes up with a desperate plan to go to the Sisterhood where he believes the Doctor must be.  They do indeed go to the temple and they find the Doctor tied to a stake with the sisters dancing around him with lit torches.

Solon pleads with Meran to release the Doctor or at least give him his head undamaged.  He even offers up Condo to take the Doctor's place.  It's no good however, Meran is adamant that the Doctor should die.

As they are quarreling, nobody sees Sarah Jane who's managed to slip into the temple disguised as one of the sisters.  She give the doctor a tool to cut his bonds.

Solon and Condo are sent back to their castle, and the ritual commences again.  The sisters set fire to the wood around the Doctor but the Doctor jumps over it, running away with Sarah Jane.  Meran fires powers from her golden ring at Sarah as the race out of the door.  Ohica demands that they race after them, but Meran cannot because the temple is the only thing sustaining her life now that the elixir is dangerously low.

Solon and Condo get back to the castle and Solon is feeling very down.  Condo however is angry at Solon for offering up his life and threatens to kill Solon and can only be calmed down by Solon agreeing to give Condo's arm back to him.  He sends Condo to prepare the lab whilst he gets ready.

Once Condo has gone, Solon goes to speak to his master, who berates Solon for his failed plan to free him.

Out in the wastes, the Doctor and Sarah regroup, but Sarah says the ring blinded her.  The Doctor is forced to turn to Solon for help.

Solon agrees, and gives Sarah an eye exam.  He tells the Doctor that the elixir of life is the only thing that can save her eyes as the retina's are completely burned out.

The Doctor goes back to the temple alone.  Solon sees a chance to get the Doctor's head and sends Condo over to the temple with a note, offering them a deal.

As Sarah is sat blinded in the main room, she hears a voice yelling for Solon.  She feels her way into a basement room, trying to find the source of the voice and she discovers that it is Morbius - thankfully, she's too blind to see that Morbius is nothing but a brain in a jar!

Solon finds Sarah in the room and rushes her out, but Morbius demands to speak with Solon and he's forced to abandon her outside and attend to his master.  She overhears them discussing using the Doctor to attach his head to the monster and transfer Morbius' brain into it to make him into a living person once more and allowing him to wreak revenge on the Time Lords.

Thinking fast, Sarah locks Solon in the room and wanders off blindly to find the door.

Meanwhile, the Doctor is captured once more by the Sisters and brought before Maren.

After explaining about Sarah's blindness, he is told it is only temporary and he's been duped after all.  He warns Maren that Solon is trying to resurrect Morbius but she's adamant that she saw Morbius obliterated personally.

The Doctor convinces Maren to let him convince her he means no harm by having a look at the sacred flame.  If he can't fix it, it is dying anyway, and if he can...well, that must mean he's there to help not hinder the Sisterhood.  Maren is suspicious but allows him to look at the flame.

He drops a firecracker into the flame.  The resulting bang dislodges soot that's built up and allows the flame to come back strong again.

Condo makes his way back to Solon's castle now that he's delivered the letter.  He finds Solon trapped in the room.

A furious Solon orders Condo to go and get Sarah before she can reach the temple.  He finds her but takes pity on her, finding her beautiful.  He takes her back instead of killing her.

In the ensuing argument between her and Solon, Sarah happens to mention that the Doctor is a Time Lord.  Morbius hears this and goes nuts.  He's convinced the Time Lords are here to destroy him and demands that Solon transplants his brain right now, using a glass bowl that was designed as a temporary housing for the brain.

Solon does as he's commanded although he's far from pleased at performing the high-risk operation.  He ties Sarah up and gets Condo to prep the theatre.

As the operation is about to get underway however, Condo realises that the humanoid arm of the monster is his own arm that was taken from him.

He loses his cool and topples the glass tank holding Morbius' brain, causing it to splat on the floor.  Solon is beside himself with rage and shoots Condo multiple times as his servant tries to attack him.

Left with no other option, Solon unties Sarah Jane and forces her to assist him with the operation, fearing that Condo's clumsiness could have caused untold brain damage to Morbius.

Meanwhile, the Doctor comes up with a plan with the help of Maran.  He pretends to be dead and the sisters take him to the castle and leave him there.  Once the operation is complete, Solon finds the Doctor on the floor, supposedly dead and remarks on the irony of rushing the operation.

Sarah is now left to her own devices and her sight is finally coming back to her.  She turns around just in time to see the monster that is now Morbius, arising from the table.

Solon hears her scream and rushes to find Morbius in an incoherent rage.  He tells Sarah that only Morbius' primitive actions are linked up, not his higher thinking processes.

Morbius attacks Solon and knocks him unconscious.

He's about to get Sarah when a mortally wounded Condo shows up and does battle with the beast, ultimately losing and getting killed.  Morbius finds a way out of the castle and wanders off onto the mountainside.

Sarah finds and wakens the Doctor.  Together they revive Solon and convince him to work together with them to re-capture Morbius.  Solon gets a tranquilizer gun and they go off to find the beast.  They manage to subdue it, but only after it's found the Sisterhood and attacked them.  They haul Morbius back to the castle and Solon says he's going to dismantle the beast, but as soon as he has a chance, he locks the Doctor and Sarah Jane away in a lab, allowing himself the chance to finish his work by fully connecting the brain.

The Doctor uses the chemicals around him to create cyanide.  He wafts the gas through the ventilation system, killing Solon but it's too late.  Morbius has been fully revived.

Morbius goes and confronts the Doctor, explaining that the creature Solon used for his lungs is impervious to the gas.  With only one chance left, the Doctor challenges Morbius to mind wrestling.  They use ancient Time Lord apparatus that belonged to Morbius and lock minds.

Mental images of past reincarnations appear on the screen as they fight, and the Doctor is driven to the edge of his sanity but ultimately, the Doctor wins.

There is a bang inside the brain case and Morbius reverts to his earlier savage self.  He charges off back outside and is confronted by the Sisterhood of Karn, all bearing torches,. They hound him to the edge of  a cliff and send him falling to his death hundreds of feet below.

The Doctor's battle with Morbius has left him on the brink of death, but he is saved by the final drops of the elixir of life.

Maran forsakes her renewed life by giving it to him.  She passes on leadership of the Sisterhood to Ohica and disappears into the sacred flame as a spirit.

The Doctor now fully revived leads Sarah Jane into the TARDIS and leaves Ohica with a set of firecrackers.  Ohica is unsure of the words on the side, so the Doctor from the door of the TARDIS tells her that they say "light the blue touch paper and stand well back".

The TARDIS dematerialises, leaving the Sisterhood with a new leader.


Trivia

• Although it says that the story was written by Robin Bland, it's really just a pseudonym for Terrance Dicks who had returned to write this story

• Dick's original script was about a pilot who crashed his ship on Karn and his robot assistant was programmed to try and repair him, but ended up creating him as a Frankenstien's monster.

• Whilst Bob Holmes thought the script was good, it was obvious that the technology to create an effective robot wasn't possible in 1976 on Doctor Who's budget, so they needed to re-write.  When Bob tried to find Terrence Dicks, he discovered that Dicks had gone off on holiday and so couldn't be contacted.  That left one option, Bob Holmes had to re-write it himself.  The result is what we see on screen.

• Terrence Dicks was furious when he heard the story had been changed and in a huff told Bob Holmes that he was willing to let the story stand, but it had changed so much he didn't want to have his name to it, he should use some bland pseudonym instead.  Holmes took his advice literally, hence Robin Bland.

• Colin Fay who played Condo was an opera singer and this was his first break into acting

• The many faces seen on the monitor during the mind wrestling match are many of the production team, including  Christopher Baker, Robert Holmes, Graeme Harper, Douglas Camfield, Philip Hinchcliffe, Robert Banks Stewart, George Gallaccio and Christopher Barry  They were meant to be past incarnations of the Doctor, but fan lore rants against this, so many people explain them away as past incarnations of Morbius instead.

• I don't think you need me to tell you what gothic story this has been inspired by

What worked

• The darker lighting on this story woks very well

• The sheer calibre of acting is so good 

What didn't work

• The stage produced sets make it look like there's only ten feet between the temple and Solon's castle

• The Sisterhood of Karn's dances

• That severed Mutt Head sounds very mechanical

Overall Feelings
Fan lore dictates that I must announce this story as one of the best (if not THE best) Doctor Who story there has ever been produced.  I'm not going to argue that it's one of the better ones, but for me, it just falls slightly short of the mark.

First the good stuff.  The primary thing being the acting.  No, I'm not talking about Condo!  I'm talking about all the tongue twisters and pathos that Phillip Madoc manages to put into Solon.  He is amazing and we can't help but feel some level of sympathy with him.  Similarly, Elisabeth Sladen gives one of the best performances of her life in this, making you fear for Sarah in the way she practically cry's on film at being blinded and how terrifying it all is for her to the point where it does add to the fear for you too.  And let's not forget Tom Baker who's back with the odd one liner when needed and the serious pout to accentuate the threat that Morbius poses.

But... for all the amazing acting, my biggest problem with the story are the Sisterhood of Karn.  They're annoying and no, it's not because they're women if that's what you're thinking!  Their sacred flame adds little to the plot, and Maren is tiresome the way she just bull headedly refuses to believe any evidence that presents itself to her.  Ohica looks comical the amount of times she widens her eyes at the end of each sentence and the women whispering "sacred fire, sacred flame" gets irritating.  I get that they're supposed to be the representation of eastern european villagers, but I just can't abide them.

So, one of the best, definitely, but there's a lot of there and back again shenanigans going off and superfluous cults running around to make it a story I could watch again and again and again.

Rating

8 out of 10

Rewatchability Factor

6 out of 10

Watch this if you liked...

• The Rescue

• The War Games

• The Three Doctors

• The Night of the Doctor (Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special)

Consulting the Matrix

Do you like the Sisterhood of Karn?  If so, what is it about them?