With no Doctor Who on the horizon until Christmas, I continue with my tribute to the late Nicholas Courtney and Elisabeth Sladen, who played two of the most iconic characters in the show's long history. The current serial of the tribute, 1972's The Mutants, features neither Brigadier Alastair-Lethbridge Stewart or Sarah Jane Smith, but is an important linking story after a season that saw the Doctor constantly confined to Earth.
Mutants In Space
While trying to fix the TARDIS, the Doctor receives a message box from the Time Lords, who reactivate the TARDIS to take him and Jo to Skybase One, a space station orbiting the planet Solos. The Doctor has to deliver the message box to someone, but the station's Marshal (Paul Whitsun-Jones) is suspicious of the Doctor's presence, since Earth's administration is contemplating ending their colonization of the planet. This comes as a relief to Ky (Garrick Hagon), a Solonian who wants independence, but not to Varan (James Mellor), another Solonian who wants to reap the benefits of collaborating with the human Overloads.
But on the planet itself is a third party, a misshapen, scaly race, with enormous claws for hands, who survive in the darkness of irradiated caves. As the Doctor discovers, these creatures are key to the future of the Solonian people, and Solos itself.
Back In Space
It's great that after a run of seasons with the Doctor trapped on Earth, Doctor Who finally put its main character back in time and space. Much as we all truly love Nicholas Courtney and his Brigadier, there's something very right about the Doctor passionately arguing for the titular Mutants, hideous and disfigured as though they are to our virgin human eyes.
Different Aliens, Same Plot
But The Mutants bears so many (intentional) similarities to Colony in Space, that its hard to get invested in the merits of the story. Apartheid was one of the issues of the day, and kudos to the writers for signaling their opposition to it. That said, the "farmers versus warriors" element of The Mutants is too reminiscent to the corresponding "colonists versus miners" idea from Colony In Space.
Good Old Fashioned Baddies
Most egregious is the character of the Marshal, seemingly out of the James Bond villain book. He's power-hungry, bloodthirsty, murderous, insane, cunning, cold-blooded, etc. etc. That's all he is. He has no redeeming factors, nothing to make him truly interesting. I know it was the 70s, and maybe we've been spoiled since then; but when your antagonist is so one-dimensional that all he's missing is a big sign saying "I AM THE BAD GUY", then your story isn't really going very far.
"Doctor Who And The Misleading Title"
Slightly more interesting is the fact that the Mutants aren't really mutants, a sign of director Christopher Barry seeing the serial as more of a traditional science fiction one than another political allegory. The Doctor's discovery of this fact is one of the sole things that makes the story interesting. Another is the fact that the Marshal continues to trust him around sensitive equipment despite the Doctor having sabotaged Skybase One's machinery before, and Professor Jaeger (George Pravda) being killed as a result of the Doctor's second sabotage. Villains never learn.
Verdict: Guilty
Incongruously, despite all the death and destruction, the Doctor and Jo still leave Skybase One with a smile and a laugh. It tells us everything we need to know about The Mutants. There are times it works well, like anything with Dr. Sondergard (John Hollis), but the rest of it is so generic and typical that I'm actually looking forward for Doctor Who to return to Earth.
3.0/5.0: Not without its merits, but not one of the stories that made Doctor Who the great show that it is.
Michael Perera - The only rule in writing is honesty. If you're honest, the words will write themselves.
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