Directed by Timothy Combe
Main Cast-
The Doctor - Jon Pertwee
Jo - Katy Manning
The Brigadier - Nicholas Courtney
Benton - John Levene
Yates - Richard Franklin
The Master - Roger Delgado
Main Guest Cast-
Mailer - William Marlowe
Kettering - Simon Lack
Chin Lee - Pik-Sen Lim
Barnham - Neil McCarthy
Dr. Summers - Michael Sheard
Synopsis-
The Doctor and Jo visit Stangmoor prison, where they witness Professor Kettering use the Keller device on the inmate Barnham. The Keller device is being used on the prison inmates, as the Keller device removes the evil impulses that cause criminals to commit crimes. Barnham survives the process, and become an innocent without any evil thoughts. The Doctor, however, is not impressed and believes the machine should be destroyed.
Meanwhile, the Brigadier is in charge of security at a world peace conference. Trouble has brewed, and it turns out the Master is behind it. The Master is using a member of the Chinese delegation, Chin Lee, to cause trouble. Her attempt to kill the American representative is foiled by the Brigadier and The Doctor. They discover that the Master was using the Keller device to control Chin Lee.
The Master returns to the prison, which has been taken over by the inmates who are led by Mailer. Jo, Barnham and a prison doctor named Summers are being held as hostages. The Doctor returns to the prison as well, and is also taken hostage.
The Master informs The Doctor of his plans to capture a nerve gas missile and his plan to use it on the world peace conference. The Master subjects The Doctor to the Keller machine, and The Doctor barely survives. However, The Doctor also learns that the machine has achieved self awareness, and that the Master will no longer be able to control it.
The Master and The Doctor team up to neutralize the Keller machine, after which The Master intercepts the convoy that is escorting the missile. Meanwhile, UNIT is able to retake control of the prison, killing off Mailer and his fellow inmates.
The Doctor discovers that the Keller machine cannot hurt Barnham, since there are no more evil thoughts in Barnham for it to feed on. The Doctor and the Master agree to a trade, the missile for the dematerialization circuit to the Master's Tardis, which the Doctor took in the previous story.
Using Barnham to safely transport the Keller machine, the climax has both the missile and the Keller machine being destroyed and Barnham being killed in the process. The Master, however, is able to escape once again and this time in possession of his dematerialization circuit.
Review-
The ending to the Mind of Evil is absolutely brilliant, with the UNIT troops invading the prison, followed by the final showdown between The Doctor and the Master.
Beyond the final showdown, I found the Mind of Evil to be a bit of a slog to get through. It goes so slowly, that I think the Mind of evil might have worked better as a four-part story. It certainly would have worked better had they focused on the events at the prison. Whenever we jumped to the events at the peace conference, I felt frustrated because I felt the main part of the story was at the prison. The latter half of the story focuses on the prison and the Master's machinations while at the prison and it holds up a great deal better than the first half.
The Mind of Evil was filmed in color, but the only known surviving copies of this story are in black and white. The late 1990's VHS copy that I watched was pretty good, and it's due to be released on DVD next month with the BBC planning on using the chroma dot process to colorize the story as they did with Ambassadors of Death. I'm still not sure how I feel about this colorization process, but Ambassadors looked pretty good so I'm hopeful that Mind will look at least as good.
To sum it up, the Mind of Evil is a mostly average story with a terrific ending. Perhaps a bit of judicious editing and I might have enjoyed the Mind of Evil a bit more.
