User Reviews

Here we get an ending all about fate and things falling into their natural place. Perhaps it's a deus ex machina -- a Brigadier ex machina? -- but it also disappointingly features a couple of notorious drawbacks. The UNIT dating mess that comes of this sits alongside many questions about how time travel works in Who. It can be a good conversation between fans, or it can be a real headache and probably an inevitable bit of regret for trying to make sense of it.

The cleverness is all about setting up the two Brigadiers and their necessity to have always been the way this plot gets both driven and concluded. The ellipse of the ship in space and time appears to be still attracting an ellipse of the Brigadier's own progress in space and time. The extra creepy jeopardy of the infectiousness of Mawdryn's disease to Nyssa and Tegan in the TARDIS makes for a really terrifying pair of quick scenes, both compelling and still laden with chronobabble.

The Doctor gets forced to be a Doctor Kevorkian here. The discussion of right to die issues isn't forced so much as just left to our discretion as a discerning audience. Nifty, nifty. What's more disturbing is really the issue of fate at stake here as the plot finally totally plays out and the two Brigadiers meet. Was this always the only way things could happen? According to the Black Guardian, it doesn't appear so. But it does appear as though it's the only thing that works out all right.

The Black Guardian perhaps isn't completely omniscient, but very much terrifies anyway. Sadly, he's mainly just shouting and posturing and creepy manipulating of Turlough. There is an arc for him, but it's rather limited what he and Turlough are able to do without actually killing the Doctor

Turlough is creepier than Mawdryn. I love watching him follow the Brigadier in the maze of Mawdryn's ship. His little steps, light voice, and sly manner make him always interesting on screen.

Good old stalwart Brigadier. This story brings him back to us, but it also makes him a bit of an anomaly. It was always meant to have this teacher character be William Russell's Ian Chesterton until he ended up not being able to make the shoot. When Nicholas Courtney returned to play the Brig, he brought with him so much warmth and confidence and presence as this great old hero of the series, despite oddly becoming a maths teacher. I can accept him as a teacher -- but especially I can accept him coming back into service occasionally for UNIT after this. There really have been very few companions whose whole lives have been so well chronicled.

Doctor Who: Mawdryn Undead: Part Four starts as Mawdryn (David Collins) ask's the Doctor (Peter Davison) to give up his remaining regenerations as a Timelord to help him & his people die. The Doctor isn't too keen on the idea & decides to leave, once in the TARDIS the Doctor learns that both Nyssa (Sarah Sutton) & Tegan (Janet Fielding) have been infected with the alien mutation & can never leave the spaceship unless the Doctor sacrifices himself & helps Mawdryn & his people die...

Episode 12 from season 20 this Doctor Who adventure originally aired here in the UK during February 1983, directed by Peter Moffatt I can't say I have not been particularly impressed by Mawdryn Undead. The script by Peter Grimwade goes the same way as his previous story Time-Flight (1982) from season nineteen & papers over a thin plot with lots of absolutely nonsensical & incomprehensible pseudo science that tries to confuse the viewer into thinking it's clever & sophisticated but in reality doesn't make any sort of logical sense. All the technobabble the Doctor comes out with here will leave most viewers behind, I defy anyone to understand most of it. The plot is quite weak here as well, it's never explained in any reasonable way why Nyssa & Tegan are infected with the mutation but the Doctor & the Brigadier aren't, to get around this glaring error the Doctor merely says he doesn't know just like the writer, the production team & the audience so I guess we are all in the same boat. The end of this episode sees Turlough join the TARDIS crew & he isn't a particularly likable character, not much is known about him at this point other than he is an alien (who looks exactly like a human) & it's never explained just what he was doing on Earth in London attending a boy's boarding school. Overall the story has lacked any sort of threat, Mawdryn & his people just wanted to die which is all very noble but quite frankly doesn't make for an exciting or dynamic adventure. The first part of the Guardian Trilogy of stories is a less than inspiring start, hopefully things will improve with Terminus (1983) but I won't hold my breath.

There has been very few special effects in Mawdryn Undead, there's an optical effect which show's Mawdryn's spaceship blowing up & that's about it. The production values are reasonable if unspectacular, there just isn't anything overly memorable here conceptually or technically.

Mawdryn Undead: Part Four is a pretty flat & forgettable end to a generally flat & forgettable story, there's nothing else to say really. Overall I will give Mawdryn Undead a below average four stars out of ten across it's four episodes.