The Mind Robber

045 – The Mind Robber
Doctor Who serial
The Doctor talks with Rapunzel and the Karkus
Cast
Doctor Patrick Troughton (Second Doctor)
Companions Frazer Hines & Hamish Wilson (Jamie McCrimmon) Wendy Padbury (Zoe Heriot)
Others Emrys Jones — The Master Bernard Horsfall — Gulliver Christopher Robbie — Karkus Sue Pulford — The Medusa Philip Ryan — Redcoat Christine Pirie — Princess Rapunzel John Greenwood — D'Artagnan / Sir Lancelot David Cannon — Cyrano Gerry Wain — Blackbeard Paul Alexander, Ian Hines, Richard Ireson — Soldiers Barbara Loft, Sylvestra Le Tozel, Timothy Horton, Christopher Reynalds, David Reynalds, Martin Langley — Children John Atterbury, Ralph Carrigan, Bill Wiesener, Terry Wright — Robots
Production
Directed by	David Maloney
Written by	Derrick Sherwin (episode 1, uncredited) Peter Ling
Script editor	Derrick Sherwin
Produced by	Peter Bryant
Executive producer(s)	None
Incidental music composer	by Anton Bruckner
Production code	UU
Series	Season 6
Length	5 episodes, approximately 20 minutes each
Date started	14 September 1968
Date ended	12 October 1968
Chronology
← Preceded by Followed by → The Dominators The Invasion

The Mind Robber

Author	Peter Ling
Cover artist	David McAllister
Series	Doctor Who book: Target novelisations
Release number	115
Publisher	Target Books
Publication date	November 1986 (Hardback) 16 April 1987 (Paperback)
ISBN

The Mind Robber is the second serial of the sixth season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in five weekly parts from 14 September to 12 October 1968. The story is distinguished as a rare trip into nearly pure fantasy and by the establishment of the Void, a realm outside space and time.

In defeating the Dominators on Dulkis, the Second Doctor sets off a volcanic eruption. He leaves the TARDIS, along with his companions, Jamie and Zoe, in the way, though, and it gets buried in lava, blowing a fluid link in the process. This forces the Doctor to use the emergency unit to take the TARDIS away from danger and indeed out of reality itself.

They land in a white void and as the Doctor fixes the TARDIS, Jamie and Zoe are lured outside and are confronted by white robots. The Doctor gets them back inside but, as they try to return to reality, the TARDIS explodes and the travellers are scattered into nothingness.

They end up in a forest where the trees become letters when seen from above. The Doctor, after facing a series of riddles, finds Jamie, but accidentally changes his face. They are soon reunited with Zoe and then encounter Lemuel Gulliver, who gives them away to life-sized toy soldiers. They are taken to the edge of the forest, where a unicorn charges at them. They manage to turn it into a statue by loudly declaring that ‘it doesn’t exist.’

They continue on and reach a house, where the Doctor brings Jamie back to normal. They discover that the house is the entrance to a labyrinth. Here, while leaving Jamie behind, the Doctor and Zoe encounter the Minotaur and Medusa, whom they deal with in the same way as the unicorn.

Jamie, pursued by a soldier, climbs up a rock face with the help of Rapunzel’s hair and enters a citadel through a window, triggering an alarm. He hides and finds Gulliver, who cannot see the White Robots who are chasing Jamie.