‘THE MUTANTS’

Please feel free to comment on my review.

Mutts on Solos with the Third Doctor and Jo

It’s time to talk about one of the most underrated stories featured in Season 9 of the classic ‘Doctor Who’ TV series with Jon Pertwee as the Third Doctor and Katy Manning as Jo Grant. It’s the second story of the season that’s not earthbound and I must have been very ‘mutt-mad’ to have watched it.

Na, I’m kidding, of course. 😀 Although, it’s fascinating how this ‘Doctor Who’ story can often have parallels to how society is nowadays. This is especially when the tale focuses on colonialism, derived from the British Empire days in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and its long-term consequences. 😐

‘The Mutants’ is the fourth story in Season 9 of the classic ‘Doctor Who’ TV series and it’s a six-part adventure from the Jon Pertwee/Third Doctor era. I purchased the story on DVD when it was released in late January 2011. I recall seeing a ‘coming soon’ trailer for the story on the ‘Meglos’ DVD.

In the story, Jon Pertwee as the Doctor and Katy Manning as Jo go off on an adventure to visit the planet Solos. This takes place sometime in the future during the Earth Empire in the 30th century. So, this is before the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire happened in the Ninth Doctor’s era.

Which would be in the 200,000s. Honestly, I really don’t know if the ways things are at present is going to build up to what we consider to be future Earth Empires in the ‘Doctor Who’ universe. After all, as the Doctor would say, time is in flux and there’s no set pattern to how these things turn out. 😐

Anyway, the Doctor receives a spherical pod sent to him by the Time Lords when he and Jo are at U.N.I.T. HQ. I don’t quite understand why it had to be a spherical pod. Surely, it would have been better to have sent the Doctor a small rectangular box to contain – spoiler alert – the tablets inside.

Once the Doctor receives the spherical pod, he goes off on a mission with Jo accompanying him to deliver it to someone. Apparently, the pod can only be opened by the person the Doctor gives it to. The TARDIS ends up on a space station called Skybase One, which is in orbit of a planet named Solos.

I quite like the model work done for Skybase One. Initially, I thought it was a spaceship that’s in orbit of the planet Solos instead of a space station. I don’t know if the modelmakers come from Gerry Anderson’s line of modelmaking, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if that were the case for this story.

It turns out that this certain Earth Empire has come to an end in this ‘Doctor Who’ story. There’s colonial oppression occurring between the Solonians and the humans – who have been given the name ‘Overlords’ by Solos’ inhabitants. There isn’t much love between the Solonians and humans. 😐

Mutations also occur for the Solonians, as some of them are being transformed into monstrous Mutts, who are almost like ants or cockroaches on two legs. I believe they’re premature mutations, caused by changes in Solos’ atmosphere on the Marshal’s instructions to change Solos for humanity.

Yes, humans can’t survive long enough on Solos’ foggy or smoke-like atmosphere and we see Earth Empire soldiers wearing oxygen masks to protect themselves. When I see those oxygen masks nowadays, I can’t help but think of the Covid-19 pandemic and the facemasks that we had to wear.

The Marshal, who is in command of Skybase One, happens to be a tyrannical oppressor, both on the space station and on the planet Solos itself. He’s determined for the Earth Empire to live on, and he seeks to eradicate those who oppose his dreams and views, including those that serve under him. 😐

He’s also determined to eradicate the Mutts and have Solos’ atmosphere be breathable for human life. As the Doctor, Jo and their friends uncover the Marshal’s evil tyranny, they must find a way to stop him in his plans from going too far and to rescue Solos as well as preserve the Solonians’ lives. 🙂

Okay, so, ‘The Mutants’ would have been a story of its time in the 1970s with its themes of oppression, racism and colonialism throughout. I imagine back then that some people would have hoped the socio-political and economic issues featured in the tale would be resolved in the future. 😐

Sadly, we still struggle with issues involving oppression and prejudice by today’s standards, and topics featured in this story still resonate to this day. It should be noted that ‘The Mutants’ is a ‘Doctor Who’ story that provides us a reminder of how terrible things can be, even with an empire. 😦

When I purchased ‘The Mutants’ on DVD, the story was released on a 2-disc DVD set, with the story on Disc 1 and the special features on Disc 2. Now with the story re-released in the Season 9 Blu-ray box set, ‘The Mutants’ is on one disc only – Disc 6. Quite a contrast to the story’s 2011 DVD release. 😐

There’s a lot to take in from watching this ‘Doctor Who’ story, both on DVD and Blu-ray. It’s pretty imaginative and it should be, considering it’s penned by Bob Baker and Dave Martin. The two writers – the Bristol boys – would later go on and write more ‘Doctor Who’ TV adventures during the 1970s.

In the previous season – Season 8 – they contributed their first adventure, which was ‘The Claws of Axos’. They later wrote stories like ‘The Three Doctors’, ‘The Sontaran Experiment’, ‘The Hand of Fear’, ‘The Invisible Enemy’, ‘Underworld’ and ‘The Armageddon Factor’. A very popular writing duo.

Bob Baker would later go solo and write ‘Nightmare of Eden’ as well as work with Nick Park on ‘Wallace & Gromit’ films like ‘The Wrong Trousers’, ‘A Close Shave’, ‘The Curse of the Were-Rabbit’ and ‘A Matter of Loaf and Death’. And I love watching those ‘Wallace & Gromit’ films now and again.

Apparently, according to the ‘Mutt Mad’ making-of documentary, Bob Baker and Dave Martin were the bane of Terrance Dicks’ life, especially when he had to discipline them in terms of their writing. I can only imagine how ‘frustrating’ Terrance found it when working with Bob and Dave’s imagination.

Also, according to Bob Baker in the ‘Mutt Mad’ making-of documentary, ‘The Mutants’ a story that he and Dave Martin are very proud of in terms of delivering the goods. This contrasts with the story’s director Christopher Barry, who didn’t enjoy the story as much as he enjoyed ‘The Dæmons’.

Not saying that ‘The Mutants’ is one of Chris Barry’s least favourite stories. But it’s intriguing that it’s a ‘Doctor Who’ story that doesn’t get talked about much, as I believe ‘The Mutants’ is one of those underrated stories. I mean, it’s not always at the top of so many ‘Doctor Who’ fans’ conversations. 😐

I don’t know, maybe I’ve not come across many people in my life that talk about ‘The Mutants’ very much. It’s especially interesting since every time I revisit ‘The Mutants’ on DVD and Blu-ray, I don’t recall the details much compared to ‘Day of the Daleks’, ‘The Curse of Peladon’ and ‘The Sea Devils’.

Apparently, Dave Martin was very concerned about the ‘apartheid’ system that was going on in South Africa, which is reflected in the story itself. ‘The Mutants’ was intended to be metaphor for South Africa, with the Earth Empire representing the white supremacist government of South Africa.

The Solonians represented the black population of South Africa at the time. Having studied South Africa, their ‘apartheid’ system, and Nelson Mandela in GCSE History, I knew what the writers Bob Baker and Dave Martin were onto when I checked out this ‘Doctor Who’ story first on DVD in 2011. 🙂

I enjoyed ‘The Mutants’ when I first saw it on DVD back in 2011. I’ve now seen the story five times – three times on DVD and twice on Blu-ray for this review. Yet, I wouldn’t say it’s a story that I recall many memorable lines from, except maybe in the last episode where Jon Pertwee’s Doctor declares,

Doctor: Need I say more, Investigator?

Judge: No…you…need…not

But we’ll get into what the context behind that line is later on. From my first viewing of ‘The Mutants’, I wouldn’t say this ‘Doctor Who’ story is as compelling and exciting as the other stories in Season 9 as well as Jon Pertwee’s era. Let’s compare it to how the other Season 9 TV tales stand out.

With ‘Day of the Daleks’, it has Daleks and Ogrons in it. With ‘The Curse of Peladon’, it has Ice Warriors and Alpha Centuari. With ‘The Sea Devils’, you have the titular monsters and the Master. And with ‘The Time Monster’, you have the Master again as well as the flapping and winged Kronos.

What stands out from ‘The Mutants’? Well, I suppose you could say the Mutts and…the Earth Empire soldiers perhaps, including the Marshal? But I wouldn’t regard the Mutt as standouts since they don’t do very much apart from lumbering around and not being entirely intimidating or threatening.

At least, not for me, anyway. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure for some viewers, the Mutts are creepy-looking, particularly when you see them in the shadows in the caves on Solos. But when they’re in the corridors of Skybase One and the teleport station on Solos, they do look like men in rubber suits.

I’m amazed that according to the ‘Mutt Mad’ making-of documentary, Terrance Dicks’ grown-up son found the Mutts terrifying when watching them in the TV story. Perhaps that was in the caves themselves. I’m sure the Mutts were impressive as ‘Doctor Who’ monsters at that time in the 1970s.

But I probably would have gone with how the ‘Star Trek’ episode ‘The Devil In The Dark’ did things by having the Mutts be pretty scary and intimidating at first before it turned out they were actually victims of the Marshal and Professor Jaeger’s attempts to change the planetary atmosphere of Solos.

With all that said, especially from watching the story for the second time on Blu-ray, I did find ‘The Mutants’ to be a pretty enjoyable tale containing intriguing messages about colonialism as well as concepts about mutation which connect to the evolution of a caterpillar into a butterfly, so to speak.

This is especially when you consider that Bob Baker and Dave Martin wanted to do a ‘Doctor Who’ story that addressed a particular political subject involving colonial oppression, which was a common thing in the British Empire era. I’d be unfamiliar with this, since the Empire was over by the 1990s. 🙂

However, I find it fascinating how the British Empire did things with imposing themselves on what they considered to be under-developing countries like say India, as established in ‘The Emerald Tiger’ by Big Finish, and tried to make things better for them by applying their rules, standards and such. 😐

Yet, as is depicted in ‘The Mutants’, the consequences of the Earth Empire’s influence on the people of Solos causes insurgence and insurrection from those being oppressed e.g., Ky, who takes the viewpoint that it isn’t the Earth Empire’s business to dictate what they consider to be good for Solos.

Ky: We want freedom, and we want it now!

And this is a story where the Earth Empire is about to give the Solonians their independence, regardless of whether the Solonians are ready to have it or not, and whether Empire officials like the Marshal are wanting to remain in order to preserve the Empire’s imperialism and stay with tradition.

The story’s director, Christopher Barry, is of course no stranger to ‘Doctor Who’. As I said, he directed ‘The Dæmons’ in the previous season, but he also co-directed the first ‘Daleks’ story with Richard Martin as well as directed more stories in the William Hartnell and the Patrick Troughton eras.

He directed ‘The Rescue’, ‘The Romans’, ‘The Savages’ and ‘The Power of the Daleks’. After ‘The Mutants’, Chris Barry directed ‘Robot’, ‘The Brain of Morbius’ and ‘The Creature From The Pit’. He’s also directed Reeltime Pictures productions like ‘Downtime’ and Elisabeth Sladen’s ‘Myth Makers’. 🙂

Despite Chris Barry’s misgivings about ‘The Mutants’ in the ‘Mutt Mad’ making-of documentary, the story is visually impressive, and you can tell how he attempts to deliver the best he can with such imagination from Bob Baker and Dave Martin. His enthusiasm isn’t strained from viewing this tale. 🙂

I quite like how Chris Barry approaches this story by giving it a slightly colourful atmosphere, particularly when on Skybase One in outer space and on the planet Solos when in the caves and outside in the foggy mists. The fire storms that feature in ‘Episode Three’ of the story are impressive.

Both visually and in terms of sound, thanks to Tristram Cary’s incidental music. Tristram Cary previously provided incidental music for 1960s stories such as the first ‘Daleks’ story, ‘Marco Polo’, ‘The Rescue’, ‘The Daleks’ Master Plan’, ‘The Ark’, ‘The Gunfighters’ and ‘The Power of the Daleks’. 🙂

Some of those stories are ones that Chris Barry directed, of course. The cliffhanger scene in ‘Episode Four’ where Varan is flung into outer space is quite impressive in terms of visuals and sounds. ‘The Mutants’ is one of many ‘Doctor Who’ stories that Chris Barry has directed and it’s quite a good one.

I like how this ‘Doctor Who’ story gives Jon Pertwee’s Doctor and Katy Manning as Jo another chance to get away from U.N.I.T. and have more adventures in space and time. Yes, once again, no U.N.I.T. to be found in this tale. So, no Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, no Mike Yates and no Sergeant Benton.

That must be a record in having three stories in-between ‘Day of the Daleks’ and ‘The Time Monster’ to have no U.N.I.T. featured. It’s a clear sign that the Jon Pertwee era was veering away from always doing earthbound U.N.I.T. stories and having a variety of ‘Doctor Who’ TV stories to tell.

In the next season – Season 10, there would only be two U.N.I.T. stories in ‘The Three Doctors’ and ‘The Green Death’, whilst ‘Carnival of Monsters’, ‘Frontier In Space’ and ‘Planet of the Daleks’ are set in the future and away from 1970s (sort-of) Earth. The variety factor would be getting more evident.

It’d be easy to forget that the Doctor is still trapped on Earth in his exile by the Time Lords at this stage. It’s when he’s given tasks by them that he’s allowed to get a chance to go off Earth. For all their laws of non-intervention, the Time Lords do seem to be intervening a lot in the TV series so far.

Of course, so far, we’ve had the Doctor off-Earth a couple of times before ‘The Mutants’. He and Jo went and visited a human colony threatened by a mining corporation in ‘Colony In Space’ and they visited Peladon in ‘The Curse of Peladon’, where they passed themselves off as an Earth delegation.

Despite ‘The Sea Devils’ being an earthbound story, no U.N.I.T. was found, as the Doctor and Jo had the Royal Navy to help them out with battling the Sea Devils and the Master. Only ‘Day of the Daleks’ and ‘The Time Monster’ are the two Season 9 stories that have U.N.I.T. appearing in them. 😀

It would take a while for the Third Doctor to get his freedom back by the Time Lords to travel in space and time again. That would be in ‘The Three Doctors’, which is the first story of Season 10 and is considered the story to celebrate 10 years of the classic TV show. Intriguing how it was developed.

At this point in the TV series, it was a good way for the Doctor and Jo to have adventures in the TARDIS when he was exiled by the Time Lords and to be sent on missions by them. It was a process that producer Barry Letts and script editor Terrance Dicks had developed gradually in working on the show.

It’s fascinating how the themes of colonialism, prejudice and colonialism interconnect with the concepts of mutation and evolution, as developed by Bob Baker and Dave Martin in the writing. It’s quite unusual when you have to take into account the life cycle that Solonians seem to go through. 🙂

It was intriguing to see how the Mutts evolved when they’re initially scary before it turns out they’re the victims of the mutation process caused by the Marshal and the experiments conducted on Solos’ atmosphere. It’s a revelation when the Solonians’ mutation process goes through particular seasons.

It seems the Solonians are meant to mutate, but only through a gradual cycle as opposed to a forced one. I’m not entirely happy with how the process ends up with Ky becoming a Mutt and then becoming a fying ‘rainbow man’, but I’ll get into that more once I discuss the story’s conclusion. 🙂

You might have to revisit the story more than once to appreciate and get your head around some of the concepts, which I certainly have in revisiting the story on DVD and Blu-ray. But the tablets contained in the spherical pod which the Doctor delivers on behalf of the Time Lords is significant. 🙂

Watching this story five times now does put me in mind of the History lessons that I used to have when I was at secondary school and at sixth-form college in the 2000s. I learnt so much about the 20th century and its changing attitudes to society, which occurred in Britain, Germany and America.

I can’t claim to be very familiar about the British Empire overall, but from watching ‘The Mutants’ and its special features on DVD, I was able to pick up on certain aspects concerning human history, which are so resonant in this story. I’m certain this was the aim Bob Baker and Dave Martin went for.

Jon Pertwee is brilliant as the Third Doctor in this ‘Doctor Who’ adventure. I like how he takes on board the challenge of the mission that’s been given to him by the Time Lords and how he seeks to find the person has to give the spherical pod to. If it means getting off Earth, he’s willing to take it. 🙂

I like how outraged he is by the plans of the Marshal concerning the planet Solos by changing the atmosphere to suit humans more. He’s disgusted and appalled by the potential side-effects of genocide involved regarding the Marshal’s plan when in conversation with Jaeger, the chief scientist.

It’s clear that the Doctor is sympathetic towards the Solonians as opposed to the Marshal’s imperial views. It almost echoes the Malcolm Hulke stories featured in the Jon Pertwee era, where the Doctor would always be on the side of the oppressed and the victimised as opposed to the oppressors’ side.

The Doctor also gets to share a scientific interest with the fugitive scientist named Sondergaard when they’re investigating the mystery of the tablets in the container meant for Ky. I also enjoyed it when the Doctor gets to have action moments in the story, including fighting off a soldier in the fog.

Katy Manning is equally brilliant as Jo Grant in this ‘Doctor Who’ adventure. I like how determined she is to join the Doctor on his mission to Solos, especially when he almost leaves without her. The Doctor says “Goodbye” as he goes, but she’s like “Oh no, you don’t!” as she joins him in the TARDIS.

Jo gets to have her own story in ‘The Mutants’, especially when she chases after Ky, once she and the Doctor realise that the spherical pod is meant for him. She gets taken down to the planet surface with Ky and she struggles to survive when running on the planet surface without an oxygen mask. 😐

She passes out, but thanks to Ky, she’s given an oxygen mask long enough for him to take her to a cave after he knocked out an ‘Overlord’. Jo is terrified of the Mutts at first when she sees one during a firestorm whilst she’s in a cave with Ky, but she does grow to appreciate what the Mutts represent.

I like how Jo gets to have her own voice in ‘The Mutants’, especially when she deduces what the Marshal is up to and how she defies him. She almost leads the group of herself, Ky, Stubbs and Cotton when they’re against the Marshal on the Skybase and they’ve been tied up to be executed. 🙂

Paul Whitsun-Jones guest stars as the villainous Marshal in this ‘Doctor Who’ story. I checked to see whether the Marshal has a name in the Target novelization, and apparently, he doesn’t. Wow, the Marshal is so villainous that Terrance Dicks decided not to give him his own name. That must be sad.

This isn’t Paul Whitsun-Jones’ first ‘Doctor Who’ story, as he previously appeared in ‘The Smugglers’, playing Squire Edwards. He’s also been in episodes of ‘The Saint’ and ‘The Avengers’. Apparently, according to my Mum, Paul Whitsun-Jones played a villain in one of ‘The Saint’ episodes. Uncanny. 🙂

And of course, he’s a Welsh actor. 😀 I was mesmerised by his performance as the Marshal in this ‘Doctor Who’ story. As the Doctor rightly points out, the Marshal is clearly mad when he’s set in his ambitions for the planet Solos. He makes for a great adversary for our intrepid Time Lord in this tale.

It’s very easy to dislike the Marshal with his style and approach, his prejudice to the Solonians, and wanting the Earth Empire to go on. I liked it when the Marshal showed his true colours in ‘Episode Six’. My Dad knew Jon Pertwee would say, “Need I say more…” when he spoke to the Investigator. 😀

That moment did put my Dad and me in mind of the ‘Terry In Court’ episode from ‘Terry and June’ where John Barron as the Judge said, “No…you…need…not” after Jon Pertwee said, “Need I say more, Investigator?” Thus, why I included the quotations with pictures earlier in my updated review.

Garrick Hagon guest stars as Ky, a young Solonian at the forefront of the Solonian guest cast in ‘The Mutants’. If Garrick Hagon is a name you recognise, then that’s because he’s well-known for playing Biggs Darklighter in ‘Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope’. A small role, but he’s well-recalled for it. 🙂

I’ve also seen Garrick Hagon in a small role in the 1989 ‘Batman’ film where he played the tourist dad that got attacked by muggers with his wife and son in tow. Many years later, Garrick Hagon would return to ‘Doctor Who’ and play Abraham in ‘A Town Called Mercy’ with Matt Smith’s Eleventh Doctor.

Ky is the leader of his own Solonian group that’s fed up of the humans (‘Overlords’, as they call them) and their rule on the planet Solos. He demands for freedom during the address made by the Administrator before an assassination attempt occurs. He escapes to Solos, and he takes Jo along. 😐

I like how Ky gets to spend time with Jo in this story once they’re together on the planet Solos. It was intriguing to see his reaction when he’s given the spherical pod by the Doctor, and he opens it to find the tablets containing Solonian script on them. Will Ky provide the key to survival for the Solonians?

George Pravda guest stars as Professor Jaeger, the chief scientist aboard Skybase One. Like Paul Whitsun-Jones, this isn’t George Pravda’s first ‘Doctor Who’ story. He previously played Alexander Denes in ‘The Enemy of the World’. He later portrayed Castellan Spandrell in ‘The Deadly Assassin’. 🙂

I enjoyed George Pravda’s performance as Jaeger in this ‘Doctor Who’ story. It was interesting to see him play a reluctant scientist who is in cahoots with the Marshal. Sometimes, you’re never sure whether he’s on the side of the angels, as he often protests against the Marshal at times in this tale.

The story also features Christopher Coll as Stubbs and Rick James as Cotton, who are two aides to the Marshal of Solos. I enjoyed these two characters when I saw them in this ‘Doctor Who’ story, as they often come across as a double act when helping the Doctor, Jo and Ky in opposing the Marshal.

It’s interesting to talk about Cotton’s character in this ‘Doctor Who’ story, as he’s played by an actor who happens to be black. Originally, the character was meant to be a Cockney, but director Chris Barry decided to cast the Jamaican actor Rick James in the role, which is a bold and intriguing move.

An aspect of ‘The Mutants’ that I find very fascinating is how multi-national it is in terms of its guest cast. Whilst the Marshal is played by a Welsh man, Garrick Hagon who plays Ky happens to be British-Canadian. George Pravda, who portrays Professor Jaeger, happens to be a Czechoslovakian. 🙂

Rick James, who plays Cotton, is the only black actor to appear in this ‘Doctor Who’ story. Comparing to how the new TV series aims to be more diverse with its casting of characters, it’s quite bold of a classic TV show ‘Doctor Who’ story like ‘The Mutants’ to be multi-national in terms of the characters.

At that time, non-white actors were a rarity to be seen on UK TV. Occasionally, you’d see guest ‘Doctor Who’ characters played by black actors, including Toberman in ‘The Tomb of the Cyberman’ and Tony in ‘Terror of the Autons’ (both played by Roy Stewart), but they weren’t big roles in a story.

It’s not like nowadays where you have Noel Clarke as Mickey Smith, Freema Agyeman as Martha Jones, Tosin Cole as Ryan Sinclair and Ncuti Gatwa as the Fifteenth Doctor, who are black actors in ‘Doctor Who’. Back then, a black actor would be very lucky to get a huge role to play in a TV production.

In my opinion, Rick James delivers a very good performance as Cotton. I know there were criticisms said about his acting and him being miscast in the story. There may be elements of truth in that, but I still enjoyed what I saw and at least Rick James does a decent job in playing the character he plays.

The guest cast also includes James Mellor as Varan, a Solonian who happens to be a rival for Ky. It’s fascinating that Varan initially seems to be in favour of the Earth Empire’s presence on Solos before he’s betrayed by the Marshal once his son, played by Jonathan Sherwood, gets killed off in the story.

I don’t quite understand the rivalry that goes on in this story between Varan and Ky, and he even threatens the Doctor at the end of ‘Episode Two’ and at the beginning of ‘Episode Three’. It doesn’t bode well for Varan when he starts to mutate before he gets flung into outer space in ‘Episode Four’.

I must say that the costume and production design for this ‘Doctor Who’ story is pretty good. The costume designer, James Acheson, later went on to do costume designs for more ‘Doctor Who’ tales in the Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker eras as well as movies like the original ‘Spider-Man’ film trilogy. 🙂

To list his ‘Doctor Who’ credits, after he did ‘The Mutants’, James Acheson went on to do costumes for ‘The Three Doctors’, ‘Carnival of Monsters’, ‘The Time Warrior’, ‘Robot’, ‘Terror of the Zygons’, ‘The Masque of Mandragora’ and ‘The Deadly Assassin’ with Joan Ellacott. A pretty impressive range.

He does wonders for the costumes for the Solonian and Skybase characters. The variety of Solonian costumes ranges from almost being Viking-like and Greek-like in my opinion. The production designs by Jeremy Bear for the planet Solos and for Skybase One are very good and impressive for their time.

As I understand it, some of Jeremy Bear’s designs for the Skybase One corridors have resurfaced in future ‘Doctor Who’ stories such as ‘The Horns of Nimon’, ‘Meglos’ and ‘Terminus’. Honestly, I wouldn’t have noticed that unless it was mentioned in the ‘Mutt Mad’ making-of documentary itself.

John Hollis guest stars as Sondergaard, the scientist whom the Doctor, Jo, Ky, Stubbs and Cotton meet when they’re inside the caves on the planet Solos. Sometimes, he wears a spacesuit when traversing through lethal areas of tense radiation. He rescues Jo when she’s on her own in the caves.

I’m not exactly sure what Sondergaard’s accent is meant to be in the story. I say that because John Hollis is a British actor and perhaps he’s using on a different accent to indicate Sondergaard isn’t really English. Sondergaard seems to be a Danish name. Is John Hollis using a Danish accent for him?

Geoffrey Palmer guest stars as the Administrator, who appears only in ‘Episode One’ of this ‘Doctor Who’ story. Like the Marshal, he isn’t given a name either. 😦 Geoffrey Palmer previously appeared in ‘Doctor Who and the Silurians’ and later appeared in the Christmas Special ‘Voyage of the Damned’.

It’s a shame that Geoffrey Palmer’s character got killed off in ‘Episode One’ of ‘The Mutants’, as I would’ve liked it if he lasted beyond one episode. 😀 Mind you, I’m curious what Sarah Sutton meant in the ‘Behind the Sofa’ item for ‘The Mutants’ when she said Geoffrey Palmer had played her dad. 🙂

Was that on TV, theatre or radio? 😀 Peter Howell – the actor – guest stars as the Earth Investigator who visits Skybase One and appears only in ‘Episode Six’ of the story. For me, Peter Howell played Saruman in ‘The Lord of the Rings’ radio series. It was good to see him in the flesh in this TV story. 🙂

I liked that moment when the Investigator asked the Doctor what he was a ‘doctor’ off and the Doctor replied, “Practically everything”. I also liked it when the Investigator took off his cap halfway in the episode, as seeing him with it on during the preliminary investigations did make him look silly.

The story concludes with Ky being given a crystal by Sondergaard when he’s severely weakened in the refuelling bay. As I indicated, he rapidly mutates and becomes a radiant angel-like super being with a variety of colours. Ky looks ethereal by this stage, but he doesn’t interact much with the cast.

Well, I say he doesn’t interact, but he kind-of does only as a voice-over and we don’t see his mouth move. Plus, he doesn’t fully materialise and disappears once he’s saved everyone and kills off the Marshal. I found that anti-climactic, even when it was stated he returned to Solos to help the Mutts.

With the Marshal gone, Sondergaard and Cotton elect to stay behind on Skybase One to help see the Solonians through their mutations. Meanwhile, Jo and the Doctor slip away with their mission completed. Although, we don’t quite get to see the TARDIS dematerialise properly from the Skybase.

The original DVD special features were as follows. There was a dual mono sound audio mix option for the story and an audio commentary with Katy Manning, Garrick Hagon, director Christopher Barry, script editor Terrance Dicks, co-writer Bob Baker, special sounds supervisor Brian Hodgson and designer Jeremy Bear, moderated by Nicholas Pegg. There was an info-text commentary option to enjoy, and a ‘coming soon’ trailer for ‘The Ark’, starring William Hartnell, Peter Purves and Jackie Lane.

There was the ‘Mutt Mad’ making-of documentary with behind-the-scenes cast and crew interviews. There was the ‘Race Against Time’ diversity documentary, narrated by Noel Clarke. There was the ‘Dressing Doctor Who’ interview with costume designer James Acheson, a ‘Blue Peter’ item, a photo gallery of the story, and PDF materials, including a ‘Radio Times Listings’ of the story.

On Disc 6 of the ‘Doctor Who – The Collection – Season 9’ Blu-ray, the dual mono sound audio mix option, the DVD audio commentary, the ‘Mutt Mad’ making-of documentary and the ‘Race Against Time’ diversity documentary can be found on there. The info-text commentary option and the photo gallery of the story have been updated for 2023 on the Blu-ray. The ‘Dressing Doctor Who’ interview with costume designer James Acheson can be found on Disc 3 of the Season 14 Blu-ray box set of ‘Doctor Who’, containing ‘The Deadly Assassin’. Sadly, the ‘Blue Peter’ item isn’t included on Disc 6 of the Season 9 Blu-ray box set.

The new special features on Blu-ray include the ‘Behind the Sofa’ feature on ‘The Mutants’ with Katy Manning (Jo) and director Michael E. Briant as well as Peter Davison (the Fifth Doctor), Sarah Sutton (Nyssa) and Janet Fielding (Tegan) as well as Wendy Padbury (Zoe) and Sophie Aldred (Ace). There are BBC trailers and continuity announcements for the story, and there are the DVD versions of ‘Episodes One and Two’ of ‘The Mutants’ to enjoy, which are presented in standard definition.

On the PDF front, as well as the ‘Radio Times Listings’ of ‘The Mutants’, there are production documents, six rehearsal scripts and six camera scripts. You need a special Blu-ray computer drive for that.

‘The Mutants’ is a pretty underrated but enjoyable and enlightening ‘Doctor Who’ adventure from the Jon Pertwee/Third Doctor era. I have enjoyed it more on DVD and Blu-ray since the story came out on DVD in January 2011 and I find it very fascinated with its themes and concepts throughout. 🙂

I’ve also enjoyed the story for its performances of the cast, including Jon Pertwee as the Third Doctor and Katy Manning as Jo Grant. I’m sure that many of the messages featured in this six-part adventure are echoed in future ‘Doctor Who’ stories, both in the classic TV series and new TV series.

Rightly so, considering that the story challenges us an audience to question how we perceive things especially in today’s society compared to how things were perceived in the 1970s. It’s certainly a story that allows us to question whether we’re much better compared to how we were in the 1970s.

The controversial topics are fascinating to check out and I like how the atmosphere in terms of the location filming for the caves on Solos and the futuristic set design of Skybase One enable the entertainment element. It might not be a ‘talked-a-lot about’ story, but it’s certainly a gripping one. 🙂

‘The Mutants’ rating – 7.5/10

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The previous storyFor the Third Doctor was ‘The Other Woman’ (ST/Audio) For Jo was ‘The Other Woman’ (ST/Audio)	The next storyFor the Third Doctor is ‘The Touch of the Nurazh’ (ST) For Jo is ‘The Touch of the Nurazh’ (ST)
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