4.10: The Brain of Morbius
In which the villain thinks he’s in a comedy.
Broadcast: January 1976
Watched: June 2020
The Brain of Morbius, Part One
“You seem very keen on heads.”
Then there’s: “That. Is. An. INSECT.” I’d forgotten how funny Philip Madoc is in this. [He plays the mad scientist villain Solon; was last seen as a Time Lord in The War Games.] “You’ve been looking for that arm again, haven’t you” is also funny.
The Sisterhood’s ritual is also funny, though perhaps not intentionally.
Is that insect a Mutt? [From The Mutants, four seasons earlier.] Oh they literally put it in dialogue I thought they were just reusing the costume.
Condo is what Adric would look like if he turned into the Incredible Hulk.
The fact Sarah is sensible enough not to drink the wine while the Doctor chugs it back feels like a nice character note.
The Brain of Morbius, Part Two
“If you don’t stop that self pity I’ll bite your nose” – charming reaction to a close friend’s sudden disability. Mind you, Sarah mistaking some decapitated meat for the Doctor is also quite the diss, so.
My main thought about this one is that it was all very dark and thus a mistake to watch it in a sunny room, anything could have been going on, if it wasn’t in dialogue I wouldn’t know.
Solon begging for the Doctor’s head is hilarious. Madoc by far the best thing in this.
Like the bit where the Doctor quotes the lyrics of “Show me the way to go home”. Not so keen on his slightly MRA “you’re just a bunch of ungrateful bitches” response to the sisterhood.
The Brain of Morbius, Part Three
“The pun was irresistible.” Madoc is REALLY enjoying himself. The way he keeps a completely straight face when the green liquid starts draining from the brain jar is very impressive.
Condo kicking off when he realises where his arm has gone, and the resulting tussle knocking the brain onto the floor, while Sarah yells “What happened I can’t see” is also hilarious. So is the brain case. Is this meant to be funny? It’s really funny.
Kind of strange how this is using all the furniture of Frankenstein – the corpse knitted together from body parts, the mad scientist, the castle in a storm, Igor – to tell a story that isn’t remotely about creating artificial life.
Anyway. Morbius the grumpy brain in a jar is also hilarious. He’s basically Stewie Griffin, in a jar. I also like the way the episode 2 cliffhanger was “BRAIN!!!” which is literally in the name of the story.
Ohica does 90% of her acting by widening her eyes. The fact she seems never to have acted again may not be a coincidence. Is Ohila in Night of the Doctor and Hell Bent just Moffat misremembering her name?
When Tom says “Those spaceships might just be passing” he does exactly the same kind of mid sentence turn as Matt Smith does.
“Death is the price we pay for progress” says the functionally immortal Time Lord. Which is something that sneaks into Lazarus Experiment. Also, the regulars being temporarily blind in a couple of Moffat stories... Very influential story this, isn’t it, isn’t it?
Also – aren’t the Time Lords *also* ossified by eternal life? Isn’t that fairly explicitly the point? Or maybe that doesn’t sneak in until next season.
The Brain of Morbius, Part Four
This isn’t as funny as the previous three episodes and Maren’s self-sacrifice makes no sense whatsoever considering how she is in the preceding three and a half episodes.
It’s kind of weird how little they tell us about the crimes of Morbius. It’s all allusion and “look at this place now” but that’s it.
[Script editor Robert] Holmes really can’t do endings.
Anyway, the faces: I know they’re definitely intended as earlier incarnations. But a) the whole thing is fairly incoherent, it’s never stated what the screen represents; b) it cuts away between Hartnell and [whoever comes next], c) both Morbius and the Doctor are clearly ruined by the fight. So fandom wasn’t just being fandom, there was wriggle room until literally the last episode. Thanks, Chibnall. [I was watching this a couple of months after the broadcast of The Timeless Children, so what this story – the main source of evidence on hte matter – said about whether or not William Hartnell was then much on my mind.]