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Doctor Who: ‘Mawdryn Undead’ REVISITED

By James Aggas

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One of my favourite elements of last week’s ‘Before the Flood‘ was the dual time zone narrative. As one storyline developed with the Doctor in the 1980s, another important thread developed with Clara in the future. Oddly enough, it’s the kind of storyline that hasn’t been explored often in Doctor Who, with the biggest example I can think of being Fifth Doctor story ‘Mawdryn Undead‘.

A part of the show’s twentieth season, ‘Mawdryn Undead’ is notable for a few reasons. It features the return of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, a major character of the classic series who hadn’t appeared since ‘Terror of the Zygons‘ in 1975 (a story that, with their upcoming return in series 9, I fully intend on revisiting later); it introduces new companion Vislor Turlough, and it features the return of the Black Guardian.

A major antagonist from season 16’s ‘Key to Time’ arc, the Black Guardian is looking for revenge against the Doctor, and he’s going to use schoolboy Vislor Turlough to do it. Turlough is no ordinary student – an alien stuck on Earth, he would do anything to escape and get back home. He’s a really conniving character, someone who keeps ending up in trouble and is more than happy to sell out his friends to get out of it. He’s far from the most traditional of companions, which is a big reason why he’s one of my favourites. He goes on a journey more significant than many other companions. I’m not sure many other Doctors would have put up with his behaviour (Nine kicking Adam out in ‘The Long Game‘ springs to mind), but at this point in his life, the Fifth Doctor is all too happy to give Turlough the benefit of the doubt.

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The story takes a while to get going, but once the Doctor meets the Brigadier again in 1983, things really get interesting, especially as the Brigadier has a clear case of amnesia. Now working as a teacher at Turlough’s school, he remembers UNIT, but he’s forgotten about the Doctor and their adventures together. While he recovers his memory quickly with the help of the Doctor, things start to get even more complicated when the Brigadier vaguely remembers meeting one of the Doctor’s current companions, Tegan…in 1977.

Related: REVIEW: ‘Before the Flood’

Despite causing a major discrepancy with the earlier UNIT stories (as while they were filmed in the 1970s, most of them were supposed to have taken place in the 1980s), I love how the dual time zone storyline is presented. It’s one thing for the Doctor to become separated from his companions, but even with time travel, it’s not often that they’re separated in different years! As his companions Tegan and Nyssa meet the Brigadier in 1977, we also see the Brigadier explaining the events to the Doctor in 1983, as the Doctor tries to work out a way to contact his friends. It really gets across just how complicated time travel can be, where a flashback is also happening right now, and it’s my favourite element of the serial.

While this is the start of the “Black Guardian Trilogy”, the Black Guardian himself has a very small part to play overall. Instead, the main antagonist of the story is Mawdryn. He’s an interesting character, as he’s not your typical Doctor Who “villain”. He doesn’t want to take over the universe or live forever – in fact, living forever is his biggest problem. Tampering with Time Lord science has caused him and his crew members to live in perpetual torment, always regenerating and always in agony. He and all his crew simply want to die. The problem is that they need a sacrifice only a Time Lord like the Doctor can make. It’s refreshing to have an antagonist whose motivations are not only tragic but also sympathetic.

Mawdryn Undead takes a while to get going, but it’s a great time travel story, and a decent start to the twentieth season’s “Black Guardian Trilogy”.

Next: Preview/Synopsis: 'The Girl Who Died'

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