2 out of 5

Directed by: Christopher Barry

Old Doctor Who serials have almost always been afflicted with pacing problems, but it rather solidified once six parts became the norm – it’s very rare for one of these stories to justify that many episodes, and results in a lot of repetitious scurry about. ‘The Mutants’ almost escapes this with some pretty consistent cliffhangers, but undermines that success with very muddled storytelling, and a setup that highlights some very silly / cheap staging. Accepting that cheapness can be a part of Who charm, there are versions of it that escape scrutiny due to that charm, but then there are versions – like these episodes – that aim for a bit of seriousness and only draw attention to the cut corners.

Wikipedia tells us of a well-intentioned but partially scuttled premise for The Mutants that sought to tackle classicism, and specifically English imperialism. Using a future group of humans who are seeking to colonize another planet as the framework for that is a totally solid sci-fi approach; mixing in a mutation of some of the locals – the Solonians – that is feared by both the unmutated locals and the humans, and further working in an environmental angle, in which “colonization” means rewriting the planet’s atmosphere so the humans can live there, is all very sound stuff. Even the runaround of the TARDIS sending the Doctor (Jon Pertwee) and Jo (Katy Manning) on a Time Lords-dictated quest to deliver a mystery message to an unknown persons is, well, a hilarious delaying tactic (what do the Lords gain by not explaining the Who and What?), but also an acceptable hook for bringing everyone together.

Unfortunately, beyond an amped up start, with a planet-side chase of humans and Solonians and the usual antics of the Doctor waddling up in the middle of business and confusingly asserting vagueness, the episode pretty immediately descends into a muddle of over- or under-acting – Solonian Valan, as played by James Mellor, is an underwhelming Conan-like character; Paul Whitsun-Jones as the power-hungry leader of the humans, ‘The Marshal,’ was apparently modeled after Mussolini, and told to essentially twirl a non-existent mustache in every scene – and there’s no quick way to visualize the travel between planet and the space station on which the TARDIS has landed, so there’s a teleporter with a sign that almost literally says “No aliens allowed!” next to it. The precedent is a fairly complicated and rich setup that, due to this complexity, was dumbed down into the most graspable elements.

Characters hop between the planet, Solos, and space with no transition, to the extent that I really thought this was maybe a planet-based research station until a hole gets ripped in the side at one point, and an attempt at introducing different sides to the Solonian conversation – those who want to work against the humans; those who want to work with them – is underminded by this same high/low approach, where the ideas get lost behind the overloud Marshal and the anti-immersive, playhouse visuals.

The six-partness plays out in unnecessary cat-and-mouses between The Doctor and The Marshal’s forces, where various people get temporarily imprisoned, then escape, then re-imprisoned, and a really purposeless crystal MacGuffin that I sincerely can’t figure out why it needed to exist, as some late-appearing key information regarding the Solonians – which is an interesting, but maybe questionably coded concept, given the initial impetus of the serial’s creation – doesn’t need to involve this crystal at all.

Christopher Barry’s direction leaves this one dog-paddling; no one comes across too great – even Pertwee and Manning seem like they’re unsure what kind of emphasis to give their parts, making the former seem pretty oblivious, and the latter stuck in damsel mode. And again, while I respect / expect the budget limitations, instead of feeling practical, the set design here felt necessary, like last minute production decisions demanding that No Aliens sign, just so we’re all clear.