The Brain of Morbius
Story: The Brain of Morbius - Season 13, Story 84
Year: 1976
Written by: Robin Bland
Directed by: Christopher Barry
Synopsis: Sarah and the Doctor meet a mad scientist who wants to take the Doctor's head to house the brain of the evil Time Lord Morbius. Meanwhile, the Sisterhood of Karn want to sacrifice the Doctor to save their sacred flame!
Sarah Moments:
• The Doctor’s being stubborn, so Sarah goes off to look around the alien planet without him.
• The Doctor drinks the drugged wine, but clever Sarah tips hers away, and then pretends to be drugged at the appropriate moment.
• She finds the horrible pick-n-mix creature in Solon’s laboratory!
• She’s blinded by Maren’s evil ring, oh no!
• She investigates the mysterious creepy voice, but she can’t see that it’s a brain in a jar!
• She overhears Solon and Morbius’ plan, locks Solon in and goes to warn the Doctor.
• She's forced to assist with Solon’s evil surgery
Capture, Rescue and Mortal Peril:
• Solon orders Condo to kill Sarah, and she only escapes because they can’t be bothered with her when the Doctor is so much more interesting!
• She stalks Solon and Condo through the wasteland to rescue the Doctor from being sacrificed by the Sisterhood – and she manages it, too!
• Stumbling around blind, she nearly falls off a cliff! And then she really falls down some steps.
• She gets captured by Condo, and then tied up and tied down
• Her eyesight starts to come back, just as the creature closes in on her… she narrowly escapes its clutches!
• And she falls down some more stairs! It’s really not her day…
• She and the Doctor get locked into one of Solon’s rooms
Quotes:
• ‘Oh, come on, come on! Stop being so childish!’ – Sarah gives the Doctor a good talking to.
• ‘What a magnificent head!’ ‘What?’ ‘Superb head.’ ‘Ha! Well, I’m glad you like it! I have had several. I used to have an old grey model before this; some people liked it.’ ‘I did.’ - Solon, the Doctor and Sarah on the Doctor's head
• ‘Oh, well, we often go on a sort of mystery tour, don’t we, Doctor?’ - Sarah, on travelling in the TARDIS
• ‘Sometimes at night I look up at the sky and I think: will I ever see Earth again?’ ‘I know the feeling!’ - Solon and Sarah
• ‘Hey, you know, I could always sell flowers, couldn’t I, you know – "lovely fresh violets!" - at least if we ever get back to Piccadilly...’ - Sarah, trying to make light of her sudden blindness
• ‘Doctor, he’s a maniac! He’s got a body there – no head, oh no! It’s just made out of lumps of things!’ - Sarah on Solon's creature
• ‘Girl pretty. Condo like!’ ‘Ow! If you stopped breaking my arm I might like you a little bit!’ - Condo and Sarah
• ‘There, did you see that? That was a positive response, did you see that?’ ‘I can’t see anything, and anyway that thing had the twitches since I first met it!’ ‘Those were random nervous reflexes, that was a definite response to stimulation! Watch! There! You see, you see, that was the first sign you would expect!’ - Solon, as well as being an evil maniac, is really insensitive.
• ‘Doctor!’ ‘Hello, Sarah, nice to be seen again!’ ‘Oh, Doctor!’ ‘You thought I was dead, didn’t you?’ ‘Mm!’ ‘You’re always making that mistake!’ - Sarah and the Doctor
• ‘Keep calm, Sarah, keep calm, whatever you do, keep... you are calm.’ - The Doctor
• ‘Oh, I just had the most terrible dream – first of all I was blinded, then I was attacked by a great claw thing that looked like it was made from butchers’ leftovers and then I was knocked down a...’ ‘Knocked down a flight of stairs.’ ‘How did you know?’ ‘I was there.’ ‘You were?’ ‘Mm.’ ‘Oh.’ - Sarah and the Doctor
• ‘So what do we do now, drink ourselves to death?’ - Sarah, when they find the Hydrogen Cyanide
• ‘What are you looking for, eh? Look, if you tell me I can help you! Is it big, is it small? What is it?!’ - Sarah, as the Doctor searches for what turns out to be an air duct
• ‘Are you suggesting that I crawl...’ ‘No I’m not!’ ‘Then what?’ - Sarah doesn't want to crawl through any more ducts after The Ark In Space...
• ‘How do we tell if it’s worked?’ ‘Well, if we’re still here in a month...’ ‘It hasn’t worked.’ ‘Correct.’ ‘How many hours in a month?’ - Sarah and the Doctor
Wardrobe Appreciation
As usual, Sarah looks gorgeous in this episode, and her outfit, although strange, seems somehow to work.
God only knows how.
First of all she's in this interesting quilted jacket type thing, but when it rains that gets wet, so she takes it off. Then she has a little quilted waistcoat underneath.
Looks nice, yeah? The devil is in the details...
Now, who the heck thought those little tie-up things at the wrists and ankles were a good idea? Crazy... But I'm coveting those shoes big time...
Later, Sarah gets to show off her mastery of disguise, when she infiltrates the Sisterhood of Karn to rescue the Doctor, pretty much by throwing a red sheet over her head. And very nice she looks in it, too.
The Panel Said...
Style Watch:
paranoidangel: I like the outfit she wears, especially as it doesn't obviously belong to any particular time. I could believe this is something she'd pulled out of the TARDIS wardrobe. 8/10
Cadi: I really like the trousers of that outfit. And the shoes! *swoon*
hhertzof: Not really into the quilted look, and what was with those shoes? 4/10 - Mainly for the pants and the robe.
Llin: I don't mind the outfit, but I don't love it either. The shoes are gorgeous though. 6/10
Sarah_JaneSmith: I have no idea what to make of this outfit, what the hell is it!!! 4/10
Sarah Watch:
paranoidangel: She's not bad in this, as she doesn't let anything stop her. But Sarah constantly thinking the Doctor is dead is getting a bit wearing. Ok, she doesn't want him to die but you think she'd have learnt by now to wait and see. 7/10
hhertzof: I thought she was resourceful even when blind. 8/10
Llin: Very brave and resourceful, and cleverer than the Doctor for not drinking the wine! 8/10
Sarah_JaneSmith: I love blind Sarah, so cute! and she's so clever not drinking the wine. 9/10
Story Watch:
paranoidangel: It's entirely possible there's something to like in this but I'm struggling to find it. 1/10
hhertzof: It had its moments, but mostly it just sits there. 5/10
Llin: I like it. It's Frankenstein-esque and stuff. 7/10
Sarah_JaneSmith: I like this one, it's a bit odd but it's quite cool very Frankensteinesque 9/10
Bonus Pictures
A ritual of the Sisterhood of Karn
"More drugged wine?" "No thank you, Evil Doctor Solon..."
So that's what a Mindbending Contest looks like...
D'oh...
If you ever wanted a close-up of Sarah's eye... here it is
Aaaaw! Sarah liked the Doctor's old head... he seems flattered...
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