3rd January 1976 – 24th January 1976
“What a magnificent head … a superb head.”
Solon, commenting on the Doctor, episode 1
Tom as the Doctor with the model of the head of Morbius. Picture © BBC
A surprise landing on the planet Karn alerts the Doctor that, not for the first time, fellow Time Lords from his home planet are covertly directing him to become their troubleshooter. They have remotely steered his TARDIS to a spot where, high on a mountainside, a disgraced brain surgeon, Mehendri Solon (Philip Madoc), has been living virtually as a recluse, devoted to a task that reaches back into Time Lord history.
Voluntarily exiled to this bleak and uninviting world, Solon has been keeping alive the brain and mind of a charismatic former leader of the Time Lords who, ages earlier, almost led his people down a path of warfare and dictatorship. Confined to a glass tank the essence of Morbius is now ready to be housed in a new physical body – the body of the Doctor.
The Doctor recognises the threat posed by his would-be Time Lord peer. Aided by Sarah and by the Sisterhood of Karn – an ancient sect guarding an elixir vital to Time Lord powers of regeneration – Solon’s dreams of a resurrection are quashed, and an animated interim body housing the installed brain of Morbius is sent crashing from the top of a mountain peak.
Did you know..?
During a battle of minds between Morbius and the Doctor, images appear on a monitor screen, supposedly depicting the Doctor with faces earlier than that of the first TV Doctor, William Hartnell. In fact they were photographs of Doctor Who production staff, including Tom Baker’s Producer, Philip Hinchcliffe and Story Editor, Robert Holmes.
