Doctor Who Logo 'The Brain of Morbius'
(4 Parts)
Story Code '4K'

by Robin Bland++
The Doctor

The TARDIS is pulled off course, and lands on the desolate and stormy planet of Karn. The Doctor meets Solon, a fanatical scientist that is carrying out strange experiments, and his henchman Condo. The planet is also the home of the Sisterhood who are guardians of a scared flame, from which is prepared an immortality drug know as the Elixir of Life, which they share with the Time Lords. The flame is now dying, and the High Priestess, Maren, believes the Doctor is a Time Lord spy, sent to steal the last few remaining drops of the Elixir. The Sisterhood capture the Doctor and prepare to burn him at the stake, but Sarah, who is blinded in the escape, rescues him. The Doctor discovers that Solon is concealing the still-living brain of Morbius, a renegade Time Lord criminal, who was supposedly executed by the Time Lords for his crimes against the galaxy centuries ago. Solon is creating a new body for Morbius, by using parts from survivor of crashed space ships, in order to provide a body for him; he has decided that the Doctor's head would be perfect to finish his construction. The Doctor restores the scared flame to full strength using a firework to clear its blocked chimney. He returns to Solon's citadel, so that the scientist can restore Sarah's vision, unaware that the effect is only temporary. Solon imprisons them, and uses an artificial brain case to complete Morbius's body. The Doctor releases cyanide fumes into the ventilation system, and Solon is killed, and he then challenges Morbius to a mind-duel. The Doctor wins, but falls into a coma, and the now mindless body goes on a rampage. The Sisters chase it over a cliff end, where it falls to its destruction, and Maren uses some of the Elixir to save the Doctor's life.

Tom Baker (Doctor Who), Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane Smith), Philip Madoc (Solon), Cythia Grenville (Maren), Gilly Brown (Ohica), Sue Bishop (Sister), Janie Kells (Sister), Gabrielle Mowbray (Sister), Veronica Ridge (Sister), Colin Fay (Condo), John Scott Martin (Kriz), Michael Spice (Voice of Morbius), Stuart Fell (Monster)

Produced by Philip Hinchcliffe
Directed by Christopher Barry


TX:
Part 1 - 3rd January, 1976 @ 5.55pm - 6.20pm
Part 2 - 10th January, 1976 @ 5.45pm - 6.10pm
Part 3 - 17th January, 1976 @ 5.45pm - 6.10pm
Part 4 - 24th January, 1976 @ 5.55pm - 6.20pm

Notes:
*Featuring the Fourth Doctor and Sarah

++'Robin Bland' was a pseudonym for Terrance Dicks

*The images see on the screen during the Doctor and Morbius' mind-battle were originally intended to be previous incarnations of the Doctor - something that was finally canonised forty-four years later, in 2020's 'The Timeless Children'; they were played by members of the 'Doctor Who' production office: Christopher Barry (Director), Robert Banks Stewart (Writer), Christopher Baker (Production Assistant), Philip Hinchcliffe (Producer), Douglas Camfield (Director), Graeme Harper (Production Assistant), Robert Holmes (Script Editor), and George Gallaccio (Production Unit Manager)