Customer Reviews
it is good fun all round - By: Dot Haydon, 19 Aug 2008 
The Brain of Morbius is a good all round Doctor Who, even though it takes placein the studio. It is well paced, & keeps you on your toes most of the time.
In this era of Who this is one of the best ones made mainly because it makes you think as you go along "What's going to happen next?"
So for these things i would recommend you watch it all the way through if you have a couple of hours to spare.
head games - By: Paul Tapner, 03 Aug 2008 a classic doctor who story from the mid 1970's when the popularity was at it's height. tom baker had been the doctor for a year & a half & his version of the timelord was encountering horror situations & thrilling the nation. Apart from those who thought it was too graphic for an early evening timeslot, that is.
this story now comes to dvd. It runs for four episodes of twenty five minutesin length, & it involves the doctor arriving on the planet karn, a desolate place inhabited only by a religious cult & a castle housing a brilliant surgeon & his servant. the surgeon is attempting to bring something back into the world. something that needs a body. & once that's completed, the whole universe will not be safe.
great acting from all the cast & some moments that could be straight out of a hammer horror movie combine to produce an excellent story. it's entirely studio bound & the scenes on the surface of the planet are on a patently fake landscape, but that won't really put you off.
a classic tale that can be enjoyed by everyone, except perhaps those who give every dvd review on here an unhelpful vote. but that's their problem.
coming on a single disc, the extras are as follows:
a commentary from cast members tom baker [the doctor] elisabeth sladen [his companion sarah jane smith] philip madoc [the surgeon doctor solon] & the producer & director of the story. all are smart & erudite & great to listen to.
getting a head: a half hour long documentary, narrated by future doctor paul mcgann, about the story. a good & comprehensive look at it, from genesis to production, with lots of interesting contributions from the cast. the chance to see those who played the sisterhood leaders as they are now is interesting.
the other main extras concentrate on the design of the story:
in designs on karn designer barry newbery explains how he came up with the design ideas for the story.
a set tour shows you round them & how they were constructed with the aid of a computer animation reconstruction
and a sketch gallery show you lots of his work on the production.
these are all good, if rather short.
there is also the usual photo gallery of the story & it's production
production information subtitles, & regular subtitlesin english
the listings from the tv magazine radio times of the time for the episodes of the story as a PDF file [which you can only look at on a computer]
and a trailer for the next releasein this range, the sixth doctor story the trial of a timelord. these trailers are very good at making them look epic, & this one does manage that. be aware that it does reveal a few major surprise events from if you've not seen it before.
there are two easter eggs on the disc, both of which can be accessed by watching it on a computer & moving the pointer over the screen till a previously hidden doctor who logo lights up.
on the first special features screen doing this will show you an exchange of letters between a fan & the script editor of the time
and on the episodes screen it will bring up a short feature about the continuity referencesin the story. this even references a few of the original novels based on the show, which is a nice surprise as they don't get mentioned very often.
classic doctor who. & a good package for it
Be careful... - By: C. J. Cox, 26 Jul 2008 
I'm don't want to insult this story as I know many people think of it as a classic, but I find it very disappointing. The set feels particularly cheap & claustrophobic, the tone is relentlessly overwrought with no real flashes of humour or lightness, & the plot is turgid. Again, my take on it is not the most common one - & I'm sure the extras are great. However, the terrific Tom Baker/Liz Sladen story Seeds of Doom - as yet unreleased on DVD - makes this look incredibly poor by comparison.
CLASSIC BAKER ... AND GOTHIC HORROR FEEL!!!! - By: Adam Jackson, 23 Jul 2008 
Definiteley a story that stuckin my mind from the 1970's!
Classic Tom Baker & a nod to the horror movies of old!
Very atmospheric, suspenseful with some great set design.
The Morbius monster is effective despite the budgetary limitations , & there was always something chilling about a sentient & yet disembodied brainin a vat of green liquid!
One from the CLASSIC times - recommended if you liked Pyramids Of Mars,
Planet Of Evil, Horror Of Fang Rock & similiar as there is a BIG nod to the horror genre (in this case, Frankenstein).
Horror-Who at it's best, thrilling stuff! - By: L. Green, 23 Jul 2008 Barcode: 5014503181628
From the opening shots of Karn, eerily dark & swathedin thick swirling fog, you know you'rein for a real classic hiding behind-sofa-ride with this serial. In the very first episode you get a gruesome beheading, a crippled servant with a hook for an arm, later delights comingin the form of a brainin a jar of green goo, the Doctor almost being burnt at the stake & a monster cobbled together from various body parts.
It's scary stuff with some real-edge-of-your seat moments, one of the most surprising being when Solon shoots his assistant Condo, literally ripping a holein his chest, spurting blood. It's not something you'd seein the revived series &in many ways, this raw, untamed feel just adds to the dark overtones of this story. It raises questions on the ethics of what true life isin relation to Condo's subservience to Solon & Morbius's half-life as a brain trappedin a transparent case, a slave to base instinct.
The true star of this serial has to be Philip Madoc as Solon, his performance is deliciously sinister, his perseverance through all the odds to try & revive Morbius admirable, despite the gravity of what this entails. The scene where Condo knocks Morbius' brain onto the floor to Solon's dismay is particularly poignant as he cries of `such intellect, wasted on a stone floor by a mindless brute'. This is a man that has devoted himself to a cause & has lost all compassion for others, from the way he continually deceives poor Condo to his underhand poisoning of the Doctor & Sarah, his true intentions masked wonderfully behind a façade of a nice, well-spoken academic.
Villains like Solon are always a joy to watch, the battle of intellects between them & the Doctor is what the show was made for. Tom Baker putsin a great show tooin this episode, really shiningin the scenes with the Sisterhood as he tries to convince them of his pure intentions. Liz Sladen gets some nice moments too, her feistiness sparking brilliantly off the Doctor, & poor girl, she goes through a lotin this serial! Poisoned, tied up to a table, blinded & then chased & beaten up by Morbius - & speaking of her blindness, I think she acted this really well. Yes, the whirling arms might look a little overstated compared to today's more conservative styles of acting but if you put yourselfin her shoes, if you had just lost your sight you'd be absolutely terrified & Liz really conveys thisin her voice.
When this serial was first broadcast it got between 9-10 million viewers per episode. This was Doctor Whoin its element, Tom Baker taking the series through the peak of its success & from serials like this you can see how so many elements of it have gone on to influence further Who episodes. It is these linkages - this episode obviously taking root from the story of Frankenstein & his monster - that weave their through history, the tension & the theme of science pushed to its most terrifying. Even the imagery lives on, the Sybilline Sisterhood of recent episode `The Fires Of Pompeii being almost a carbon copy of the Sisterhood of Karnin this episode.
Brilliantly acted, dark brooding sets & a super-tense plot + a really good behind the scenes documentary `Getting A Head' which has some fab interviews with the cast & crew - this is yet another fantastic releasein the Doctor Who DVD range.
