Mindwarp

Many people dislike Mindwarp, saying it is all about people escaping, running along tunnels, being recaptured etc, and not having any story. I think rather that,like Resurrection of the Daleks, it has too many interwoven plotlines - the selling of arms to Ycarnos and his warlords, finding a transplant doner for Lord Kiv, the Trial itself, the overthrow of the Mentors.....and it doesn't all hang together that well. It is still, also like Resurrection, one of my favourite stories for the following reasons.

Firstly the characters I find uniformly excellant. The delightfully loud Ycarnos providing much needed light relief,the dour Frax, and of course Crozier. This man, outwardly so ordinary looking and not some ranting power mad megalomaniac, was nevertheless sinister and utterly without compassion; destroying (so we are lead to believe) one of the Doctor's companians,this quietly spoken man becomes one of the Sixth Doctor's biggest threats. So we are lead to believe.

For this story must be unique in that the events seen on the Matrix screen are, it is hinted, maybe not entirely as they transpired. We can only guess how the events on Thorus-Beta end, we are not told. We don't really know if we are watching the lies of the Valeyard, the Doctor suffering from the effects of that machine, or the unvarnished truth. Or a mixture of all three.

But I was talking about what I like here which is, the Mentors! I always like a story with cool monsters and these Mentors look good and are funny as well as being ruthless and clever. Clever because it is only their ability to control people's minds that makes them able to have slaves who would otherwise be able to crush them underfoot.

Mindwarp is a delightfully amoral story. No one really cares about their actions - Kiv, Sil, Crozier, even the Sixth Doctor. Or is it illusion? Da, da!