Doctor Who: 8 Tom Baker Stories To Celebrate In January

7. The Brain Of Morbius (1976)

Was there anything that Robert Holmes couldn€™t do? Sure, he could occasionally write a mediocre script - The Krotons and The Two Doctors aren't his most sterling works - but when it came to rewriting other people€™s and improving on it, he was a master of his trade. That€™s what happened with The Ark in Space, of course, and also what happened with The Brain of Morbius (3rd January 1976) when Terrance Dicks insisted his name be removed from €œthis bland script€. Not only did Holmes credit the script to €œRobin Bland", he also so completely reworked the story that there€™s no way anyone could consider it bland - or, indeed, a Terrance Dicks script. Instead, fans get a story that€™s so dark and so violent that it got chopped down to its bare bones when it was first released on video in 1984. Here€™s an indication of just how effective this story is. Some American viewers in the late 70s were €œtreated€ to a version of episode one that contained no music or sound effects. In most cases, this would have killed the tension dead. In this case, the story is so good that many viewers didn€™t even notice and they remained transfixed throughout the first 25 minutes barely even noticing when the music and FX suddenly kicked in for episode two. Yes, that€™s how good Brain of Morbius is. The only thing that might have made it better is if Peter Cushing had been cast as Solon - and that€™s a big €œmight".