The Mutants

The Mutants
by Bob Baker and Dave Martin
Originally Broadcasted: April 8th-May 13th, 1972

While at UNIT headquarters, The Doctor and Jo Grant receive a mysterious round object and are sent to the planet Solos to deliver it to its owner. There's just one problem, they don't know who its for. While in search of the owner, they become entangled in a fight for independence and discover some hideous mutations...

This is my first review of a Third Doctor serial, so I want to mention how much I love this era of Doctor Who. I think it's the most perfect era in the show's history. There are only a few stories that aren't all that good, the rest are all amazing. When I first saw The Mutants a few years ago, I put it in the "not very good" category, but my opinion has changed with this second viewing. I think it might be because I'm older now. I'm able to understand the political underlinings to the story. Bob Baker and Dave Martin threw in some very obvious underlinings to the idea of imperialism and racism. Segregation is very obvious on Skybase One. The main villain of the story, The Marshall is one of the more disgusting villains the show has ever seen. He's a human trying to make the world better for himself, but doesn't care about who he harms along the way. It's a down to Earth character that I think is more relevant to the real world, which makes him just that much more evil. This story has some great supporting characters too. I particularly like Professor Sondergaard for his enthusiasm and completely pure intentions. Guards Stubbs and Cotton are also very enjoyable to watch and have great chemistry. It's also very cool that Cotton is played by a black man, which goes along with the anti-racist theme of the episode. So it's not one of my top Third Doctor stories, but it's definitely a good one!

Luke's Rating: 8/10