''Mawdryn Undead'' is the third serial of the 20th season of the British

science fiction television Science fiction first appeared in television programming in the late 1930s, during what is called the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Special effects and other production techniques allow creators to present a living visual image of an imaginary ...

series ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...

''. It was originally broadcast in four twice weekly parts on

BBC1 BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and Flagship (broadcasting), flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includ ...

from 1 to 9 February 1983. The serial is set in an English boarding school and a spaceship above the

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

in 1977 and 1983. In the serial, the scientist Mawdryn ( David Collings), whose people on board the ship have been afflicted by a mutation that constantly causes their bodies to renew themselves, seeks to die using the regenerative abilities of the alien time traveller the

Fifth Doctor The Fifth Doctor is an incarnation of the Doctor, the protagonist of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. He is portrayed by Peter Davison. Within the series' narrative, the Doctor is a centuries-old alien Time Lord ...

(

Peter Davison Peter Malcolm Gordon Moffett (born 13 April 1951), known professionally as Peter Davison, is an English actor. He made his television acting debut in 1975 and became famous in 1978 as Tristan Farnon in the BBC's television adaptation of Jame ...

) to stop this process and allow them to die. ''Mawdryn Undead'' is the first of three loosely connected serials in which the Black Guardian ( Valentine Dyall) attempts to compel the alien

Vislor Turlough Vislor Turlough is a fictional character played by Mark Strickson in the long-running British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. He was a companion of the Fifth Doctor, being a regular in the programme from 1983 to 1984. Turloug ...

( Mark Strickson) to kill the Doctor, and it introduces Turlough as a regular character. Nicholas Courtney is reintroduced as

Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart Sir Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, generally referred to simply as the Brigadier, is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', created by writers Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln and played by Ni ...

, who was last seen in the series in the 1975 serial '' Terror of the Zygons''.

Plot

In 1983,

, a stranded alien posing as a human student, is given an offer by the Black Guardian for passage off Earth if he should kill the

. Meanwhile, the Doctor, Tegan and Nyssa find the

TARDIS The TARDIS (; acronym for "Time And Relative Dimension(s) In Space") is a fictional hybrid of a time machine and spacecraft that appears in the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'' and its various spin-offs. While a TARDI ...

stuck in the warp ellipse of a starliner trapped in time. Materialising aboard, they find a transmat device with separate endpoints to Earth in 1977 and 1983 is creating the interference. Turlough arrives from the 1983 transmat, feigning lack of comprehension of the situation. The Doctor instructs Nyssa and Tegan to stay aboard the TARDIS while he returns with Turlough to 1983 to fix that transmat point, hoping it will allow the TARDIS to escape. Instead, the TARDIS materialises in 1977 at Turlough's school. Coincidentally the Doctor's old friend from UNIT, retired

, is now a maths teacher at the school and is surprised to learn some trauma in the past has made him lose the memories of the last few years; as a result, he does not remember the Doctor at all. However, as the Doctor talks about Tegan, about himself and his former companions, the Brigadier starts regaining some memories. In 1977, Nyssa and Tegan leave the TARDIS and find a horribly disfigured man in the transmat capsule, who claims to be the Doctor in the midst of a regeneration. They seek out help from the younger Brigadier, and the "Doctor" urges all three to return with him to the starliner via the TARDIS. In 1983, the Doctor detects the TARDIS' movement, and he, Turlough, and the older Brigadier also return to the starliner via the transmat. The Doctor regroups with his companions; realising two versions of the Brigadier are aboard, he instructs them all to keep the two separated, as, should they touch, it could release a potentially catastrophic energy discharge due to the Blinovitch limitation effect. The figure posing as the Doctor is forced to reveal himself as Mawdryn, one of several scientists aboard the liner who were trying to discover the

Time Lord The Time Lords are a fictional ancient race of extraterrestrial life, extraterrestrial people in the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. Time Lords are so named for their command of time travel technology and their Nonli ...

secret of regeneration. Their experiments failed, and he and his fellow scientists have become immortal in this painful state and seek to die, but the Doctor determines the only way to do so is to give up his remaining regenerations. He attempts to leave with his companions, but finds that Nyssa and Tegan suffer the same affliction as Mawdryn, ageing and de-ageing rapidly once in the Time Vortex, and quickly returns to the ship. The Doctor agrees to give up his regenerations and prepares to transfer this energy, with the Brigadier at the machine controls. Meanwhile, the Brigadier from 1977, having been left alone, bursts in upon them. The two Brigadiers reach out to touch, and the flash of energy occurs just at the right moment before the Doctor gives up his regenerations, ending Mawdryn's and his colleagues' lives as requested, restoring Nyssa and Tegan, and saving the Doctor. The younger Brigadier passes out from shock, and the Doctor suspects this was the trauma that caused him to lose his memory. The TARDIS crew return the Brigadiers to their proper times, and the Doctor accepts Turlough's request to join his crew, unaware of the Black Guardian's influence.

Production

''Mawdryn Undead'' was a replacement for an earlier script, ''The Song of the Space Whale'', by

Pat Mills Patrick Eamon Mills (born 1949) is an English comics writer and editor who, along with John Wagner, revitalised British boys' comics in the 1970s, and has remained a leading light in British comics ever since. He has been called "the godfath ...

. That script fell through when Mills and script editor Eric Saward could not agree on certain elements of the story. Instead, Peter Grimwade quickly produced ''Mawdryn Undead'' to fill the gap in the production schedule. ''The Song of the Space Whale'' was later renamed '' The Song of Megaptera'' and made into an audio drama by

Big Finish Productions Big Finish Productions is a British company that produces books and radio drama, audio plays (released straight to compact disc and for download in MP3 and m4b format) based, primarily, on science fiction properties. These include ''Doctor Who'' ...

for their ''Doctor Who'' ''The Lost Stories'' range.

Cast notes

The original intent of the production team was for the character of Ian Chesterton, one of the original regulars from the series' first two seasons from 1963 to 1965, to return for a guest appearance in this story; hence the school setting, as Chesterton was a science teacher, and the Brigadier's being issued with another TARDIS homing device. However, actor William Russell proved to be unavailable. Some consideration was given to using instead the character of Harry Sullivan, who was a regular in the programme for a season in the mid-1970s, before the return of Lethbridge-Stewart was eventually decided upon. David Collings, who played Mawdryn, also appeared in the Fourth Doctor serials '' Revenge of the Cybermen'' (1975) as Vorus and '' The Robots of Death'' (1977) as Poul, and would himself play an alternative Doctor in

' '' Doctor Who Unbound'' audio play, '' Full Fathom Five''. Angus MacKay previously played

Borusa Over the course of its many years on television, the long-running British science fiction on television, science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'' has not only seen changes in the actors to play Doctor (Doctor Who)#Changing faces, the Doc ...

in ''

The Deadly Assassin ''The Deadly Assassin'' is the third serial of the Doctor Who (season 14), 14th season of the British science fiction television programme ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 30 October to 20 November 197 ...

'' (1976). John Nathan-Turner felt that Mark Strickson's blond hair didn't stand out well enough from Peter Davison's blond hair. He initially asked Strickson to shave his head, but when Strickson declined, Turner decided that Strickson's hair should be dyed red.

Commercial releases

In print

A novelisation of this serial, written by Peter Grimwade, was published by Target Books in August 1983.

Home media

''Mawdryn Undead'' was released on VHS in November 1992. It was released on DVD as part of the ''Black Guardian Trilogy'' on 10 August 2009 (Region 2), with a commentary by Peter Davison, Mark Strickson, Nicholas Courtney and Eric Saward and an option to view the story with new CGI effects. The serial was also released in issue 50 of the

Doctor Who DVD Files This is a list of ''Doctor Who'' serials and episodes that have been released on DVD and Blu-ray. DVD Release Most ''Doctor Who'' DVDs have been released first in the United Kingdom with DVD region code#Region codes and countries, Region ...

, published 1 December 2010. In September 2023, the story was released again in an upgraded format for Blu-ray, being included with the other stories from Season 20 in the ''Doctor Who - The Collection Box Set''.Doctor Who – The Collection Season 20 Blu-Ray. Release date: 18 September 2023. BBC Video. ASIN: B0CBN3G7JS

References

External links

Target novelisation

* {{UNIT stories, selected=Television Cybermen television stories Fifth Doctor serials 1983 British television episodes Doctor Who serials novelised by Peter Grimwade Doctor Who stories set on Earth Fiction set in 1977 Fiction set in 1983 Television episodes set in England Television episodes set in the 1970s Television episodes set in the 1980s