Doctor Who and the Brain of Morbius by: Terrance Dicks

 

Doctor Who and the Brain of Morbius was written by Terrance Dicks, based on The Brain of Morbius by Robin Bland (a pseudonym for Terrance Dicks and Robert Holmes).  It was the 33^rd story to be novelized by Target Books.

 

This is an interesting book considering The Brain of Morbius was originally commissioned to be a serial by Terrance Dicks, but it was rewritten by Robert Holmes enough that Dicks requested his name be pulled.  With Dicks coming back to do the novelization you would think that an opportunity would arise to bring some of the ideas the original script had, such as the surgeon Solon being a robot and the planet of Karn being markedly different from what was on television.  Dicks does not do that, however, electing to make Doctor Who and the Brain of Morbius a near one to one translation of the television story to prose with his usual style.  As this is a Terrance Dicks book, it is incredibly easy to read, though not the easiest as this was further abridged to a second novelization as the short lived Junior Doctor Who range.  The biggest change to the story in terms of plot is the first chapter fleshing out the establishing shots of The Brain of Morbius where a Mutant from The Mutants is killed by Condo and its head taken to Solon.  Much of that is from the Mutant’s perspective, here described just as a crustacean alien, which is horrific, one of the few pieces of horror from the story properly translated to prose, as Dicks’ writing style doesn’t exactly translate to horror incredibly well.

 

Despite the episode being translated incredibly well, without the direction of Christopher Barry, the dark corners just don’t hit the same way.  Somehow the stakes feel less, for instance when Sarah Jane is struck blind by the Sisterhood of Karn in an accident, here it feels like almost immediately the Doctor is there to fix things and not the genuine fear in the performance and direction of Sarah Jane possibly now being disabled.  In another example, Condo’s death at the hands of Solon also feels somehow less horrific.  On television, there is a blood splatter and the viewer really has found something to like in Condo, but in print he just dies.  He is shot and dies in about a sentence, so the visceral reaction and genuinely envelope pushing scene (for what Doctor Who could get away with as a show primarily aimed at children) just goes by with little fanfare.  There are a couple of interesting expansions, especially involving the history of Morbius and a more outward insanity to Solon from the start, having destroyed several busts of Morbius before the one he has standing at the start of the story.  It’s still an adaptation of an already good story that captures some of what makes the story work, despite the elements not bringing everything together into a perfect picture or really improving on any of the (very minor) flaws of the television story.  8/10.