The Mind of Evil by: Terrance Dicks

 

The Mind of Evil was written by Terrance Dicks, based on the story of the same name by Don Houghton.  It was the 96^th story to be novelized by Target Books.

 

There’s always some sadness when you come to a novelization of a story that you adore and find that it is a rare case where the book doesn’t quite do it the justice it deserves.  The Mind of Evil has always been a story that has been overlooked, one of the very few Jon Pertwee television stories not to be novelized in the 1970s along with The Ambassadors of Death, Inferno, and The Time Monster, all provide by Terrance Dicks which should be the perfect choice, and for Inferno was, as he was script editor for the era.  The Mind of Evil, however, on television is a six episode serial that wastes absolutely none of its time in getting going and there is very little in terms of plot points which can be jettisoned, meaning that the novelization process would be a difficult one.  Dicks is at his best when he’s able to take a four-part story and expand on the characters while keeping the integrity of the script.  This is especially present in early novelizations like Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion or even Doctor Who and the Abominable Snowmen, but for The Mind of Evil there is no real way to facilitate this expansion beyond a little bit for the character of Barnham.

Dicks also is genuinely struggling with the pace of The Mind of Evil.  The sense is that Dicks really wants to get to the scenes where the Doctor and the Master are on screen together since that’s where he really can flex his character writing muscles, but for The Mind of Evil there aren’t as many scenes.  The Master, while not off-screen, is more reserved than in Terror of the Autons so Dicks doesn’t really get the chance to allow that dynamic to shine.  Whenever the Doctor and the Master meet the book just picks up and there is this great energy, heck it’s even there in the depiction of the Master’s introduction.  Since much of the story is dealing with the global peace conference, Terrance Dicks kind of shows his limited cultural knowledge in simplifying a lot of the political context and cutting out the Cantonese dialogue completely, though luckily he does not attempt to fake it, instead just stating the characters are not speaking English.  The climax with the Thunderbolt being stolen and recovered does pick things up especially, beginning with the prison escape which while missing the direction of Timothy Combe and HAVOC, has genuinely great bits in it with those added character moments for the Brigadier, the Doctor, Jo, and even Sergeant Benton getting one.

 

Overall, The Mind of Evil is sadly a mid-tier Target novelization simply because it gets the job done without showing the passion and ideas that the best adaptations would do.  Terrance Dicks’ adaptation is easy enough to read despite dragging in the middle, but it feels lacking without the production behind it.  6/10.