Doctor Who 50th Anniversary: The Masque of Mandragora

Doctor Who:

The Masque of Mandragora

By Louis Marks

“So shall perish all our Earthly enemies. Surround me with a helix of powers, brothers, and none shall overcome us. All has happened as was foretold down the centuries. The waiting, the prayers, the sacrifices. Now, at last, the empire of Mandragora will encompass the Earth, for Demnos is only the servant of Mandragora, and Mandragora is a mighty master of all things. Let the power flood into you, brothers. Tomorrow night we shall witness the last prophecy. As it is written, Mandragora shall swallow the Moon!”

While showing Sarah other oarts of the TARDIS they two travelers come across the old TARDIS console room.  In there The Doctor explains that he can control the TARDIS from here and opens the screen and then notices that they are headed to the Mandragora Helix and they are sucked into the living energy. 

The pair decided to exit the TARDIS and have a look around the void they are in when they are attacked by the living energy as The Doctor and Sarah hide behind the TARDIS to escape it.  What The Doctor doesn’t realize is that he left the door open and the energy made its way into the TARDIS.   The pair run into the TARDIS and makes a hasty escape when all of a sudden they land in 15^th Century San Martino, Italy.   There the Mandragora Helix is free to cause terror with The Brotherhood of Demnos as its pawns in its quest for domination.

The Masque of Mandragora I a fun story to watch.  It is fun but not really an all that great of a story or a bad one at that.  The story is simple find a way to stop the enemy from taking over the Earth and save everyone in the process.   It is a story that is as Terrance Dicks would say kinda bland as I felt me interest waning a lot as I was watching this story.   It was boring at times which is a shame because there are some great moments in it like the Doctor sword fighting.

What I found funny and quite annoying at times is the actor playing Hieronymous. Norman Jones is way over the top and he really gives a new meaning to the Shatner pause.  It was like he treated every word as a sentence.  It got really annoying by the time I got to episode four and was really glad when he met his demise.  I’ll say this I believe Norman Jones performance in The Masque of Mandragora is one of the most over the top performances in the 4^th Doctor era.

I love when Doctor Who goes back to the past.  If one thing in the classic series when they had a story that took place in the past the BBC always did a good job recreating the period.  Say what you will about the cheapness of the show at times when it came to a quasi historical they always did a good job with the sets and costumes and The Masque of Mandragora is no exception as everything looked really good.   The costumes were really good and the costumes used at the masque were hit the period pretty well. 

While The Masque of Madragora isn’t the best of Doctor Who stories it is a fun one to watch and having The Doctor face a being of energy and using his intelligence to defeat it makes it all that more enjoyable even if it was a tad dull at times.

Grade B-