Mawdryn Undead is the 3rd serial of the 20th season. It first aired February 1-9 1983 and it's #126 in the series. The 20th season's stories all use old villains as the current threats. This story is the first of three serials with the Black Guardian. Peter Davison is the Doctor, Sarah Sutton is Nyssa and Janet Fielding is Teagan. Mark Strickson plays Vislor Turlough and Nicholas Courtney returns as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. Peter Grimwade wrote the story and Peter Moffatt is the director.
A real jerk of a school boy named Turlough steals a car and wrecks it. While he's out cold Turlough gets a visit from the Black Guardian. He offers Turlough a chance to leave the Earth if he kills the Doctor. Turlough really wants to leave Earth and he agrees. The BG puts him back in his body on Earth where he wakes up to see the face of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart looking down at him. It was the Brig's car that got wrecked and it was stolen from the school where he teaches math after he retired from UNIT.
In the Tardis the Doctor and his pals land in a space liner that is the home of some aliens who tried to become Time Lords. It didn't go well and while they are immortal they are in constant pain. They want the Doctor's other regenerations to kill themselves. Needless to say the Doc isn't too interesting in coughing up the rest of his life. Luckily he won't have to give up the TL lifestyle. Due to the constant jumping about in the Tardis the Brigadier winds up meeting his earlier self. The contact between the 2 Brigs creates an energy spike that kills the immortals. The BG is thwarted, for now, and Turlough joins the Tardis Crew.
I have to admit I sure started the story hating Turlough and don't think I'll get my mind changed as the series plays out. He's a lying ass who will get in trouble and blame someone else. Why anyone would want him on the Tardis I can't even guess. From one of the featurettes it turns out to be John Nathan-Turner's idea. It's one of many of his ideas that I sure don't care for. He's responsible for the ? marks on the Doctor's shirt collars, he brought Teagan onto the ship, and Adric, it all adds up to bad judgement on his part. People still talk about his annoying story ideas on the commentaries and featurettes. There's the usual types of featurettes on the disc and a commentary with Peter Davison, Nicholas Courtney, Mark Strickson and script editor Eric Saward. They talk about their time on the show and Mark Nathan-Turner's poor ideas.
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