The Mutants: Doctor Who: Season 9
| SYNOPSIS |
| DETAILS |
| CAST & CREW | REVIEWS |
 Goldby |  Grob |  Long |
The Mutants SYNOPSIS:
The Doctor and Jo are sent by the Time Lords to Skybase One orbiting the planet Solos in the 30th century to deliver a container to the intended recipient who turns out to be a Solonian native Ky, just framed for the murder of the Skybase administrator and fleeing from the Sadistic Marshal and his soldiers.
With the Earth Empire contracting the administrator intended to give the Solonians their independence, The Marshal killed him as he intends to rule Solos and has his chief scientist Jaeger complete his atmospheric experiments to make the air breathable on Solos for humans and not the native population.
Ky and former Marshal collaborator Varan want to overthrow Skybase however many of the native solonians are mutating into an insect species and have fled to nearby caves to hide. The Doctor pursues Ky who has taken Jo captive to the caves and their they succeed in getting Ky to open the container.
Assisted by the previously missing Professor Sondergaard into interpreting the stone tablets within they realise the Marshal's experiments have affected the natural course of mutation on the native species. The Doctor is forced to corroborate the Marshal's story that the Mutants are dangerous or Jo will die.
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The Mutants DETAILS:
| Episode | Broadcast | Run Time | Viewership (In Millions) |
| Part One | 8-Apr-72 | 24:25 | 9.1 |
| Part Two | 15-Apr-72 | 24:24 | 7.8 |
| Part Three | 22-Apr-72 | 24:32 | 7.9 |
| Part Four | 29-Apr-72 | 24:00 | 7.5 |
| Part Five | 6-May-72 | 24:37 | 7.9 |
| Part Six | 13-May-72 | 23:43 | 6.5 |
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The Mutants CAST & CREW
Stars:
The Doctor:
Jon Pertwee (Third Doctor)
Companions:
Katy Manning (Jo Grant)
Guest Stars:
Paul Whitsun-Jones — The Marshal
George Pravda — Jaeger
Christopher Coll — Stubbs
Rick James — Cotton
James Mellor — Varan
Jonathan Sherwood — Varan's Son
Garrick Hagon — Ky
John Hollis — Sondergaard
Geoffrey Palmer — Administrator
Peter Howell — Investigator
David Arlen — Warrior Guard
Roy Pearce, Damon Sanders, Martin Taylor — Guards
Sidney Johnson — Old Man
John Scott Martin — Mutt
Production Staff for Serial NNN:
Writers - Bob Baker & Dave Martin
Director - Christopher Barry
Script editor - Terrance Dicks
Producer - Barry Letts
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The Mutants REVIEWS
Goldby
Bored on coffee break today so am first one in again!
What's annoying about the Mutants is it's a six parter with notable padding. Not only that but we don't get to see the Mutants or Mutts of the story title properly until part 3 then they're only briefly seen for the rest of the story! It's got some good parts and bad parts it's not a total loss like Colony but it's length puts it close to the boring bag. You know, where you watch it up to a point then potter about doing other things whilst it runs in the background.
The Time Lords are starting to take the piss now sending the Doctor & Jo off on another mission so soon, what - it's like every Tuesday now? Why pick such a boring one? Also it's an amazing coincidence that its during ANOTHER peace conference this time between the natives and colonists of planet Solos. Also Adjudicators again rock up in this one, although they're legit ones but their uniforms are just as stupid if not more so (Bronze metal judge wigs anyone?)
Been too long to fully remember the characters but there's the 'fat Controller' who runs the station constantly talking to his stick, the indignant Warrior King, whose bad acting is resolved by being killed off by some equally bad CSO, and the two guards, Crockett and Tubbs (sorta remind me of Love Thy Neighbour prototypes) ? Who help out the Doctor & Jo and Jo's latest love interest Ky the warrior King's young, equally indignant and rebellious cliché`son. Almost forgot the bald dude who shows up in just about every sci fi / action series playing a spy or Germanic scientist.
Ok now the plot, the Marshal's fucked up the atmosphere of this alien planet attempting to make it habitable for humans and therefore has buggered up it’s seasonal cycle and the dynamic duo has been sent to set it right. So it's topical, maybe they should show it at Global Warming forums? There's some things going for this one, the Mutts are very well designed but under used, and look good in the eerily lit caves. All the location shooting with the smoke, twig bushes and in the caves is very atmospheric combined with the music which wikipedia informs is NOT Dudley Simpson. The station or sky base (?) scenes drag and there are so many of them. Particularly remember only one scene vividly as a kid when Ky slowly mutates from a Solonian to a Mutt to a brightly lit Village People member. Eh it's not bad but by no means good and who'd buy that fat guy as being anything but dodgy? 5/10
Grob
Okaaaaaaaaaaayyyyy............. I'm so bored with Pertwee six parters that I am almost getting bored reviewing them!!! So, rather than find new words for "crap" or "tedius" I'm gonna award one point for each thing I liked about the Mutants which will be my final score. Okay, lets go. (God, its hard to think of anything at all....)1. The mutant costume turns up again in Brain of Morbius which is a story I DO like cos its very piss funny (1 point)2. Geoffrey Palmer is in it and he out-acts everyone in it. (1 point)3. The black actor ironically plays a character called "Cotton" (3 points!)
Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..........Bugger it. 3/10 But how funny is that last point though????
1 + 1 + 3 = 5 though?
Oh yeah. See what this stupid story has done to me???? Actually 5 is too high. I'll award the first two points .5 each so that my score will now be 4.
Long
Yeah, I actually don't think this one's too bad… if it were a 4 parter it could almost be very very good - but yeah, it takes way too long to get to the point, and suffers badly from padding. Off the top of my head I could only really remember one of the cliff hangers - a sure sign that there wasn't much tension going on.
I like the look of it though - the station looks all kind of shiny, as do the shiny helmets and costumes! And the underlying plot is quite a clever and interesting one… there's a reason the mutts exist, and that is that they're supposed to… it's evolution. The rest of the plot goes all political and preachy - which can be good, but ultimately it gets a bit tedious.
There's a fair bit of comedy in this one too…. Mainly from Rick James as Cotton… wow, is he bad!!
All up, it's an enjoyable enough story, that could have been a lot better if it were 2 episodes shorter.
5.75/10
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