The Land of Fiction is an unknown domain, inhabited by various fictional characters including Rapunzel and Gulliver. The Second Doctor and his companions Zoe and Jamie accidentally arrived in the Land of Fiction when the TARDIS had an emergency takeoff from the volcanic planet Dulkis in The Dominators. In the Land of Fiction, the Doctor and his friends battled white robots, clockwork men and a minotaur before finally confronting the Master of the Land of Fiction. The Mind Robber is a very surreal Doctor Who story and the first episode has a lot of similarities to the ending of The Prisoner.

The Mind Robber

★★★☆☆

TX: 14/09/1968 – 12/10/1968

Written by Peter Ling    Directed by David Maloney

The TARDIS makes an emergency takeoff from the planet Dulkis, but the ship explodes and the Doctor and his friends are thrown into a white void. The Second Doctor, Jamie and Zoe have arrived in the Land of Fiction. The time travellers are menaced by white robots as well as encountering other fictional characters and beings, including the Karkus, Medusa, a minotaur, a unicorn, clockwork men, Lemuel Gulliver, Rapunzel and Cyrano de Bergerac. The Doctor and Zoe also have to solve puzzles, riddles and word games, including one which involves rearranging Jamie’s face! The Doctor and his friends ultimately confront the Master of the Land of Fiction, who wants to recruit the Doctor to take over his role as the creative power in this realm. It turns out that the Master of the Land of Fiction is in fact an ordinary Earth man abducted and brought to the Land of Fiction in order to provide creative energies for the unseen aliens who are really in charge. Everything that the Doctor has experienced was a series of tests to prepare him for his role as his replacement. The aliens’ plan is to control everyone on Earth and bring them to the Land of Fiction, leaving the Earth itself empty for easy colonisation. The Doctor rescues Jamie and Zoe from within the book they were trapped in, and they return to the control room to free ‘the Master’. Jamie and Zoe overload the computer and it explodes, with all 4 leaving just in time. The TARDIS reforms and the Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe are able to escape.