November 25th, 2010
31 comments
Doctor Who – The Mutants DVD
Released 31st Jan 2011
When the strange message pod turns up at UNIT HQ, the Doctor and his assistant Jo suddenly involved in another dangerous mission for the Time Lords.
The TARDIS takes them to Skybase One above the inhospitable Solos. It is the 30th century and the planet is about to gain independence from Earth’s glorious empire. But someone on Solos has other plans and, alarmingly, the natives are slowly evolving into fierce-looking creatures.
It’s time for the Doctor and Jo to find out why.
Original VHS cover and information
The Mutants
Starring Jon Pertwee
The Time Lords choose the Doctor for a special task – a mission so secret, that neither the Doctor, or his assistant Jo Grant, know the true nature of their assignment…
Far in the future, the planet Solos is claiming independence from Earth’s vast galactic empire.
A huge space station – Skybase – orbits the planet, forming a bridgehead for the empire’s control of Solos, and is commanded by the Marshal, who is determined to retain his power over the planet at any cost.
Solos’s atmosphere is poisonous to humans in the daylight, and the Marshal is behind secret experiments to change the planet’s atmosphere into one more similar to that of Earth. But down on the planet, changes are happening amongst the native population. A disease that causes mutation has appeared and is spreading fast.
The Doctor finds himself in a race against time to save Jo’s life, to find a solution to the mutants, to complete the Time Lord’s mission, and to thwart the Marshal’s plans.
This story was broadcast on BBC1 Between. 8 April -13 May 1972
Writers Bob Baker and Dave Martin decided to submit a second storyline to the Doctor Who production office based on the success of their first story ‘The Claws of Axes’ (1971). Martin was inspired by the workings of apartheid in South Africa, whilst Baker was intrigued by the history and culture of the native American people. Producer Barry Letts added the idea of an alien species that had a life-cycle similar to that of a butterfly, and Baker and Martin incorporated all these ideas into a six-part script titled ‘Independence’.
The story went through more title changes, becoming first ‘the Emergents’ and then ‘The Mutants’. The mutants of the story are referred to in a derogatory way as ‘Mutts’ in dialogue in the story, although in the original script by Baker and Martin, the word ‘Munts’ was first used. This was a South African slang word used by the country’s white community, but script editor Terrance Dicks asked for it to be changed due to these very obvious connections … and also because it sounded a bit rude!
The director of this story was Christopher Barry, who had first worked on Doctor Who in this capacity for the very first Dalek story, ‘The Daleks’ (1963/4). Amongst other stories he has directed are Patrick Troughton’s debut story ‘The Power of the Daleks’ (1966) and Tom Baker’s debut story ‘Robot’ (1974/5).
In the cast as the Administrator is a young Geoffrey Palmer” who would go on to become a well-.knpwn face on TV with his appearances in series such Butterflies, The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin and When Time Goes By.
Six mutant costumes were made in total for this story, designed by James Acheson. Actor John Scott Martin plays the main mutt in this story – his association with the programme goes back to the story The Web Planet’ (1965), although he is best known as a veteran Dalek operator who has appeared opposite all seven Doctors. Although the Doctor has never returned to Solos, a Mutant made cameo appearances in ‘Frontier in Space’ (1973) and ‘The Brian of Morbius’ (1976).
Filed under: Classic Series dvd's, DVD
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31 Responses to Doctor Who – The Mutants DVD
Posted by: GORDON January 22nd, 2011
Its almost time. Less than 10 days to go till it comes out. soo looking forward to watching this. Think ive only seen it once. This is the first single story release of a john pertwee story since 2007.
Posted by: GORDON January 15th, 2011
EXTRAS
COMMENTARY
THE MUTANTS – PHOTO GALLERY
MUTT MAD – THE MAKING OF THE MUTANTS
(BLUE PETER) (CLIP FROM BLUE PETER IN 1970S)
DRESSING DOCTOR WHO – JAMES ACHESON (FEATURETTE)
RACE AGAINST TIME (FEATURETTE
Posted by: lewis January 10th, 2011
Hi,
Just wondering which date dr who the mutants in this year 2011 now,
Thanks Lewis
Posted by: booboo January 10th, 2011
released on 31 January 2011.
Posted by: superdalek January 4th, 2011
Oh yeah! I’ve got it on video but some of it’s bad quality and all Mel ever does is scream her head off!
If she screams that much why did the 6th Doctor even let on board? 
Posted by: ross campbell December 2nd, 2010
Wow this looks really good
Posted by: McGann is the Doctor. November 28th, 2010
Posted by Anonymous on November 24th, 2010
“I hope Dragon Fire is brought out next year”
GOOD ONYU MR ANONAMOUS. Dragonfire is one of the HIGHEST-PRIO on my personal list of must-have Who for the future. Along with Frontios and the Face of Evil (leela first met). Stories like this are ones that you simply are dying about-you VOW to have them in the future, because youve seen of them and youve ben mesmerised and theyve genuninely caught your attention and won the intrest of a Whovian.
I didnt think this was one of those stories, but…
Posted by: superdalek November 26th, 2010
AND MINE, AND MINE!
Posted by: King Ninja November 25th, 2010
Great! by the way…time we had a ‘Tenth Planet’ and ‘Moonbase’ DVD out with animation (like the recent’Invasion’ disc) to fill in the spaces where film had been wiped.
Posted by: who crazy! November 25th, 2010
Yeah i can see it! She looks like shes mutated into an ice warriors body!
Posted by: The Pandorica November 25th, 2010
Why’s there a Ice Warrior that looks a bit like Jo Grant above Jon Pertwee’s head? What is it anyway? Is it even a Ice Warrior/Jo Grant hybrid? (Probably not.)
Posted by: Angel Tim November 25th, 2010
booboo, is the daemons coming out on DVD because it is my dad’s FAVORITE classical Doctor who episode?
Posted by: booboo November 25th, 2010
Nothing definite, it one of my favourite episodes to
Posted by: Intergalactic November 25th, 2010
love this it’s got the death of the doctor star jo jones! (although in this dvd she isnt married yet, so its jo grant) one of the best companions!
Posted by: Anonymous November 25th, 2010
Posted by: Anonymous November 24th, 2010
I hope Dragon Fire is brought out next year
Posted by: doc brown October 28th, 2010
i named 4 doctor who episodes
Posted by: CYBERGUY October 26th, 2010
I have six target novels :SMILE:
Posted by: dalek jast October 25th, 2010
Target novs are brill!
Posted by: gary October 23rd, 2010
i read went to a doctor who exhibition and bought the target book of this and i really enjoyed so this will definatley be on my dvd shelf soon
Posted by: who crazy! October 22nd, 2010
I think i should get it because its a 6 part story.
Posted by: somebloke October 22nd, 2010
ts not bad, it is abit boring and slow, but its ok,if your a major fan like me i would recomend watching it, but if you only like it and dont really care if you watch them all then i wouldnt recomend it
Posted by: who crazy! October 22nd, 2010
Is this a good episode?
Posted by: The flaw games October 22nd, 2010
Doin this comment in morroco and haven’t been on this site scince Monday and my FAVORITE episodes are deffinatly coming to DVD
oh I must be dreaming
Posted by: The Pandorica October 21st, 2010
Looks quite good. Apart from that Mutt.
Posted by: gary October 21st, 2010
best news i heard all week
Posted by: drwhofanno1 October 21st, 2010
this is great
Posted by: weirdo October 21st, 2010
if your a doctor who fan then try this game its called name as many doctor who episodes you can in a minute try to name as many doctor who episodes you can but it dosen’t do series 5 it only goes from classic series to the waters of mars good luck http://www.e4.com/inaminute/doctor-who-in-a-minute/play.e4
Posted by: korsair October 21st, 2010
Another one of my fav Pertwee stories, It’ll be nice to get a decent Dvd of this as all I have at the moment is a dvd transfer of my old video of the story
Posted by: Supreme Dalek October 21st, 2010
sounds interesting
Posted by: who crazy! October 21st, 2010
Yay new dvd!