Doctor Who: The Masque of Mandragora (Story 86)

This episode started it all. We see the doctor in Italy battling a cult from the past and an intelligence from the future as they attempt to alter human history for their own ends. A great combination of humor, action and adventure. A pretty good description of the whole series.

Dr. Who fans you will enjoy the return to the backup control room which provides much more ambiance than the regular one.

I can't guarentee you'll fall in love with the series if you watch this one, but you'll find it fun.


Yes, five stars (wait, hear me out)   May 5, 2005
M. G Watson (Los Angeles)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

This is supposed to be a bad episode? Are you kidding me? This classic boasts not one but two of the better villains ever to twirl their mustaches on "Dr. Who" -- a pretty impressive statement considering this is the show that produced Davros, Dr. Soren, Weng-Chiang aka Magnus Greel, Harrison Chase, Sutekh, and innuerable other bad boys who just want to crush, kill, and destroy. Don't believe me? Pop the tape in and watch the insufferably smug and self-centered Count Frederico growl to his flunky, "By morning I want to see Guiliano's liver fed to the dogs."

But I'm getting ahead of myself. "Masque" is about a malevolent and rather wierd being called the Mandragora Helix, that thumbs a ride on the Tardis to 15th Century Italy and once there, decides to avert the Rennaisance and trap mankind in the Dark Ages forever. Its motive? Uh, well, it doesn't like mankind. Fears it will expand across the galaxy. That sort of thing. Really, who cares? The Helix is not really a villain, it's what writers call a "maguffin" -- an obvious plot device designed to set a chain of events in motion.

The chain is this: San Martino's old ruler has just passed away under mysterious circumstances. The new duke (Guilano) suspects his scheming uncle Frederico and his sinister fortune-telling sidekick, Hironimous, of the murder. He also suspects he's next on the list, and he's right. But Hironimous is playing a double game: not only is he working for Frederico, he's also secretly the leader of a nasty pagan cult that favors masks, robes, and ritual sacrifice (and in fairness, who doesn't?). Naturally, this gets him the favorable attention of the Helix, which decides to use him and his cult as its servants on earth.

Having brought the Helix to earth (oops, sorry about all the horrible deaths) Tom Baker's Doctor (in very fine and cheeky form) does his best to frustrate the count's ambitions, unravel Hironimous' connection to the cult, and prevent the Helix from wiping out the men who will bring humanity out of the Dark Ages. It's really the least he can do, considering. Liz Sladen's Sarah gets captured, hypnotized and nearly sacrificed more than usual, but at the same time gets to enjoy a sort of low-key, G-rated flirtation with Guilano, which makes this one of the few episodes ever that aknowledged that yes, some of the Doc's sidekicks were cute and yes, boys might be attracted to them.

What makes "Masque" so enjoyable in my book is the excellent costume and sey design, the large number of scenes shot outdoors (instead of the cramped, overlit, fake-looking sets that the show was condemned to in the last years of Baker's run as Doctor), the cockney accents of the Italian guards ("I ain't goin' do'wn 'ere Givoni, not fer awl th'gold in Rome"), and the truly wonderful villains (I wish I could remember the names of the actors; but the guy who plays Hironimous also showed up in the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Homes episode "The Crooked Man" as well, the Crooked Man). I'm well aware that the story has some rather large holes and more than its share of maguffins, but I also am paralyzed with not caring. "Masque" may not be among "The Best of the Best" but it is, in my book, "The Best of the Rest."













This Who has it all   March 9, 2010
A. Shapiro (Fl)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

A brilliantly written and acted episode. This episode has it all. Great villain, great chemistry among the cast, great buildup!!! Baker is amazing in this episode and the episode is so well paced that by the end, you will be popping out of your seat. Great episode from a fantastic era of Dr. Who.


One of the best Tom Baker productions..!   July 7, 2008
David Bolter (Currently Serving in Kuwait)
Interestingly, like a few other reviewers, this story also was my very first foray into Who-dom, at a time when in the remaining years of the '70s, all the post-Star Wars productions were swelling with enormous production costs, but more and more devoid of originality or interesting stories were being pushed out. Just changing the channel one Saturday afternoon on PBS and behold: What a marvelous inventive story of traveling back to Italy and battling evil intergalactic entities..?

Arguably, this is basically Doctor Who at his finest and most lavish production values, and this story doesn't disappoint. I agree the ending could have been a bit more climatic, but I'm still scratching my head as to why this story hasn't been put on DVD yet..! It's much better than most of the current contenders and I'm hoping it'll be next, along with 'Face of Evil' and 'Seeds of Doom', more classic Tom Baker.




One of the best   June 10, 2010
Mr. Paul Goddard
This is one of the best Dr. Who's. It's set in Middle Ages Italy. The Doctor must stop an evil force from taking over the earth. There is a cult that worships the evil force. It has highly interesting dialog. Here is an example. The cultist tells the king that he sees the king will soon die and it is written in the stars. The king is a riot in the whole movie. Here is how he answers. "You are a fraud Heronomous, we both know the truth of that, you can no more tell the stars then you can tell my chamber pot." Too cool.