Mysteriet Doktorn premiered in Sweden on 16 August 2019, with it’s English dub airing on BBC Four on the following Saturday, as with Dokter Wie and Mysteriet Doktorn. The BBC did consider taking the bilingual approach to Mysteriet Doktorn, but decided to use the Polish version to trial the concept instead.
The showrunner of the programme, Hans Rosenfeldt, took a different approach to the show compared to the other adaptations, doing the show in the style of most other Scandinavian dramas, as a ‘Scandi-Drama’. To allow this approach to work, Rosenfeldt, based Mysteriet Doktorn upon the early Jon Pertwee era. Alongside the Doktorn, who is played by Scandi-Drama veteran, Moa Gammel, the two other ‘companions’ were Frans Setterberg, a medical Doctor at FARA (the Swedish version of UNIT, however in the dub they are just called UNIT) who is an aged-up and wiser version of Harry Sullivan, and Brigadgeneral Erik Långströmm, who I think most of you can work out is the Swedish Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart.
The backstory of the Doktorn is a bit different in this adaptation as we’re introduced to her through the eyes of Frans, as a prisoner of FARA who crashed to Earth in some kind of alien spaceship three months earlier. She gets involved with the plot of the first story, which is a two-parter, and by the end the Doktorn is appointed as FARA’s scientific advisor.
The show also did not feature a conventional title sequence, as after the pre-title sequence, the episode just cut to an establishing shot of wherever the current setting was, and displayed the Mysteriet Doktorn logo over it. The show’s theme tune did not play until the end credits and it was instead a pop song, with the same melody as the Doctor Who theme, called Mysteriet Doktorn performed by Anna Bergendahl. While this suited audiences in Sweden, and the song managed to make it into the charts, Doctor Who fans detested it.
DEN LEVANDE PLASTEN
Season 1, Episode 1 & 2
Written by Hans Rosenfeldt
Directed by Anders Engström
TX Date – 16 August 2019 & 23 August 2019
This story is an adaptation of both Spearhead from Space and Terror of the Autons, although if forced to choose, the adaptation is based more upon the plot of Terror of the Autons, using the Autons’ plan from that story and featuring the Master.
The first episode opens from Frans’ point of view, a medical doctor (still called Doktorn Setterberg in the English dub though) as he’s called in by his boss, Brigadgeneral Långström, to exaime a ‘specimen’ recovered from the wreckage of a UFO which crashed in the arctic circle, three months earlier. During Frans’ examination, during which he concludes that the body isn’t human and has two hearts, the Doktorn suddenley wakes up for the first time in three months and starts spouting seemingly nonsense about needing to ‘find the Bemästra’ [the Master, who is the DWU’s first female Master – the English dub keeps this name too]. Throughout these scenes Frans and the Brigadgeneral manage to get some sort of sense out of the Doktorn as she explains that she was on the run from the Bemästra, an evil renegade from her home planet, and she will destory all life on Earth, given the chance.
The rest of the story plays out similar to Terror of the Autons with bits of Spearhead from Space sprinkled in, especially during the scenes with the Doktorn developing her relationships with Frans and the Brigadgeneral. At the end of the two parter, the Doktorn is made FARA’s scientific advisor, upon Frans’ suggestion, but the Brigadgeneral is more sceptical, also the Bemästra is stranded on Earth, much like in the original. The main cast was based upon that of Star Trek: The Original Series – the Captain: Brigadgeneral Långström, the Scientist: The Doktorn and the Doctor: Frans Setterberg.
DET FORNTIDA FOLKET
Season 1, Episode 3
Written by Fredrik T Olsson
Directed by Daniel di Grado
TX Date – 30 August 2019
For the first proper story, following the pilot, Rosenfeldt decided it would also follow in the footsteps of the Pertwee era and use Doctor Who and the Silurians. Not much is different here, apart from the fact that the story is heavily edited down as it’s now only 45-minutes. The Doktorn receives her own car in this story, much like the original, which was a yellow Stahlberg Volvo 760 called Bertie (after an old friend of the Doktorn’s), which becomes an on-running joke as the Brigadgeneral is unimpressed with it compared to FARA’s black SUVs. The Silurian design and costumes reuse those from Season 53’s Homeland, which several British Doctor Who fans were not happy about on Twitter.
DEMONERNA
Season 1, Episode 4
Written by Alexander Kantsjö
Directed by Jakob Ström
TX Date – 6 September 2019
This episode is a heavily cut-down version of the Daemons, with most of the changes being that of modernisation of the script. The Bemästra makes her second appearance in this story, in a far more reduced role, only really being introduced in the final 10 minutes, as the master-mind behind the episode and acting more as a tie-in to the next serial, which features her far more prominently.
SINNSMASKINEN
Season 1, Episode 5 & 6
Written and Directed by Henrik Björn
TX Date – 13 September 2019 & 20 September 2019
This story is an adaptation of The Mind of Evil and follows on from the previous story’s cliffhanger featuring the Bemästra. Mostly this story is very much the same as the original, apart from firstly modernisation to match the 21st Century and also swedishisation… However, this episode does feature a turning point for the Doktorn and the Brigadgeneral’s relationship, as the two become friendlier and less hostile to each other, with the Brigadgeneral becoming more open to the Doktorn’s way of doing things and the Doktorn begins to tone down her snide and somewhat arsey comments in his direction.
The story does finish with the cliffhanger of the Bemästra managing to fix her spaceship, which we see is bigger-on-the-inside, and escape Earth.
RYMDKONFILKTEN
Season 1, Episode 7
Written by Alexander Kantsjö
Directed by Jakob Ström
TX Date – 27 September 2019
This episode follows on from the previous cliffhanger, with the Doktorn seeing that the Bemästra has managed to leave Earth. With the help of FARA, the Doktorn manages to repair her spaceship (which she just calls her spaceship and it resembles a default TARDIS as seen in Doctor Who: Revelation). Trying to track onto the Bemästra, the Doktorn and Frans land on a strange alien planet, leaving the Brigadgeneral on Earth.
The rest of the story is a extremely abridged retelling of Colony in Space, which culminates in the Doktorn and Frans taking the spaceship back to Earth, not having found the Bemästra, fearing her having escaped forever. But when they land on Earth, they find it seemingly completely deserted.
dinosaurieinvasionen
Season 1, Episode 8
Written by Jan Arnald
Directed by Henrik Björn
TX Date – 4 October 2019
The penultimate story of the season sees Invasion of the Dinosaurs receive an adaptation and this one was easily the most well received of the whole season. The scandi-drama-ness of this episode is stronger than any other, with the eerily deserted streets and the police elements of it, in addition Invasion of the Dinosaurs was considered to be one of the Chapter Two stories most in need of a modern-day adaptation due to just how awful the original effects were, and DNEG sure outdid themselves here, creating a beautiful array of photorealistic CGI Dinosaurs for the story.
Metallmännen
Season 1, Episodes 9 & 10
Written by Hans Rosenfeldt
Directed by Anders Engström
TX Date – 11 October 2019 & 18 October 2019
For the finale of the series, Rosenfeldt wanted to adapt Day of the Daleks but Espenson intervened when she realised that the other three adaptations had all done Dalek stories in their first season and she wanted a little more variety. Settling on using the Cybermen, but aware that Jon Pertwee did not have a Cybermen story, Rosenfeldt took the first steps out of the Pertwee era and decided to adapt The Tenth Planet, with quite a lot of changes to match the format of Mysteriet Doktorn.
Firstly, the Bemästra is behind the whole thing (being the Part One cliffhanger) having bargained a deal with the Cybermen, after leaving Earth, and also the arctic base is a FARA base, and the Doktorn, Frans and the Brigadgeneral are just on a visit to it. Apart from that a lot of modernisation and swedishisation occurs, but things mostly stay the same. Obviously the Doktorn does not regenerate at the end, and instead she has a final battle with the Bemästra, in which she is locked up by FARA in a high security facility.
Also during the course of the story the Doktorn and the Brigadgeneral grow closer and closer together, and at the height of the action during Part Two, they kiss (much to the hate of many British Who fans, as this is the first time the Doctor has not been displayed as asexual). Afterwards the Doktorn and the Brigadgeneral are rather awkward around each other, wanting to forget the whole thing, as sexual tension continues to build.
Finally, the season ends with the Bemästra locked up in a high security facility in the middle of the sea, as she just sits there and laughs manically.
WIDWWA 