Category: Episode by Episode
Doctor Who episode 654: The Trial of a Time Lord – Part Nine (1/11/1986)
‘Is it going to be the Doctor’s defence that he improves?’ This is the segment of the trial that nearly everyone says works as a standalone story as if that’s a compliment. The court room scenes show some effort to address Peri’s death (more, in fact, than Adric got in Time-Flight), and to provide a bit of juicy context (this is an adventure plucked from the Doctor’s post-trial future, an idea that doesn’t bear more than half a second’s scrutiny), then it’s straight into the web of mayhem and intrigue aboard the very Season 17-looking Hyperion III.
Doctor Who episode 653: The Trial of a Time Lord – Part Eight (25/10/1986)
‘Die well, my lady.’ It seems to me this goes beyond the bounds of what’s legitimately horrible in Doctor Who. I suspect JNT wanted Peri to die because he envisaged a similar impact to Adric’s death – perhaps a ratings bump and some newspaper coverage. It might have added a couple of hundred thousand viewers for the next episode, but I think that’s a fairly meagre reward for seeing the longest-serving current regular stripped of all her agency: at least Adric died choosing to attempt to save the Earth. She’s strapped down, shaved, gagged and drugged, and then erased like an old hard drive so Kiv can be downloaded into the body (and Sil can make a joke about how ugly it is). I suppose the series has often treated Peri as no more than meat, so perhaps it’s a meta comment. I think it’s nasty, and I’m glad the show ret-conned it almost immediately.
Doctor Who episode 652: The Trial of a Time Lord – Part Seven (18/10/1986)
‘The emphasis is all wrong.’ The trial scenes are minimal; the focus is on Kiv’s brain transplant and Yrcanos’ rebellion, and a slight sense of throttling the pace to hold off the finale. The tone continues to be the standout strength, with the lingering question of what happened to Peri, and her apparent death at the cliffhanger having clearly placed the Doctor on the back foot in the court room.
Doctor Who episode 651: The Trial of a Time Lord – Part Six (11/10/1986)
‘I do grow tired of these constant interruptions.’ I think this is where the real cracks in the Trial format start to show, because the demands of the ongoing story (and the need to remind us that there is a wider conspiracy behind the trial) interfere with the story on Thoros Beta. The Doctor’s uncharacteristic actions in betraying Peri and siding with Sil have a clear in-story explanation: Crozier’s brain experiments have temporarily unbalanced him. Except there is also another explanation: in the court room, the Doctor claims that this is forged evidence, that he’s being set up, and someone is manipulating the Matrix. Either explanation works (although in the Trial context the unreliable evidence works better). Both together introduce an unnecessary layer of complexity, especially when the Doctor further claims it’s all a clever bluff. Maybe that’s the point: if so, I’m not a fan.
Doctor Who episode 650: The Trial of a Time Lord – Part Five (4/10/1986)
‘Are you really offering this inconsequential silliness?’ Philip Martin probably seemed a safe bet for the Trial scenario: after all, Vengeance on Varos notably featured characters watching and commenting on the action unfolding on TV. And with the promise that this story ‘in which he was engaged when removed from time and brought to this court’ provides the immediate context for the trial there’s a real potential for Martin to build on his earlier ideas and do something truly different.
Doctor Who episode 649: The Trial of a Time Lord – Part Four (27/9/1986)
‘Wake me when it’s finished.’ It’s Robert Holmes’ final finished Doctor Who story and if The Two Doctors was his Frenzy, this is his Family Plot: a low-key piece of work that is largely content to draw on the back catalogue. When it does strain beyond that, like the Doctor’s attempts to defend the value of all life to Drathro, it rings hollow – the Doctor seems barely able to convince himself. The peroration falls far short of the fourth Doctor’s rousing celebration of humankind in The Ark in Space. His disputes with the Valeyard aren’t much more compelling, although Colin Baker performs them with gusto.
Doctor Who episode 648: The Trial of a Time Lord – Part Three (20/9/1986)
‘A certain amount of graphic detail is unavoidable.’ After previous episodes set the scene with some general comments on how Doctor Who works, the debate between the Doctor, Valeyard and Inquisitor here turns to the nature of violence in the show, clearly a hot topic in the context of the Colin Baker run. The Inquisitor takes the part of BBC management, asking, ‘Are these unpleasant scenes necessary?’ The Doctor is forced to defend himself (and it’s not hard to see the meta commentary here) against the Valeyard’s accusation that he ‘has a well-known predilection for violence’, claiming, ‘I’m not given to violence as the Valeyard here suggests. Occasionally I might have to resort to a modicum of force… As a means of self-defence’. The conclusion is the same as Jonathan Powell’s: ‘I would appreciate it if these brutal and repetitious scenes are reduced to a minimum.’
Doctor Who episode 647: The Trial of a Time Lord – Part Two (13/9/1986)
‘What is the relevance of your presentation?’ The Valeyard’s shock decision to convert the inquiry into a trial has clued the Doctor in to a larger threat to his existence. He gently needles his new nemesis, while maintaining the niceties for the sake of Inquisitor Darkel. The courtroom scenes are short, but land the points that while the Inquisitor isn’t succumbing to the Doctor’s charms she’s not necessarily on the Valeyard’s side either. This isn’t pitched like a Soviet show trial; the possibility of acquittal, at this stage, seems real.
Doctor Who episode 646: The Trial of a Time Lord – Part One (6/9/1986)
‘Can’t we just have the edited highlights?’ This is the big re-launch after the hiatus and… It’s not bad, actually. The new opening music sounds more contrite and modest than the electronic screeches of the (definitive) Peter Howell arrangement, but the immediate post-titles sequence is amazing, by far the most impressive effects shot to date. Some effort has clearly been put into fixing the perceived flaws in the Doctor and Peri’s relationship: they’re portrayed as pally, even if they don’t always see eye-to-eye. The Doctor is an indulgent teacher to Peri’s prickly student. He reassures her when she’s upset and scared, and tries to offer words of comfort when they realise they’ve materialised on a post-apocalyptic earth. When she stumbles and squeals, he rushes back to check she’s OK. This is pretty much how it should have been all along.
Doctor Who episodes 644 & 645: Slipback – Episode Five & The Final Episode (8/8/1985)
Episode Five
‘Your gratuitous use of violence often disturbs me.’ OK, it’s definitely poking fun at the TV show’s cancellation. A schizophrenic computer is revealed as the baddie. Its plan: to use the Doctor’s knowledge of time travel to go back and set all life on a more peaceful course to avoid all the ‘pointless wars, the butchery and self-inflicted unhappiness’. This is quite fun, and much more accessible than, say, the Cybermen tweaking the outcome of a 1966 TV episode. It has a kind of grandeur that Douglas Adams might have approved of.
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