The Trial of a Time Lord Part Fourteen

The one where the Doctor tries to prevent the catharsis of spurious morality...

So here we are, the grand finale of both the story and the season. The Trial Inquiry of a Time Lord was the first time Doctor Who tried making an entire series all one story (although it's actually four stories), but it wouldn't be the last. The problem with trying to have one continuing story is that you have to keep it varied, which is why Season 23 was made up of disparate parts, and Series 13's Flux was such a jumbled menagerie of ideas. Doctor Who has yet to prove it can do one series-long narrative story well - you know, like most other television series do! - but I admire the ambition.

Before delving into the episode, I'd like to praise Dominic Glynn's version of the theme one last time. It's not my favourite - that's been and gone - but I can't help liking the ethereal mystery conjured by the Season 23 theme. I like its synthy beat, which puts me in mind of certain 1980s songs like Limahl's Never-Ending Story, Bucks Fizz's The Land of Make Believe, and Oakey and Moroder's Together in Electric Dreams. In fact, I think that's the key to why I like it so much: it sounds like something Giorgio Moroder might have produced.

The Trial of a Time Lord Part Thirteen

The one where the Valeyard turns out to be the Doctor...

The shit hits the fan in this episode. Big time. With all of the evidence dealt with, it's time for conclusions to be drawn, but before anybody can sum up, there are a few twists in the tale first. There's the strange fact that the Matrix has a Keeper who walks around with Rassilon's Key buttoned to his robes 24/7. This Time Lord, played by James Bree (wasted in the role), reckons it is impossible to meddle with the Matrix, and the only way to get into it is using his trusty key. As the Doctor points out, it is possible to copy keys, which is exactly what THE MASTER did.

I'm sorry, the what-who?! Yes, the Master, played with unusual insouciance by Anthony Ainley, looking down on the courtroom from his day-glow disco within the Matrix. It's a fabulous twist to have the Master rock up this late in the story, but it's rather disappointing that he doesn't really do anything. He just sits there letting out his little amuse-bouche secrets bit by bit, a smug smile on his face, but his presence doesn't add the elevated danger that it should. It's almost like a cosy reunion.

The Trial of a Time Lord Part Twelve

The one where the Doctor is accused of genocide...

This is the point at which The Trial of a Time Lord equals The Daleks' Master Plan for length. The Hartnell epic called it quits at 12 episodes, but even if you include that elusive prelude Mission to the Unknown, Season 23 trumps it by one episode. The difference between the two epics is that the earlier is one rambling story, while the later is three separate stories linked by a fourth overarching theme. I seem to recall I thought The Daleks' Master Plan began to sag toward the end, whereas part 12 of The Trial of a Time Lord goes at quite a lick.

As marsh gas spews from the Vervoids and fills the bridge with a toxic atmosphere, I find myself asking: Why? I'm not very clear on why the Vervoids suddenly begin farting methane derivative from their mouths. I decided it was something to do with the increasing proximity of the Hyperion III to the Black Hole, which was somehow messing with the Vervoids' organic make-up, but when I read the synopsis on TARDIS Wiki afterwards, it seems the Vervoids are doing it on purpose, as a means of attack. Once they learn Bruchner's plan for total destruction of their species, they take to emitting marsh gas to kill the humans. Not quite as threatening as Mr Oak and Mr Quill, but I get the idea. I just don't think it comes across very well on screen.

The Trial of a Time Lord Part Eleven

The one where killer plant monsters go on the rampage...

"Stop her! Stop Lasky!" the mutated woman in the incubation case tells the Doctor. It transpires this is not some random mutant, but Doland's lab assistant, Ruth Baxter, who was infected during a "particularly delicate cross-fertilisation". Pollen got into a cut on Ruth's thumb, and she ended up mutating into this half-plant hybrid. Giving this character a name, and allowing us to see actor Barbara Ward's youthful face, makes this plot twist more effective than if it was just an extra in make-up. But then, the Colin Baker era is quite good at "humanising" mutants, whether they be Professor Stengos, the Necrosian mutant, or the Lukoser. Giving the product of terrible scientific experimentation a face, a name and a character makes what's happened to them all the more horrific.

And with every piece of new information gleaned, the Doctor and Mel, like an intergalactic Tommy and Tuppence, continue to investigate the strange goings-on aboard the Hyperion III. The Agatha Christie theme really works, with Mel craftily lingering in corridors so that she can nip into Mr Kimber's cabin to snoop about, while the Doctor consults with the Commodore.

The Trial of a Time Lord Part Ten

The one where something nasty breaks out of the hydroponics centre...

It's funny, but the reprise of part 9's stunning cliffhanger doesn't seem to work as well without the theme music flooding in. Here, it seems to end abruptly when Mel runs away, but we do get some added jeopardy when we see that something nasty has broken out of the cocoons. Something deadly, which looms over the guard and kills him! Director Chris Clough cleverly uses the creature's point of view, building tension and mystery, and by the end of the episode, we've still only glimpsed the odd leafy hand, or a murky visage peering through a grille. There's something nasty in the ventilation shaft!

In the courtroom, the Doctor seems oddly happy to press on, despite the fact he claims his evidence has been tampered with. "When I viewed the Matrix earlier, this isn't what happened," he insists. When asked if he wants to reconsider the evidence, the Doctor somewhat foolishly decides to carry on with it, despite his belief that it's been manipulated to make him look bad. On the one hand I'm fine with that because this is a cracking good yarn, but if the Doctor thinks this is merely incriminating him more, shouldn't he demand some kind of pause to proceedings?

The Trial of a Time Lord Part Nine

The one where the Doctor has a new companion we've never met...

Fittingly, there's a solemn beginning to this episode following the events of the previous, in which the Doctor's long-time companion Peri was killed. I love how the theme music continues to run over the footage of the mourning Doctor re-entering the courtroom, and as he sits down the music ends. Colin Baker thankfully grasps the right tone in these early scenes, reflecting the horror of what has happened, both for the Doctor and the audience. To have an angry Doctor blustering and shouting across the courtroom would have been disrespectful and inappropriate.

The Doctor is clearly disturbed by Peri's death, occasionally distracted by his thoughts. There's a nicely judged moment when the Inquisitor asks if he's had enough time to overcome the distress of his bereavement, and Baker leaves a brief pause, before replying: "I doubt that there will ever be sufficient time for that." This is a Doctor tripped up by his own hubris (at last!), who is coming to terms with the fact that his friend through so many adventures is gone. Dead. And according to the prosecutor's statements, it's all the Doctor's fault. Our hero is in a dark place right now.

The Trial of a Time Lord Part Eight

The one where Peri dies...

"Is Peri dead?" the Doctor asks the Valeyard at the start of this episode. "No," the prosecutor replies, but he should have added: "Not yet." I'm glad Colin Baker manages to inject a modicum of emotion into this exchange, reflecting the fact he thought Peri was dead, and showing that he would actually care if this were the case. "You won't convict me by using shock tactics," the Doctor says, but as becomes clear, all the Valeyard requires is the truth. All very ominous...

In the lab, Crozier has managed to transfer Kiv's brain into the host body of a Mentor fisherman, but the transfer remains unstable and a new, larger-skulled donor will be needed very soon. Sil and Kiv do business with the simply magnificent Posikar delegate, a squeaky-voiced red-faced dragon imp played by Deep Roy (aka Mr Sin from The Talons of Weng-Chiang) who I think should get his own spin-off, perhaps teamed up with the Bandril Ambassador?

The Trial of a Time Lord Part Seven

The one where Peri teams up with the inevitable resistance fighters...

Michael Jayston is good casting as the venomous Valeyard, and gives the character a steely, uncompromising gravitas which runs rings round the defendant Doctor. The Valeyard has an answer for everything, he always has a trick up his sleeve, and he certainly knows how to put on a good show. Like a good Netflix documentary, he always has a tantalising twist to keep viewers involved.

I also like his prodigious vocabulary, here calling the Doctor "a toady, a coward, a turncoat!" And he's not wrong, unlike the Doctor when he insists: "I would never want to harm Peri." Erm, well, yes... we'll just gloss over that claim, shall we?

The Trial of a Time Lord Part Six

The one where the Doctor's mind is addled by Crozier's machine...

The Doctor is rescued from Crozier's mind-altering machine when Yrcanos breaks free of his bonds and starts trashing the laboratory. The release of Brian Blessed means the tone ramps up by roughly 1,000% from hereon in, thanks to his predictably over-the-top performance. Scattered with ridiculous affectations, whistles, and buzzwords like "Rombrom ssssss sabaluma", Blessed's portrayal of King Yrcanos, King of the Krontep, Lord of the Vingten and Conqueror of the Tonkonp Empire, is about as subtle as an anvil in the face. Blessed wasn't always like this, as anybody who saw his portrayal of Augustus in I, Claudius will know. I think it was his international success as Vultan in 1980's Flash Gordon which changed him as a performer, sadly.

Unfortunately, Blessed at full-throttle seems to give Colin Baker - never the subtlest of actors to begin with - free rein to push his boat out too. His mind adversely affected by Crozier's cerebral transfer machine, the Doctor tips first of all into a childish stupor, and then regresses to a version of himself all too familiar to those, like me, trying to forget the horrors of The Twin Dilemma. Yes, he's back: the original Sixth Doctor, the one who tried to murder his companion, throttle an aged friend, and acted both cowardly and mercilessly throughout his earliest adventures. Back then he claimed to be affected by post-regenerative trauma, while here he's reportedly addled by Crozier's machine. Either way, it's concerning just how close to the surface this version of Sixie is.

The Trial of a Time Lord Part Five

The one where the Doctor and Peri are reunited with Sil...

It's time for the Valeyard to present his second piece of evidence in what he insists on referring to as a trial, when in fact the Inquisitor never upgraded it from an enquiry when the prosecutor suggested it in part 1. In the following episode the Inquisitor actually pooh-poohed the idea of the enquiry becoming a trial - "What the Valeyard wants and what the court decides are two entirely different things" - so surely this remains an enquiry? Has The Trial of a Time Lord been a misnomer all these years?

This episode is punctuated much more often by the courtroom interjections, which on the one hand is a little annoying because they interrupt the flow of the story, but on the other do play out more as a trial enquiry would. Whenever a scene supports the Valeyard's prosecution, he pauses the tape and underlines it for the jury, responding to what they've watched and extrapolating its consequence. It is more realistic, but doesn't half get in the way of the Doctor's latest "frightening adventure" getting going!

The Trial of a Time Lord Part Four

The one where the Doctor loses an argument with a robot...

Ah, so Merdeen actually shot Grell, not the Doctor. Grell was standing behind the Doctor, about to shoot him, so Merdeen shot Grell instead. The resolution to the cliffhanger is about as riveting as the lead-up. We then get a scene where we're supposed to feel Merdeen's sorrow at having killed Grell, but despite Dominic Glynn's rather nice 'sad music', it all falls flat because there's such a lack of conviction. Tom Chadbon is a capable actor, worthy of better than this, but struggles to imbue his lines with any true emotion. Maybe if we'd been allowed to get to know Grell better earlier in the story, or if Robert Holmes had given him some personality, his loss would be felt more, but no. He's just a bloke in a crash helmet who was good at bickering (everybody's good at bickering in this era).

And before we reach even the third minute, two more characters meet their maker when Drathro fries Queen Katryca and Broken Tooth. Their bloody-faced demise is rather gruesome, and we're spared a Season 22-style close-up, but their deaths are pointless, and render the characters' agency in the story pointless too. It's as if Katryca and Broken Tooth existed only in order to die, as they achieve very little else.

The Trial of a Time Lord Part Three

The one where the Tribe of the Free invade Marb Station...

I love Dibber, he's by far the best character in these episodes, and played so charmingly by Glen Murphy (MBE!). I'd be quite happy if it were Dibber who made return appearances in later episodes, rather than Tony Selby's Glitz, but sadly we never see Dibber again after these four episodes (in one spin-off book he's reported as dead, but in others he's apparently alive and still teamed with Glitz).

Here, Dibber stands up to Broken Tooth, expressing disappointment at his poor aim with the gun in trying to destroy the L1 robot. "Squeeze the trigger, don't pull it!" he advises, before ducking and allowing Broken Tooth his revised shot. There's something very charming about the way Murphy plays Dibber, who's definitely not as thick as Glitz likes to make out.

The Trial of a Time Lord Part Two

The one where the Doctor meets Drathro the L3 Robot, and an L1 Robot too...

After pausing the evidence and trying desperately to get the inquiry into the Doctor's behaviour turned into a trial, the Valeyard is roundly put in his place by the officious Inquisitor, who stops short of elevating it from an inquiry. "What the Valeyard wants and what the court decides are two entirely different things," she says. So it remains an inquiry, for now, it seems. The Inquiry of a Time Lord doesn't have quite the same ring to it.

Returning to the evidence, we see that the L3 Robot wishes to question the Doctor, who is taken to the entrance to his "castle" by Merdeen and Balazar. It's wonderful just how better written and portrayed the Sixth Doctor is this time. Robert Holmes seems to be channelling the light-hearted flippancy of Tom Baker's Fourth Doctor, but it works really well with Colin Baker's tempered Sixth. It feels like Colin is having a really fun time recording this story, as if he feels freer now that his Doctor can develop.

The Trial of a Time Lord Part One

The one where the Doctor is put on trial by the Time Lords for a second time...

"I intend to adumbrate two typical instances from separate epistopic interfaces of the spectrum..."

Almost 18 months after we saw Colin Baker struggle to say "Blackpool", Season 23 brought Doctor Who back to Saturday teatime with a brand spanking new theme tune. Same graphics, different sound. And I really, really like the new theme tune. Dominic Glynn's synthier version has a lovely, strummy beat, almost like a gallop. The theme needed updating after five years, and while I know many people find the Season 23 theme quite thin and screechy, I really like it. I wish this had been the Sixth Doctor's theme all along.

The opening scene is rightly celebrated as one of the greatest in Doctor Who history. In truth, nothing else in the entire season tops this masterful, eye-boggling trip around a giant space station, into which the TARDIS is beamed (docking bay three), a fly caught in amber. Glynn's incidental score is beautifully doom-laden and funereal, evoking a ticking clock or a tolling bell, all signposting that something's amiss. The new theme and the opening model shot make these 75 seconds some of the most exhilarating in the canon.

Revelation of the Daleks Part Two

The one where the Daleks fight among themselves...

The huge tombstone wasn't a tombstone at all, but actually a polystyrene replica filled with fake blood. It's not clear why there's a polystyrene tombstone of the Doctor in the grounds of Tranquil Repose. Maybe Davros put it there for a laugh? Before she discovers it's all a hoax, the grieving Peri has to contend with the creepy attentions of chief embalmer Jobel, who has taken a shine to her. "Be calm, be calm," he moons. "Someone as pretty as you shouldn't be all of a fluster... I like pretty things, and you are very pretty, aren't you?" Clive Swift makes Jobel uncomfortably creepy, looking Peri up and down like a piece of meat, a lascivious desire in his eyes. And all the while he's walking around wielding a pair of forceps... However, I like the way Peri manages to ditch the little creep when he takes her to see the DJ, written and performed with a nice pinch of wit.

PERI: Well, thanks for showing me the way.

JOBEL: Those rose red ruby lips were made for kissing.

PERI: But not by you!

JOBEL: I love a woman who plays hard to get.

PERI: Then you'll love me to death.

Revelation of the Daleks Part One

The one where Davros is in charge of a funeral home...

What a beautiful opening sequence! Closely echoing the way director Graeme Harper opened The Caves of Androzani, we begin by hurtling down towards a planet as we hear the grinding materialisation of the TARDIS. Only this time, the police box doesn't appear in a sandy wasteland, but amid a snowy landscape. Who knew how beautiful the TARDIS could look surrounded by thick rolling snow, laced with wisps of fog? It's a stunning opening salvo from one of Doctor Who's all-time snazziest directors.

Putting Peri, and especially the Doctor, in the funerary colours of the planet Necros helps the viewer to focus on the story and performances, now that the Doctor's migraine-inducing coat is covered up. Colin Baker looks splendid in purple (actually, he'd probably look splendid in any one colour, rather than 17). It's a pity Peri insists on wearing heels though, not the most practical way to navigate snowdrifts, but her little beret is quite sweet. And boy, does it look cold!

Timelash Part Two

The one where Peri almost becomes the mutant bride of the Loch Ness Monster...

Am I right in thinking Elizabeth Parker is the only woman to score incidental music for Doctor Who? I know Delia Derbyshire's work was used for Inferno, but that wasn't specially composed, whereas Parker's work for Timelash was. Surely it cannot be right that only one woman has scored a Doctor Who story in its entire 59-year history? That needs to change, and hopefully it will as Doctor Who enters its 60th year...

We rejoin Timelash as the Doctor is pushed toward the tinselly cabinet of doom by the blond-haired, blue-faced android (surely influenced by the cover of David Bowie's album Tonight, released a couple of months before Timelash was recorded). Vena and Herbert look on open-mouthed, but fail to protest or try to intervene in any way. Thankfully, the Doctor remembers he snaffled Herbert's hand mirror in part 1 and uses it to confuse the droid. The good guys are then able to seal the room (a base under siege!), although the Borad claims his "time web" is able to disintegrate the door (his time web is actually a big gun, so what it's got to do with time and webs I've no idea).

Timelash Part One

The one where the Doctor meets a young H G Wells...

It takes more than 20 minutes for the TARDIS to arrive in the story this week, which must be something of a record. In that time there's the usual arguing and sniping between the belligerent Doctor and whining Peri, with the Time Lord threatening to set the coordinates for 1985 to take her back home (even though Peri's from 1984).

These interminable TARDIS scenes are torture to watch, mostly because of Colin Baker's appalling overacting. Why deliver lines with any panache or pathos when YOU CAN JUST SHOUT THEM?! I know the Sixth Doctor is a loud, brash, short-tempered grouch, but in the first half of this episode Baker takes the character to even crabbier territory than normal (his cacophonous repetition of the word "BAD" is irredeemable). This is his sixth story and I'm still not warming to him. He's a bit better than he was in The Twin Dilemma - and very slightly less homicidal - but still not the charming travelling companion of yore. Boy, do I miss Peter Davison.