Friday, March 18, 2022

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!

I've not commented much on John Anderson's courtroom set (it's very beige), but one thing that strikes me is that it could be grander and more spacious, seeing as this is a pretty enormous space station. This courtroom is in just one small corner of the station, so either several similar trials are going on in other parts of the vessel, or the Time Lords can't afford to heat the whole thing. Everything seems a bit cramped. The Time Lord jurors look especially squashed (and bored) at the back, having to crane their necks to see the evidence on the screen. I also think the floor could have been water, or pipes, or a fuzzy Matrix effect, rather than black vinyl, but y'know... budget!

Writer Philip Martin, who for Vengeance on Varos gave actors plenty of unsayable lines, peppers the courtroom scenes with some pretty complex words for younger viewers: "maladjusted psychotic sociopaths", "judicial procedure", "sagacity", "sycophant"... All words that would go over younger viewers' heads, and probably bore them to tears. I bet kids at the time hated these courtroom scenes, and maybe the trial arc wasn't lighting their fire either: part 4's rating of just 3.7m was the lowest since Full Circle six years earlier. The rethink was not going down well...

Anyway, to the evidence: what an opening shot! The planet Thoros Beta looks stunning, as well as mildly nauseating, thanks to the use of Paintbox, a very early form of CGI. There's some telling fringing at times, but overall the effect is stunning, if not arresting, and the shot of the TARDIS materialising in the rose pink sea is gorgeous (and kind of still stands up today). The fact it's a beach puts me very much in mind of David Bowie's groundbreaking video for Ashes to Ashes (1980), which used solarised colour effects.

The Doctor and Peri continue to enjoy a more relaxed and friendlier relationship, although there are examples of the old dynamic in Martin's script. While there's a definite softer side to Colin Baker's performance, his Doctor's tendency to trample all over his companion's feelings still rears its ugly head, and the Valeyard clocks this too, using it to bolster his prosecution. When Peri discovers Thoros Beta is the homeworld of Sil and the Mentors, she's appalled the Doctor didn't think to tell her. "You know I'd never want to come within light years of that creep again," she remonstrates. "Last time he tried to turn me into a bird woman." And the only reply the Doctor has is to make a joke of what must have been a pretty traumatising experience for her ("How could I forget? It cost me a fortune in bird seed.") But Peri is quite obviously uncomfortable knowing Sil is around, and specifically asks to leave. "I want out, and I mean it," she says, but the Doctor just ignores her completely.

The Valeyard's preoccupation with Peri's safety has an ominous dimension, and reminds me (but not the Doctor) that we still don't know where she is. The fact we've been told this adventure is the one the Doctor was removed from should start to ring alarm bells for the Doctor, but it doesn't. In fact, when specifically asked by the Valeyard whether a Time Lord should allow his actions to put his companions at risk, the Time Lord doesn't deny it ("And his own sometimes.") This makes it quite clear that the Doctor sees travelling with him as inherently dangerous, and that to do so makes that travelling companion content with that danger.

While investigating a cave full of machinery, the Doctor manages to kill a sea creature called the Raak, which is perhaps wisely kept as much off-screen as possible by director Ron Jones because it doesn't look very convincing (it looks like a Pescaton). The Doctor claims he killed the Raak when the weapon he's carrying went off accidentally, but we all know that the Doctor really shouldn't be walking round with a weapon in his hand anyway. He got it from a dying Warlord of Thordon, who sent him to Thoros Beta for "more beams that kill". The fact the Doctor comes to Thoros Beta in search of arms traders, and is aware Thoros Beta is Sil's home planet, means he knows much more than he's telling poor Peri. A touch of the Seventh Doctor creeping in here!

After being captured by Frax (played by Trevor Laird, whose acting skills barely progressed at all between this and Smith and Jones), and then escaping Frax, the Doctor and Peri encounter a creature in the tunnels which howls like a wolf and has the fangs to match. Known as the Lukoser, this tragic wolf-man is heart-breakingly realistic, torn between the violence of its animal nature and the humanity of its origins. "Help me..." it pleads with Peri (rather like Professor Stengos's plea for release in Revelation of the Daleks), and its crying and mournful howling in the tunnels is heart-rending.

"Oh Doctor, what's going on here?" asks Peri. "Sea monsters upgraded to operate machinery, a wolf-man who begged for help." You can bet your bottom grotzit that somewhere behind this Dr Moreau-like horror is the odious Sil, still played with loathsome glee by Nabil Shaban. It seems on his home planet, Sil's skin is a native green, rather than the autumnal brown of Vengeance on Varos, but unfortunately the costume Shaban is given isn't as stable as before, and the headpiece often falls down over his eyes. Still, Sil remains wonderfully repugnant, gobbling down marsh minnows and fawning over his master, Lord Kiv.

In a laboratory elsewhere, scientist Crozier is experimenting with technology which will eventually allow him to transfer Kiv's ailing brain into the body of another being. He's experimenting on Thordonian Warlord King Yrcanos, played by Brian Blessed, which means things are going to get very noisy very soon. Crozier is played anaemically by Patrick Ryecart, who seems utterly bored by the whole thing, injecting about as much energy and character into his part as a brick. He delivers his lines so mechanically, producing a colourless, spiritless performance which makes even Trevor Laird seem animated. I really dislike Ryecart's choices (should they even be choices; I'm not sure he's fully conscious).

Quick observations:
  • Peri mentions the "dirty old Warlord" they met on Thordon, yet another example of the poor girl being treated like a sex object. Peri has to be the most objectified, degraded and cheapened companion in all of Doctor Who. It's kind of sick.
  • I adore the scene where the Doctor and Peri employ the "skedaddle test" on the Raak in order to escape Frax. The chemistry between the characters (and actors) is a joy to see, reminding me that it really should have been this lovely all along.
  • Although it's great to have such continuity from Vengeance on Varos, the fact the Mentors use black men to bear them around is regrettable.
  • The Doctor mentions the trial of the so-called Witches of Enderheid, but never gets to finish what he's saying. There's very little else written about the Witches, except for the fact they were tried, sentenced and burned at the stake by the Scrampus Federation, as mentioned in Lawrence Miles's 1996 book Christmas on a Rational Planet.
  • There's some judicious world-building in Kiv's business meeting with Sil, in which the two warring empires of Thordon are mentioned: the Krontep and the Tonkonp (Yrcanos is king of the former).
By the end of the episode, Sil - who doesn't seem remotely surprised to see the Doctor on Thoros Beta - has his old enemy strapped to Crozier's machinery for interrogation, and our final shot is of Colin Baker writhing in agony. This latest instalment in the ongoing epic that is the Doctor's trial enquiry shows promise, but has yet to pull together its disparate elements.

First broadcast: October 4th, 1986

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: The wonderful Paintbox effect for Thoros Beta.
The Bad: Patrick Ryecart acts like he's just finished watching The Monster of Peladon on a 48-hour loop.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆


at
Labels: , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Have you seen this episode? Let me know what you think!

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)