Thursday, March 17, 2022

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.

Later, the Valeyard argues that the Doctor's irresponsible meddling caused these deaths, but he's wrong. Katryca and the Tribe of the Free only infiltrated the underground because they felt strong enough when armed with Glitz and Dibber's weaponry - nothing to do with the Doctor at all. Grell was opposed to Merdeen's perceived treachery all along, so they were bound to come to blows at some point. And while Merdeen killed Grell to protect the Doctor, he certainly didn't have to kill him. Shooting him in the leg would have sufficed.

As with part 3, there's not a lot going on here, and the plot collapses into a race against time to switch off a computer. The Doctor needs to turn off Drathro's machinery to prevent a black light explosion, which may or may not engulf the entire universe. Drathro refuses to let the Doctor switch it off because that would mean disabling himself, and as he's the Immortal, that cannot happen.

The Doctor gets tangled in a tedious debate with the robot about the sanctity and value of human life, and mostly ties himself in knots thanks to Drathro's undeniable logic. But it's when the Doctor starts accusing Drathro of hubris - "false pride, a human sin" - that he loses the argument, because I've never known anybody with as much hubris as the Sixth Doctor!

In the end, Glitz manages to persuade Drathro to leave his castle, with the Sleepers' secrets in hand, and make for the surface, where he claims he has a stash of black light on his ship to refuel the robot. All lies of course, and once Drathro's left, the Doctor is able to shut down the machinery, cutting off the power to the L3 robot and rendering it defunct. The molten glow of the disabled Drathro is quite effective, but with him go the Sleepers' secrets.

The Valeyard at first bleeps out all reference to the secrets, but after a tiresome discussion in the courtroom, the Inquisitor has the dialogue reinstated, and we learn that the Andromedan Sleepers somehow accessed the Matrix and stole "facts, figures and formulas" for scientific secrets such as travelling faster than light, anti-gravity power and dimensional transference. Glitz wanted the secrets so he could sell them on for a profit, but now the secrets have burned with Drathro, he and Dibber will have to settle for flogging the valuable chunks of silictone from the shattered black light converter.

By the end of the episode we're none the wiser - and neither is the Doctor - as to why Earth was renamed Ravolox and moved by two light years. Maybe that's this season's arc: the truth of what happened to Earth.

Quickies:
  • Colin Baker is back in shouty mode in this episode in the worst traditions of Season 22. Baker struggles to do gravitas, preferring instead to rant and rave with indignation. His Doctor is a very vocal, over-the-top incarnation, an operatic bully boy who reverts to abuse when riled. It's a shame the better developed version of his Doctor seen in parts 1-2 is unravelled by Baker's tendency to overact, both in the climax to this story, and in particular the cacophonous diatribe aimed at the Valeyard in the courtroom (Baker is so vehement that he looks like he's having an aneurism). I'm with the Inquisitor when she says: "I tire of this empty banter."
  • The sequence with Merdeen, Peri, Glitz and Dibber in the food pipes is obvious filler, although it does bring a palpable sense of real danger to a story where nothing feels very dangerous at all.
  • Glynn's score during the climax is a migraine-inducing din: not his finest moment.
At the end of the episode the Doctor asks if he can present his evidence, but it's not his turn yet. The Valeyard has another piece of evidence to present before the Doctor can launch his defence. "Well, if the rest of his presentation is as riveting as the first little epic, wake me when it's finished." That's a pretty damning comment on what is unofficially known as 'The Mysterious Planet', an adventure which starts off well but very quickly degenerates into a tedious runaround, peopled with annoying (Tumker and Handrail) or pointless (Katryca and Grell) characters in a pretty run-of-the-mill story. In no way are these episodes classic, or even particularly good, Robert Holmes material, and the only positive thing to come out of them is the improved relationship between the Doctor and Peri.

Oh, and Dibber. Yes, Dibber.

First broadcast: September 27th, 1986

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: "I tire of this empty banter." The Inquisitor's so shady.
The Bad: Colin Baker SHOUTING instead of acting.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆ (The Mysterious Planet average: 5.5 out of 10)


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