Doctor Who: The Trial of a Time Lord REVISITED (Parts 1

The Valeyard, as seen in Doctor Who’s ‘Trial of a Time Lord.’

(Credit: BBC)

With the upcoming release of Big Finish‘s last chronological story for Colin Baker‘s Sixth Doctor, as well as the recent announcement of its release next week, I thought it was as good a time as any to have a look at both Colin Baker’s last story on TV, as well as the first appearance of the Valeyard: ‘The Trial of a Time Lord’.

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The story begins with possibly one of the best special effects that the entire classic series ever had: a gloriously Gothic and surprisingly detailed space station, projecting a beam of light, with the TARDIS entering the station. It’s a shot that still amazes me to this day. Especially compared to the rest of the story.

‘Trial’ came at a very turbulent point in the history of Doctor Who. It had just come back from an 18-month hiatus, and for its 23rd season the show’s format had moved from thirteen 45-minute episodes to fourteen episodes at just 25-minutes each.

Despite all the episodes sharing one title, the season was really four separate stories with an overall linking narrative – that of the Doctor on trial by his own people, the Time Lords. During which the Doctor, his prosecutor the Valeyard and an Inquisitor had to watch adventures of the Doctor as ‘evidence’ – in other words, you have the Doctor watching Doctor Who and occasionally talking about how rubbish it is. I have decided to review this season by each adventure, rather than as a fourteen episode whole.

The first story, sometimes known as ‘The Mysterious Planet’ and written by Robert Holmes, one of the classic series’s most prolific and arguably greatest writers, gets the season off to a disappointingly slow start. Initially, there’s a rather intriguing premise – namely, the Doctor and his companion Peri arriving on a planet, Ravalox, that seems eerily familiar – but the overall plot doesn’t do much with it. We’re introduced to two groups of people, one that live underground and are led by a robot they call ‘the Immortal’; the other a group of savages that live on the surface of the planet and are led by a warrior queen. Most of the story involves the Doctor or Peri getting captured and re-captured by each group. While things do pick up in the final episode, the overall plot feels heavily padded out.

As one of Robert Holmes’s final stories, this is very disappointing. Usually, in his hands, a slow plot wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing – for example, so little happens in the Tom Baker story ‘The Ribos Operation’, and yet it’s such a wonderful story to watch due to all the brilliant characters, double acts and memorable dialogue that Holmes fills it with.

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Next: PAGE 2: Character Development

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Unfortunately, with ‘The Mysterious Planet’, that’s simply not the case – with the exception of Glitz and Dibber, most of the characters lack the depth or the fun of many of Holmes’s best. Main villain Drathro is never fully compelling, his two bickering assistants are probably intended to be funny but come across as irritating, and Katryca the warrior queen never fully convinces (it probably doesn’t help that, for some reason, former Carry On actress Joan Sims was cast in the role).

What also doesn’t help are the trial scenes, which at this point do nothing but interrupt the flow of the story and just provide excuses for the Doctor and the Valeyard to argue in the most childish ways. To be honest, not even the Doctor is likeable in these scenes, as he insults the Valeyard in the most childish ways possible while constantly criticising what he’s watching. Also, the Valeyard comes across as rather weak, in terms of prosecuting the Doctor’s case. Things will improve later on, but at this point in the story, the trial scenes almost seem completely pointless, which considering the title is pretty bad.

However, the story’s not all bad. As I said, two particular characters – the criminals Glitz and Dibber – easily stand out, and are up there with the best of Robert Holmes’s double acts. The banter between the two is always sheer gold.

Speaking of banter, a more significant detail in terms of overall development is the relationship between the Doctor and Peri. Throughout season 22, they came across less as friends and more as two people stuck with each other and filling the time with nasty jabs at one another. But in this opening story, there’s a shocking development: they actually seem to like each other by now. Little moments like the Doctor holding Peri’s arm or giving her a reassuring hug at the end of it all not only come across as rather sweet, but make their relationship much more enjoyable to watch. They still have their little jabs at each other, but they’re certainly not half as nasty as they were before. It’s a shame that their relationship is coming to an end so soon. If their relationship in the previous season had been more like it was presented in ‘The Mysterious Planet’, it could very well have been as fondly remembered as Four and Sarah Jane.

We also have the beginnings of an arc, as questions are left unanswered by the end of the story of Ravalox. Is Ravalox in fact Earth but in the wrong part of space? If so, who or what moved it? What were Glitz and Dibber really after? And, perhaps most importantly: we know the Doctor is currently on trial… but what we don’t know is, where’s Peri? It’s one of the few genuine arcs we have in the classic series, and the questions ‘The Mysterious Planet’ raises at least make you want to find out more. It’s just a shame that the rest of the story doesn’t live up to its premise.

Next: Steven Moffat: Female Doctor 'Would Have Been a Disaster'