The Trial of a Time Lord

Synopsis

In the serial, the Sixth Doctor is tried by the High Council of Time Lords for breaking several of the laws of Gallifrey, the Time Lords' home world, including interference with outside worlds and genocide. A mysterious character called the Valeyard acts as prosecutor. In the first two chapters (The Mysterious Planet and Mindwarp) events from the Doctor's past and present are submitted as evidence of his guilt. The third chapter (Terror of the Vervoids) presents future events in the Doctor's defence. In the concluding chapter (The Ultimate Foe) the Doctor's trial is halted, and the Doctor confronts the Valeyard and his old rival, the Master, in order to clear his name and to save the High Council.

Main cast

Colin Baker makes his final appearance as the Doctor in this longest running serial before being fired by the BBC. Nicola Bryant departs as Peri Brown in Mindwarp. Bonnie Langford makes her debut as the Doctor's future companion Mel Bush in Terror of the Vervoids.

Recurring stars

Michael Jayston and Lynda Bellingham both appeared throughout the whole serial, the former as the Valeyard and the latter as the Inquisitor. Tony Selby appears as Glitz in The Mysterious Planet and The Ultimate Foe. Anthony Ainley returns as the Master in The Ultimate Foe.

Serials

The series remained at once-weekly Saturday broadcasts. All episodes were 25 minutes long, with the exception of Part 14, which ran for 28 minutes. This unique running time was the result of a plea by John Nathan-Turner to his superiors at the BBC that the serial's final episode needed the additional three minutes to conclude the story properly. Although there were now 14 episodes in the season, the total running time was significantly reduced since the episodes were just over half as long.

Original Season 23

The change of format that Doctor Who had undergone in Season 22 (45 minute episodes, moving back to one episode per week on Saturday evenings) had been reasonably successful, with ratings around the 6-8 million mark. As such, the production team began preparations for Season 23 in the same format, with a total of 13 episodes spread over six stories, with five 2-episode serials and one of 3 episodes. A number of storylines were submitted, with six eventually being commissioned between September 1984 and February 1985. However, in February 1985, the BBC announced that, as a cost cutting measure owing to the costs of several large projects (not least of which was the launch of EastEnders), Season 23 was being put back from its planned transmission in January 1986 to the following September, which would be a different financial year.

Revised Season 23

Although Doctor Who had been recommissioned, it yet again underwent a format change, with episodes reduced in length back to 25 minutes, and the full season running to only 14 episodes (a total of 350 minutes running time), which worked out at almost half the total of Season 22. As a consequence, the production team were forced to abandon the various serials that had been commissioned for the original Season 23, and instead come up with something new. John Nathan-Turner and Eric Saward eventually came up with the idea of having the various serials linked with an overarching narrative - this led to the conception of a trial story with a Christmas Carol - inspired "past, present, and future" storyline, thereby stretching the length of the season. The planned 14-part serial was intended to be divided into a pair of 4-part stories followed by a 6-part one. By July 1985, the characters of the Valeyard, the Inquisitor, and Mel were conceived.

Production

Robert Holmes was commissioned to write the first and final chapters of the serial. His draft of the first chapter, The Mysterious Planet, was criticised by BBC Head of Series and Serials Jonathan Powell for its comedic content, contradicting the BBC controller’s request for a more humorous series, which took away confidence from Holmes.

The second chapter, Mindwarp, was written by Philip Martin. Martin's character Sil, introduced in Vengeance on Varos, was popular among the production team, who asked Martin to feature the character in the cancelled Mission to Magnus. Nathan-Turner asked Martin to include Sil in his chapter, and asked for Peri to be killed in accordance with Nicola Bryant’s wishes to leave the show.

The third chapter was to be interlinked with the fourth. Holmes was originally asked to write it, but declined, citing a dislike of six-part serials. After rejecting submissions by Christopher H. Bidmead and PJ Hammond, Nathan-Turner approached husband-and-wife writing team Pip and Jane Baker to write a studio-based serial, Terror of the Vervoids.

Holmes was unable to finish writing the fourth chapter, originally called Time Inc., before his death from liver failure and Hepatitis on 24 May 1986. Pip and Jane Baker were commissioned by Nathan-Turner at short notice to write a new version of the episode, after series script editor Eric Saward withdrew his permission for his original version of part fourteen to be used: the original ending would have featured a fight to the death in a time vent with both the Doctor and the Valeyard, which Nathan-Turner did not want to use as such a downbeat ending would have provided an excuse for the BBC management to cancel the show. Subsequently the title was later changed to The Ultimate Foe.

Filming of the serial began on 7 April 1986 and ended on 14 August 1986. For the opening sequence, Nathan-Turner commissioned a 45-second model shot that cost over GB£8,000, which at that time was the highest amount of money spent on a single special effects sequence in the history of the series. The outdoor sequences in The Mysterious Planet were filmed in mid-April in Queen Elizabeth Country Park, and studio work followed on 24 April and 10 May. Studio work for Mindwarp took place from 27–29 May and 11–13 June, and location shots were filmed in Brighton from 15–16 June. Terror of the Vervoids and The Ultimate Foe were produced simultaneously; production began with location filming for the latter in late June, before returning to the studio to film scenes for both chapters on 16–17 July. Terror of the Vervoids was the last chapter to be completed, with studio work taking place from 30 July–1 August and from 12–14 August.

Reception and analysis

Public reaction to the season was mixed. Although the Audience Appreciation figures had improved since the previous season—the lowest figure was 66% for parts seven and nine and the highest was 72% for parts one, four, and eight— the viewing figures were lower.

Reviews

The serial received mixed reviews from Doctor Who critics. Paul Cornell, Martin Day, and Keith Topping, co-authors of The Discontinuity Guide, wrote that as a whole, the serial's plot "hangs together remarkably well". David J. Howe and Stephen James Walker, authors of Doctor Who: The Television Companion, disagreed, arguing that the serial was a "monumental wasted opportunity". They disapproved of the trial storyline, being unconvinced that a prosecutor "in any reasonable legal system" would be allowed to modify charges and court proceedings mid-trial. They did find the meta-humour of "the Doctor effectively sitting down to watch Doctor Who for fourteen weeks" amusing if repetitive however, and praised Baker’s acting. Both reviews found that the trial scenes detracted from the chapter story arcs.

Reviews of the individual chapters were also mixed. Although appreciative of Brian Blessed’s acting, Cornell, Day, and Topping argued that the script for Mindwarp lacked focus, "[trying] to be comic, grotesque, straight, and farcical all at the same time". Howe and Walker were more favourable towards the script, citing Sil’s re-appearance as positive, and hailing Peri’s death as "one of the most dramatic and impressive moments of the entire season" and Bryant's best scene since The Caves of Androzani. Both reviews judged Terror of the Vervoids to be a well-written story, although Cornell, Day, and Topping criticised the dialogue, and Howe and Walker were unimpressed by Bonnie Langford's performance.

Commercial releases

The Trial of a Time Lord was broadcast from 6 September to 6 December 1986.

Home media

The entire serial was released as a three-tape VHS set in a TARDIS style tin box on 1 October 1993 as part of the show's 30th anniversary celebrations from BBC Video in the UK. It was released in North America on 1 June 1995.

All serials of The Trial of a Time Lord were released in a DVD box set on 29 September 2008 in region 2, on 7 October 2008 in Region 1, and on 5 January 2009 in Region 4.