Doctor Who Club of Australia

ADAMK · Joined: 29 Jun 2005 Posts: 217 Location: Canberra

What do people make of this (Season 23) 1986 story written by Robert Holmes & Pip & Jane Baker?

This is the analysis from the official BBC website (WARNING! SPOILERS): http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/episodeguide/trialtimelord4/analysis.shtml

ADAMK · Joined: 29 Jun 2005 Posts: 217 Location: Canberra

Poor old Colin! Fancy getting "Carrot Juice" as your final lines as the Doctor!!

meglos · Joined: 29 Jun 2005 Posts: 667 Location: Perth

I didn't get to see Colin's final episode because I turned over to watch the Twenty 20 Cricket Smile

the penguin · Joined: 05 Nov 2005 Posts: 28 Location: Qld

how zat colins dead yey yey he was terrible in trial Laughing

Theta Sigma · Joined: 26 Jun 2005 Posts: 4243

Although credited solely to Robert Holmes much of what was shown in Part 13 was handled by Eric Saward who is credited for the last time as script editor. His name had been absent for Terror of the Vervoids after quitting as script editor following a feud with Producer John Nathan-Turner. The circumstances of Saward's departure is reminiscent to that of The Prisoner when the script editor and co-creator of that series George Markstein left after a dispute with star/creator/executive producer Patrick McGoohan.

Despite the long break I have to say I did not really miss Colin at all.

The Master brings Mel to the trial which meant as David J Howe and Mark Stammers wrote in their Companions book that it "is debatable, therefore whether this was Mel's 'first' - chronologically for the Doctor - meeting with him, and that the Master actually made the fact of the Doctor's future travels with Mel happen in the first place."

Amazingly at the time no one knew that this was going to be Colin's last story since James Bree (the Keeper of the Matrix) had also appeared in Pat's formal swansong The War Games as the Secuity Chief.

The Valeyard is revealed to be the Doctor, a revelation I am sure the audience at the time of the original airings was not expecting.
The Master explains that Peri's apparent death in Mindwarp was faked and that she is now Queen to Yrcanos. Obviously no one had thought through the circumstances of her departure. No one wanted to marry Peri off in the first place and she is yet another companion who travelled a considerable time with the Doctor only to leave him to marry someone she has just met. (She does not look very happy in the brief shot of her with Yrcanos in Part 14.) Not everyone was satisfy with this explanation of her departure as Howe and Stammers wrote in Companions:
"Left the Doctor because: she was either a) married to King Yrcanos or b) killed when her brain was overprinted with that of the Mentor Sil (sic; it was actually Kiv not Sil) It depends on what you believe."

Holmes had originally been assigned to write Part 14 the concluding episode but fell seriously ill after completing Part 13 and subsequently died on May 26 1986. So that task was eventually given to Pip and Jane Baker.
The quills turns out to be bombs. Go to show that the pen is mighier than the sword.
Geoffrey Hughes later to be a regular on Keeping Up Appearances & Hearbeat gets to play the Doctor as it is revealed that his character Popplewick was the Valeyard in disguise.

In the Colin Baker Years, Colin says he was often asked whether he prefer Nicola or Bonnie on the show. He says that he did not have enough time with Bonnie to make a proper judgement on.
No one knew that this was going to be Colin's last story as he was told that the BBC was bringing back Doctor Who for 1987 but not with him due to a new policy limiting actors three years to play the Doctor.

As far as the audience at the time was concerned Mel had continued to travel with the Doctor immediately after the Trial but the audios and books worked things out differently. For the untelevised adventures the Sixth Doctor had returned Mel in her own time and would not "properly" meet her until much later on in his life. As well as trying to fix the loose ends caused by the plotting of the Trial it is also a transparent way to expand the life of the Sixth Doctor much longer than what was shown on television.

Lynda Bellingham (the Inquisitor) looks like Penelope Wilton. Lynda will later be in At Home With The Braithwaites featuring Peter Davison. She was also a regular in Peter's old show All Creatures Great And Small.

Time and The Rani beginning today starts off season 24. Funny thing about the timing is that the classic series appears to end with Survival instead of the TV Movie on February 3 which is 24 days from now!

Amano07 · Joined: 26 Jun 2005 Posts: 83

the penguin

my god shrink that bloody avatar!!!!!!!!

Greg · Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2006 12:43 pm Post subject:

charlie · Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2006 3:08 pm Post subject:

I thought this one was much better than all the rest of colins era and I thouroughly enjoyed it. Although I would have liked for him to regenerate.
Oh well.

Sulp Niar · Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2006 4:16 pm Post subject:

Actually, I thought it was really, really good. The ending was a bit contrived, but the fact that it was only two episodes, Colin at the top of his game (whether this is very high is debatable, I guess) and the music was strangely just right (despite being written by the stupid Dominic Glynn of ToaTL Theme Tune fame). The Valeyard was a bit too cackly and Master-esque at the end, and in fact his plan was a bit convoluted - it would have worked better if his motivation was JUST to kill the Doctor.

Having not seen this before, the hands in the barrel and mud were pretty creepy, and it was all pretty psychadelic. Although the beach scene, while well edited, was annoying.

If it wasn't for Mel, this would be top stuff.

SharazJek · Joined: 12 Aug 2005 Posts: 898 Location: Hobart, Tasmania

I found the Fantasy Factory/matrix scenes to be pretty eerie.

Sulp Niar · Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:55 pm Post subject:

Exactly: as the Empty Child (and this) proved, nothing is scarier than possessed children (the children singing in the background scared me to the bone).

Theta Sigma · Joined: 26 Jun 2005 Posts: 4243

Been reading the Doctor Who: The Legend Continues book when I noticed the line the Master said in describing the true nature of the Valeyard. He said that the Valeyard was made from dark sides of the Doctor between his 12th and 13th regenerations. That is not really correct because in The Deadly Assassin it was established that a Time Lord can regenerate 12 times and hence 13 lives. The Fifth Doctor was correct when he said in The Five Doctors that he was in his fourth regeneration.
However the Master's line of a 13th regeneration would imply that each life the Doctor has is a regeneration. This would mean that the Doctor was in his first regeneration when he was the First Doctor. This does not make sense, why would the Doctor be in his first regeneration during his original life unless one chooses the Brain of Morbius theory and not accept the Hartnell as being the (actual) First Doctor.