48-459: The Mysterious Planet is the first serial of the larger narrative known as The Trial of a Time Lord which encompasses the whole of the 23rd season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who . It was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 6 to 27 September 1986. The title The Mysterious Planet is not used on-screen and only appears in the serial's scripts with
96-590: A bomb on the black light generator. They are pursued by the tribe. The Doctor, in exploring the modern underground complex, is also captured by humans under watch by "the Immortal". He is brought before the Immortal, the L3 robot that Glitz is looking for. The robot calls itself Drathro, and is following its instructions to maintain the habitat of the underground system. Drathro orders the Doctor to make necessary repairs, but
144-520: A courtroom. The Inquisitor informs the Doctor he is on trial for conduct unbecoming a Time Lord ; evidence will be presented by the Valeyard . The first evidence is shown through video footage, taken from the Matrix, of the Doctor's recent involvement in the planet Ravolox, where the Valeyard shows that the Doctor willingly became involved in the affairs of the planet. The Doctor denies these charges as
192-487: A fight to the death in a time vent, between the Doctor and the Valeyard, as part of a cliff-hanger ending to the season, which horrified Nathan-Turner, as he feared that to use such a downbeat ending would have provided an excuse for the BBC management to cancel the series altogether. Subsequently, the title was later changed to The Ultimate Foe . Filming of the serial began on 7 April 1986 and ended on 14 August that year. For
240-557: A poor response, similar to the other stories of this era. Patrick Mulkern of Radio Times was critical of the serial: "a dismal last gasp from ailing writer Robert Holmes. The travails of the Saxon-like Tribe of the Free and whey-faced tunnel-dwellers are totally unengaging. Lifeless characters, clumsy robots, flimsy cliffhangers, zero peril." AV Club's Christopher Bahn said: "'Mysterious Planet' never really takes off, laden down by
288-433: 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. However, they did find
336-426: Is soon captured by a local human tribe, led by Katryca, and brought to their camp. Katryca informs Peri that she will need to take many husbands for the tribe, and locks her away with Glitz and Dibber; the two were captured after approaching the tribe to try to convince them to let them destroy the generator, which the tribe has taken as a totem. The three manage to overpower the guards and escape, but not before planting
384-876: The Master , in order to clear his name and to save the High Council. Colin Baker makes his final appearance as the Doctor in this longest-running serial before being dismissed from the role by the BBC . Nicola Bryant departs as Peri Brown in Mindwarp . Bonnie Langford makes her debut as the Doctor's future companion Melanie Bush in Terror of the Vervoids . Michael Jayston and Lynda Bellingham both appeared throughout
432-465: 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,
480-421: 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 three episodes. A number of storylines were submitted, with six eventually being commissioned between September 1984 and February 1985. However, in the latter month, the BBC announced that, as a cost-cutting measure owing to
528-532: 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 ., whose character Sil , introduced in the previous season's Vengeance on Varos , was popular among the production team, who asked Martin to feature the character in the ultimately-cancelled story Mission to Magnus . Nathan-Turner asked Martin to include Sil in his chapter, and asked confidentially for Peri to be killed in accordance with Bryant's wishes to leave
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#1732788047673576-502: 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 overall reduced since the episodes were just over half as long. 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
624-530: The Doctor and Peri say their goodbyes. In February 1985, the BBC announced that the planned twenty-third season of Doctor Who had been cancelled. After vocal protests by the press and Doctor Who fans (including a charity single, " Doctor in Distress "), the BBC announced that the programme was merely on "hiatus", and would return in September 1986. Several stories which had been planned or commissioned for
672-403: The Doctor manages to temporarily electrify the robot and make his escape. Drathro sends a service robot after the Doctor. Peri, Glitz, and Dibber eventually meet up with the Doctor back at the ruins of Marble Arch, trapped between the tribe and the service robot. However, the tribesmen disable the service robot and recapture the group including the Doctor. The Doctor tries to explain the nature of
720-556: The Time Lord Space Station where the trial is held throughout the season was the most expensive model shot from the classic series run (costing more than £8,000). The sequence depicts the Time Lord Space Station orbiting in space then dragging the TARDIS inside via the use of a tractor beam . From this serial until the end of the show in 1989, all location work would be recorded on Outside Broadcast (OB) tape instead of
768-488: The Valeyard brings them. After showing the video, the Valeyard affirms he has more evidence sufficient to call for the end of the Doctor's life. As shown by the court evidence, the Doctor and Peri land on Ravolox, both noting a similarity to Earth. The Doctor is aware that Ravolox was devastated by a fireball, according to official records, but the presence of flourishing plant life makes him suspicious. As they walk, they are observed by Sabalom Glitz and Dibber, mercenaries on
816-404: 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 to 14 August. Public reaction to The Trial of a Time Lord
864-554: The charity. The single, which was released on Friday, 15 March 1985, was universally panned. The single failed to chart in the UK. The BBC refused to broadcast the song on the grounds of its poor quality. Levine himself later told The Guardian , "It was an absolute balls-up fiasco. It was pathetic and bad and stupid. It tried to tell the Doctor Who history in an awful high-energy song. It almost ruined me." An accompanying video
912-554: 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 . 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
960-439: The dialogue, and Howe and Walker were unimpressed by Bonnie Langford in her performance as Melanie Bush. The Trial of a Time Lord was broadcast from 6 September to 6 December 1986. All releases are for DVD unless otherwise indicated: Novelisations of the originally planned season 23 Doctor in Distress (single) " Doctor in Distress " is a pop song related to the BBC television programme Doctor Who . It
1008-492: The directors working on the show at the time, so was overruled. Roger Brierley, who voiced the role of Drathro, was originally supposed to wear the robot costume and physically play the role, but it was realised that the costume would not fit Brierley's 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) frame. Therefore, a special effects assistant, Paul McGuinness, who helped design the costume, was called in to physically play Drathro, while Brierley spoke his lines from off-camera. Dominic Glynn
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#17327880476731056-542: The four episodes that comprise the story being transmitted as The Trial of a Time Lord Parts One to Four. In the serial, the Sixth Doctor ( Colin Baker ) is put on trial by his own people, the Time Lords , accused of meddling in the affairs of Earth far in the future, when it has been renamed Ravolox and relocated light years from its original location. Much of the story consists of video testimony presented by
1104-533: 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. 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
1152-534: The meta-humour of 'the Doctor effectively sitting down to watch Doctor Who for fourteen weeks' amusing if repetitive, 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 the acting of Brian Blessed in Mindwarp , Cornell, Day and Topping argued that the script lacked focus, '[trying] to be comic, grotesque, straight, and farcical all at
1200-737: The opening sequence, Nathan-Turner commissioned a 45-second model shot that cost over £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 to 29 May and 11–13 June, and location shots were filmed in Brighton from 15 to 16 June. Terror of
1248-492: The opportunity to escape and re-enter the underground complex, aware that the black light generator is now damaged beyond repair, and if it should self-destruct, it could take the whole universe with it. Katryca and the tribe are easily defeated by Drathro. When the Doctor arrives, he attempts to plead for Drathro to shut himself down in order to disable the black light system, but Drathro refuses. Glitz, Dibber and Peri arrive after being detained by Drathro, and Glitz offers to take
1296-472: The original Season 23 were abandoned in favour of an overarching "trial" theme, reflecting the fact that the programme itself was on trial at the BBC. This story was the last complete Doctor Who story written by Robert Holmes . Its plot is similar to Holmes' first contribution to Doctor Who , The Krotons . In both stories, an alien machine subjugates a humanoid civilisation and forces its brightest young people into its service. The opening model shot of
1344-545: The planet attempting to destroy a "black light" generator in order to destroy the L3 robot deep underground that it powers. The Doctor and Peri find a tunnel and enter to find remains that appear to be that of the Marble Arch tube station on the London Underground Central line , piquing the Doctor's curiosity further. The Doctor wishes to proceed deeper, but Peri is worried and stays behind. Peri
1392-458: The prosecutor the Valeyard ( Michael Jayston ) of the Doctor attempting to stop the robot Drathro from causing an explosion that would threaten the entire universe. Events of the serial are framed on an arcing plot that carries through the other three serials of the 23rd season. In this, the Sixth Doctor is forced to land the TARDIS aboard a Gallifreyan space station, where he is brought into
1440-434: The remaining 10 episodes) were included as extras on Discs 5 & 6. The Trial of a Time Lord The twenty-third season of British science fiction television series Doctor Who , known collectively as The Trial of a Time Lord , aired in weekly episodes from 6 September to 6 December 1986. It contained four adventures: The Mysterious Planet , Mindwarp , Terror of the Vervoids and The Ultimate Foe ;
1488-527: The resignation of script editor Eric Saward . When it ended, Baker was dismissed from the role, according to some sources on the orders of Grade, although he has denied this. John Nathan-Turner produced the series. 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
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1536-457: The robot aboard his ship, which has a functioning black light system. Drathro agrees, and departs with the mercenaries. The Doctor finds the black light system is already beginning to self-destruct, and reconfigures the system so that its explosion would be limited to the underground complex. The Doctor, Peri, and the other humans living underground escape in time. The remains of the tribe offer to take in those humans that were living underground, and
1584-405: The same time'. Howe and Walker were more favourable towards the script, citing the re-appearance of Sil as positive, and hailing Peri's off-screen 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
1632-610: The script, a lot of time wasted running around in the forest or down corridors, and some atrocious acting by some of the minor characters, particularly Joan Sims as Katryca, the Boadica-esque warrior queen who sounds like she's escaped from a community-theater Shakespeare in the Park production." A novelisation of this serial, written by Terrance Dicks , was published by Target Books in November 1987. In October 1993, this story
1680-442: The season also marked the final regular appearance of Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor . The idea for the serial stemmed from several production changes to Doctor Who , such as reduced screen time for the season and an instruction from BBC1 controller Michael Grade that the series needed to contain less violence and more humour. Several problems occurred during production, including the death of scriptwriter Robert Holmes and
1728-405: The show with a bang. The third chapter was originally 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
1776-561: The single under the name Who Cares? , with the participation of four regulars from the TV series: Colin Baker (the Sixth Doctor ), Nicola Bryant (companion Peri Brown ), Nicholas Courtney (recurring character Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart ) and Anthony Ainley ( the Master ). It was intended that proceeds from the single should go to the charity Cancer Research . However, sales were so poor that it failed to recover expenses. No money went to
1824-507: The single was announced in early March, it was rumoured that the recording session would include the Village People with Doctor Who fans Elton John and Holly Johnson . This, however, did not occur. Instead, organisers Paul Mark Tams and Jeff Weston (managing director of Record Shack) secured the involvement of 25 mid-level performers, some of which were attached to Weston's label. The resulting supergroup recorded and released
1872-474: 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
1920-400: The tribe's totem, but Katryca is unimpressed and places them in a cell again. While there, Glitz confirms that Ravolox is actually Earth. Drathro reactivates the service robot and sends it into the tribe's village to recapture the Doctor, but the tribe is able to disable it again; Katryca decides they should attack Drathro's "castle" to steal its technology for themselves. The Doctor and Peri use
1968-448: The usual 16mm film. The only footage shot on film for this episode was the opening special effects shot of the TARDIS. The BBC had been encouraging the replacement of film cameras with OB cameras since the early 1980s on the grounds that they were cheaper, and mixed with studio-shot material better. John Nathan-Turner had actually wanted to switch to OB shooting as early as Peter Davison 's first season in 1982, but met with resistance from
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2016-549: The whole serial. Tony Selby appeared in The Mysterious Planet and The Ultimate Foe , while Anthony Ainley returned as the Master in The Ultimate Foe . The series remained at once-weekly Saturday broadcasts. All episodes were 25 minutes long, with the exception of Part 14, which ran for just under 30 minutes. This running time was the result of a plea by John Nathan-Turner to his superiors at
2064-417: Was also released. This was directed by Keith Barnfather of Reeltime Pictures , a film production company that specialised in Doctor Who -related projects including documentaries and spin-off video dramas. More than two decades later, the video for the single was included as a special feature on Disc Four of The Trial of a Time Lord DVD boxed set. In the documentary Trials & Tribulations included on
2112-479: Was hired to score the incidental music for The Mysterious Planet , then John Nathan-Turner offered him the chance to rearrange the opening title music. His new score for the opening theme was the shortest-lived, lasting for this season alone (not counting the unused 1973 version by Delia Derbyshire and Paddy Kingsland ). The actor playing Merdeen, Tom Chadbon, had previously appeared in the 1979 Fourth Doctor serial City of Death . The serial generally receives
2160-545: 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. The Trial of a Time Lord received mixed reviews from Doctor Who critics. Paul Cornell , Martin Day and Keith Topping , co-authors of The Discontinuity Guide , wrote that as
2208-542: Was released as an ensemble charity single in 1985. In 1985, when the production of the series was suspended for eighteen months and it looked as if it faced cancellation, a charity single was produced and released in March. It was written by the Ian Levine and freelancer Fiachra Trench , who had previously collaborated on the theme music for the TV pilot K-9 and Company , a Doctor Who spin off from 1981. When news of
2256-591: Was released on VHS as part of the three-tape The Trial of a Time Lord set. It was released on DVD on 29 September 2008, similarly boxed with the other three stories of this season. This serial was also released as part of the Doctor Who DVD Files in Issue 129 on 11 December 2013. These four episodes, along with the remaining 10 episodes, were released on blu-ray on October 7 2019. Extended versions of these four episodes (along with extended versions of
2304-407: Was unable to finish writing the fourth chapter, originally called Time Inc. , before his death from a liver illness and Hepatitis B on 24 May 1986, aged 59. The Bakers were commissioned by Nathan-Turner, at short notice, to write a new version of the episode, after script editor Eric Saward withdrew his permission for his original version of Part 14 to be used: the original ending would have featured
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