Paradise Towers

Four Episodes
Aired between 5th October 1987 and 26th October 1987

Written by Stephen Wyatt
Produced by John Nathan-Turner
Directed by Nicholas Mallett

Synopsis

In a grotty corridor, a girl dressed all in yellow hides from others looking for her. Whilst they don't find her, something menacing and robotic definitely does. Later, an officer - Caretaker 345/12 subsection 3 reports to his superior, the Chief Caretaker about finding a bloodied yellow rag on the floor. Not long afterwards, he also finds a deadly fate at the hands of a robotic "Cleaner".

In the TARDIS, Mel is studying a video guide to a luxury apartment building - Paradise Towers. She says she's looking forwards to trying out the swimming pool at the top of the tower. When they get outside however, they see that things aren't as they should be - the area is a dump, with graffiti and grime everywhere. 

It's not long before they are confronted and threatened by a bunch of women called the Red Kangs. As their name suggests, they wear all red, and they have funny names such as bin liner and fire escape.

The Kangs explain there are three types of people in Paradise Towers - the Kangs, the Old Ones, and the Caretakers. The Kangs find the other types annoying and therefore they take the Doctor and Mel prisoner. They're being taken to their base when the Caretakers show up to arrest them all for Wallscrawling. The Doctor falls and is captured but the rest escape.

Rushing away from the Caretakers, Mel is taken in by two "old ones" - Tabby and Tilda. They are residents in the tower and they invite Mel inside for tea and lots of cake that they insist she eats.

Shortly afterwards, a man bursts through the door and points a gun at them, asking if they're being bothered.  He introduces himself as Pex and fancies himself as a lean, mean, fighting machine, patrolling the streets of Paradise Towers and putting things to rights. Mel explains no one was in trouble and she goes to look for the Doctor, Pex going after her.

The Doctor meanwhile, after narrowly escaping an encounter with a robotic Cleaner, is taken to see the Chief Caretaker. Once there, the Chief pronounces that the Doctor is in fact the great architect, come to make Paradise Towers clean and lawful once more. Then he orders him killed. The Doctor protests of course, but the Chief insists. He is called away to investigate the disappearance of Caretaker 345 and tells the Deputy Chief Caretaker to guard him.

Whilst being guarded, the Doctor outwits the Deputy Chief Caretaker by putting some new rules in the book, allowing him to escape whilst they are obeying them. On the streets, he breaks an old payphone and gets some money from it.  The Cleaners turn up and he's forced down a garbage chute.

Elsewhere, Tilda and Tabby are visited by another Resident - Maddy.  She says there's another Caretaker missing and worries that it's not normal. The two ladies agree, covering up their suspicious looking meat for dinner.

The Doctor meanwhile wakes up in the Red Kang's HQ. He uses the money he got to work an old vending machine, winning their trust by giving them lemonade.  He asks them about the cleaners that they've depicted in their wallscrawls, but the Kangs don't know anymore than he does.

The Chief Caretaker meanwhile is acting very unusual. He visits the basement where another robotic creature dwells. He refers to it as his pet, and he as it's "daddy". The creature is hungry and he is clearly fearful of it. He promises to feed the Great Architect to it.

Mel and Pex are in due course captured by the Blue Kangs before they can reach the pool at the top of the towers. The Kangs make fun of Pex and tell Mel he was meant to go off and fight in a war with all the other middle aged people in their society, but he stowed away in the shuttles bringing the others to Paradise Towers. therefore, he's a "scaredy-cat". Pex can't handle the name calling and leaves. Mel goes after him, but finds herself back with Tilda and Tabby.

The ladies begin to feed her again, but when she goes to leave, they tie her up and threaten her with a toasting fork. They clearly intend to eat her! Tabby goes to get the cooking instruments ready and she's dragged down the garbage chute by a robotic arm.

Pex shows up but is scared to confront a manic Tilda. She throws a knife at him but misses. When she goes to get the other knife, she is also dragged down the chute.  Pex unties Mel and they run off to find the "great pool in the sky" where she agreed to meet the Doctor.

Meanwhile, the Doctor is found by the Caretakers. He buys the Kangs time enough for them to escape, but he is taken once more before the Chief Caretaker.  The Chief Caretaker explains that the Great Architect disappeared shortly after creating Paradise Towers, and he believes the Doctor to be him. He is called away with the reported death of Tilda and Tabby and orders the Deputy Chief Caretaker to guard the Doctor once more. This time, the Doctor is freed by Bin Liner and Fire Escape who turn up and knock all the guards out.

The Chief Caretaker talks to Maddy who makes a fuss of the continuing disappearances. The Caretaker insists everything is under control and offers her a bigger apartment to keep quiet.

Mel and Pex avoid the Cleaners and make it into the lift. They are dropped to the basement, and hear ominous sounds of "soon I shall be free". They decide not to investigate and work on fixing the lift to get them to the swimming pool.

The Doctor does some investigation into the Great Architect. It turns out it was a man called Kroagnon. He built many structures but went mad, allegedly killing some of the residents in his buildings.

Mel and Pex make it to the swimming pool, but the Doctor isn't there. Mel decides the water is lovely and goes for a swim, but Pex is very afraid of it and says they shouldn't be there. His fears prove true as soon Mel is attacked by a giant yellow lobster robot.  She begs Pex to shoot it but he's too scared, so she has to free herself and shoot it herself.

The Doctor meets up with the Blue Kangs and has to convince both Blue and Red gangs to stop arguing and work together as he believes Kroagnon is still out there, causing problems. He gets the Kangs to agree to take him to the basement (where they have seen strange things) and sure enough, they find a robotic monster there. It gets the Chief Caretaker who is upset at the creature for being too greedy and obvious. The creature reveals itself as Kroagnon and determines that it will possess the body of the Caretaker and finally be free.

The Doctor and the Kangs run off, and the Caretaker emerges, silver-faced and zombified.

The now Zombie Caretaker is the new body of Kroanon. It reveals that it was imprisoned there after it tried to stop the use of Paradise Towers and now it is free, it will use the cleaners to kill everyone in the towers.

Mel and Pex are about to leave the pool area, but are joined by the Doctor, the Kangs, the Residents and the Caretakers - all banding together in desperation as Kroagnon moves his way up the towers, killing everything in sight.

Using some explosives that were stashed in the towers for the Caretakers, the alliance of residents and staff come together and start destroying the Cleaners, laying a trap for Kroagnon. The trap requires someone to lead Kroagnon to them. Pex finally finds the bravery within himself and agrees to be the one to do it.  He succeeds and the Doctor tries to shove him down the garbage chute with a chunk of dynamite but fails. It's left to Pex to be the one to do the deed, sacrificing himself in the process.

The survivors hold a ceremony afterwards, honouring Pex's bravery. The Doctor is gifted a red and a blue scarf as thanks from the Kangs as he and Mel leave in the TARDIS.

Trivia

• Apparently, the story came together from a conversation that Andrew Cartmell and Stephen Wyatt had in the pub whilst discussing possible ideas for the show.

• The original version of the story had all the Caretakers as fat, old men, which was disappointing to Wyatt when they got young fit men instead.

• Roger Daltrey was considered for the role of the Deputy Chief Caretaker

• The music for the first episode was produced by a different person, but John Nathan-Turner asked for it to be re-scored as he found it too monotonous and repetitive

• The only outdoor scenes were the swimming pool. It was in the grounds of a mansion held by an Arab Sheik. The water was freezing and Bonnie Langford had to be kept warm between takes with hair dryers!

• The scenes with the Cannibals - Tabby and Tilda drew complaints as they showed the potential use of knifes as weapons. 

The Review

So as opposed to the previous story, Paradise Towers has a lot to like that is let down by only a few things.  Where it's similar is that at least half of those things are in the execution.

The concept of a bright-future high rise turned into a dystopia is good and is very reminiscent of Judge Dredd and the British Sci Fi scene of the 80s.  The whole stuff about Kroagnon though is there to justify a monster of the week. It would have been far better without it in every respect.

The concept of gangs, cannibal women and someone who tried to escape but get trapped in someplace far worse is also good.  The execution is terrible however, with childish acting adult women, terrible, terrible dialogue and overacted cowardice that destroy any credibility.  Even Bonnie who was relatively good up to now, has gone full Panto and overacts every scene.

The Caretakers were actually good, especially Richard Briars, although that all goes out of the window, once the ones who look like Village People turn up and start acting stupid. Also, once Briars turns into a zombie, it goes decidedly downhill.

The swimming pool is meh, because it doesn't do anything other than have a way for people to meet there, and how Mel and Pex couldn't see the giant yellow lobster robot I'll never know!

All in all, it's a good concept that I would have loved to see work, and there's some truly entertaining characters within it (the cannibals and the Chief Caretaker), but it is a bit of a let down through execution.

Rating

6 out of 10

Re-Watchability Factor

5 out of 10

Watch this if you liked...

•  The Krotons

• Robots of Death

• Vengeance on Varos

• The God Complex (Doctor Who, Series 6)

Time and the Rani

Four episodes
Aired between 7th September 1987 and 28th September 1987

Written by Pip and Jane Baker
Produced by John Nathan Turner
Directed by Andrew Morgan

Synopsis

The TARDIS is flying near the planet Lakertya when it's assaulted by energy beams that cause it to crash on the planet.

The assault is so violent that the Doctor hits his head and suffers a wound so great, he's forced to regenerate.

The Rani, female renegade Time Lord enters the ship along with a pet beast.

She instructs it to take away the Doctor and leave the unconscious Mel. Once back in her lair, the Rani reveals that she has been kidnapping the great thinkers from earth, including Einstein, Pasteur and Hypatia. Now she needs the Doctor for some reason. To help her in this task, she's dominated a race of vampiric bat creatures known as Tetraps to subjugate the natives of Lakertya to doing her bidding.

The Rani knows she cannot force the Doctor to help her, so she dresses up as Mel to trick the delirious Doctor into helping her. 

She uses an amnesia drug to assist with this. The Doctor agrees to help, but in a haze, goes to the TARDIS and changes clothes, finding his new outfit first.

Meanwhile, Mel is recovered by a Lakertyan called Ikona. He believes she is the Rani, and it takes a while of traipsing through the wasteland, avoiding exotic landmines before she wins his trust.  One of the Tetraps begins tracking them and Mel steps on a landmine, getting trapped in an explosive bubble. Lucky for her, it lands on a lake and doesn't burst, giving Ikona time to free her from it.

Back at the Rani's lair, the Doctor is convinced to work on a piece of machinery that is apparently broken and the Rani (Mel) doesn't know why. In his conversations with her, he begins to suspect she's not being truthful and that something is wrong. She goes to get a component from the Lakertyans and the Doctor comes to his senses in the meantime.  The real Mel finds the Doctor, but he believes her to be the Rani, convinced only when he finds out she doesn't have a double pulse of a Time Lord, and vice versa.

The Doctor and Mel decide to find out what the device is that the Rani is making the Doctor work on, and two Lakertyan's - Beyus and Faroon show them a secret room where a big brain is installed. The brain is there to channel all the genius' intellect into a single gestalt. Mel is taken to safety whilst the Doctor thinks about how he can stop the Rani.

The Rani returns, and the Doctor has escaped, he is chased but ends up in the Tetrap pit, surrounded by the bat-like creatures. Beyus frees him from the pit and takes him back to the control room, forced to obey the Rani.  She is out looking for the Doctor, so he is able to remove a piece of the machine and escape once again, despite alarms being raised.

Mel in the meantime isn't safe enough and Urak - the Rani's Tetrap servant captures Mel and stings her with a paralysing venom, taking her back to the lair.

Once free, the Doctor meets up with Ikona, who takes him to the Lakertyan's Centre of Leisure, a facility made by the Rani to keep the locals subjugated by basically getting high and forgetting about everything.  The centre of the room has a giant metal ball that releases killer alien bees when the Rani triggers it as punishment for helping the Doctor. 

After a lot of people have died from this, Faroon says she was given a message from the Rani that they have Mel and she wants to trade with the Doctor for the piece of machinery that he took.

The Doctor and Ikona go and make the trade with Urak, but it turns out that the Mel they thought they were getting was really a hologram. The Doctor is captured shortly afterwards and taken back to the lair.

The Rani is revealed to be using the intellect to find an answer to the problem of how to destroy an asteroid made up of strange matter which is pretty much invincible. The Doctor is placed into the machine with the other Genius' and it starts working overtime.

It comes up with a substance called Loyhargil that can be used. If it is fired at the asteroid, it will form a shell of Chronons around the planet, effectively converting it into a Time Manipulator, something which the Rani very much wants as she can control evolution.

The Rani leaves Urak to guard the Doctor, but makes it clear that they will all be left to die on the planet whilst she leaves. Urak bolts, leaving the Doctor to go to.  Beyus stays and sacrifices himself, damaging the brain and delaying it long enough for the rocket that it ultimately launches with the Loyhargil to miss the asteroid.

The Rani gets away in her TARDIS, but finds Urak and a load of Tetraps in it, bullying her to go to their homeworld and share her technology with them.

The Doctor and Mel say their goodbye's to Ikona and the other Lakertyan's and the Doctor gives Ikona an antidote for the alien killer bees, but he pours it away, saying that the Lakertyan's must now solve their own problems if they are to survive. Together, Mel and the Doctor wave goodbye and leave in the TARDIS.

Trivia

• This was the start of a new era. Following the final chance that the BBC gave the show, there was an almost entirely new crew that was set up. John Nathan-Turner was told to return, even though he'd been prepared to go, rumours say that was because they could not find anyone else willing to take up the poison challice that the show had become. 

• With the show coming back, the high ups in the BBC instructed John Nathan-Turner (their scapegoat) to fire Colin Baker. More excruciatingly, they offered him the chance for one final adventure in the TARDIS to usher in the new Doctor. Baker understandably said he would actually do the regeneration, provided they gave him the whole series to go out on. They never called him back, and that's why the beginning regeneration sequence took place, with Sylvester having to wear a blonde curly wig!

• With the new era of the show, a new title sequence was designed, surprisingly, this is the first time computer generated imagery was used on the show and was groundbreaking in terms of what can be done.

• This story was written before anyone knew what was going to happen with the new Doctor. New script editor, Andrew Cartmel didn't think this script was the best, but, relatively young and inexperienced, he relied on Pip and Jane Baker to help him work it into his new envisaged narrative. 

• Loyhargil is an anagram of the Holy Grail

• As with Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy protested the costume, especially the question mark jumper. It wasn't until the TV Movie that he would be able to get rid of it.

• The planet of Lakertya was meant to be a forest planet, but the Director didn't like that, so they shot it in a quarry instead

The Review

Time and the Rani is a rehash of old ideas. Taking the unpublished story of Shada, it cannibalises elements of it and puts it together on an alien planet with a new Doctor. In every way, this story feels like a Frankenstein's monster - every element could work, but bolted together as it is, they all miss their mark and just seem lost.

The puzzled, post-regeneration Doctor has been done before and arguably better. Sylvester McCoy is likeable and as much of a clown as Patrick Troughton ever was, but the laugh a minute style goes over the top, with the expectation that he would fall for Kate O'mara's rubbish costume just destroys all sense of belief. 

The aliens are bright yellow against the wasteland - as it happens not the writers fault, but still it beggers belief how they ever managed to survive on this mudball of a planet. 

The only good things to come out of it was the bubble mines, which although they make no logical sense in prolonging the death of someone and prone to not exploding...they just look cool.  The other is the Tetraps, who showed some potential, but whilst ever under the Rani's boot are never going to be anything truly terrifying.

The plot itself is not only improbable, it's also painfully tedious to watch. As with Trial of a Timelord, if this is the best that the show can come up with in the "new era", then it would probably have been best to cancel it then and there.  Thankfully, Andrew Cartmel had a vision and goals, and was allowed some breathing space to usher in the stories he wanted to tell.

Rating 

3 out of 10

Re-Watchability Factor

3 out of 10

Watch this if you liked...

• Colony in Space

• Shada 

• State of Decay

• The Twin Dilemma

My Time With the Sixth Doctor

The Twin Dilemma 

Finishing the Twenty First Season with a story from the new Doctor was always a gamble, It was intended to be there the introduce people to him so they didn't have to wait 6-9 months wondering what he'd be like and the publicity hype could work better in the off-season. 

The problem is that the Doctor we were introduced to was a selfish, arrogant, uncaring man that had been messed up from a bad regeneration. Leave that thought with you for 6-9 months and would you go back to watch it? This was a bad start for the fledgling new Doctor

Twenty Second Season

Out of all the Sixth Doctor's run, I find the stories in this season to be the best he had to offer.

Attack of the Cybermen is tedious to me now, but as a young boy, there's a lot of significant imagery that has stayed with me and kept me interested in Doctor Who over the years - from decapitating Cybermen to bleeding hands and stealth Cybermen in the sewers - this story has a lot to offer aesthetically, but doesn't work as a trip down memory lane which is how it was intended.

Vengeance on Varos is great with a popular new villain introduced - something that hasn't happened in a long time. It was gritty and dark and worked well. The Two Doctors was less dark, but there is some attraction there, even if it's only to see the joy of Patrick Troughton and Frazer Hines again.

Finally, Revelation of the Daleks is a story that should be truly dire, but the performance from the cast, especially Terry Molloy make this a very enjoyable story to watch.

Given the inconsistencies in quality, and these stories being mixed up with truly awful ones, there was little question that the BBC began to look at Doctor Who with cynical eyes.

Twenty Third Season

The last chance saloon to prove Doctor Who deserves to stay on the air, and this is what we're given.

It's a shameful show, with even the better stories being given extra leniency just because of the fact that the bad ones are really, really bad.  It was a fraught time for the show and the level of effort was sub-par to the point where it was as lazy and run of the mill as anything that Tom Baker put out in the last two seasons of his run.  

By the end, John Nathan-Turner had been given a stay of execution and one final chance to show how things could change. He needed a new crew and a fresh approach.

The Doctor

What to say about the Sixth Doctor? If you listen to Colin Baker, then it was doomed for a long time. He wanted an outfit similar to what Christopher Eccleston ended up having, but John Nathan-Turner saw an aspect of himeslf in the role and went "wacky" instead. 

Colin Baker's perchant for melodrama turned the sinister, tense "regeneration gone wrong" approach into something that turned me distinctly away from liking his character. Again, probably a decision from the production team, but rather than having the story then getting back to normal, his moody behaviour carried on for most of his next season which became old really fast.

The best times to see his Doctor at work are actually the stories with Mel as there's no argument and you get the real feeling that he cares for someone other than himself.  Thank god for Big Finish I say!

Favourite Moment

My favourite moment in the Sixth Doctor run has to be the scene in Revelation of the Daleks where Professor Stengos' daughter is brought face to face with her father and she watches him lose his humanity, turning into a Dalek.  It was scary for me as a child and to this day I feel the music, lighting and dialogue all work brilliantly to make a tense, horrifying scene

Worst Moment

There are in truth entire seasons worth of bad moments. To pick the ultimate, you have to find one that's so awful, it would take all your willpower not to throw something at the screen.  That my friends, is Perri's ending. No explanation needed or given. Just a dire, dire decision by the production team.

Favourite Story

Vengeance on Varos

There are some personal favourites in the Sixth Doctor's run, Reveleation of the Daleks being one of them. On the whole however, Vengeance on Varos has all it needs - the lighting, the tone, the political intrigue and a cool new enemy who is played spectacularly well. The story is interesting and has stood the test of time to be one of the better stories in the Doctor Who pantheon

Worst Story

The Ultimate Foe

Fraught with difficulties, there's some pity to be given in regards to this story, and it's by no means alone in the sin bin of terrible stories in the Sixth Doctor's run.  The Ultimate Foe however is just tedious to watch from start to finish, with over-complicated explanations, surreal (and ultimately pointless shenanigans) and an ending that pours out onto the screen like an unbaked cake. Truly not one to watch more than once.

Favourite Companion

Mel

Not a popular opinion, I'm sure. Mel is my favourite because she's pro-active. She's a go-getter and always looks on the bright side. Bonnie Langford may be as over the top as they come, and between her and Colin Baker, there's times where I'm surprised they don't slap their thighs or break the fourth wall to address the "kids", but on the whole she is surprisingly good and a breath of fresh air to the constant arguing of previous companions.

Worst Companion

Perri

She's here only because there's a slot to fill.  Given a rough deal on the quality of stories, Perri is no bad companion, it's her relationship with the Sixth Doctor that lets her down.

She had potential to be much bigger than what she was, with a background in botany that was never used and an intriguing family dynamic that was never re-visited. Perri was a companion that was criminally underused and denied even the possibility of an explosive send off.

Trial of a Timelord - 13-14: The Ultimate Foe

Two episodes
Aired between 29th November 1986 and 6th December 1986

Written by Robert Holmes (part 13) / Pip and Jane Baker (part 14)
Produced by John Nathan-Turner
Directed by Chris Clough

Synopsis

After all this trial malarky, the Doctor is still insistent that the Matrix footage has been tampered with, even in the face of the Keeper of the Matrix denying it.  The Keeper says it can only be accessed by senior Time Lords with appropriate keys, leading the Doctor to say that either someone high up has stitched him up, or someone has duplicated a key.

Surprisingly, Mel and Sabalom Glitz turn up, transported here by someone to help the Doctor prove he acted innocently. That someone is of course, the Master. He says he's been watching the trial with great interest and has decided now is the time to help the Doctor.

Sabalom Glitz reveals that he and Dibber were sent to Ravalox (See The Mysterious Planet) to retrieve secrets stolen from the Matrix. In retaliation for this theft, the Time Lords moved Earth to prevent them from being retrieved.

The Master it turns out worked with the Valeyard, a darker version of the Doctor, to frame the Doctor and set him up, in recompense he would have been given all the Doctor's remaining incarnations to prolong his regenerative cycle. The High Council also agreed to go along with this and let the Doctor take the fall for the theft of the secrets from the Matrix.

The Doctor is furious and accuses the Time Lords of being corrupt and evil. The only one who seems not to be in on it is the Inquisitor herself.

The Valeyard now exposed, flees the courtroom and hides in the Matrix. The Doctor and Glitz agree to go into the Matrix to retrieve the Valeyard and bring him to account.

As they are gone, the Master harps on about how the Valeyard would have been a good ally, but even more powerful and cunning than the Doctor, so ultimately he's too big of a threat. This way, they might well kill each other and he wins both ways.  The Master is however upset at the High Council for what they have done to Earth and has tapped into the Matrix feed, showing the trial to everyone on Gallifrey so they can see just how corrupt the Council is.

Inside the Matrix, the Doctor and Glitz find themselves in Victorian London, a world created by the Valeyard.  He has a giant lair called "The Fantasy Factory" that is manned by an officious bureaucrat called Mr Popplewick who sends them around in circles and to multiple versions of himself, until the Doctor agrees to sign a paper that forfeits his remaining regeneration's to the Valeyard, should the Valeyard defeat him here.

With little option, the Doctor agrees, steps through a door, and finds himself on a beach. Hands come from the sand and drag him down, whilst the Valeyard laughs. Glitz arrives and tries to save him but it's too late. 

To his surprise however, the Doctor miraculously rises from the sand unharmed. He explains that's because it's all fantasy so long as his belief is stronger than the Valeyard's.

The Valeyard turns up and tries to kill them with nerve gas.

They take refuge in a nearby hut which turns out to be the Master's TARDIS. The Master re-iterates that the Valeyard is too evil and unpredictable so he wants to stop him. He then manipulates the Doctor into waiting in the console room, and springs a trap, debilitating the Doctor. The Master will beat the Valeyard in his own way.

He sends the Doctor back to the Fantasy Factory hypnotised as bait. The Valeyard comes out and the Master tries to kill him with his Tissue Compression Eliminator, but it bounces off the Valeyard, who in turn throws explosive quills and forces the Master to flee.

Meanwhile, Mel manages to get inside the Matrix, finds the Doctor and brings him back to the courtroom. There, she gives evidence that the Doctor is innocent of his accused crimes, but the Inquisitor deems the Doctor is indeed guilty of genocide.  The Doctor takes the news with surprising calm and agrees. It turns out that this wasn't the courtroom at all, but another illusion from the Matrix. The real Mel in frustration steals a key from the Keeper and really does enter the Matrix. She finds the Doctor being led to his execution and he tells her he knows it was fake, and was trying to draw out the Valeyard for a final showdown.

Together with Glitz, they go back to the Fantasy Factory. There, Glitz finds the stolen secrets from the Matrix and offers to give up the Doctor in return for them, being paid a shed load of money from the Master to do so.  Popplewick agrees, and Glitz goes.  Popplewick is then revealed to be the Valeyard in disguise. The Valeyard in true Bond style, explains that there's a laser pointed into the courtroom and is willing to kill everyone.

The Master meanwhile tells the court and High Council that Gallifrey's population are in revolt and they have been deposed. He now intends to release their secrets and take control himself. He uploads the secrets onto the screen, but it turns out they're fake and instead it's a trap that captures both him and Glitz in the Matrix.

The Doctor sabotages the laser, sending wild beams of energy flying everywhere. Mel rushes off to evacuate the courtroom whilst he creates a huge feedback loop. The Valeyard is wounded and left to die in the Matrix as the Doctor rushes out before the entire Fantasy Factory goes up in a ball of fire.

Back in the courtroom, the Doctor is cleared of all charges and he is told that Perri actually survived and is living as a warrior queen with Yrkanos.

He is offered the presidency once more, but refuses and suggests that the Inquisitor takes it instead.  He also suggests that leniency is given to Glitz as he can be reformed.

He goes to the TARDIS and is despondent when Mel says she's going to make him exercise again. He intends to drop her off back in her own time.

Back in the courtroom, we discover that the Keeper of the Matrix is somehow the Valeyard.

Trivia

• And so, we bid farewell to Colin Baker. This is his last televised adventure as the Doctor. He did go on however to be majorly popular in the big finish audios (and is still going). He was supposedly invited to do one more story to regenerate, but given the fact that the BBC effectively used him as a scapegoat for the series being dull, and firing him, he unsurprisingly turned it down

•  So, over the course of the Trial, we've seen that all is definitely not well with the production team.  Eric Saward was increasingly disillusioned with JNT caring more about the Cons and publicity than he did about the show. The final straw came in the guise of writing this story.  

• Originally, Robert Holmes was to pen the tale, but he got incredibly ill and died, only having written the first part and notes for the second half.  Eric felt honour bound to carry the story through in the vision Robert Holmes had given for it.  The problem was that the show was to end on a cliff hanger with the Doctor and the Valeyard falling in a vortex, similar to a Sherlock Homes and Moriarty ending.  John Nathan-Turner did not like this at all, as it gave the BBC too much opportunity to simply axe the show and say he died.  

• With this, JNT ordered the ending re-written. Given this dilemma, Eric Saward refused to change it and quit, taking the story with him and forbidding JNT from using it. John Nathan-Turner was in a tight spot, so turned to Pip and Jane Baker, handing them some continuity notes and asking them to effectively write a story blind with little reference to how things had played out or would go.

• This is a point where we should lament the end of the Robert Holmes stories. The best in the game, he ushered in many of the Golden Age Dr Who stories. Unfortunately, these final ones were not as good as his earlier works, but it is indeed worth mention that this is the end of an era.

The Review

Doing a story about the Matrix is always going to be hard as the laws of physics don't apply, so much of what makes logical progression is thrown out the window.  So, we have a bonkers surrealist nightmare for most of the episodes, coupled with an overly complicated tying up of the trial, and on top of it all, shoehorning in the Master to end it all with a bond villain super weapon.

None of this works. In part this is due to all the behind the scenes fisasco, but I feel it's just as much because there's so much to get in on this story that you can't focus on any one aspect and the result is a very diluted, very half arsed effort to bring everything to a close.

I understand the ending JNT wanted, but it just exaggerates the anti-climax.

Nothing more to say than it being a very sad story for Robert Holmes to go out on, and it's one quite frankly that you would only watch because you've suffered through the rest of the trial.  If this was what was offered up as the best of Doctor Who when they had one last bite of the cherry, I for one am amazed that it didn't get cancelled anyway.

Rating

4 out of 10

Re-Watchability Factor

4 out of 10

Watch this if you liked...

• The War Games

• The Deadly Assassin 

Trial of a Timelord - 9-12: Terror of the Vervoids

Four episodes
Aired between 1st November 1986 and 22nd November 1986

Written by Pip and Jane Baker
Produced by John Nathan-Turner
Directed by Chris Clough

Synopsis

Given the opportunity, the Doctor now presents his defence to the court. He chooses a defence that says whilst he's been guilty of meddling in the past, it will demonstrate that not only can he change, but that he can be of benefit.

He highlights the Hyperion III, a star liner that in addition to taking passengers on a cruise, is also transporting rare metals from the planet Mogar to Earth.  The Doctor insists that a murder is about to occur.

One of the passengers, Kimber, recognises a new arrival, calling him Hallett.  The man however denies that he knows him and insists his name is really Grenville.

Other passengers include a team of scientists, Bruchner, Dolland and Professor Laskey, as well as a bunch of Mogarians.

In the TARDIS, the Doctor has evidently found a new companion - Mel. She is ruthlessly making him work out to get into better shape. 

Whilst he's doing so, a secret message comes in to say "...perative traitor be identified before reaching Earth".  The pair agree to investigate and end up on the Hyperion III.  It's not long before they are captured and taken to Commodore Travers, the man in charge. 

Travers knows of the Doctor, having met him in the past. He thinks the Doctor is trouble, but agrees to  let him stay, ordering his security to keep an eye on him so that the Doctor can get to the bottom of the mysterious mayday call.

The Doctor and Mel hang around the ship, using the Gymnasium and leisure facilities. The scientists become increasingly suspicious, and Bruchner even informs Laskey that someone has broken into their supplies.

Mel is eventually contacted over headphones and told to take the Doctor to Cabin 6. They both eventually go there and see that the cabin is trashed, with seeds stolen from the scientists being stowed in there, along with a single boot. 

The boot it turns out, belongs to Grenville who's found himself thrown into a waste disposal unit and got himself killed.

Mel decides to investigate the Hydroponics section, but the Doctor declines (a fact that he states has been manipulated in the Matrix).  Mel finds Edwardes, one of the ships officers down there. Together they investigate, but Edwardes triggers a trap and is killed by electrocution. The unleashed energy interacts with strange plant like pods and something inside begins to move.

Mel is saved by more guards and taken to the Commodore. Later, Dolland and Bruchner discover that the pods are now empty.

Rudge, head of security, summons the Doctor to question both him and Mel about the goings on. As he's doing so, the guards contact him and tell him Edwardes body has gone.  Travers gets anxious and changes course, speeding up the arrival time, but bringing them close to the Black Hole of Tartarus.

Later, one of the Mogarian's collapses after having a drink. Despite protests, he removes the mask and reveals that it's Grenville, or as he knows him, Harllett, an undercover agent.  The Doctor surmises that Harllett has been murdered and he was the one who left the demeter seeds to lead them to the Hydroponics station.  They go there and see the empty pods and on the way back, see Laskey leaving a guarded room. They cause a distraction and get into the room, finding a half-human / half-plant woman in quarantine. The woman is Dolland's assistant. She became that way after a small speck of pollen infected a cut on her thumb.  The team are taking her to Earth to try and cure her.

A short time after, Mel manages to record a strange conversation coming from the air ducts, surmising that it's the plants, planning to kill everyone on board. She's knocked out with chloroform by an unknown assailant and dumped in the disposal bin.  The Doctor rescues her just in time to stop her being thrown in the incinerator, but the recording she made has gone.

Bruchner, starts going mad at the thought of their own discoveries, going around the air vents killing people, so he decides to destroy all the research and by gunpoint, forces the crew to steer the Hyperion III into the path of the black hole.  The Doctor and the crew all try to break into the bridge, but when they do, they find that the Vervoids have gotten there first and killed Bruchner, filling the room with "marsh gas". 

Rudge enlists the Mogarian's (who breathe methane) to go into the room and steer the ship away from the black hole.  They do this, then they and Rudge turn the tables, holding everyone to ransom. Rudge is involved purely as a hired gun to get a better retirement fund as he was due to be on the scrap heap after this voyage.  The Mogarian's are doing it because they want to take back the minerals in the storage that they claim were stolen from their planet.  It's not long however, before the unknown assailant turns up and kills the Mogarian's by damaging their suits.

 The group all manage to get free and find the Mogarian's dead, then disarm Rudge. 

Back to the investigation, the Doctor goes on the hunt for the missing recording that Mel took.  Through process of elimination, they find it on Dolland, who admits to the murders, and outlines his plan to use the Vervoids as slave labour, taking over robots and men. He's arrested, but on the way to the brig, he and the guard are killed by the Vervoids.

The Doctor, Mel, Travers and Laskey all meet on the bridge to discuss what to do with the Vervoid infestation.  Laskey tries to play the situation down, but the Doctor insists that all animal life is the natural enemy of the plant-like Vervoids and they're simply following instinct. The conclusion they come to is to kill the Vervoids before they in turn, are killed. All present ask for the Doctor's help to do this, a fact that is pointed out in the Time Lord's courtroom.

Laskey tries to implore the Vervoids before they use the herbicide on them, but they kill her. 

The Doctor comes up with a plan to use the Mogarian metal in the storage that burns very bright to accelerate the Vervoid's life cycle.  Travers lowers the heat and lighting, forcing them back into their lair, and then the Doctor and Mel use the metal on them, making them wither and die.  They lament the loss, whilst they find humans piled up on a grotesque "compost heap".

Back in the courtroom, the Valeyard uses the outcome of this to insist that the Doctor be tried for Genocide.

Trivia

• The next story (The Ultimate Foe) and this were made all as one filming block, in fact, the next story was actually filmed before this

• Despite this, I will cover the whole behind the scenes shenanigans in the next story as it's more relevant to that bit.  For now, it's safe to note that Pip and Jane Baker were asked to write this story, a fact that Eric Saward did not like

• We welcome Bonnie Langford here. She was given a rough ride by Eric Saward who believed she would be far too "pantomime" for the show, as her background indicates. He gave her a very complicated script, full of big words, and asked her to read it in the audition.  The story goes that she rose to the challenge and blew everyone away, hence she was accepted.  

• Mel's story of how she came onto the TARDIS is never explained on screen, but in the background notes, she's supposedly a computer programmer, and helped the Doctor foil the Master's plans to bankrupt the world by messing with the stock exchange computers.

• Around this time, Eric Saward gave a very scathing interview with Starburst magazine, bitching about Nathan-Turner.  The legal team got involved and it was decided Saward would become a martyr if they made a big deal of it, so they let the story die without comment. BBC higher ups wanted Saward gone, but it seems that Nathan-Turner actually stuck up for Saward to stay. 

• The cat badges that the Doctor wears in this story were made with Colin Baker's own cats in mind

• After all the fracas and disappointing reception of this season, the BBC head, Grahm Powell asks for John Nathan-Turner to resign. He later comes back to him and says that the show will continue, and he's prepared to allow Nathan-Turner to remain (because they can't find anyone else suitable) but as a consequence, he will have to tell Colin Baker that he's fired. 

The Review

Terror of the Vervoids is a story that I want to like. Looking at it in annual stints, when you forget about the details of it, a murder mystery on a space liner is just the kind of story that harks back to the golden era of Doctor Who (Robots of Death anyone?).  The problem comes when you actually watch the story - it's poorly executed, poorly scripted, very 1980's and at times very boring. It's not necessarily Pip and Jane Baker's fault because they had to do a rush job, but if you're fighting to keep Doctor Who alive, this is hardly the story that you'd pull out of the bag and show to the executioner.

At the time, Bonnie Langford was a major concern to most fans, but in actual fact, I would say she's one of the redeeming features of this. Yes, she's a little bit too "pantomime", but she's far more intelligent, switched on and pro-active than any companion has been since Sarah-Jane and Romana. It's sad to say, but it feels like a breath of fresh air. The Doctor himself feels better when he's not arguing all the time, and once he gets going is more like the Doctor we wish we'd have seen from Colin Baker. 

Terror of the Vervoids should all be firing on all cylinders, but it most certainly isn't, so what's wrong?  Exactly as I stated, it's rushed, it's half-hearted and blunt - no subtle nuances - the fact that we get Laskey reading Murder on the Orient Express is like a sledge hammer to the brain. It feels tedious with a lot of backwards and forwards without much happening. The end turns out to be paper-thin motives to kill people and most of the victims are from a plant that doesn't need reasons, so it feels...unsatisfying.

And all of this without digging into the fact that the Doctor could have chosen any period from his VERY long life to find something that didn't end with him being charged with genocide.

Rating

4 out of 10

Re-Watchability Factor

4 out of 10

Watch this if you liked...

• Mission to the Unknown 

• The Moonbase

• The Wheel in Space

• The Planet of Evil

• The Robots of Death

• The end of the World (Doctor Who, Series 1)