4 Episodes
Aired between 31st January 1981 and 21st February 1981
Written by Johnny Byrne
Produced by John Nathan-Turner
Directed by John Black
Synopsis
Whilst on their way to Gallifrey, the Doctor and Adric are visited by an old man known as the Keeper of Traken. His planet (Traken) has a society based on everyone "being terribly nice to each other." This niceness has been infused in some kind of matrix style technology that immobilises any evil people that set foot on the planet.
The keeper asks the Doctor to help as he's almost dying and that will diminish the power on the planet and put them at risk. The Doctor is asked to help the transition.
On Traken itself, the citizens celebrate the marriage of two of their rulers - members of the consul that runs the society - Kassia and Tremas.
Kassia has looked after one of the evil forces that has been immobilised in the gardens for many years. They call it the Melkur. Now they are married, Tremas' daughter, Nyssa is put in charge of looking after the Melkur. No one knows however that Kassia is secretly despairing about the likelyhood of her new husband, Tremas, being chosen as the next keeper, being sent into the ether of the machine and effectively widowing her straight away. The Melkur talks to her and forces her to start helping it, in return promising that it will make sure Tremas is kept safe.
As part of the Melkur's plan, it kills a guard near the gardens, just before the TARDIS arrives.
The Doctor and Adric are arrested for the murder, and when they try to go and get confirmation from the Keeper, the Melkur turns up. The Keeper blurts out that evil has invaded the sanctum and they confuse the Doctor and Adric for being the object of that cry. Despite this, Tremas acknowledges their clear intelligence, and uses them as prisoners under house arrest to help investigate the rise in strange readings of evil he's been taking in the area.
There's a couple of episodes that involve running back and forth from the palace, the garden and Tremas' house, and it's all related to either proving Adric and The Doctor aren't evil, doing something to find the TARDIS (that has been displaced in time by the Melkur) or with Kassia doing more and more shady things to ensure Tremas' safety. This includes putting on a neck brace that gives her laser beam eyes, and allows the Melkur to see through her eyes and control her.
Ultimately, with the help of Kassia unknowingly sacrificing herself, the Melkur is placed in the matrix machine once the current Keeper of Traken dies and is turned into the new keeper. He quickly assumes control and places Tremas and the Doctor under arrest. The Doctor quickly works out what happens and he works with Tremas to mess up the matrix machine. Before he can complete the work, he is captured and taken to the Melkur. He is taken inside the matrix style machine, and discovers that the Melkur is actually a TARDIS and the real villain is the Master!
Slipping under the radar, Nyssa and Adric work together to build a servo-shutoff machine and mess up the matrix, allowing the Doctor to escape.
The machine messes up and destroys the Melkur, and thinking the threat is dealt with, the Doctor and Adric leave. The Master however, had his own TARDIS within the Melkur TARDIS and he materialises on Traken, capturing Tremas and using his body to regenerate.
Laughing, the Master goes back into his TARDIS and dematerialises.
Trivia
- Geoffrey Beevers was cast as the Master, unfortunately used only once. His costume was the same cloak as was used in the Deadly Assassin, but the mast was so deteriorated that they couldn't use it. Beevers preferred to use his own face anyway so he could emote better. As a side note, Geoffrey Beevers is the husband of Carolyn John (Liz Shaw).
- As was typical of John Nathan-Turner, the Master was a last minute addition. He suddenly decided that the show needed his return and made the writer and Chris Bidmead find a way to explain it in the script.
- Another addition to the crew was Nyssa herself. She was only meant to appear in this story, but the production team were so impressed with her acting that they asked if she wanted to stay on for a bit and become a companion
- Actually, the above point, whilst true is not the full story. There was method behind JNT's madness, as he had actually asked Liz Sladen to reprise her role as Sarah-Jane Smith, and Louise Jameson for Leela. Both turned the option down, leaving him with a gap as he saw it. Ultimately, he decided (probably randomly) that the show needed not one companion but three.
The Review
And so we come into the home straight of the Fourth Doctor's run. At first it does feel nostalgic, with the Doctor and Adric lamenting the loss of Romana and K9, but oddly enough, thanks to Johnny Bryne's dialogue, we get to see a very brief and massively surprising glimpse of what life on the TARDIS could have been like with just Adric and the Doctor. There's no hint of the whiny boy we would come to know, and the way he reacts to the Doctor is very funny and entertaining.
Anyway, on with the rest of the story.
The story set up, although having a lot of exposition at the beginning, it had a lot of good ideas and gave the sense of a genuine world with distinct customs. This story promises epic scope or at the very least multiple sub-plots or character arcs. It doesn't quite live up to that though in my opinion as it gets bogged down in running backwards and forwards, and stupid inspectors getting knocked unconscious every three minutes.
The inclusion of the Master, whilst novel to see, is also confusing. There's not really enough of a justification as to why he's there, or why he's spent years and years just sat in his TARDIS in the garden of Traken.
I suppose Nyssa doesn't show any real promise as a companion, but it's interesting to note that the Doctor never actually chose her as a companion himself.
This story has a lot to offer, even if it's slightly confusing at times.
Rating
8 out of 10
Rewatchability Factor
5 out of 10
Watch this if you liked...
- Trial of a Time Lord
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