Four episodes
Aired between 6th September 1986 and 27th September 1986
Written by Robert Holmes
Produced by John Nathan-Turner
Directed by Nicholas Mallett
Synopsis
The TARDIS arrives on a strange space station and the Doctor finds that it is home to a courtroom full of Gallifreyan officials.
The prosecutor known as the Valeyard explains that the Doctor is on trial for meddling in the affairs of other races too often, breaking the Time Lord's code.
The trial is overseen by members of the High Council, and led by the Inquisitor, a female Time Lord.
The Doctor accepts that he is on trial and refuses the use of his own lawyer, preferring to mount his own defence.
The Valeyard begins the prosecutions by using the Matrix to show the court the events that took place on the Planet Ravolox...
The Doctor and Perri went to Ravolox on a hunch of the Doctor's that the planet is not all that it appears to be. Gallifreyan records show that this planet was devastated by a fireball, but in actual fact, it looks just like Earth.
It's not long before they find evidence that it is in fact earth, with the London tube stations being overgrown by vegetation. The Doctor explores the ruins of Marble Arch station and gets separated from Perri.
Perri meets a barbarian tribe known as the Tribe of the Free, and is told by the Matriarch - Queen Katryka, that she will be used to bear children for the tribe.
Perri is temporarily placed in Jail where she meets two unlikely mercenaries known as Sabolom Glitz, and his apprentice, Dibber. They are here to get into the underground complex near Marble Arch and destroy a robot that's running it all so they can retrieve some vital information for an undisclosed employer.
Meanwhile, the Doctor comes into contact with the residents of the underground complex. They view him as hostile and a thief, and sentence him to death via stoning.
Thanks to the workings of the L3 robot (Drathro) who has placed itself in charge above the humans and is referred to as the Immortal, the Doctor is saved from this fate and taken to Drathro for questioning. The Robot is sufficiently clever enough to work out that the Doctor can help it. It commands him to fix a black light converter that is malfunctioning and putting everyone in danger. The Doctor agrees, but says he needs to go outside to fix it.
Drathro won't allow him to leave, so he has to come up with a plan to stun the robot long enough to run and escape. Drathro responds by sending out his L2 robot to re-capture the Doctor.
Back with Perri, Glitz and Dibber explain that the black light converter, an artefact that is being treated as a totem by the primitive tribe needs to be destroyed in order to take down the L3 robot. They come up with a plan, overpower the guards and destroy the converter. As they're on the run, they find the Doctor, but ultimately all four of them are trapped in the entrance to "Marb Station" between the L2 robot and the pursuing tribe. The tribe shoot and disable the L2 robot, and capture the gang, putting them back into prison.
The L2 robot is re-activated and goes after the Doctor. Breaking through the wall of the prison and stunning the Doctor.
It hauls him up with cables and tries to take him back to Drathro.
Believing the L2 to be the Immortal, the tribe attack it and destroy it, taking themselves to be free of it finally, they go off to pillage Marb Station.
Seizing their chance, Glitz and Dibber return to their ship to get bigger guns to deal with the L3 robot.
Perri, having stayed behind in the chaos, revives the Doctor and they go off to stop Katryka and the others from getting themselves killed. As they get to the complex, they're confronted by a member of the underground complex known as Merdeen. He raises a crossbow to them, but he shoots a colleague, revealing that he has helped many of the former inhabitants into the outside world to join the tribe. He always disbelieved the Immortals claims that the outside was a giant wasteland, scorched by fire.
Katryka and the tribe come unexpectedly face to face with Drathro, who electrocutes the Queen and the head warrior and scatters the rest of the tribe.
The Doctor makes it back to Drathro and explains that now the convertor is destroyed, it's going to feedback and cause an explosion that could destroy the universe. He asks Drathro to shut down in order to prevent this. Drathro however does not agree, believing that life is meaningless without him there.
Waiting outside, Perri convinces Merdeen and another inhabitant called Balazaar to help her. They're joined by Glitz and Dibber and attempt to infiltrate Drathro's domain via the rubbish chute. Drathro activates the fans and defences in the area and nearly kills them, but Glitz and Dibber blow a hole in the wall and they escape.
Reaching the Robot, the mercenaries lie and say that they have black light on their ship that they will give to Drathro. The L3 robot agrees to go with them, and they take the secret files they wanted as payment.
The Mercenaries aren't bothered that the system will explode and leave the Doctor and Perri trying frantically to stop a chain reaction. This all culminates in the L3 robot overheating and damaging the secret files, but the Doctor saves the universe by containing the explosion to the complex itself.
Glitz and Dibber leave the planet, having taken solace in finding a bunch of rare minerals instead that they can sell on.
The Doctor and Perri take their leave, instructing Merdeen and Balazaar to take the people of the complex out into the wide world as it's not devastated as they believed. When alone, the Doctor does question the reason why Earth was moved from its point in space and renamed in the archive as Ravolox.
Back in the courtroom the Doctor glibly states that he saved the universe, but the Valeyard claims that the case isn't over and more evidence is about to be presented...
Trivia
- This story sees a new take on the theme tune introduced, but the titles remained the same since the Twin Dilemma.
- As noted in the previous story, the entire run of Season 23 was re-thought from the point of view as a trial, hopefully showcasing the best things that it could offer, and mimicking the reality that the show was "on trial for it's life".
- The opening scene of this story was one of the last model shots on film ever to take place on the show. The model was over 6ft long, and cost £8,000 to make and film. The scene, although spectacular and stands up to this day, basically blew the budget and many corners had to be cut throughout the season to make up for it.
- Because the production team wanted to make this season a great showcase for the possibilities that it could be, Eric Saward returned to veteran writer Robert Holmes to outline this and the final story as the overall arc of the series. Holmes wasn't feeling well at this time, and the quality of the story is a reflection of that
The Review
And so we begin the final season of Colin Baker's Doctor. The start is a strong one, with the visual effects being top quality and the introduction of the story being intriguing indeed. If you look back into the seventies episodes, you will see that I've never been one to put effects above the quality of the story, but... in this case it does feel like it is an issue. It's not so much the special effects even, it's more about the costumes and to some extent the supporting cast. The contrast between the opening and the story itself is such a stark contrast.
The robots themselves are reasonably robotic, and okay, and Sabolom Glitz is Holmes doing a re-hash of Garron and Unstoffe from The Ribos Operation, which is fine. The issue comes with their costumes, the quality of the Tribe's costumes, and let's be honest, the use of Joan Simms as Katryka. She has been such an ingrained part of the Carry On franchise for so long that it is very difficult to see her in any serious light here, and she looks about as far away from a warrior queen as you can get.
Even Linda Bellingham is an odd choice for an Inquisitor, seeing as most people at the time were more familiar with her in the OXO cubes adverts, still I do think she manages to pull the role off with some measure of gravitas.
The logic behind all the story is somewhat lacking, as we will come to see, the Valeyard is actually shooting himself right in the foot by even presenting this as evidence, showcasing how he's done stuff to manipulate things, but as a story in it's own right, it's a halfway decent start to the series. I just wonder if they could have redeemed the god-awful Celestial Toymaker in the story that was orignally scheduled for this spot.
Rating
6 out of 10
Re-watchability Factor
5 out of 10
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