Doctor Who: The Trial of a Time Lord DVD set

The twenty-third season of Doctor Who aired in the UK from September 6th through December 6th, 1986. The scripts originally planned for Season Twenty-three were discarded following the announcement by the BBC in the spring of 1985 that the program was being put on hiatus for eighteen months. The program returned with a season-long adventure spanning fourteen half-hour episodes, known as "The Trial of a Time Lord."

It was then-script editor Eric Saward who suggested having a connecting plot through the entire season with the Doctor (Colin Baker) being put on trial by his own people, the Time Lords, for interference in the affairs of other worlds. Inspried by Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, Saward and producer John Nathan-Turner structured the storyline to feature evidence from the Doctor's past, present and future over the first three segments, "The Mysterious Planet," "Mindwarp" and "Terror of the Vervoids." The fourth and final segment ("The Ultimate Foe") would wrap things up over Episodes thirteen and fourteen.

Here is a rundown of the story segments for "The Trial of a Time Lord."

The Mysterious Planet (Episodes One through Four)

Veteran DW writer Robert Holmes opens the story with the Doctor's TARDIS being drawn to a space station where members of the High Council of Time Lords have assembled to conduct an inquiry into the Doctor's behavior. Lynda Bellingham plays the Inquisitor, who presides over the inquiry, and Michael Jayston is the Valeyard, the prosecutor who begins to present his evidence against the Doctor.

The Valeyard presents a recording accessed through the Matrix (part of the Time Lords' Amplified Panotropic Computer Network) recounting a recent visit by the Doctor and Peri (Nicola Bryant) to a desolate planet called Ravalox. The two time travelers are drawn into a conflict between the Tribe of the Free, a band of surface dwellers led by Queen Katryca (Joan Sims), and a group of technocrats who live below the surface.

Actors Tony Selby and Glen Murphy add some comic relief as Glitz and Dibber, a pair of mercenaries who have come to Ravalox seeking some mysterious secrets. The actual details of these secrets have been censored from the Matrix records. The Doctor does discover that Ravalox is, in fact, a future Earth which has been shifted light years across space from its present location. The Valeyard suggests that what began as an inquiry should now become a trial, and that the Doctor's life should terminated should he be found guilty.

Mindwarp (Episodes Five through Eight)

In this segment, scripted by Phillip Martin, the Valeyard continues to build his case against the Doctor with a recap of his most recent adventure before being brought to the space station. The Doctor and Peri arrive on Thoros-Beta to investigate the claim of a dying warlord that some highly advanced, but very dangerous weapons are being supplied from this world.

Nabil Shaban returns as the slug-like villain Sil (Shaban had previously played the character a year earlier in Vengeance on Varos, also written by Martin). Thoros-Beta is the homeworld of Sil and his race, the Mentors. The Mentors' leader, Kiv (Christopher Ryan), is old and dying, and hopes that Crozier (Patrick Ryecart), a human scientist, can transfer his mind into a new body and continue his life.

Actor Brian Blessed plays Yrcanos, king of a warrior race known as the Krontep. Yrcanos has been kidnapped and brought to Thoros Beta by the Mentors. Near the end of Part Eight, Yrcanos leads the final charge against the Mentors without realizing he is being used by the Time Lords as an assassin. It is at this point that the Doctor is removed from time and brought to the space station by the Time Lords to stand trial. The Doctor accuses the Time Lords of having an ulterior motive behind his actions, and he is resolute in seeking to find out what that motive is.

Terror of the Vervoids (Episodes Nine through Twelve)

This segment, written by the husband and wife duo of Pip and Jane Baker, is my favorite. The Valeyard has rested, and now the Doctor begins to present his defense case by using the Matrix to show an event from his future. Joined by new companion Melanie "Mel" Bush (played by Bonnie Langford), the Time Lord arrives on the space liner Hyperion III, responding to a distress call. Aboard the ship, they encounter the Vervoids, a hostile race of alien plants. Meanwhile, a member of the crew is plotting mutiny.

Supporting cast members include Michael Craig as the Commodore, Denys Hawthorne as Rudge, the ship's security chief and former Bond girl Honor Blackman (Goldfinger) as agronomist Professor Lasky.

The Ultimate Foe (Episodes Thirteen and Fourteen)

The presentation of evidence is now complete, and the trial is drawing to a close. Anthony Ainley puts in an appearance as the Doctor's old enemy, the Master, who has illicitly gained access to the Matrix. The Master is not the central villain behind the trial, as he shows up to help his old nemesis.

Tony Selby returns as Sabalom Glitz, who shows up at the space station. Glitz is revealed to be an associate of the Master, and the secrets he obtained from Ravalox were, in fact, stolen information from the Matrix on Gallifrey. Melanie Bush also turns at the trial, brought to the station by the Master. This sets the stage for a climatic confrontation between the Doctor and his future self, which takes place within the Matrix itself.

Robert Holmes died from a chronic liver ailment after writing a rough draft for Part Thirteen, leaving only a plot outline for the fourteenth episode. Producer John Nathan-Turner called on Pip and Jane Baker once again, commissioning them to write the final episode. Creative differences between Nathan-Turner and script editor Eric Saward led to Saward's resignation near the end of production of Season Twenty-Three. After the season aired on BBC One, Controller Michael Grade agreed to grant Doctor Who a twenty-fourth season on the condition that Colin Baker be replaced as the Doctor. Sylvester McCoy was subsequently cast as the seventh actor to play the Time Lord on the long-running series.

DVD Extras: All four DVD's in this set contain commentary tracks, information text (a.k.a. "pop-up production notes"), deleted and extended scenes, BBC trailers and photo galleries. Other features include "Making of" featurettes for each segment of the "Trial," "Now and Then: On The Trial of a Time Lord," a documentary looking at the locations used in all four segments, "Now, Get Out of That," a featurette on the use of cliffhangers throughout the program's history.

Colin Baker narrates a featurette called "The Lost Season," about the episodes which were originally planned for the twenty-third season before the hiatus. "Trials and Tribulations" is an hour-long documentary about Baker's run as the Doctor from 1984-86. Clips of cast appearances on various talk shows on British television are also included.

Altogether, The Trial of a Time Lord starts off rather weak, but picks up during the second half, especially during the "Terror of the Vervoids" segment. The Trial's greatest strength is in the performances of supporting cast members such as Tony Selby, Nabil Shaban, Honor Blackman and Denys Hawthorne. The Trial of a Time Lord is not one of my favorite Doctor Who stories of the eighties, but the supproting cast performers and the DVD extras make this a worthwhile set to own.