Doctor Who:
The Trial of a Time Lord -
The Mysterious Planet By Robert Holmes
VALEYARD: By order of the
High Council, this is an impartial enquiry into the behaviour of the accused
person, known as the Doctor, who is charged that he, on diverse occasions has
been guilty of conduct unbecoming a Time Lord.
DOCTOR: Not guilty!
VALEYARD: He is also
charged with, on diverse occasions, transgressing the First Law. It is my
unpleasant task, Madam Inquisitor, to prove to the enquiry that the Doctor is
an incorrigible meddler in the affairs of other peoples and planets.
The Doctor arrives on a
Time Lord space station where he is confronted by the Valeyard. The Valeyard explains to The Doctor that he
will be put on trial for endless interfering and meddling while putting his
companion in constant danger. The Doctor
refuses a lawyer and will defend himself against the charges brought up by The
Valeyard but the kicker is if The Doctor is found guilty he must surrender his
remaining regenerations and be sentenced to death.
The first piece of
evidence takes place on the planet Ravolox which strikes a resemblance to
Earth. The Doctor even thinks it seems
familiar and that he was here before but doesn’t think he has. They are soon getting weird vibes when they
enter a cave and it resembles a subway station. They are soon in what appears to be a base
which is called UK Habitat and is the home of humans who are ruled by the
Dratho who the Tribe of the Free calls the Immortal.
The Doctor is also
concerned that Glitz and Dibber are on the planet wanting to steal the secrets
of the Matrix that the Sleeprs stole from Gallifrey. All this does not make
sense as The Doctor tries to get to the bottom of it and find out what is
really going on with Ravolox or Earth as it is discovered to be.
When we think about Robert
Holmes Doctor Who writing career we do not think about The Mysterious
Planet. With good reason as it is not
one of his better stories. Unfortunately
this was during the time when he was ill and in fact he died before The Trial
of a Time Lord finished and he was still writing episode 13 and 14. So in fact he is given a pass on this one by
me most of the time as he is my favorite writer and I have been critical of him
in the past as he did write some great stories and some less than steller ones
also. What The Mysterious Planet has
going against it is that it is part of The Trial of a Time Lord.
I believe if The Mysterious
Planet was a standalone story it would have been better served. The story doesn’t get a flow to it as to many
times the action is stopped as we head back to a trial scene and that hurts it
from getting any pace at all and I find I was losing interest in it. Whenever it started to get interesting it was
back to the trial and well it bogged down again because we went to a scene that
wasn’t in synched with the part before it.
Robert Holmes was always
good about having good characters in his story and Sabalom Glitz and Dibber is
another case of that. The chemistry is
there and they also bring a good comedic presence that Robert Holmes brings to
his stories. Just like in Talons of
Weing – Chiang with Jago and Lightfoot we now have Sabalom Glitz who gives us
that type of character and fortunately enough Tony Selby was really good in the
part and glad he makes a return appearance in Trial and next season in
Dragonfire.
The trial itself was
pretty interesting and a good concept and what happens further along is quite
good once you get past Mindwarp. The
trial scenes were pretty good as we get to see The Doctor go up against The
Valeyard and try to refute the charges.
At first The Doctor doesn’t take it seriously but by the end he starts
to get a sense that something is not quite what it seems.
The Trial of a Time Lord
has one of the best special effects ever in classic Doctor Who. I’m talking about the TARDIS getting pulled
into the Time Lord Space station. The
model work and the way they presented it is amazing and it it gives you a sense
of something big is about to happen. It
is just an amazing sequence and it is just the best effects work Doctor Who has
done and so far not repeated or out done.
Grade C +
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