The TARDIS is pulled inside a mighty space station and I have to say that this is one of the most impressive effects shots I've ever seen in Doctor Who!
The show was in troubled water at the time, having only just survived the axe the year before. Therefore with the show effectively being on trial it was decided to put the Doctor himself on trial. The theme music is changed to be something darker and more haunting and then the very first scene of this new series is a slow close up on a huge space station with the camera circling around it until a tractor beam shoots out of it and drags the TARDIS inside. I had to watch this opening several times because I love it so much!
The Doctor enters the courtroom and meets his prosecuter, the Valeyard. The Valeyard is a massively important character in the history of the show and something that I will go into more later.
The story is 14 episodes long but split into 4 distinct stories throughout as the Doctor's actions are reviewed by the court thanks to the projections of the matrix on Gallifrey. The idea was to use the basis of A Christmas Carol with the first story being from the Doctor's past, the second story being from the present (and therefore the adventure he was in the middle of when taken out of time by the Time Lords) and then the third story from his future which then left 2 episodes to clear the whole trial up.
So lets begin at the beginning...
The first story takes place in the Doctor's recent past. It's nice to see that his relationship with Peri has mellowed somewhat and there is much less squabbling between them. The TARDIS lands on the planet Ravalox but through a series of encounters we discover that Ravalox is actually the planet Earth that has been moved out of its solar system and renamed to hide its true origins. This brilliant and adds some mystery as to what is going on. The reason for Earth being moved is actually something that is not resolved until right near the end of the trial.
The second story sees the departure of Peri as a companion and good god does she get a good departure! Poor Peri has her brain wiped and replaced by replaced by the mind of Lord Kiv whose own body is unfit for his use. Peri is therefore effectively dead! She gets even deader moments later when King Yarcarnos (played very brilliantly and very loudly by Brian Blessed) bursts into the room and upon discovering Peri's situation sets about slaughtering everyone in the room in his heartbreak.
One of the really cool things about this trial season is the moments we see the Time Lords interfere in events. They freeze Yarcarnos in a time bubble and only release him at just the right moment to kill Peri so that the work of the evil scientists does not live on. They are effectively using him as an assassin without his knowledge.
The Doctor delivers his defence by showing an adventure from his future. Here we meet his new companion, Mel played by Bonnie Langford. Mel has been unfairly maligned in my opinion as a truly awful companion but I actually quite like her. At the time it was seen as stunt casting by casting someone as well known as Bonnie Langford to play the new companion and as such fans turned against her which is a shame. Her debut story involves a murder mystery and plant aliens who have heads that look like a penis! I mean what is there not to like?
The trial comes to an end in the final two episodes with the revelation that the Valeyard is actually a future incarnation of the Doctor and is a distillation of all his dark thoughts etc. He wants the Doctor dead so that he can take all of his future regeneration. Quite how that would work confuses me somewhat. However the revelation of the Valeyard being the Doctor is fantasic! It's even been mentioned in the most recent episode of the show broadcast this year in 2013.
With the Valeyard finally defeated and all charges dropped against the Doctor, the Doctor and Mel set off for new adventures in the TARDIS. This is a little confusing as the Doctor should not have met Mel yet...I can only assume that he drops this version of Mel off somewhere and then further down the line meets her again and then goes on to experience the adventure so the adventure with the penis aliens mentioned earlier...if that makes sense.
I love The Trial Of A Time Lord but I'm afraid to say it didn't win the viewers over and as a last ditch attempt to save the show the order was given to replace the Doctor. I feels so sorry for Colin Baker. From watching the interviews he gave when he was first going into the show then it was clear that he had a great enthusiasm for the part and wanted to be in the series for a considerable time but I'm afraid that want to be.
Of all the Doctors Colin is one of the ones I would most like to meet. He always speaks well of the show and is just a really friendly bloke and is very generous with his time with fans etc. He's such a great ambassador for the show and out of all of them he is the one with the most reasons to turn his back on it. The fact that he hasn't done this is a testimont to what gent he is.
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