Day 337 — December 3rd 2021
The Trial of a Time Lord Parts Five and Six
The Trial of a Time Lord — Part Five
Back in the day, everyone always thought of these four episodes — Mindwarp — as the best part of the Trial season. It was sort of introduced to me as being the best simply because it was by Philip Martin, and he was responsible for a good story the year before, so this was automatically good too. But then when I finally sat down to watch the series on the VHS (for those who like to know, I had Pat Troughton on the bottom of my TARDIS tin) I found this the weakest segment of them all.
It’s funny how as soon as it’s started this time around I’ve automatically found myself not enjoying it as much as the last couple of days. I don’t know if it’s just that I’m not so keen on the authorial voice here as I was with Holmes, or if it’s because the design is so much darker and harsher than the brightly lit sets and locations of The Mysterious Planet, but there’s just something about the feel of this story which puts me right off from the very beginning.
So let’s try and pick out some of the things that I have enjoyed here. Doctor Who and Peri’s relationship is a strong one, and I love the sequence where they make their escape from the guard by pretending to inspect the body of the monster they’ve accidentally killed. It’s written as a pairing who’ve obviously travelled together for some time and are comfortable with each other. I think crucially I can imagine the exact same scene playing out between Troughton and Hines, Pertwee and Manning, Baker and Sladen. Classic pairings, which makes it feel (finally) as though Colin and Nicola have clicked into their roles, and more importantly the writing has remembered how these characters are supposed to work together.
Then there’s the location work. I won’t lie, the lurid colours were starting to give me a headache after a couple of minutes, but then I’ve been suffering through a terrible cold and it seems to have hit its peak tonight so that could be partly to blame. All the same, they make the surface of Thoros Beta look suitably alien, and the shot of the TARDIS in the sea, with a planet in the sky behind is incredibly striking. There’s something about it which reminds me of the early Hartnell stories, in which they didn’t have the budget or the space to do very much, but they tried to create the most ambitious alien worlds possible. The Web Planet might have been rubbish, but my God they were trying! This is one of those moments that I know would have lodged in my mind if I’d seen it as a kid, and I think it’s probably my favourite single shot of this era.
Then there’s something which I’ve found really distracting in this episode, but it’s unfair to blame them for — every time Christopher Ryan (here playing Kiv) speaks, I remember that he plays several different Sontarans in the New Testament! He’s god quite an iconic voice, and I can’t shake his more recent performances from my mind! He’s not the only person here who’ll be back 20 years later — Trevor Laird will return as Martha’s dad too.
I’m going with a 5/10 for this one.
The Trial of a Time Lord — Part Six
I love Brian Blessed. Of course I do! He’s so much fun! He did an episode of Have I Got News For You about ten years ago which I’ve seen more often than just about any episode of Doctor Who because it’s just such fun to watch. He breaks the format simply by virtue of being Brian Blessed. Unfortunately, that’s exactly the reason why I can’t take him seriously for a role in Doctor Who. Every time he’s popped up in this episode I’ve been taken completely out of the story. I’m not following along because I’m too busy thinking about the fact that I’m watching Brian Blessed be Brian Blessed.
On the plus side he does get some good lines in this one and the character is fun enough in itself, so fingers crossed that by tomorrow I’ll have come to terms with the way he’s playing the part and I can just enjoy the world we’re being presented with. I’m especially fond of the way he tries to convince Peri to charge into battle;
Yrcanos: ‘On my planet of Krontep, a warrior queen fights alongside her king.’
Peri: ‘We’re not on your planet!’
Yrcanos: ‘It doesn’t matter, the rule still applies.’
Indeed there’s plenty of funny lines scattered through this one which I’ve really enjoyed, and Sil is the benefactor of most of them. I love his anguished cries when the shots start being fired (‘Don’t shoot him! We need him alive sign contracts!’) and I’ve been reminded of just what a fun character he is. Sadly I think he’s a bit neutered by having to answer to Kiv in this one, and I wonder if I’d be enjoying things more were Sil the one pulling all the strings?
4/10
