Day 340 — December 6th 2021
The Trial of a Time Lord Parts Eleven and Twelve
The Trial of a Time Lord — Part Eleven
I reckon this might be the scariest episode of Doctor Who they’ve done in about a decade. There’s so much in here which I just know would have gotten under my skin as a kid, and even watching it now in my thirties I can’t help but be surprised by some of the scares. Obviously there’s the replay of the cliffhanger from the last episode, with the half-Human half-Vervoid creature in the isolation room. The make up is fantastic, right up there with the very best the programme has ever given us. As with the Borad last year, the team really show off how well they can do creatures that retain some humanity alongside their monstrous side.
And then there’s the Vervoids themselves. Okay, so they look a bit like genetalia. Well, no, they look a lot like genetalia. The leaves on the costumes look fake as anything and they’re not full enough so they have the odd effect of being a bit bare in places. But somehow they still manage to be my favourite monster design of the decade so far. There’s something about them which manages to be so alien. My favourite bit of Vervoid action in this one is also, I think, the scariest — it’s the moment when one trashes Janet’s cabin. He’s proper thrashing around destroying things, and it makes me realise how little we see that kind of thing from a Doctor Who monster. They tend to be slow lumbering creatures, so to see one moving quickly is a surprise and oddly terrifying.
Add to that the moments where they ‘sting’ their victims to kill them, and the brilliant point where one breathes poisonous fumes from its mouth and I think you’ve got the recipe for a brilliant monster. Certainly I think they’re the strongest monster of the Colin Baker era, and I think they’d be a dead cert to return if they didn’t look quite so… y’know, rude. There’s a story that in the early 2000s WH Smith refused to stock an issue of Doctor Who Magazine which featured a photo of the Vervoids on the cover, and I can sort of believe it. Along those same lines, when I was the resident ‘photo cover’ artist for Titan Comics they brought the Vervoids back for a Torchwood story, and I was thrilled to be allowed to stick them on the cover of an issue. It makes me pleased to think of it sitting on the shelves of comic book stores all across the USA with confused customers trying to work out exactly what it is they’re looking it…!
It’s not only the Vervoids which are terrifying in this one, though. I think this is the point where the whole murder mystery story really comes to a head and starts to become scary in its own right. The moment Mel is grabbed from behind is brilliant, and the thought of her being so close to being thrown in the pulvariser really packs a punch. It also allows us to get another example of how great she and Doctor Who are together, as he tears his way across the ship to save her life. There was never anything quite that fun or dramatic in the last series. This pair spark off each other so well, and there’s a genuine affection between them that we’ve not seen since Tom Baker’s time.
Mel: ‘What about me?’
Doctor Who: ‘Follow your lead. See if Janet has got the tape. But Mel? Be
careful, hmm?’
Mel: ‘You too, Doctor.’
Watching this episode I was reminded of something I thought when the Blu-ray of this season came out a couple of years ago — I sort of wish that Professor Laskey was revealed to be the Rani in disguise! It fits her MO; a scientist engaged in amoral experiments with little care for the effect they’ll have on other life forms. She’s similar in manner to the Rani, too, and has a great line in withering putdowns. If it wasn't for her fate in the next episode, I think I’d be inclined to make her so in my own head canon.
All things considered, this is the best episode of the Colin Baker era so far. It’s funny, and scary, and manages to be genuinely exciting in a way the series hasn’t managed for a while. A solid 9/10.
The Trial of a Time Lord — Part Twelve
Look, I know the Valeyard has been meddling with the footage in the Matrix to make Doctor Who look more guilty than he really is, but all the same why on Earth did he think this was a good story to show in his defence? I know his argument is partly that he saved the Earth by ensuring the Vervoids never reached the planet, but surely he must have considered the fact that he’d had to commit genocide to do that? Strangely, Doctor Who’s main argument in this one seems to be that he got involved because he was specifically asked to do so;
Travers: ‘It’s a question of self-preservation. Kill or be killed.’
Doctor Who: ‘A conflict in which there can be no justice.’
Travers: ‘Equally, there’s no choice, and that goes for you too, Doctor. We need your undivided commitment.’Doctor Who: ‘And there you have it. The direct request. I did not meddle. I was presented with an appeal, and not just from anybody, but from the man in whom authority was vested.’
The Inquisitor: ‘I accept your argument. Nor, Valeyard, can you refute it.’
It’s strange to me that the Inquisitor is so willing to accept this, given that the charges Doctor Who is up for involve the fact that he meddles with things he shouldn’t. It doesn’t matter that he was asked to take part — the fact remains that he shouldn’t have done! It seems an odd argument to me, and I think that’s where the Trial format is at its weakest; it’s hard to maintain the structure around the normal format of Doctor Who.
When it came to watching this season I debated long and hard about what to do with this story. I enjoyed the re-edit on the Blu-ray which removed the Trial scenes, but because I’m ranking this as a full 14-part story it didn’t feel like something I could really slip in to watch. I think when the marathon is over, though, I’ll be watching the new version pretty quickly because I’m keen to see if it makes me like it even more.
This final episode of the segment is another good one, and continues to keep up the scares from the previous episode. In this case it’s the heap of bodies piling up in the air ducts which I think would have stuck in my mind as a kid, and I love the final sequence in which the Vervoids are destroyed, going through a complete life cycle in rapid time. There’s a great shot where one fades from green to brown and deflates, and I’m not entirely sure how it was achieved, which always make an effect more successful for me. With an 8/10 these four episodes have averaged 8.25, which makes them the highest-rated Colin Baker story for me by a considerable margin.
