(647) The Trial of a Timelord (Part 8): Mindwarp - Part 4

Is Peri dead? Is the question that the Doctor asks and the Valeyard responds with no which shows that he is willing to use shock tactics to go overboard. It seems to be a sign of things to come which was a clever bit of writing on the part of Philip Martin. There is a nice scene between Peri and Yrcanos in which Peri decides she wants to be at home and talks to Yrcanos about life and love. This is where the relationship between the two begins. Now what I find interesting is that when Leela departs the show, I found the lack of a long term build up to be a reason why her departure is rather disappointing. In the case of this story it seems far more plausible and I think that it’s due to the performances of Nicola Bryant and Brian Blessed.

The confusion about what the Doctor’s true mental state is something that is confusing still. He starts off seemingly willing to help Crozier, then decides he would prefer if Peri weren’t experiment and then seems to be totally his normal self. Colin Baker does his best to try and clarify the situation but he can’t completely answer the question. It might be easy to understand on Thoros Beta but in the courtroom it seems that it’s not as clear cut as it might seem.

This is the beginning of the end for Peri because she gets used in the experiment to transplant Kiv’s brain to a suitable host. It’s is quite a grim process that she goes through in this episode. She doesn’t really get much to do apart from her nice chat with Yrcanos and then she is operated on. The sight of her with a bald cap on is quite a shocking. When Peri/Kiv starts talking then it adds to the shock. Yrcanos does the only thing that he could do and that is kill Peri (or her body anyway).

The Doctor is on his way to help Peri but is lured into a suddenly appearing TARDIS which leads to the events seen in episode one. His reaction when he sees that Yrcanos has killed Peri is a totally mesmerising one. This has to be one of his finest performances since Attack of the Cybermen.

He is very determined at the end of this episode and he is determined to find out why he was taken out of time. Whilst this has another close-up/zoom in that you all know I love, it’s the way that Colin Baker delivers the line that makes this one of the best cliffhangers of the season so far. It’s been a cracking episode. Partly because I know what was going to happen but for the first time in this season I have been more impressed with the performances than the story itself.

This episode is the final one for Nicola Bryant and in terms of endings it is perhaps one of the most shocking since Adric died in Earthshock (1982). It’s fair to say that Bryant hasn’t had the most enjoyable time ever in the show but she has been surprisingly upbeat even when things weren’t going her way. I would be surprised if she missed the show in terms of what she was required to do. The Peri that we now get in the Big Finish adventures is a stronger one than we get on TV.

As a four part adventure in its own right, Mindwarp has been a very enjoyable story with the right mixture of comedy and darkness. It has been written with the same enthusiasm as Philip Martin wrote in Vengeance on Varos and Ron Jones has really impressed me with the pace and the sets that he used helped add to the effectiveness of the story. It’s not very often that I have written this but Robert Holmes has written the weakest story of the season so far. Eight episodes in and I think that it is progressing well know that there are various elements that going forward have the potential to be very good. Unfortunately, coming up in the next episode is one of most controversial companions in Doctor Who history. But considering how I have re-evaluated Bonnie Langford’s character in the Big Finish plays, it is possible that this might mean a change but I suppose time will tell.

(646) The Trial of a Timelord (Part 7): Mindswap - Part 3

The small matter of what is causing the Doctor to act the way he is on Thoros Beta is something that continues to be the problem with this story. Despite all the hard work that Philip Martin and Ron Jones have done to make this story sound and look like a great adventure. Like the previous episode, this one doesn’t feature a courtroom scene for several minutes. It’s good that the series arc story isn’t thrown in our faces so soon.

This is the episode where Kiv’s mind is swapped and considering how important it seems to be there is little sense of drama apart from Sil over reacting. Sil is rather amusing apart from this brief moment. He decides he wants to be the first face the Kiv sees in his new body and the look on his face causes Kiv to think he’s died. There is very little room for humour in this section of the story so its good to see Nabil Shaban doing the honours.

Yrcanos is basically leading a revolution in this episode and becomes leader purely by the fact that he shouts the loudest. This involves dragging Peri from one tunnel to another and they don’t actually achieve anything. It was slightly disappointing that Brian Blessed has been left to do and also Nicola Bryant seems to have drawn the short straw in trying to calm him down.

There is very little from the courtroom but what we do see is rather good. Michael Jayston is the strongest part of the courtroom part. It did feel like Lynda Bellingham and Colin Baker were spare parts but to be fair Colin Baker makes up for that in other areas of this episode. There is more about what the Doctor can and cannot remember which s fun because it just seems to give the Valeyard more ammunition to use against the Doctor. It’s good to see the Doctor in a rare situation where he doesn’t know whats going on. This is something that usually happens to the companions so you could say that the Doctor is getting a dose of his own medicine.

The final minute of the episode sees Peri seemingly gunned down. Considering that Nicola Bryant is about to leave the show it is perfectly plausible that she could have left the show an episode early. This leads to a good cliffhanger but unlike previous endings, there isn’t a zoom in but just a static shot of Colin Baker which is at least a minor difference. It’s not been an action packed episode  and is probably the weakest of the three but it’s still been an episode that hasn’t been boring. Compared to the Robert Holmes story, this one has been a huge improvement.
 

(645) The Trial of a Timelord (Part 6): Mindwarp - Part 2

It’s weird to think that I am now six episodes into this and nearly at the half way point of the season. It’s fair to say that this season has taken a while to find its feet. It really doesn’t take long for the Brian Blessed we all know to appear. Within two minutes of the episode starting, he is throwing things around and shouting. If Blessed is shouting then Colin Baker is pretty much the opposite. It’s fun seeing the Doctor act the way that he is because its unlike anything we have seen Baker’s Doctor do and it hasn’t been seen in a Doctor since Tom Baker’s time.

When the story returns to the courtroom it seems that the Doctor’s memory is going to be a big issue for the story. On this matter it starts to become clear that the Matrix is being manipulated and that not everything we see is clear. For the first time I thought that the whole thing flowed perfectly. I didn’t find the going from one place to another to be as disruptive as in previous episodes. Again Michael Jayston and Lynda Bellingham are very good and its great to see Colin Baker having to have two different battles. The argument that the Valeyard has against the Doctor seems to be stronger in this part than in the previous story.

The Doctor appears to have turned against Peri and King Yrcarnos. It’s unclear whether the Doctor is under the control of the machine or whether it didn’t work and the Doctor is just pretending. Something’s tend to suggest the former and sometimes the latter. It makes the whole thing about this section of the trial rather confusing.

One thing I haven’t commented on is the wonderful lighting. The low lighting has been one of the things that I have liked about these two episodes so far. I know that might be damning with faint praise but it just blows the argument that there was about why the lighting always needed to be bright. Ron Jones hasn’t always been a great director in my eyes but to be fair to him, he has directed solidly paced episodes.

I thought that this was another good episode. It’s weird how this story seems to be stronger than the one written by the legendary Robert Holmes. Things are starting to get more interesting in the courtroom and the ‘evidence’ is starting to feel more like normal Doctor Who stuff and less like trial stuff. The cliffhanger was another zoom in but was at least shrouded in darkness so we didn’t get the proper close up that there has been throughout this season. It’s not as amusing as the previous episode but it is perhaps a better ending.

(644) The Trial of a Timelord (Part 5): Mindwarp - Part 1

Philip Martin returns for the second piece of evidence that the Valeyard is using in one the flimsiest cases ever seen on TV. Long before Deidre Barlow got stitched up on Coronation Street in the mid 90’s, The Doctor was still having to argue against evidence which showed that things might not have gone smoothly but it could have been a lot worse. This four part adventure is the one that the Doctor was on before being taken out of time and joining the courtroom at the beginning of episode one. The opening shot of Thoros Beta is stunning. I know that the colours are rather garish but I still like it.

There are a lot more court scenes which is good to see but unlike the previous story. I found this story to be far more interesting. Also the flow of the episode is better than in the previous adventure. The action centres of Kiv getting a new body and all of his hopes lay with Crozier. That is pretty much it but what I like about this is that Martin has managed to keep the action going. The Doctor has a rather unfortunate end to the episode. One that gives the sense that things are going to spiral out of control in the future. There was something that was a bit weird about the performances of Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant.

This is the story of course where Brian Blessed makes a guest appearance. This would have been several years after appearing in Flash Gordon. He quite quiet in this episode which is the only time that the words Brian Blessed and quiet will be used at the same time. It’s fun to have him in this story because he is pretty much perfect for the show. Nabil Shaban returns as the wonderful Sil. Sil seems to be less repulsive than he was in Vengeance on Varos. I still like the Shaban laugh and think that any story with Shaban in will be greatly improved. Despite Sil being in the story, Crozier is the one that is the main villain in the piece only because he is more dangerous than Sil.

Christopher Ryan plays Kiv. Ryan would return to play a Sontaran in the new series. The voice is pretty obvious but I like the character of Kiv. He basically treats Sil the way that Sil treated the Governor in the Varos story. Another person that is familiar is Trevor Laird. Laird plays Frax in this story. He would return to the new series to play Martha’s dad in the 2007 series. It’s a rather small part but its always fun when people show up and I know that they will come up in future Doctor Who.

The cliffhanger is another zooming in but this time I found myself distracted with the weird dance that Colin Baker seemed to be doing which I found partly amusing but partly confusing. Anyway this has been the first time since this trial season has begun that I have felt that it’s like a proper Doctor Who story. It also is the first time that it’s felt like a Colin Baker story.

(630) Vengeance on Varos - Part 2

After three episodes, I am still liking the 45 minute format. It means that the cliffhangers have much more of an impact and instead of three cliffhangers (where maybe just one works), we can appreciate the efforts of just one. The previous cliffhanger was impressive and still maintains that at the start of the episode. If the previous episode was lite on humour then this episode is a black hole of humour.

There are a few moments that happen in this episode that help add to the argument that the show had become too violent. The Acid bath scene is perhaps one of the strongest points. A myth that always existed about this is that the Doctor puts the workers in the bath whereas in fact he surprises one to fall in and he then pulls the other guy in. This could be put down as unfortunate but the quip that the Doctor delivers about being forgiven for not joining them is perhaps the thing that is perhaps misjudged. This episode features a scene where the Doctor is about be hung. Never before had something so n horrific been featured in a Doctor Who. There is a story that there had been an accident on this set and if the ropes had been around Colin Baker and Jason Connery’s heads then they most likely would have died. Thankfully this didn’t happen but the Doctor and Jondar do fall to the ground and for a moment it must seem like the unthinkable had happened. Luckily this was a trick by the Governor. There are two people that appear to be wrestling at the beginning and seem perfectly natural to the surroundings but later on they are revealed to be cannibals which is again something that I didn’t think would feature in a Doctor Who. There are some vines that are quite poisonous which the Doctor uses to kill Quillam, the Chief Officer along with other soldiers. It’s a moment which isn’t the way that the Doctor should behave.

There is a nice conflict that the Governor seems to be going through in this episode. Martin Jarvis performs well throughout and its good when he gets the chance to spoil Sil’s party and as a viewer it’s clear that he is enjoying this moment. Martin Jarvis has been very good in his performances for the show over the 20 years since his debut and he ends his time on the show in style.

The interaction between Arak and Etta continues to be the closes that the story comes to humour. Stephen Yardley (Arak). I still like how Arak is the one that clearly wants something different and Etta would be willing to turn her husband into the authorities.

Peri’s bad luck in this show continues where she undergoes a transformation. I am surprised at how long it takes for her to become like a bird and how quick she went back to normal. But I suppose with time constraints of TV dramas that this had to happen this way.

There have been some interesting supporting performances in these two episodes which I think deserve a quick mention. Geraldine Alexander (Areta) has done well with what has been a rather thankless task. Her ‘highlight’ comes when she joins Peri in the transformation and looks worse than Peri (the downside of not being a companion). Nicolas Chagrin (Quillam) has his mask removed and its quite grotesque. Doctor Who has a trend in this period for shocking disfigurements. The Chief Officer (Forbes Collins) has been in the background for most of the previous episode but in this episode he becomes much more relevant and his ability to backstab the governor really allows him to become quite horrible. Speaking of horrible, I still think that Nabil Shaban steals the story. It’s clear why he returned in the following series. Once he seems to have gained power, its clear that he wasn’t going to have it for long. Finally, Owen Teal plays Maldak. Here is rather ordinary but would go on to give a very memorable performance in Torchwood in the episode Countrycide (2006).

The episode ends with the Governor talking to his citizens and telling them that things are changing and the final shot is of Arak and Etta wondering what they are going to do. Without the torturing they are lost and I think that is a great way to end the episode.

Philip Martin has written a very strong story. Ok so that there were some moments which were not suitable as far as the morals of the Doctor are concerned but I can’t say that I was ever bored during the entire two episode run. Martin returns to the show the following year but it won’t be as good.  Ron Jones hasn’t been a director that I have rated highly. His previous offerings included Black Orchid (1982), Time-Flight (1982), Arc of Infinity (1983) and Frontios (1984). This is by a clear mile the best directed story that he has done. He has managed to translate the grimness of the story well and used low lighting to create a nice atmosphere.

So far it is two good stories out of two. I think that Attack is a better story but the standard hasn’t dropped too much during the course of this two parter. The next story is another story that has always been a popular one in my books and I am impressed that after the less than stellar start to the Colin Baker era, that we have now potentially got three solid stories in a row.

(629) Vengeance on Varos - Part 1

After enjoying Attack of the Cybermen, I knew that it wasn’t going to be two top stories in a row. Vengeance on Varos has a rather infamous reputation as the one that is used to attack the show’s track record on violence. The whole subject of violence on TV is dealt with in this story and it seems that this story was about 15 years ahead of its time. It certainly has a Big Brother theme to it. The story takes place on Varos and we are rather interestingly seeing the story effectively through the eyes of two people from Varos by the name of Etta and Arak. Stephen Yardley plays Arak and he seems the one that is rather disillusioned with life. Sheila Reid plays Etta and will return to play a relative of Clara’s in the new series but she is perhaps more famous for being in the ITV sitcom Benidorm. She is the one that is more obedient to the government and is willing to turn in her own husband and I think that is something that makes their relationship interesting. Another interesting thing is that they don’t interact with anyone else.

The next person we are introduced to is Jason Connery. Connery appears as Jondar and is the son of former James Bond star Sean Connery. The thing about the character is that we are supposed to like him because he seems to be unfairly treated. However there is something that doesn’t quite work for me and I can’t put my finger on it. There are other people that I think have a better time in this episode. Nabil Shaban plays Sil and steals this story. There is just something wonderful about the performance. Every time he is on screen, I find myself totally mesmerised with him. I think that apart from Shaban’s performance, the design of the creature is wonderful and shows that some thought and money went into it. However a good costume isn’t worth anything if the actor wearing the costume isn’t any good and we can be quite grateful that Shaban was cast because no one would have made this character as loathsome and unlikeable as he does. Martin Jarvis plays the Governor. The role of the Governor who has to seek the public’s vote as to whether he should stay in power. I don’t envy the Governor very much because he is pretty much pressured into things and has to undergo rather harsh treatment. Jarvis has previous appeared in The Web Planet (1965) and Invasion of the Dinosaurs (1974) and I think that this is perhaps the most intense performance of the three.

The Doctor and Peri spend an awful long time in the TARDIS and are forced to land on Varos. Once they soon land on Varos then they get into a world of trouble and encounter Jondar. I think that the performances from Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant aren’t particularly on fire in this episode. If memory serves me correctly I think that the next episode is the one that will stand out for them but Baker has the better time in the latter stages of the episode.

Normally tunnels provide very little in the way of drama or entertainment but credit to Philip Martin for managing to make something of these rather primitive sets. They are used to try and put off the Doctor and others and they are quite entertaining. My particular favourite one is sand dunes one which forces the Doctor to believe he is unbelievably hot and this leads up to the cliffhanger. The final second is the close up of the Doctor unconscious and the TV monitor being turned off. This is a very dramatic ending and I don’t normally like cliffhangers that include the Doctor or the companion but when its done like this then I don’t really mind. This is another episode where humour is rather thin on the ground. The Arak and Etta stuff is perhaps the closes that we really get to humour and I think that if there was a problem with this story it is that it is too dark in my opinion. I like this story don’t get me wrong but I think that Attack of the Cybermen is a better in terms of finding the right balance.