(651) The Trial of a Timelord (Part 12): Terror of the Vervoids - Part 4

I didn’t realise this until just now but this was the last story this season to be filmed and so that means that technically this was the final episode that Colin Baker recorded as the Doctor. I have commented on how well Colin Baker and Bonnie Langford seemed to be getting on and now it’s easy to see why. It will be interesting to see how their relationship comes across in the final two episodes of this season.

The Mogarians don’t really seem to have had much purpose in this story except for this episode where they enter the main control room and save the day. Saving the day is probably a stretch because it turns out that Rudge is also not quite as he seems as he turns on the Commodore and stages a hijacking. The Vervoids are much more effective as a villain as everyone else becomes a bit less effective and they have this wonderful habit of just popping out of every vent whenever people are walking past. They are killing people at quite a rate and it almost seems like Pip and Jane Baker are trying to make up for a lack of deaths in a story.

Doland is the one that committed the murders which is something that most people might have seen coming but I honestly didn’t and still don’t remember that it’s Doland. Malcolm Tierney has been very good in this serial and I have always been fan since appearing in House of Cards which was obviously filmed long after this serial but Tierney is a very good actor and managed to blend into the background which led to the good reveal.

The courtroom scenes don’t seem to impact that much into the episode as in previous episodes. A good scene comes when the Doctor acknowledges before the court that he was asked for help and the Valeyard reluctantly agrees with this. After all the good work that the Doctor does in showing us he’s a good person. It is perhaps unfortunate that this is the story where he basically commits genocide by wiping out the Vervoids. I think that this was an unfortunate but narratively necessary way to end the story. It leads to the Valeyard to wanting the Doctor charged with genocide. This leads to another close up in the cliffhanger. This is now the 10^th episode out of twelve which ends with the Doctor being the last thing we see in the episode. It’s starting to come across as a bit unoriginal and repetitive.

I haven’t commented on how good a job Chris Clough did on directing this story which I will try and correct now. He has done a good job in taking my mind off the fact that there isn’t any location filming. The lighting and sets have all worked very well and apart from a few CGI effects which don’t work quite so well the effect used to show the decaying leaves is another impressive moment that occurs in this season. The death of the Vervoids looks good and the effect of a leaf in the Doctor’s hand also look good even by today’s standards. Before I did this marathon, I wouldn’t have rated Pip and Jane Baker as particularly good writers but after being impressed with the Mark of the Rani and being impressed with this story, its time to re-evaluate them as writers.

I have really changed my opinion of Mel. Ok so the screaming is annoying and I don’t think that will change but as a companion I think that Bonnie Langford deserves more credit than she has been given in the past. I think that the character is a breath of fresh air from what he have seen in the companion role because she doesn’t try and annoy the Doctor or try and kill him but decides to be very active from the beginning so because of this and other things that have happened I am really looking forward to the final story.

(650) The Trial of a Timelord (Part 11): Terror of the Vervoids - Part 3

Today marks the 650^th episode of this marathon. 50 episodes ago I was being less than enthusiastic about the first part of The Kings Demons. I think that this episode is far better than the Demons episode. So far in this portion of the Trial season, there hasn’t been much in the way of terror from the Vervoids. That changes in today’s episode which is where things seem to be progressing more in the Vervoids story than the courtroom arc. The pulsating effect used on the infected woman named as Ruth Baxter is very impressive.

We get a proper look at the Vervoids in this episode but it takes place in a dimly lit room. When we do see them better lit I have to say that I do like the design of them. Ok so the face mask is a bit amusing but the rest of it does work quite well. There was always the possibility that the design would look a bit poor when Pip and Jane Baker created this monster but credit must go to the production for making this work.

Mel is quite active in this episode and actually does something quite clever in using one of the headphones to record what was being said in the overhead chutes. There is a questionable suspension of disbelief comes when Mel gets chucked into one of the waste bins and manages to be saved by the Doctor in the same amount of time that he listens to what she’s recorded and runs to save her.

Another example of things being changed include the Doctor being smashed in the communication room. Sadly there isn’t much about the manipulation that is going on which is something that I would have liked to see more of in this episode. Apart from this there is very little reason really to have Michael Jayston and Lynda Bellingham in the episode. The courtroom scenes don’t bring anything to the episode.

Bruchner is the one that turns out is the dodgy one in the group. This is where the story gets really interesting because I don’t feel like the Vervoids have been terrifying enough. Due to the fact that Bruchner is human it’s easier to find him a better villain that the Vervoids. As a result I find myself more interested in his story than the Vervoids. I think that it was perhaps too obvious for Lasky to be the one that was the dodgy one in the group

I thought that this was a good episode that continues things along nicely in the story arc but also sets things up nicely for the final part of this Vervoids story. I am looking forward to not having to talk about two different aspects of the story in the same review. One thing I can say for sure and that is the dubious decision of whether to try and have art imitate life and have a trial in the season when the show itself is on trial doesn’t seem so dubious because I forget about all the troubles the show was facing then and just found myself engrossed with what was on the screen.

(649) The Trial of a Timelord (Part 10): Terror of the Vervoids - Part 2

It’s hard to think that I am now ten episodes into this season and that the ending is starting to get ever closer and even weirder that we are closing in to the final few episodes with Colin Baker as the Doctor. After the initial concern that it felt like the show was a bit lifeless, its good to report that those concerns are even were quickly erased as both the trial story and the evidence parts of this season are improving the overall feel. The explosion that takes place at the beginning of the episode look really impressive but it’s the scream that is the final noticeable thing about the cliffhanger and reprise.

It doesn’t take long for the regular story arc of manipulated evidence returns to the screen and I like how the Doctor decides that he needs to let the action play out to find out who is behind it. He gets to be quite smug in front of the Valeyard when he points out that one of the people pretending to be a Mogarian shows himself to be a fake because he didn’t switch on his translator. Of course the Doctor doesn’t jump for joy but it’s clear he sees this as a small victory.

Honor Blackman gets some very amusing lines in this episode and they are usually aimed at the Doctor’s expense. The Doctor may be a fool but he’s not a criminal was one that I found particularly entertaining. There was a bit of development about her character which I thought was quite interesting and in fact the whole scientific team she works with is something that I find interesting.

I am still impressed with how well Colin Baker and Bonnie Langford are getting on considering this is only their second episode together. Due to the structure of the episode, there is a Sherlock Holmes and Watson vibe to their performance. If only Bonnie Langford didn’t scream then I think people would think more highly of the character of Mel.

It’s good how we don’t see the Vervoids in full. We just see glimpses of their hands and see things from their POV. I think that it is probably wise for them to do it like this because the end result isn’t the greatest but that said here and now the Vervoids are quite a good villain.

The build up to find out what is in the isolation room is something that is done rather well and the big reveal forms the cliffhanger along with a zoom in and a Mel scream. The eyes opening I thought was a nice touch. It has been a good episode but it didn’t seem to have the same pace that the previous episode did. Don’t get me wrong, I still like this episode and there was plenty of positives to take from this episode. The next two episodes should hopefully be just as much fun as the previous two.

(648) The Trial of a Timelord (Part 9): Terror of the Vervoids - Part 1

Terror of the Vervoids is the beginning of the Mel era on the show and also the first opportunity that the Doctor has of defending himself. He picks a story in his future which does imply I suppose that it means he gets off in the trial but as any fan with half a brain knows, things can be re-written all the time so it is by no means a certainty that he would be freed by the end of this adventure. Pip and Jane Baker return to the show after their impressive debut in the previous season. Although you would forgive them for working under conditions which weren’t ideal bearing in mind that Eric Saward and John Nathan Turner have had a severe falling out at this point. This story is heavily influenced by several Agatha Christie stories as this is a whodunit.

The sombre Doctor that we see at the beginning of the episode is something that we haven’t seen from Colin Baker’s Doctor before. I buy that the Doctor is still not over the death of Peri and holds himself partly to blame for what happened to her. That is about as much time as Peri gets in this episode and I think that it’s a good move because its Mel’s time and things move on.

The story moves along and it seems like this is just another piece of evidence but then things change. There is another example of things being change. The Doctor speaks out after one moment where he tells Mel to basically go away is something that the Doctor doesn’t remember when he saw the film before.

Michael Craig plays Commodore Travers and he is the rather standard no nonsense captain. The thing about the Commodore is that it seems that he has encountered the Doctor before although few details are revealed. Hopefully this is an adventure that Big Finish decide to do in the future. Denys Hawthorne plays Rudge who is the security officer who is on his last journey in this story so its clear that he is going to be involved in some shape or form. Another clue is how he is undermined by the Commodore. Honor Blackman is the first person who speaks in the Hyperion III story. Blackman appeared in the best Bond film ever (Goldfinger) and previously appeared as Kathy Gale in The Avengers. I really like the character as she is driven almost to the point where she would step over a dead person to get to what she wants.

Bonnie Langford’s first appearance in the show isn’t particularly strong as we see her trying to get the Doctor into shape by riding an exercise bike and drinking carrot juice (more of that in future episodes). I think bearing in mind that it is the first story for the character, a bit more effort should have been made to make the viewer warm to her. Luckily that bumpy start is replaced with a character that is rather like Sarah Jane Smith. Firstly don’t start writing messages of hatred at me, by similar I mean that she is quite inquisitive and wants to try and solve the puzzle. Sadly she ends the episode in a less than stellar way because her screaming is rather annoying but at least it doesn’t involve the Doctor and/or a zoom in. As far as the relationship between the Doctor and Mel, its weird how the partnership seems to be working well already. It took several stories for the Doctor’s relationship with Peri to mellow (in fact it wasn’t until The Mysterious Planet that this happened).

It was an interesting episode and its weird how there seems to be a shift in the way the series appears on screen and as we reach the business end of the season its clear the best is still yet to come. I am feeling a lot more warmly towards the season than I was at the beginning and think that its starting to look like my opinion of the season as a whole might improve.

(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.