(652) The Trial of a Timelord (Part 13): The Ultimate Foe - Part 1

So we are now at the business end of this trial which now in effect becomes the longest story in Doctor Who history. This is now one episode longer than The Daleks Master Plan which ran for twelve weeks during 1965 and 1966. This is where all the little threads of the past twelve weeks were going to become more significant and all the ‘evidence’ was gone. Sadly there is a great deal of sadness that goes with these two episodes. Not just that Colin Baker gets sacked at the end of this series but it is also the last to be credited by Robert Holmes. Holmes died just after giving the first draft of these two episodes and so Eric Saward worked on this episode thus meaning that this was Robert Holmes’ 64^th and final episode and goes down as the most credited writer in Doctor Who history at this point.

I love how at the end of the previous episode, it was shown that the Valeyard can change and add charges at his own pleasing. It does make the legal system on Gallifrey a bit of a laughing stock but I suppose that it pretty much sums up the Timelords.

The first few moments sees the Keeper of the Matrix summoned to the trial and it is basically to continue with the Doctor’s accusation that the Matrix has been manipulated. He then accuses the Valeyard and its at this point that things start to go a bit crazy. It doesn’t take long for the Master to make a shock return. The Master for some reason has spent the last twelve weeks of the trial watching from within the Matrix. It’s at this point that the Valeyard seems to be losing control and it is fun to witness. Sabalom Glitz returns and fills in a lot of blanks about what happened in The Mysterious Planet. The question about how Earth ended where it was found was done by the Timelords. It’s always fun to have the Master back although one of the problems with the pace that the story has, is that no reference was made to The Mark of the Rani and no question as to how either managed to survive what was going on at the end of that story.

The Valeyard turns out to be the Doctor. The Valeyard is between the bad parts of the Doctor between the Doctor’s 12^th and final regeneration. This was obviously at a time when the Doctor only had thirteen lives. It’s good when he flees the courtroom and it’s at this point that the episode really steps up a gear (not that it was really lacking a gear). All the stunts and attitude that the Valeyard has shown over the previous twelve episodes become understandable. He is the one that wants the Doctor’s remaining lives and was using the Master’s ‘skills’ to get this.

The Doctor gets pulled into a crate of water by mysterious hands. This was quite a shocking moment and this is the first example of things not being quite what it seems. Another example comes when Glitz is hit with an arrow. Yet more evidence of this comes with the introduction of Mr Popplewick (Geoffrey Hughes). He also plays Mr Chambers and Hughes manages to make the two characters very different. I would have liked more of Michael Jayston in this episode because after dashing out of the courtroom, we don’t see him again and he has been so good that he deserved more time. Also Bonnie Langford deserved to be more involved in the action (didn’t expect to be writing that one when I started this marathon). She was stuck in the courtroom to listen to the Inquisitor and the Master talking.

The Doctor finds himself in a wasteland which is in fact the Camber Sands and this leads to the cliffhanger which sees the Doctor pulled in quicksand. This leads us to our eleventh episode which ends with a close up of the Doctor’s face. On a positive note it’s only the second time that he has been animated when doing this as the other time came at the end of the first Mindwarp episode. I thought that despite the close up this was a very good ending to what was easily the best episode of the season. It started well and got better from there and I hadn’t realised how much time had passed by. This is always a good sign that an episode has worked and the only worry is that the next episode won’t deliver on what this episode has shown us. Anyone wondering if the show had lost its ability to produce good moments (I include myself in that) needs to watch this episode and then the will learn that the first was still burning. It might be burning as bright as it once did but it is still alight.