Doctor Who Logo 'The Trial of a Time Lord'
(14 Parts)
The Doctor


Parts 1-4: 'The Mysterious Planet'
Story Code '7A'
by Robert Holmes

The TARDIS is taken out of time and drawn to a huge space station, where the Doctor leaves the TARDIS alone, and faces a tribunal made up of Time Lords. In charge of the tribunal is the Inquisitor, and prosecuting the Doctor is a man known as the Valeyard, who intends to prove him guilty of breaking the First Law of Time and interfering with aline races. The evidence has been recorded in the Matrix - the repository of all Time Lord knowledge - and through the TARDIS, and is projected in front of the tribunal on a screen. The Doctor is strangely unable to recall recent events, such as the reason for Peri's absence. The trial commences with one of the Doctor's most recent adventures, when he and Peri arrive on the planet Ravolox, a world that was almost destroyed by a solar fireball, and whose inhabitants now live a primitive, tribal existence. Ravalox is revealed to be Earth, two million years in the future, which has been moved to a different location in space for an unknown reason. Here, the Doctor discovers an underground base, whose dwellers are ruled by a giant robot known as Drathro. The robot is guarding three sleepers from Andromeda, who are held in suspended animation. On the surface, Peri is captured by The Free, a tribe ruled by Queen Katryca. Imprisoned, she meets Glitz and Dibber, two mercenaries who have come to Ravolox in order to steal the secrets of the Sleepers, and who aim to destroy the tribe's totem pole, which is in fact the Black Light Converter that powers Drathro. Dibber destroys the totem, but this instead causes a chain reaction that threatens to annihilate the universe. When the Free attack the underground base, Drathro kills Katryca; but the Doctor deactivates the energy systems, rendering the robot inactive, and preventing the universal obliteration. Back in the courtroom, the Doctor protests that the evidence is being tampered, and he suspects the Valeyard. He tells the court that his actions were justified, but this has no effect; the trial continues - with the Doctor now on trial for his life.

Colin Baker (The Doctor), Nicola Bryant (Peri), Michael Jayston (The Valeyard), Lynda Bellingham (The Inquisitor), Joan Sims (Katryca), Tony Selby (Glitz), Glen Murphy (Dibber), Tom Chadbon (Merdeen), Roger Brierley (Drathro), David Rodigan (Broken Tooth), Adam Blackwood (Balazar), Timothy Walker (Grell), Billy McColl (Humker), Sion Tudor Owen (Tandrell)

Produced by John Nathan-Turner
Directed by Nicholas Mallett


TX:
Part 1 - 6th September, 1986 @ 5.45pm - 6.10pm
Part 2 - 13th September, 1986 @ 5.45pm - 6.10pm
Part 3 - 20th September, 1986 @ 5.45pm - 6.10pm
Part 4 - 27th September, 1986 @ 5.45pm - 6.10pm

Notes:
*Featuring the Sixth Doctor and Peri

*First appearance of Glitz, the Valyard and the Inquisitor

*A new arrangement of the theme music is introduced

*Working titles: 'The Robots of Ravalox', 'Wasteland'



Parts 5-6: 'Mindwarp'
Story Code '7B'
by Philip Martin

The next stage of the trial commences, and the Valeyard presents the Doctor's last adventure, when he and Peri arrived on Thoros Beta. The planet is the home world of the Mentors, slug-like creatures whose race includes Sil, the representative for the Galatron Mining Corporation that the Doctor and Peri previously met on Varos. The Mentors use mind-controlled humans as their slaves, and they capture the two travellers. The Doctor and Peri learn that the Mentors' leader, Kiv, has had his mind expanded by a scientist named Crozier. However, the process is failing, and Kiv will die unless Crozier is able to find a way to transpose his mind into another being. Crozier subjects the Doctor to his mind machine, which causes the Time Lord to behave in an erratic and selfish manner. Seemingly afraid that Crozier will use his body as the vessel for Kiv's mind, the Doctor betrays Peri and collaborates with Sil. Peri is imprisoned with King Yrcanos, a captured Krontep warrior, who decides to marry Peri. Together they escape, and stage a rebellion, but the uprising fails, and they are recaptured. When the Doctor discovers that Kiv now plans to transfer his mind into Peri, he frees Yrcanos, who destroys the mind control centre. Unfortunately, before he can rescue Peri, the Doctor is pulled out of time in order to attend the trial. Crozier carries out the transfer, and Kiv's mind is successfully transplanted into Peri's body. Because this technology will affect the natural course of human evolution, the Time Lords manipulate Yrcanos to kill Peri and Crozier.

Colin Baker (The Doctor), Nicola Bryant (Peri), Michael Jayston (The Valeyard), Lynda Bellingham (The Inquisitor), Brian Blessed (King Yrcanos), Nabil Shaban (Sil), Christopher Ryan (Kiv), Patrick Ryecart (Crozier), Alibe Parsons (Matrona Kani), Trevor Laird (Frax), Thomas Branch (The Lukoser), Gordon Warnecke (Tuza), Richard Henry (Mentor)

Produced by John Nathan-Turner
Directed by Ron Jones


TX:
Part 5 [Part 1] - 4th October, 1986 @ 5.45pm - 6.10pm
Part 6 [Part 2] - 11th October, 1986 @ 5.45pm - 6.10pm
Part 7 [Part 3] - 12th October, 1986 @ 5.45pm - 6.10pm
Part 8 [Part 4] - 25th October, 1986 @ 5.45pm - 6.10pm

Notes:
*Featuring the Sixth Doctor and Peri

*Working title: 'Planet of Sil'



Parts 9-12: 'Terror of the Vervoids'
Story Code '7C'
by Pip and Jane Baker

The trial reaches the point when the Doctor is able to present his evidence for the defence. He chooses to show an adventure from his near future, at a time when he is travelling with his companion Mel. Travelling in the TARDIS, he and Mel receive a mayday call, and take the time / space ship to the Hyperion III, a space liner en route from the planet Moga to Earth, in the year 2986. Here they meet Commodore Travers, an old acquaintance of the Doctor's. The call has been sent by an undercover agent, who is currently posing as a space-suited Mogarian, and who suspects that a dangerous criminal is aboard the ship. However, before the Doctor can talk to him further, the agent is poisoned. Meanwhile Mel meets Professor Lasky, a scientist who has discovered a vegetable life form known as the Vervoids. However, the Vervoid cocoons Lasky is transporting to Earth in the ship's hold are accidentally awoken during an electrical accident, and the creatures break out of their pods and run amok, massacring the passengers. Bruchner, one of Lasky's assistants, goes mad and attempts to pilot the ship into a black hole. The Mogarians manage to avert the disaster, but they instead hijack the liner with the aid of the mutinous Security Officer Rudge. But Lasky's other assistant, Dolland, destroys the Mogarians and saves the ship. Events escalate when Dolland is revealed to be the real criminal, who plans to sell the Vervoids as slave labour. Afetr the Vervoids rampage through the Hyperion III, killing Ridge, Dolland and eventually Lasky, the Doctor uses vionesium, a magnesium-like substance, to subject the Vervoids to bright light, accelerating their life cycle and causing them all to wither and die. Back in the courtroom, the Valeyard accuses the Doctor of genocide.

Colin Baker (The Doctor), Bonnie Langford (Melanie), Michael Jayston (The Valeyard), Lynda Bellingham (The Inquisitor), Honor Blackman (Professor Lasky), Michael Craig (Commodore), Denys Hawthorne (Rudge), Yolande Palfrey (Janet), Malcolm Tierney (Doland), David Allister (Bruchner), Tony Scoggo (Grenville / Enzu), Arthur Hewlett (Kimber), Simon Slater (Edwardes), Sam Howard (Atza), Leon Davis (Ortezo); Hugh Beverton (Guard / First Guard), Mike Mungarvan (Duty Officer), Martin Weedon (Second Guard), Barbara Ward (Mutant / Ruth Baxter), Peppi Borza (First Vervoid), Bob Appleby (Second Vervoid)

Produced by John Nathan-Turner
Directed by Chris Clough


TX:
Part 9 [Part 1] - 1st November, 1986 @ 5.45pm - 6.10pm
Part 10 [Part 2] - 8th November, 1986 @ 5.45pm - 6.10pm
Part 11 [Part 3] - 15th November, 1986 @ 5.45pm - 6.10pm
Part 12 [Part 4] - 22nd November, 1986 @ 5.45pm - 6.10pm

Notes:
*Featuring the Sixth Doctor and 'introducing' Melanie 'Mel' Bush

*Working title: 'The Ultimate Foe'; the title 'Terror of the Vervoids' was the name of the Target Books novelisation, and has since become the commonly-used title for this story



Parts 13-14: 'The Ultimate Foe'
Story Code '7C'
by Robert Holmes (Part 13)
and Pip and Jane Baker (Part 14)

After the Doctor has been accused of genocide, the Master appears on the view screen. He calls Glitz and Mel as witnesses for the Doctor's defence, and then reveals that the Time Lord High Council were responsible for the repositioning and near-destruction of Earth, because the planet sheltered the Sleepers from Andromeda, who had stolen Time Lord Secrets from the Matrix. Afraid that the Doctor would uncover the truth, the High Council made a deal with the Valeyard - in return for getting rid of the Doctor, the Valeyard would be given the rest of the Doctor's regenerations. The Valeyard has forged all the evidence against the Doctor, including Peri's death - Peri is now living on Thoros Beta as Yrcanos's Queen. The Master exposes the Valeyard as the amalgamation of the Doctor's darker side, at a time between his twelfth and final regeneration. The Valeyard escapes into the Matrix, but with the Doctor, Mel and Glitz in pursuit; the Master helps the Doctor, hoping that he and the Valeyard will destroy each other. The Doctor battles the Valeyard in the virtual reality world of the Matrix, overcoming the many hazards that the renegade sets for him. He meets Mr Popplewick, a Dickensian clerk working in an office in the unreal environment. Popplewick is actually the Valeyard in disguise, and who plans to destroy the Time Lords attending the trial with the use of a particle disseminator. Meanwhile, the Master uses Glitz to retrieve the Secrets, now stored within the Matrix. Once he learns that the High Council has been deposed due to the truth uncovered at the trial, the Master then attempts to take over, but instead is trapped in the Matrix. The Doctor ruins the Valeyard's plans, and escapes from the damaged Matrix. The Inquisitor drops the charges levied at him, and he leaves in the TARDIS with Mel. But back on the station, the Valeyard has escaped disguised as the Keeper of the Matrix...

Colin Baker (The Doctor), Bonnie Langford (Melanie), Michael Jayston (The Valeyard), Lynda Bellingham (The Inquisitor), Tony Selby (Glitz), Anthony Ainley (The Master), Goeffrey Hughes (Popplewick), James Bree (Keeper of the Matrix)

Produced by John Nathan-Turner
Directed by Chris Clough


TX:
Part 13 [Part 1] - 29th October, 1986 @ 5.45pm - 6.10pm
Part 14 [Part 1] - 6th December, 1986 @ 5.45pm - 6.10pm

Notes:
*Featuring the Sixth Doctor and Mel

*Working title: 'Time Inc.'; Part 13 was also called 'The Fantasy Factory'

*Part 14 is 30 minutes duration