Halfway Through The Doctors

We are halfway through the amount of Doctors there will be by the end of the year. We are also very close to the end of the classic series. Fans are content now with the knowledge that despite the use of familiar villains and locations, and indeed the fact that it is the same continuing story, the only thing that can always be expected is change. This is something the new fans will have to get used to when the show returns in 2005. In 2013 many are still struggling with it.

1987 brought a new credits sequence and a new all synthesizer theme arrangement. The Doctor's regeneration happened at the beginning of the first episode, with Sylvester McCoy playing his predecessor in a wig as he begins to regenerate. Colin Baker would not return to film any episodes leading up to the regeneration. They say he was offended at being replaced so quickly. The Doctor has Mel and then Ace as companions. Before the show ends in 1989, we see the return of The Master, the Daleks, the Cybermen, The Rani, the Brigadier, Sabalom Glitz, and another visit to Coal Hill school. In the last season we also begin to see a darker side of The Doctor.

I plan to review the first episode, "Time and the Rani" and the last episode, "Survival." I am considering either "Paradise Towers," "Dragonfire," or "Happiness Patrol."

Trial Of A Timelord - Part Four: The Ultimate Foe

At only two parts, "The Ultimate Foe" is a pretty good climax to the whole trial. This wasn't just the end of the trial, it was the end of the season. For the first time since "The Key to Time" a season long story arc was wrapped up. Apart from most regenerations, the last story of the season is just a regular one. Here is the end of The Doctor's trial.

PART ONE

The Inquisitor brings in the Keeper of the matrix and asks if The Doctor is done with his defense. The Valeyard reminds them of the charge of genocide. The Doctor says much of The Railyard's evidence has been distorted. The matrix was tampered with. The Keeper says it is impossible to change, only he holds the key of Rassilon needed to enter the matrix. The Doctor points out the key does get used, could be copied, and it COULD be distorted. The Valeyard says there is no evidence. When asked who would do this, The Doctor blames The Valeyard. Another shot outside the ship, with the beam of light appearing, this time bringing in two oddly casket shaped capsules. Inside The Doctor is saying he can only rebut evidence with witnesses, which he doesn't have. In walk Mel and Glitz, to The Doctors confusion. They say they were sent, and a face appears on the matrix screen. The Master. He's inside the matrix.

This is proof the matrix can be invaded. The Master has a copy of the key. The Inquisitor is upset. The Master claims to be intervening in the name of justice, which makes The Doctor laugh. The Master doesn't like The Valeyard. The Valeyard objects and pretends not to know him. The Master has sent Mel and Glitz. The Valeyard calls Glitz a criminal, but The Inquisitor allows the witness. The Doctor questions Glitz about the secrets he was after. Glitz reveals that the sleepers had found a way into the matrix. They were operating from Earth and the Timelords found out. The Timelords used a magnatron, which must be ordered by high counsel, to move the Earth, renaming it Ravalox. This caused the fireball and the rescue team from Andromeda to never find the sleepers, thus the secrets. The Doctor says he has had many enemies, but he should have stayed on Gallifrey, calling them corrupt. It would have remained secret if The Doctor hadn't gone to Ravalox. The Master says the high counsel struck a deal with The Valeyard, or as he's always known him, The Doctor, to distort evidence and make The Doctor a scapegoat, promising The Valeyard the rest of his lives. The Valeyard is an amalgamation of the darker sides of The Doctor's personality, somewhere between his 12th and final incarnation. The Doctor objects at both prosecution and defense being the same person. The Inquisitor says in this case it is irrelevant. But The Valeyard runs. They follow but just outside he has disappeared. The keeper says he must have gone through the 7th door and opens it for The Doctor, who takes Glitz with him into the matrix.

A beam of light brings The Doctor into the streets and back alleys of what appears to be Victorian times maybe? It's dark, there's hay, you hear horses clopping, there are rats, no people around, but a man's laughter. No Glitz, either. Children in the distance hauntingly sing London Bridge. Then there's a saloon piano playing somewhere. The Doctor finds a barrel and looks into the water. Hands reach out and pull his face under. Glitz appears, but The Doctor is on the ground awake. He says in the matrix the only logic is there is no logic. Nothing is real. Glitz hands The Doctor a note from The Master with the location of The Valeyard's base. It's called The Fantasy Factory, and the proprietor is J.J. Chambers. Why is The Master helping? In the courtroom The Master is filling in The Inquisitor and tells her The Valeyard exploited The Doctor's feelings for Peri, who was actually still alive, the Queen to King Yrcanos. The Valeyard is playing games with The Doctor and Glitz. The Master hopes The Doctor and Valeyard destroy each other. The Doctor and Glitz go inside the factory. Junior Mr. Popplewick asks if they have an appointment and talks about procedures and things taking time. The Doctor rushes through the office door to find the same man, except the senior Mr. Popplewick this time. More procedure and appointment talk. He asks The Doctor to sign a release so that if he dies while there, Mr. Chambers gets his remaining lives. The Doctor signs. The Doctor enters the waiting room to find himself on a beach alone. He hears laughter as hands grab his ankles from under the muddy sand. The Doctor falls and the hands pull him under as he screams.

PART TWO

Glitz arrives, but not in time, The Doctor goes under. But he rises up dry and reminds Glitz they aren't dealing with reality. The Valeyard appears, and keeps popping around the place while he talks. The Doctor asks why he wants him dead. The Valeyard says to be free of The Doctor's morality, and with unlimited access to the matrix nothing would be out of his reach. He disappears. A fog starts coming in, nerve gas. The Doctor and Glitz run. Mel is in court watching this on the matrix screen. The Inquisitor says they can't interfere. Mel wants the key to the 7th door but doesn't get it. The Doctor helps Glitx into an old rundown house, which dematerializes. They are inside The Master's TARDIS. The Master wants The Valeyard eliminated. He sets his console and takes Glitz out of the room. Loud noise and lights start flashing and The Doctor is forced into a catatonic state. The Master's TARDIS materializes as an old tomb in front of the factory. The Master brings out The Doctor and stands him there. He and Glitz hide as his TARDIS dematerializes. The Valeyard comes out and The Master tries to shoot him, to The Valeyard's amusement. He sends little explosions after The Master as he and Glitz run. 

The Doctor reacts when he hears Mel's voice. She's calling from the shadows and gets him to come with her. They exit the 7th door and she says he must clear his name. The Inquisitor wants an apology and he gives her one. The charge of genocide is still before them. After assuring them he would trust Mel with his life, they show her the clip of destroying the Vervoids. The Doctor says tell the truth and she admits The Doctor acted on his own, there was no choice. She senses something is going wrong. The Doctor admits you always have a choice. The Inquisitor delivers a verdict of guilty, saying his lives are forfeit. The Doctor accepts the sentence. Mel and the real Timelords are watching this on the matrix screen. Mel is upset he is being tricked and finally gets the key from the keeper. Inside the matrix she sees The Doctor standing stoically in a horse drawn cart led by a Gallifreyan guard. Mel tries to save him. He whispers for her to go away. But the damage is done, the cart and horse disappear. Mel ruined it. The Doctor was trying to force a confrontation with The Valeyard. When fake Mel gave evidence of The Doctor denying the genocide charge he knew she hadn't even been there at the time. The Master wants Glitz to lead The Doctor to The Valeyard and tries to hypnotize him. Glitz is all money, though, so The Master offers him a chest full of treasure. 

The Doctor is searching one office and in another Glitz finds the tape of secrets, the original copy. He also finds the senior Mr. Popplewick. The Doctor finds a list of the Timelords at his trial, all crossed out, and in his handwriting. Glitz comes in with Popplewick, who will take them to Chambers. Glitz leaves with his tape of secrets but The Master forces him to his TARDIS. Popplewick keeps stalling, but The Doctor knows what's what and takes the mask off Popplewick to reveal The Valeyard. Mel opens some doors marked danger and claims there is a megabyte modem, which sounds ridiculous now but at the time was so fancy sounding. The Doctor calls it a MASER, or microwave amplification and stimulated emission of radiation. The Doctor processes the info. It is a particle disseminator, which will destroy everything. The Valeyard is untying himself. The Doctor gets the list of names, it is a hit list. They must disconnect the matrix and evacuate the courtroom. 

In the courtroom The Inquisitor learns the high counsel has been deposed, there is chaos. The Master, on the screen, is pleased and offers his leadership. In his TARDIS he plugs the tape into his console, but everything gets distorted and he and Glitz are trapped against the wall unable to move. Mel bursts into the courtroom and yells to get out. They don't, the screen explodes, but everyone is fine. The Doctor had fiddled with the maser, but he also triggered a feedback. The Doctor runs, but The Valeyard stays and is apparently killed when we see the building explode. The Doctor appears in the courtroom asking about his sentence. The Inquisitor gladly tells him all charges are dropped, and let's him know that Peri is still alive. They show a sweet shot of Peri and Yrcanos from "Mindwarp." The Inquisitor tries to persuade The Doctor to run for Lord President again, but he suggests she take up the post. He asks her to be lenient on Glitz when they restore the matrix. The Doctor and Mel stand outside the TARDIS and she talks about getting back to exercise and carrot juice. They leave, which makes me wonder. When did the Master take Mel and bring her? The Doctor was taken when he was with Peri, so he has not traveled with her yet but she has with him! That one is definitely a first, and is partially what happens with River Song.

Back in the courtroom the Timelords are leaving. The Inquisitor instructs the keeper to reconstruct the matrix as she leaves. The Keeper turns around and it is The Valeyard.

Trial Of A Timelord - Story Three: Terror Of The Vervoids (or: the case for the defense)

PART ONE

This story is the first time since Susan in the first episode where we have a companion The Doctor has already been travelling with. It also has not happened since. The Doctor is still sad from the news of Peri's death. The Inquisitor has given him time for his distress and The Valeyard insists they continue. The Doctor is to present his defense. He has been allowed access to the matrix and plans to present evidence from his future, his defense being that he improves. Evidence where he thwarts a threat to a cruise liner and the entire planet Earth. The Hyperion 3, bound from Mogar to Earth, with passengers and a priority consignment of precious metals. It is 2986 and the last passengers board. One will murder. A blonde woman, Professor Lasky, complains her key doesn't work. Final passengers check in with Janet, the lone cruise stewardess. An old man calls out to the last passenger, recognizing him as an investigator named Hallett. The man denies it and claims to be named Grenville. Laskey and her two colleagues, Bruchner and Doland, are worried at the thought of an investigator. The Hyperion leaves Mogar. 

In the TARDIS, Mel is making The Doctor work out on a stationary bike, then offers him carrot juice to quench his thirst. On the Hyperion, the crew picks up the TARDIS on radar. Elsewhere a Mogarian, very steampunk before it's time, must switch on his translator to communicate. Crew members flirt. Someone enters the communications room, stuns the crew, and flips some switches. A mayday signal sounds in the TARDIS. They materialize in the Hyperion hold. The Doctor is hesitant, claiming evil is present. He's stopped from leaving by guards who take them to the bridge. Here they meet Commodore Travers, a man who has been helped by The Doctor before. They don't know who sent the mayday, so Travers confines The Doctor to the passenger quarters, planning to use him to flush out the culprit. In the hold there are plant pods. In an office among them, a Mogarian turns on a light and steals some Demeter seeds, like huge silver Mentos. The light hits a plant pod and it begins to glow.

The Doctor and Mel talk in the lounge. Mel is from a place called Peas Pottage, but that's all we learn about her. Mel pushes a worried Doctor to solve the mystery. We see an isolation room that a masked Doland or Bruchner goes in past a guard. In the gym, Lasky is working out and Mel comes in. She dons a headset for workout music, because that's how it's done in gyms. Bruchner, or the other one, comes in and gets Lasky because of a problem at the hydroponics. Mel's music stops and a voice speaks to her. The Doctor is checking the passenger list when Mel comes and tells him to meet whoever sent the mayday in cabin 6. Cabin 6 is in shambles. They find some Demeter seeds and a boot. They run off the the waste disposal where someone has fallen in, or been pushed. There is a boot left that matches the lone boot in cabin 6, which they learn was Grenville's cabin. The Doctor says the case is over, suggesting Mel go investigate the hydroponics center. In trial The Doctor interrupts, not remembering that, claiming those aren't even his words. He feels he is being manipulated and evidence has been distorted. The Valeyard says it's them who are being manipulated, saying The Doctor sent Mel to die. Mel and crewman Edwardes go to the hydroponics to find Lasky. He tells Mel the lights must be low spectrum to keep the plants dormant. He opens the cage and there are huge flashes of light, Mel screams, and boy does this companion scream.

PART TWO

The plants come alive and kill Edwardes. Another guard comes and takes Mel to safety as another guard is killed. The Valeyard claims this is The Doctor's fault, who said it isn't what happened when he viewed the matrix. He says the only way to discover why he's being manipulated is to press on. Laskey and The Doctor are talking in the gym when guards come to take him to the bridge. Travers is questioning Mel, who says there was a booby trap and if not for Edwardes she would be dead. The bodies can't be found, so that clear Mel. Travers laments The Doctor's appearance on thee scene. In the lounge The Doctor and Mel asks Lasky about the Demeter seeds. She accuses him of stealing them and he explains. The Hyperion adjusts it's course. In the lounge the Mogarians are, no kidding, playing Galaga. I could only find a small pic but I'm surely including it. They stop and make complaints individually about going so close to a black hole. They complain about the humans and their taking of Mogar's minerals. The Valyard interrupts as to the point, but The Doctor points out if he had payed attention, he would have known one of them was about to die. 

The Mogarians are served drinks as the passengers mill about the lounge. One rises, choking, then collapses to the floor. The Mogarians object when The Doctor removes the ventilator mask, but it is not a Mogarian. He is identified as Grenville, from cabin 6. The Doctor knows him as investigator Hallett, who the old man says he had recognized him as earlier. The Doctor figures that's why he staged his death. When The Valeyard asks how The Doctor knew he wasn't a Mogarian, they show the clip again and see he didn't need to use his translator. He says he couldn't choose to stay on the sidelines. Mel follows The Doctor to the hydroponics, where The Doctor shows her a leaf he found on Hallett. They wonder what came out of the pods. Laskey is talking with her men about their experiment and discovery remaining a secret. The isolation room was just an unfortunate accident. Someone, or something, watches from the air vent. The old man orders a drink from Janet. In his cabin he enters the bathroom and is killed by the sting of something still unseen. It's plantlike and it turns the shower on when Janet returns to fool her. Determined to get in the isolation room, The Doctor sets off an alarm and the guard runs. The Doctor and Mel enter. There is some tank or chamber, and when they open it, the body of a woman lies inside, part of her head some type of strange plant hybrid. Her one good eye opens. 

PART THREE

The plant woman begs them to stop Lasky. Lasky and her men come in and shoo The Doctor and Mel out. She was a lab assistant who had a scratch on her thumb during a cross fertilization experiment. They called it a calculated risk. Security comes and takes The Doctor for setting off the false alarm. The Valeyard fails to comprehend the evidence. The Doctor begs the same restraint he showed, and The Valeyard chuckles. The Doctor defends his actions to Travers. Janet comes and tells him the old man is missing. Mel overhears and goes to his room, finding a leaf in the vent. In the hold, the Vervoids are piling bodies. They are some of the worst looking monsters. I can't even begin to describe them without being vulgar. Plant people, leave it at that.  Travers agrees to cooperate with The Doctor. Security chief Rudge is forced to sit and talk to the Mogarians. Vervoids attack more crew. Doland sees Bruchner destroying their paperwork. In the gym, Lasky won't tell Mel what the leaf is. Doland comes in and tells her what Bruchner is up to and she leaves. Mel hears voices in the vent and uses her headset to record them. She hears the Vervoids plotting to kill them. Someone grabs Mel. The Doctor looks for Mel, who he doesn't see being wheeled past him in a trash bin.

The Doctor finds the recording, hears Mel scream, puts 2 and 2 together and gets to her just before pulverization. The tape was now missing, though. Mel goes to spy on Janet, The Doctor says he's off to the hydroponics. After a quick scene of a Mogarian clumsily spilling a drink there is a shot of The Doctor, holding an axe, standing in a destroyed communications room. In trial The Doctor objects that he's not the one who did the sabotage, and states the matrix is wrong. When asked if there's any point in continuing, he says what else does he have and they continue. Mel is snooping in Janet's room when a Vervoid comes in. She hides in the shower. Lasky is mad at Bruchner for his destruction of files. He knocks her out and flees. The Doctor finds her and warns her Bruchner has gone wild. On the bridge, Bruchner forces Travers out, locking the door. Bent on destroying the ship he changes course. In Janet's room the Vervoid goes wild, then starts spraying a fog. Outside the bridge, The Doctor tells the others that Bruchner is aiming the Hyperion 3 into the black hole of Tartarus.

PART FOUR

Vervoids get into the vents, including the one in Janet's room. Mel escapes the fog. They cut through the door to the bridge, but the Vervoids have fogged the bridge, Bruchner is dead. Rudge calls the Mogarians, who don't breathe air, and they go in and set the new course away from the black hole. Then the Mogarians, with the help of Rudge, take over the ship. They take the group to the lounge. Mel, Doland and Janet stay hidden. Rudge gets the keys to the vault to get the minerals the Mogarians feel were stolen. On the bridge, someone unseen throws a liquid on the Mogarians that kills them. Mel climbs in a vent and talks to The Doctor. He tells her to attack the bridge. On the bridge, they take the masks off the Mogarians to prove to Rudge his plan is over. The Doctor gets Rudge's upside down gun, which Mel thinks is odd for him to want. He also announces a search for the missing audio tape. Doland takes The Doctor to a safe in Laskys office. The safe is locked but Doland had the tape all along. He gets the gun The Doctor has set down to examine the safe. He vows that he will get the Vervoids to Earth to be used as slaves. The Vervoids hear this. But The Doctor had disarmed the gun. Doland runs, to be caught by guards, who all then get killed by Vervoids. 

Laskey believes there was a DNA malfunction in the Vervoids. They talk about how they want to kill all animal kind. Co-existence wouldn't work. Travers begs The Doctor's undivided commitment to help. In trial, The Doctor uses this to show he did not interfere, and The Inquisitor agrees. The Valeyard, however, prefers to await the outcome. Ingredients to make an herbicide have been destroyed. Lasky tried to reason with the Vervoids and is killed. A crewman kills a Vervoid, a Vervoid kills a crewman. The Doctor and Mel find the Vervoid's body pile. This upsets Mel. The Doctor tries to calm her by likening it to a compost heap. As they all try to fight off the Vervoids, The Doctor gets the idea of using the metal the Mogarians were after, a mineral that could release intense light and carbon dioxide to accelerate their life cycle. They fake a generator fault and shut down main lighting. The Vervoids retreat. The Doctor and Mel listen to them, but one finds Mel. She screams and releases the mineral. There are bright lights and negative lights. The Vervoids collapse, wither, and die. Thank yous all around and The Doctor and Mel leave. In trial The Doctor admitted that none of the creatures survived. The Valeyard is excited. He now says it is no longer a matter of meddling, but that it was now an issue of breaking article 7 of Gallifreyan law. The Doctor objects. The Valeyard says no exceptions, this was now a case of genocide. 

Next: The concluding story for "The Trial of a Timelord": "The Ultimate Foe"