Episodes
The series remained at once-weekly Saturday broadcasts. All episodes were 25 minutes long. Although there were now 14 episodes in the season, the total running time was significantly reduced since the episodes were just over half as long.
| Story No. | Episodes | Title | Directed by | Written by | UK viewers (million) |
AI (%) |
Original air date | Production code |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 143a | 1–4 | The Mysterious Planet | Nicholas Mallett | Robert Holmes | Ep. 1: 4.9 Ep. 2: 4.9 Ep. 3: 3.9 Ep. 4: 3.7 |
Ep. 1: 72 Ep. 2: 69 Ep. 3: 70 Ep. 4: 72 |
6–27 September 1986 | 7A |
|
The first episode begins with a motion-control special effect sequence depicting the Doctor's TARDIS being plucked out of time and space. The Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker) is charged with breaking the First Law of Time—a law forbidding interference in alien worlds—by the High Council of Gallifrey. In his prosecution, the Valeyard (Michael Jayston) presents the transgressions in the style of flashbacks on a video screen, depicting the Doctor’s past adventures with companion Peri Brown (Nicola Bryant). As the trial progresses, the Doctor becomes suspicious about evidence being censored and his TARDIS being bugged. In the first flashback presented by the Valeyard, the Doctor and Peri arrive on the tribal planet Ravolox, about two million years in the future. The Doctor notes a similarity between Ravolox and Earth, with objects from Earth − notably Marble Arch tube station and the novel Moby Dick − present on Ravolox. The only apparent astronomical difference between the two is Ravolox's position in the galaxy Meanwhile, rogue Sabalom Glitz (Tony Selby) attempts to obtain hidden secrets and advanced technology that are guarded by a robot. The Doctor is forced to deactivate the robot’s unstable power supply to avoid a chain reaction that threatens the universe, but in the process the secrets are destroyed. As he leaves Ravolox, the Doctor wonders why Earth appears to have been moved several million light years from its original position. |
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| 143b | 5–8 | Mindwarp | Ron Jones | Philip Martin | Ep. 5: 4.8 Ep. 6: 4.6 Ep. 7: 5.1 Ep. 8: 5.0 |
Ep. 5: 71 Ep. 6: 69 Ep. 7: 66 Ep. 8: 72 |
4–25 October 1986 | 7B |
|
The Valeyard presents his second piece of evidence: The Doctor and Peri's activities on Thoros Beta immediately before the trial. The flashback shows the Doctor investigating arms sales, where he sees his old adversary Sil (Nabil Shaban). Sil's race, the Mentors, are revealed to have been supplying Yrcanos (Brian Blessed), the local king of a primitive culture, with advanced weaponry. Meanwhile, a scientist, Crozier (Patrick Ryecart), is preparing for surgery on Kiv (Christopher Ryan), an influential Mentor whose brain is expanding. The Doctor is portrayed as self-serving and unconcerned with Peri’s welfare during the flashback, as he appears to help Crozier and the Mentors by betraying Peri and Yrcanos. This uncharacteristic behavior convinces the Doctor that the evidence has been altered. When the Doctor learns that Peri has been chosen as the new host for Kiv’s brain, he allies with Yrcanos to kill the Mentors. However, before he can attack he is captured by the High Council, resulting in Peri's death. |
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| 143c | 9–12 | Terror of the Vervoids | Chris Clough | Pip and Jane Baker | Ep. 9: 5.2 Ep. 10: 4.6 Ep. 11: 5.3 Ep. 12: 5.3 |
Ep. 9: 66 Ep. 10: 69 Ep. 11: 69 Ep. 12: 69 |
1–22 November 1986 | 7C |
|
The Doctor is allowed to present evidence in his defence. He chooses events from the future, in hopes that it will prove he has reformed. During the presentation, some details appear altered from what the Doctor reviewed, furthering his suspicions that evidence is being tampered with. In the year 2986, the Doctor and his new companion Mel (Bonnie Langford) answer a distress call from the interstellar ship Hyperion III. The ship is sabotaged and people are dying at the hands of the Vervoids, plant-like humanoids whom the Doctor learns were genetically engineered to be slaves. Although the Doctor and Mel are able to stop the Vervoids, he admits that none of the Vervoids survived the voyage. The Valeyard then charges the Doctor with genocide. |
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| 143d | 13–14 | The Ultimate Foe | Chris Clough | Robert Holmes (Part 13) Pip and Jane Baker (Part 14) |
Ep. 13: 4.4 Ep. 14: 5.6 |
Ep. 13: 69 Ep. 14: 69 |
29 November–6 December 1986 | 7C |
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The Doctor claims that the Matrix has been altered, and the Keeper of the Matrix (James Bree) is called. Seconds later, the Master (Anthony Ainley) appears on the Matrix’s screen, proving that it can be infiltrated. Sabalom Glitz and Mel are called as witnesses to the Doctor's defence, and they inform the Doctor of the Council's actions. The secrets Glitz sought had been stolen from the Time Lords, and Earth was ravaged and moved to preserve them. The Doctor was used as a scapegoat to hide the incident, and the Valeyard—an amalgam of the Doctor's evil personalities from between his 12th and final regeneration —was offered the Doctor's remaining regenerations. To ensure a guilty verdict from a neutral jury, the Valeyard falsified evidence. The Valeyard escapes to the Matrix, followed by the Doctor and Glitz. The Doctor's attempts to prevent the Valeyard from killing the High Council are stopped by the Master, who wants to dispose of the Doctor and seize power. The Doctor thwarts the Valeyard by causing the destruction of the Matrix archive. The Inquisitor (Lynda Bellingham) then clears the Doctor of all charges and offers him the Time Lord presidency, which he declines, suggesting that she run instead. After he leaves, she asks the Keeper of the Matrix to make repairs; the Keeper then turns to the camera, revealing his face to be that of the Valeyard. |
Read more about this topic: The Trial Of A Time Lord
Famous quotes containing the word episodes:
“What is a novel if not a conviction of our fellow-men’s existence strong enough to take upon itself a form of imagined life clearer than reality and whose accumulated verisimilitude of selected episodes puts to shame the pride of documentary history?”
—Joseph Conrad (1857–1924)
“Twenty or thirty years ago, in the army, we had a lot of obscure adventures, and years later we tell them at parties, and suddenly we realize that those two very difficult years of our lives have become lumped together into a few episodes that have lodged in our memory in a standardized form, and are always told in a standardized way, in the same words. But in fact that lump of memories has nothing whatsoever to do with our experience of those two years in the army and what it has made of us.”
—Václav Havel (b. 1936)