The Trial of a Time Lord - episodes 1 to 4 : The Mysterious Planet

The TARDIS is yanked out of time and space, and the Doctor emerges into a courtroom on a massive space station. With a jury of distinguished Time Lords as witness, and the Inquistitor overseeing, the Doctor is accused of meddling in the affairs of other planets but the court prosecutor, the Valeyard. The Doctor tries to dodge the trial by using his status as Lord President of Gallifrey but he is informed by the Inquisitor that in his absence from his post, he has been deposed. Still confused from being pulled through the vortex, and without Peri at his side, the Doctor watches as his journey to the planet Ravalox is presented as evidence; a robot master oversees a small human population of the planet - which is revealed to be Earth following a devastating solar flare - while a small band of humans live on the surface above. Enter the unscrupulous Sabalom Glitz and his associate Dibber; mercenaries here on a mission of their own, although their presence results in a crisis endangering not only Ravalox, but untold millions across the galaxy.

The parallel between the plight of the series at the time and the Doctor's own plight is not a secret; Doctor Who had been off the air since the conclusion of Revelation of the Daleks and its return some 18 months later was looked upon as the show's last chance to redeem itself and regain momentum. The entire umbrella theme of the Trial would run the entire twenty-third season, all 14 episodes (half the regular length of the series) and would feature a new villain (the Valeyard), a new, if somewhat weak, version of the main theme song, a new companion, and an overweight leading man now barely being contained by his multicoloured costume. There would also be no more use of film on location shoots, and the entire show was recorded on video, somewhat cheapening the overall look of the production.

The first four episodes are collectively known as The Mysterious Planet, penned by series veteran Robert Holmes, and it comes with everything one would expect from him: comedy double act, cracking dialogue between the characters, and a good rapport between the series regulars - which came as a relief to fans who tired of seeing the Doctor and Peri snipe at each other. The revelation that Ravalox is actually Earth and that it is in the wrong part of the galaxy comes as a huge blow to Peri; this is the first time she comes face to face with the mortality of her home planet. The death of the planet itself has been hinted at before; in The Ark Earth is seen being burned to a cinder by the sun, and more recently a solar flare drove mankind away from the planet as documented in The Ark in Space. How this latest destruction of Earth scenario fits into that continuity remains to be seen, although there are theories. Is Nerva Beacon in orbit over Ravalox right now? Is there a Sontaran lurking elsewhere on the planet? Actually, geographically the location is not far off from where the Doctor claimed to have arrived in The Sontaran Experiment ; he claimed the transmat circle was near Trafalgar Square, and in The Mysterious Planet the Doctor and Peri come to discover the abandoned ruin of Marble Arch station in the London Underground (realized a bit better than the stations in The Web of Fear).

How about that cast. Glitz and Dibber are not just there by chance; they've been sent for something specific and they already know about Ravalox's true identity. Katryca, the Queen of the Free, wants her people to live without fear of Drathro, the robot that runs the underworld and terrorizes his workforce. Merdeen, one of Drathro's henchmen, knows that there are free people on the surface and secretly allows Drathro's slaves to escape, and he sees the Doctor's arrival as just the help he needs to free everyone. Sitting in the courtroom, the Inquisitor is pretty impartial to the hearing although one can detect her Time Lord sensibilities being offended by the accusations against the Doctor; she keeps both the Doctor and the Valeyard in check though. As for the Valeyard, exactly who this oily dark character is remains to be seen; his contempt for the Doctor is onbious as he suggests that the Doctor face a capital punishment for his crimes if found guilty, contending that the Doctor's previous trial in The War Games dealt him far too lenient a sentence (the Valeyard is obviously not a revisionist, as the Doctor's supposed limbo and employ as an agent of the Time Lords prior to his exile would not be a lenient sentence at all).

The case against the Doctor seems flimsy, though, even to a casual observer, and it's obvious even without knowing that there are 10 more episodes of this to come that there is something else going on. Jay and I of course knew this so we chatted aimiably through the whole thing, remarking at how nice it was to see the Doctor and Peri actually talking for a change, even if Peri had made some sad fashion choices. We both agreed that Dibber is hotter than Glitz, and both look like they were hanging out in some gay bar when they were hired for the job. There has been much criticism that Drathro and his L1 robot cohort look like Capsela robots at worst and Transformers at best, but the sheer size of them against the BBC budget would make it hard to build them convincingly.

Anyways. There's more to come.

NEXT EPISODE : THE TRIAL OF A TIME LORD - MINDWARP