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Doctor Who - The Trial Of A Time Lord [1986] [1963]


RRP: £49.99
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Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review

Few of Doctor Who’s long-standing fans will tell you that The Trial Of A Time Lord is a story that hits their top ten list, and with good reason. A 14-episode opus that formed an entire series of Colin Baker’s reign in the Tardis, it’s a patchy production, that does have some qualities to it, but is probably one for the hardened Who fan rather than the casual viewer.

The key to the story is that the Doctor is on trial, facing a potential death penalty, and the courtroom saga works as a backdrop to a collection of stories that sit on top. So there’s The Mysterious Planet, which is a decent enough yarn, the weak and puzzling Mindwarp, the surprisingly enjoyable Terror Of The Vervoids, and then the twisty The Ultimate Foe.

While The Trial Of A Time Lord does have a few notable missteps, with some occasionally muddled writing, and while it does introduce arguably the worst companion the Doctor has ever travelled with (Bonnie Langford’s Mel), it’s still a fascinating series to watch, warts and all. Fortunately, it’s backed by a substantive collection of extras, including numerous commentaries and documentaries, that provide an honest glance back at a story that arrived in the midst of one of Doctor Who’s most troubled periods. All that, ultimately, makes it a worthwhile purchase for Who fans, even if after reacquainting themselves with it, they’re still not likely to put The Trial Of A Time Lord near their aforementioned top ten list… --Jon Foster


BETTER THAN EXPECTED!
Review date: 2008-11-03 Rating: 8 out of 10

We've all heard the naff reviews over the years, my advice? Ignore them and check this out!
Negatives first-yes, the courtroom scenes can drag (but we soon lose those throughout the series) and some of the acting is dross (that's what you get employing theatre luvvies)
Positives-Colin Baker (top form, should have stayed on),the storylines (varying)and a superb ending.
By the end of this, you really wish the 6th Doctor would have remainied on and even Bonnie Langford seems less irritating from the series first 80s airing.
Loads of extras, good all-round boxset.

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Reviews


"Objections sustained, or overruled"
Review date: 2008-10-27 Rating: 6 out of 10

Fun stories but a long way from classics. Slightly the epic that never was as the defiance of reflecting the BBC attitude to the show in the stories needed stranger scripts to sustain it. Breaking away from stories to come back to the courtroom does slow things down a lot. With an actor of Michael Jayston's calibre playing the prosecuting Valeyard we get some dramatic confrontations, but on the whole trial scenes are samey.
A thankless but necessary role for Linda Bellingham playing the inquisitor made up like a young Barbara Cartland and whittering on about court procedure! At 1 point I noticed an extra looking like Leonard Sachs playing Borusa, maybe they found him in a cupboard!
After some top notch FX summoning the Tardis to court and a scene establishing the trial we're in to the 1st of the stoires that the Timelords have matrix pirated copies of.
Celebrated writer Robert Holmes' last complete story "The Mysterious Planet" is sadly not his best, but he was v ill at the time. Better than Power of Kroll or Space Pirates he offers a slightly Planet of the Apes post apocalypse scenario with good characters (especially Glitz darker than in later offerings and dear old Katryca too), wit and crsip dialogue. What it lacks is energy.
On the production side there's a terrific robot design in Drathro (although the L1 looks a bit Wallace & Grommit!), and a spectacular location for the tribal huts.
Philip Martin's "Mindwarp" works better in spite of itself, the finished script is a bit of a mess. The sheer energy plus the direction and performances really lift it. Patricularly noteworthy are returning character Sil played by Nabil Shaban, his weary boss Kiv played by Staal from Sontaran Strategm: Christopher Ryan, the loud and lovely Brian Blessed and Patrick Ryecart as Crozier, the scientist dipping into Dr Moreau's(1)xmas bumper books of cruel experiments. His measured insanity is even menacing when he's drinking tea!
Colouring the sky to look alien & the pink sea is terrific. Pink must be the official respray colour of the look at the old Terileptil costume.
Watch for Martha's dad as Trevor Laird plays a guard!
"Terror of the Vervoids" is a fun bit of fluff, a lightweight but very enjoyable whodunnit in space. It goes a bit Terence Dudley with red herrings but is pacy and entertaining.
The Vervoids are a silly monster with a head that I can't describe in case children are reading. Oddly on original transmission, we never noticed!
"The Ultimate Foe" is the best bit, as the Valeyard's true nature is revealed for a showdown inside the fantasy world of the matrix. The Doctor gets help from 2 unlikely sources; Glitz (again marvellously played by Tony Selby) and the Master. Anthony Ainley's Master is at his best just enjoying the events and waiting for a chance to do the Doctor/Valeyard or both in. One of Ainley's most relaxed and charming portrayals, his scens with Glitz are a joy.

Uncle Colin gives some of his best work in this season. Witness when he comforts Peri that her Earth is safe whatever happens in the future (long before a similar scene in End of the World) and his reaction to her "death". Just 2 examples, there are many more.
The Doctor and Peri get a warmer relationship in Mysterious Planet but are shortchanged in Mindwarp. Even before the Doctor is damaged by an interrogation machine, he has taken Peri to the home planet of Sil without even warning her and jokes about her nearly being transmogrified into a bird!
In story 2 & 3 it's never really resolved what is making the Doctor act out of character and this weakens Colin's good work.
SPOILER ALERT!
I think this is pretty well known now but having killed Peri off chillingly in "Mindwarp" they reverse it in "Ultimate Foe" never explaining what actually happened in Mindwarp.
Sorry but at the time Bonnie Langford was miscast. She never gives bad performances but is announcing her lines rather than naturally delivering them Ultimate Foe.To be fair she has some awful lines to work with and made me eat my words by being so good in Big Finish CDs.

A ton of extras, Uncle Colin gives great commentaries for every episode with various others and they talk about plot points that Philip Martin wrote into Mindwarp that got left out, location work,wheeler dealer Geoffrey Hughes & what was Colin's last scene recorded. Eric Saward does lone commentaries for episode 1 and 13 of the season, remembering how he acted out of mourning at the time after Holmes'death.
There is a 4 part documentary, 1 part for each story & they are good if a little short. As per usual there are some gems like Dominic Glynn's explanation of how he came to creat the new version of the theme & even though I think his version's weak, I still found it interesting.
Show piece doc "Trials & Tribulations" covers the Colin Baker era and is full of treats like how Colin hated his costume, that charity record, how he loved his role of course and the sound bites from Jonathan Powell giving the real lowdown on why the show was cancelled and whether fan protests made a difference.
"Now get out of that" is a fun look at cliffhangers right up to the current version of the show.
There are many pieces of contemporary footage Blue Peter, Superstore & Wogan plus music videos inclduing the infamous charity record.
Deleted scens are mostly wisely cut courtroom action.

There is noting new form Lynda Bellingham, nabil Shaban or Bonnie Llangford all are in archive stuff.There's a lot of Pip N'Jane Baker who remind me of Neil & Christine Hamilton.

A great package of stories that are more for big Colin fans than others but if you can find it at a good price the extras are so good you'll be bound to find something you like.
1) See The Island of Dr Moreau by H.G.Wells

Surprisingly good
Review date: 2008-10-08 Rating: 10 out of 10

I didn't expect nothing good of this. The trial of a Time Lord has a very poor fame, and the idea I had so far was that this was a huge crap. Well, after watching it camly, I don't agree. OK, it is a flawed show: The mysterious planet is routinely done, Mindwarp improves greatly, but Brian Blessed is completely over the top, Terror of the Vervoids is highly watchable if you don't start making questions (err, from the future? And "edited"? COME ON!!), and The ultimate foe gave us one of the best stories for Ainley's Master but leaves lots of plot holes. After watching the making of each program, I must say the final result is surprisingly good, considering the amount of trouble the production team had to face.
Colin Baker is much more relaxed and mellow here than in the previous season, and I must say that he plays the "crazy Doctor" (in Mindwarp) ten times better than Tom Baker in The invasion of time, when I have to wait until the Production notes and commentary to realize he was simulating he was insane. The rest of the cast has very good acting (Nabil Shaban, Patrick Ryecart, Honor Blackman) and very bad (Joan Sims, Bonnie Langford)
The trial of a Time Lord is not the best Doctor Who story, not even the best of Colin Baker's tenure. But it has moments that are amongst the best of the original series (Nicola Bryant's departure, the initial shot, the cliffhanger from part 9 to 10, the cliffhanger from part 13 to 14...)


TIME TRIAL
Review date: 2008-10-03 Rating: 6 out of 10

TRIAL OF A TIME LORD is never going to win awards as the greatest piece of television ever made, and certainly when you realise it was supposed to be a relaunch of the show after an enforced absence, you tend to find that it's essentially much the same as before. Having had the VHS for a while and not having watched it often, I didn't regard this as an essential purchase, and wouldn't see it as the best way to be introduced to old-style DOCTOR WHO, but ultimately it was a very enjoyable purchase as TRIAL OF A TIME LORD has simply never looked better. The picture and sound quality are so much better than the VHS release, and the excellent extras package gives a fair and honest appraisal of the series as it was at the time, and you are left with the sense of professional people really trying their best and giving their all to produce the best show they could. That it ultimately fails to live up to their expectations is a shame, but it's by no means the total turkey that people would have you believe. It was never going to be the sci-fi equivalent of Bochco's MURDER ONE for example, but then that's not what DOCTOR WHO is supposed to be, and as a few hours' entertainment for youngsters it has thrills, tragedy, humour and a certain intelligence that you would like to see in more modern dramas aimed at that age group. Be aware though, of the PG certificate, there are some bits that parents might consider too gruesome for their children (the children will, of course, love those bits!)

A good story, Mindwarp was terrible though.
Review date: 2008-10-02 Rating: 8 out of 10

Well Doctor Who story Trial of a Time Lord is good, the dr basically gets involved in court for interfering with other worlds, basically he had already doen this before, they exiled him to Earth and made Patrick Troughton regenrate into Jon Pertwee, these two doctors are good doctors, i mean colin baker wasnt a very bad dr, but he was a bad dr in his 1st season, and basically they probably put him in trial because they wanted to disrespect the "true" classic dr who stories of the 60s and the 70s with the new ones of the 80s, now peter davison is a good dr with a good era and so is sylvester mccoy. Colin Baker was the last good dr with the least good era. Now as for the story. The first part is The Mysterious Planet, this is good, the court is witnessing some of the doctors life events, and the dr visits the planet ravalox. This stoory is well written. Minwarp after this, a condfusing story, terrible. All the other parts were very good. Basically id reccomend stories from the new series and the jon pertwee and tom baker eras, i suppose the last DVD a collecctor should buy are terrible stories like Four to Doomsday.

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Colin Baker

Creators:
Colin Baker (Primary Contributor)

Recording label: 2 Entertain Video
Manufacturer: 2 Entertain Video
EAN: 5014503242220
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 4
Format: PAL,
Release date: 2008-09-29
Audience rating: Parental Guidance
Region code: 2
Running time: 349 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1963

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