The twenty-third season of British science fiction television series Doctor Who, known collectively as The Trial of a Time Lord, aired in weekly episodes from 6 September to 6 December 1986. It contained four adventures: The Mysterious Planet, Mindwarp, Terror of the Vervoids and The Ultimate Foe; the season also marked the final regular appearance of Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor.

The idea for the serial stemmed from several production changes to Doctor Who, such as reduced screen time for the season and an instruction from BBC1 controller Michael Grade that the series needed to contain less violence and more humour. Several problems occurred during production, including the death of scriptwriter Robert Holmes and the resignation of script editor Eric Saward. When it ended, Baker was dismissed from the role, according to some sources on the orders of Grade, although he has denied this. John Nathan-Turner produced the series.

Synopsis

In the serial, the Sixth Doctor is tried by the High Council of Time Lords for breaking several of the laws of Gallifrey, the Time Lords' home world, including interference with outside worlds and genocide. A mysterious character called the Valeyard acts as prosecutor. In the first two chapters (The Mysterious Planet and Mindwarp) events from the Doctor's past and present are submitted as evidence of his guilt. The third chapter (Terror of the Vervoids) presents future events in the Doctor's defence. In the concluding chapter (The Ultimate Foe) the Doctor's trial is halted, and the Doctor confronts the Valeyard and his old rival, the Master, in order to clear his name and to save the High Council.

Casting

Main cast

  • Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor
  • Nicola Bryant as Peri Brown
  • Bonnie Langford as Melanie Bush

Colin Baker makes his final appearance as the Doctor in this longest-running serial before being dismissed from the role by the BBC.

|viewersR = and was planned to open the original 23rd series. Nathan-Turner hoped to have Matthew Robinson direct the adventure. When the hiatus was announced, Nathan-Turner asked Williams to continue with the story, but as four 25-minute episodes. After the complete cancellation of the original season, Williams wrote a novelisation of the script which was published by Target Books in May 1989. It was later adapted by John Ainsworth for Big Finish Productions as part of their The Lost Stories series in November 2009.

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Revised Season 23

200px|thumb|Title card as used in this season

Although Doctor Who had been recommissioned, it yet again underwent a format change, with episodes reduced in length back to 25 minutes, and the full season running to only 14 episodes (a total of 350 minutes' running time), which worked out at almost half the total of Season 22. As a consequence, the production team were forced to abandon the various serials that had been commissioned for the original Season 23, and instead come up with something new. John Nathan-Turner and Eric Saward eventually came up with the idea of having the various serials linked with an overarching narrative—this led to the conception of a trial story with A Christmas Carol-inspired "past, present, and future" storyline,

Holmes was unable to finish writing the fourth chapter, originally called Time Inc., before his death from a liver illness and Hepatitis B on 24 May 1986, aged 59. David J. Howe and Stephen James Walker, authors of Doctor Who: The Television Companion, disagreed, arguing that the serial was a "monumental wasted opportunity". They disapproved of the trial storyline, being unconvinced that a prosecutor "in any reasonable legal system" would be allowed to modify charges and court proceedings mid-trial. However, they did find the meta-humour of "the Doctor effectively sitting down to watch Doctor Who for fourteen weeks" amusing if repetitive, and praised Baker's acting. Both reviews found that the trial scenes detracted from the chapter story arcs.

Reviews of the individual chapters were also mixed. Although appreciative of the acting of Brian Blessed in Mindwarp, Cornell, Day and Topping argued that the script lacked focus, "[trying] to be comic, grotesque, straight, and farcical all at the same time". Howe and Walker were more favourable towards the script, citing the re-appearance of Sil as positive, and hailing Peri's off-screen death as "one of the most dramatic and impressive moments of the entire season" and Bryant's best scene since The Caves of Androzani. Both reviews judged Terror of the Vervoids to be a well-written story, although Cornell, Day and Topping criticised the dialogue, and Howe and Walker were unimpressed by Bonnie Langford in her performance as Melanie Bush.

Bibliography

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