6.10: Mindwarp

In which Doctor Who inverts The Caves of Androzani. Almost.

Broadcast: October 1986

Watched: January 2021

The Trial of a Time Lord, Part Five

Which should obviously be Mindwarp 1 but whatever. Nice to see them getting more use out of that expensive model shot, too. Is this because it allowed them to split the cost across multiple stories?

I like the way, in the court, the Doctor is only half focused when the Valeyard does his interruption on, “Who else is there?” Like he’s distracted trying to work out where Peri is. Meanwhile, in the story within a story, there’s a sort of subtext that Peri is genuinely quite traumatised by everything she’s seen and been through – at one point she basically begs the Doctor to leave, and he ignores her. The “There have been many companions and only one me” line is also very weasley. This should be a story about the Doctor screwing up and getting his friend killed, a sort of inversion of Androzani.

But of course, we know they’re not going to play that note either.

Oh GOD this is what Moffat does with season 9 isn’t it? The Capaldi era really is an attempt to do the Colin one right.

No matter, there’s lots to love here. Brian Blessed. “The, er, skedaddle test.” The shots of Thoros Beta, with the weird colour effects, are genuinely beautiful. I like that the Valeyard gives an exact date for the story (it’s 3rd July, 2379, apparently). I like that we start in media res – they’ve already met a war lord and got a macguffin. 

It’s funny how the Mentors are basically Ferengi, but invented two years earlier – both reactions to ‘80s politics? The Mentors are also sort of the US military-industrial-foreign policy complex, providing weapons and development funding and literally changing minds.

I’m still not wild about the racial politics of all the attendants being black. The Lukosa is pathetic, in a literal sense. 

Also, I’ve only just realised that Bryant is in two more episodes of Doctor Who than Colin.

The Trial of a Time Lord, Part Six

“What’s happened to you, Doctor? Why do you hate me so?”

Okay, the Valeyard is taunting the Doctor in a way that *could* be explained by guilt here. The Doctor’s distress at not being able to remember what happens next is quite unsettling.

Also – the idea that the Doctor would turn on his friends is a lot more plausible after the last season and a bit than it was before. There’s sort of thematic resonance in making this Peri’s last story but bloody hell, the interrogation scene with her chained to a rock as the tide comes in is *horrible*.

“On my planet of Krontep, a warrior queen fights alongside her king.” “We’re not on your planet.” “It doesn’t matter, the rule still applies.” I quite like the vaguely Japanese design of Yrcanos’ costume.

Patrick Ryecart is 34 when he plays Crozier. This isn’t a “christ we’re old” comment (though we are), it’s a “bloody hell people aged differently in the old days didn’t they” comment. Although he doesn’t *look* old really, he’s just doing the voice of a much older man.

Sil is quite well-characterised as a bully, the way he sucks up to those above him in the hierarchy even as he’s shitty towards underlings.

The Trial of a Time Lord, Part Seven

Good. Rising sense of dread, even if there’s relatively little plot happening.

I’m not buying Peri’s “I used to think you were different” speech. He’s been shitty to her too often. Fake evidence, I reckon. [People have been trying to work out which bits of this story actually happened and which are unreliable narrator stuff since 1986.] That said, “I would never want to harm Peri” doesn’t work because *we’ve literally seen him harm her* and he’s never accounted for it.

Love the primaeval sting stuff. The Doctor being an actual doctor is very compelling. Crozier taking a sip of tea, mid sentence, while Kiv goes into cardiac arrest is one of my favourite moments in all Doctor Who – so natural amidst the madness. Kiv screaming when he wakes up and sees Sil is great too.

The way Dorf cries like a dog is genuinely upsetting.

I quite like the way, even when the Doctor is playing at capitalism, he’s looking for ways to be generous and expansionary. Also that it’s disgust at the way Sil eats that starts to reset his brain.

The last exchange between Doctor and Valeyard, about responsibility for the rebels being shot down, is the closest we’ve yet come to the fight with the Doctor’s own conscience we *should* be watching. Unusual choice for a cliffhanger, too.

The Trial of a Time Lord, Part Eight

“Is... Peri dead?” Oh god this is actually cruel. This episode starts with an affirmation that she’s alive, and then...

The whole thing is structured like a tragedy. The reversals as the Doctor seems back to normal, starts a rebellion, gets captured, escapes again; the minor loss as Dorf dies and Yrcanos mourns... but everything is just a little bit too late, a little bit too slow. And then he’s taken out of time, and we see that expensive model shot again.

I was going to say “is this an influence on World Enough & Time” but they’re both just riffing on Romeo & Juliet really so probably not.

Two things I’d missed on previous viewings:

1) The way it’s the contents of Kiv’s brain, not the brain itself, that’s transferred leaves the door open to Peri surviving (Kiv as Peri is horrible, mind);

2) The story ends with the Time Lords actively interfering – I don’t think the idea Crozier was doing something that requires this was built up enough; also I feel that hypocrisy should be more of a part of the trial than it gets to be.

Colin’s final courtroom scene shows how, even though I’ve warmed to him, he’s not quite got the power for this job. This should be the most powerful moment for his Doctor, and he just looks a bit winded. Oh well, he’ll be gone soon.

Other things:

Peri explaining love to Yrcanos, to the most ‘80s music you’ve ever heard, really shouldn’t work but actually kind of does? I think because Yrcanos starts gleefully talking about death, it immediately undercuts itself.

The Doctor frantically rushing off to find someone to die in Peri’s place should be far more disturbing than the episode allows it to be. Also a bit weird the only person he finds is Tuza, who was on the table when he left the operating theatre. Was this meant to be two characters? Ditto Matrona Kani being Crozier’s nurse and a sort of chief maid, I feel like they’re doubling up.

I really like the grumpy old mentor who just wants quiet. The dancing slaves whose control is breaking down are hilarious and not in a good way.

The chirpy way Peri says “So I’m fit and healthy, huh?” is quite upsetting too.

Sil is a very different character here than he was in Varos; this is a very different story to Varos, albeit one with some shared concerns. Shame we didn’t get more Philip Martin – I think he’s an interesting voice.