Day 653: The Trial of a Time Lord Part 14 - The Ultimate Foe Part 2

This episode isn't great. There's a good reason for that though. Script editor Eric Saward is not one of Producer John Nathan-Turner's greatest pals. They disagreed fundamentally on the direction in which the series would be going, and this all came to a head when the conclusion to The Trial of a Time Lord came to be written. Saward envisioned something written akin to Holmes's original vision for the ending of the story, which would involve a cliffhanger ending where the Doctor would be trapped in a battle with the Valeyard for all eternity. Nathan-Turner disagreed with this, which proved to be the final straw for Saward, thus he tendered his resignation and left the programme entirely whilst bad-mouthing the production office to anyone who will listen. It's a shame to lose Saward, as he's been getting progressively better as the series has been going on, but there's no denying the fact that the stories have been less consistent in terms of quality over his time as script editor, so I guess that maybe his decision will force some new life to come into the programme.

Unfortunately, that new life is Pip and Jane Baker, who were rushed in to complete this story. They aren't the most imaginative of writers, generally striving for mediocrity instead of quality. And aside from a nice sequence at the beginning featuring the Valeyard and some clever editing, and another scene involving a bait-and-switch and the Trial sequence, there's not too much to recommend this story about.

And yet, I still love this story with every fibre of my being. I love it because it's a story that's all about remembering how to write good Doctor Who stories after four series with such uneven quality as to make me consider throwing in the towel and stopping this blog altogether (I'm looking at you, Time-Flight). We've got a story in The Mysterious Planet that reminds us of how Doctor Who can be fun without being a terrible story. We've got a story in Mindwarp that reminds us of how Doctor Who can be scary without resorting to a blood-bath. We've got a story in Terror of the Vervoids that reminds us of how Doctor Who can rise above design problems, provided that the idea is strong enough. We've got a story in The Ultimate Foe that reminds us of how Doctor Who can be weird, without being incomprehensible. And above all else, we've got a story in The Trial of a Time Lord that reminds us that Doctor Who can be utterly fantastic. All I can say is, I cannot wait until tomorrow, to see what's in store in this absolutely fantastic series.