Day 647: The Trial of a Time Lord Part 8 - Mindwarp Part 4

The general conceit of Mindwarp is that, at the end of Part 1, the Doctor undergoes a sudden brain trauma that leaves him on the side of evil rather than good. It's distressing to watch, particularly as events proceed in such a manner to suggest that we may have passed the point of no return, and that all might be lost. Fortunately, however, halfway through Part 3, the Doctor regains his full mental faculties and begins to create a resistance movement. He also has to now save Peri, who is now facing the prospect of having her entire mind wiped and replaced with that of Kiv, Sil's boss.

And, 10 minutes from the end of Part 4, it would appear that all is proceeding as planned. But then the Time Lords capture the Doctor, and take him away to be put on trial. And, after that, everything goes wrong. Peri dies. The transplant between Kiv's mind and her mind was successful, and her entire consciousness ceases to be. There are rare moments when the series gets as dark as this, where the Doctor's companion and friend dies as a result of the Doctor's negligence and inability to save them.

But this moment had to happen, to show the impact of the Doctor's actions, and how it could perhaps lead to moments such as this. And, for a brief second, we understand fully why the Doctor is on trial, and leads us to the conclusion that perhaps he should be found guilty, because if he caused this, then maybe he should be punished.

Day 646: The Trial of a Time Lord Part 7 - Mindwarp Part 3

A small thing grabbed my attention when I first watched this episode, and is, in my opinion, one of the most absolutely lovely parts of the story. Now, there exists a character called Crozier, who is currently trying to perform a brain transplant for Kiv, an alien creature who acts as Sil's boss. Now, at one point in the story, Crozier is standing around in his lab, having a cup of tea, whilst observing Kiv. His assistant then notices something odd and asks for Crozier's opinion. Crozier, remaining spookily calm, begins to say what the problem is, finishes his cup of tea, and then completes his sentence, saying that Kiv is going into cardiac arrest.

It's a small moment in the story, but it's an example of why I'm so fond of the character of Crozier. He's clearly a mad scientist, but he underplays his insane side so much that one could see him as perfectly normal. The only problem is, the work that he is doing is so abnormal that it reveals his true madness. It's all thanks to the performance by Patrick Ryecart, who underplays everything so well that it creates a truly believable mad scientist (unlike, say, Professor Zaroff in The Underwater Menace), which greatly improves the quality of this story and helps me to enjoy it again once more.

Day 645: The Trial of a Time Lord Part 6 - Mindwarp Part 2

Yesterday, I mentioned how unnerving this story is, and how I struggled to find much fun in it. For the most part, this continued for this episode, as I was frequently unnerved, and on one occasion thoroughly frightened by what was on screen in front of me. But, there was one thing which I'd somehow neglected to think about when considering whether this story had much fun within it. That thing is, of course, BRIAN BLESSED.

BRIAN BLESSED is one of those actors who instantly improves anything that he appears in, through his charismatic and loud portrayals of various characters such as Prince Vultan in Flash Gordon, Boss Nass in The Phantom Menace (a thoroughly underrated film, in my opinion) and of course King Yrcanos in Mindwarp. Every scene that he is in involves him shouting his dialogue before threatening violence on someone. And whilst this may not be a fully fleshed out 3-dimensional character, it is still something that you can't quite draw your eyes away from. It vastly improves this story, and helps to remind me of why I fell in love with it in the first place.

Day 644: The Trial of a Time Lord Part 5 - Mindwarp Part 1

There's a large part of me that finds the process of watching Mindwarp rather odd. Because, after watching it for the first time at the age of 18, I believe that this was my favourite Doctor Who story of all time. Now, this isn't the case at the moment (I'd give that honour to either Kinda, The Ribos Operation or Frontier in Space), so I'm watching this story being fully aware that I once loved it, and I'm struggling to see why.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think that this story is bad. I actually think it's rather good, it's just that I can't really see the parts of this story that made me love it a couple of years ago, compared to now. For a start, everything is remarkably dark in tone, with everything feeling just that bit more serious and slightly unnerving, such as Peri's reaction to meeting Sil again where she gets noticeably more worried and frightened of this creature. And whilst this is well played, it doesn't quite make me love this story, instead it leaves me rather distressed. But I'm still curious to see more of this adventure, and I'll see whether I can rediscover the point where I fell in love with this story.

Day 643: The Trial of a Time Lord Part 4 - The Mysterious Planet Part 4

The dichotomy at the heart of the climax of The Mysterious Planet is one which reflects the nature of Doctor Who at the moment. Around five minutes in, Queen Katryca gets horrifically killed, with the end result being that her entire body gets covered in blood in a rather nasty experience. This is contrasted later on in the story when Balazar, another ally of the Doctor's gets covered in a green gunge, as if he's just won the Kids' Choice Award on Nickelodeon. The dichotomy present is that between the two ways in which Doctor Who is produced at the moment: a world of blood and a world of gunge.

You see, the world of blood is often violent, serious and gritty, while the world of gunge is far lighter, with more fun and happiness thrown into the mix. Both of these methods can produce good stories, but it's apparent that these two methods cannot co-exist, in particular because a portion of the audience wants more stories like The Caves of Androzani, while others want more stories like City of Death, and there isn't that much crossover between those two adventures. So the production team has to decide on the style of programme that they wish to make, one that's serious and gritty or one that's light-hearted and fun. On the basis of The Mysterious Planet, I'd say that they're leaning towards the gunge option, although the next adventure, if memory serves me right, is really very bloody indeed.

Day 642: The Trial of a Time Lord Part 3 - The Mysterious Planet Part 3

One of the major criticisms levelled at The Trial of a Time Lord is its trial. The general conceit of the story is that the Doctor has been placed on trial by his own people for breaking various laws. As part of this trial, evidence is being shown from some of the Doctor's adventures, as claims are made as to his conduct. Criticism is levelled at this idea for generally intruding on the adventures, as every five minutes a scene where the Doctor is forced to explain himself is added into the story, which doesn't improve the 'flow' of the story.

And yet, I actually really like it. I like it because the writers have the sense to use this concept and play with some aspect of it. Holmes, for instance, chooses to have certain parts of this story removed, as they are not deemed safe enough to be put on the public record and thus are censored for the purposes of the trial. This introduces a small mystery to the events, and makes for a slightly more intriguing adventure. It's a nice introduction of a story arc and gives a sense of continuity across the whole story, which improves the story immensely, in my opinion.

Day 641: The Trial of a Time Lord Part 2 - The Mysterious Planet Part 2

One of the things that I really love about The Mysterious Planet is the above screen grab. This story was made in 1986, and thus things like computer graphics weren't that great. But, they were better than nothing, and people would jump at the chance to use them, even in situations where a practical effect would work just as well and give a better result. In this instance, computer effects have been used in order to add a wooden stick into the frame, giving the impression that you are looking out from the window of a hut. But this effect doesn't entirely work as intended, unfortunately.

It looks like someone has taken a picture, imported it into MS Paint, and then gotten their 5 year old child to draw a stick on top of it. It looks unrealistic, cheap, and completely fails to achieve this relatively simple effect (indeed, on first viewing, I was perplexed as to what it was meant to be representing). And yet, I love it for all of those reasons. These are people who aren't afraid to try new things, and who don't shy away from their failures. Sure, it's not the best effect in the world, but it has a fair amount of charm behind it, and at the very least, it gives me a lot of nostalgia for when I was 5 years old and mucking about on MS Paint, creating alien vistas, majestic buildings, and unrealistic sticks.