The spaceship model shot from the start of part one was obviously too expensive to only use once, so we see it again to open this second section of The Trial of a Time Lord. Just as the first four parts together were sometimes called by the name "The Mysterious Planet" (used as the title for the Target novelisation written by - who else? - Terrance Dicks), parts five to eight have the collective name "Mindfuck." We shall soon see why.
The Doctor is still calling the Valeyard "pathetic and juvenile" names, here "the Brickyard." The Inquisitor gets in a much wittier insult against both of them when she says
"Gentlemen, may I remind you this is a court of law, not a debating society for maladjusted, psychotic sociopaths."
The Valeyard calls the Inquisitor "Sagacity" which I think must be her first name.
Using the cutting-edge technology of its day (somebody in the BBC's SFX department must have recently had a birthday), the TARDIS materialises on a planet with a green sky, a pink sea, and a great big planet in the background. The Doctor and Peri have hardly come out when the Doctor in the courtroom objects to having to watch this "inconsequential silliness." I think the writer of the courtroom scenes didn't get on with the writer of the scenes set on the planet, because here they're basically accusing him of wasting our time with these inoffensive establishing shots. And the writer of the trial scenes is on very thin ice when accusing anybody else of wasting time!
Peri complains about having been perved on at the last planet they visited, by a "dirty old Warlord." It seems that, in a universe script-edited by Eric Saward, Peri can even get sexually harassed off screen and between stories. They go into a cave to look for signs of technologically advanced beings (e.g. cats) and within seconds Peri gets attacked by a monster. Trying to help her, the Doctor accidentally pews the monster with the pewpewpew gun he conveniently had in his paw.
The intrusions upon the action by the trial scenes have been a frequent source of irritation ever since part one, but for a nice change we get an interruption that adds something to the situation by allowing the Doctor to explicitly clarify that he pewed the monster by mistaik:
Valeyard: "Another death, Doctor?"Doctor: "The seedy phaser discharged accidentally. Rerun the struggle, see for yourself."Valeyard: "No need. There are clearer examples of your guilt to come."
With the production team feeling that their show was on trial just as much as the Doctor, this is obviously an attempt to clear themselves of charges that the character of the Doctor was becoming too violent, something that had been a problem in the previous season, with the 'acid bath' scene in Vengeance on Varos often singled out as one of the most egregious examples. The writer of said Vengeance on Varos was Philip Martin, who was also the writer of this episode, so we can maybe see why he felt the need to put in this disclaimer.
The Doctor and Peri get captured by some mannys, and the Doctor pretends to know the chief scientist here, a manny called Crozier. When the captain of the mannys (he isn't given a name, but he must be in charge because he's the only one with a speaking part) grows suspicious, they run away. Next they meet a weredoggy, who might be a manny that has been made up to look a bit like a doggy or could be a doggy that is being played by a manny. Confused cat is confused. The weredoggy is also confused, first trying to nom Peri but then asking her to help him. Peri describes him as "a Wolfman."
Not this Wolfman, sadly, or the Doctor and Peri could have solved the rest of this plot in about five minutes by getting him to help them with Wolf Power!
They see some aliens, one of whom is Sil. Sil is a returning alien from Vengeance on Varos, and is thus the first* returning baddy we have seen in Trial of a Time Lord. The Doctor acts like a massive yacht to Peri by not telling her that they were on Sil's home planet, and then he jokingly describes Sil as "your friend" - Philip Martin presumably missed the memo that the Doctor and Peri were supposed to like each other more in this season, and that the Doctor shouldn't be written in such a way as to make the audience hate him. These were both serious failings of earlier in Colin Baker's era, now in real danger of being repeated again here.
Things take a turn for the better when we see...
BRIAN BLESSED!
Audiences only familiar with BRIAN BLESSED's acting in sci-fi TV shows and films (including Space 1999, Flash Gordon, The Phantom Menace and, of course, Blakes 7) could be forgiven for thinking that he always gave the same sort of performance in everything he did - that being a larger than life, shouty performance; the embodiment of "DID SOMEBODY ORDER A LARGE HAM?!"
To think this would be to forget two of BRIAN BLESSED's three iconic, career-defining roles (the third being Prince Vultan in Flash Gordon, which... yes, does mostly fall into being exactly that sort of performance). The first of these was Augustus Caesar in I Claudius, where his acting had so much more depth than the line "IS THERE ANYBODY IN ROME WHO HAS NOT SLEPT WITH MY DAUGHTER?!" would suggest, culminating in one of the finest death scenes evar.
The second of BRIAN BLESSED's greatest performances was given in a TV series broadcast in the same year as Trial of a Time Lord, finishing less than a month before season 23 began on the BBC. This was ITV's John Silver's Return to Treasure Island, in which BRIAN BLESSED played Long John Silver as a boisterous, shouty manny, it's true, but one who was also capable of great subtlety, guile, and quiet menace when it was called for. Co-starring along with Christopher "Bellboy" Guard across all 10 parts of that series, if you watched it and then went straight into watching his episodes of Trial of a Time Lord you might well be left wondering what became of that BRIAN BLESSED.
As King Yrcanos, BRIAN BLESSED's first words are
"BLOOD! DEATH! TERROR! KILL! STREGONE!"
which I think tells us all we need to know about what we're in for (except, perhaps, why he speaks Italian). Yrcanos is attached to a machine by Crozier, played by Patrick Ryecart. Ryecart is a fine actor with a considerable range, having played everything from Romeo in the BBC's Romeo and Juliet to Captain Duff in The High Life. So in many ways he is too good to be in this rubbish, and like CHAAAAADBON in the earlier parts, his attempt at putting some character into his, er, character is doomed to suffer from the need to edit the story to fit in all the courtroom interruptions.
The machine is supposed to "pacify" Yrcanos, but instead it just makes him go a bit sleepy. Yrcanos calls Crozier "SCUM!" or possibly he is just sleepily misquoting the infamous "You rebel scum!" line from the then-recent film Return of the Jedi. BRIAN BLESSED being a big fan of Star Wars, as we know.
While Crozier and his mannys are away talking to Sil, and Sil's boss "Lord Kiv" (Christopher "Mike from The Young Ones" Ryan), the Doctor and Peri get into the laboratory and meet King Yrcanos. The Doctor is messing about with some buttons on the machine when Sil comes in and captures them. Crozier and Sil do not believe the Doctor when he tells them the monster attacked them, so Sil orders the Doctor to be put into the machine that King Yrcanos was in earlier. Crozier turns it on and the machine electrics him.
Crash-zoom to the Doctor's face: cliffhanger!
This is one of the better crash-zoom to face endings, since at least this time the action doesn't pause for long enough to give the camera time to dramatically zoom in while Colin Baker makes a face. On the other paw, the way it is framed, with the Doctor writhing in pain right into the cut to the end credits, makes this one of the nastiest and most violent cliffhangers we've seen for a while. Philip Martin definitely missed the memo about toning down the brutality after the criticisms of season 22.
Or who knows? Maybe this is fine.
Crash-zoom to face cliffhanger count: 4
* Because Drathro reusing some plot elements from The Krotons doesn't count, unless it turns out this means he is a Kroton really - if this fact was later confirmed in a Big Finish story or spinoff novel, please let me know in the comments so that I can have a good lol.
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