Doctor Who: The Trial of a Timelord - The Mysterious Planet (1986)

Date(s) of Broadcast: 6 September 1986 - 27 September 1986
Number of Episodes: 4
Average Episode Running Times: 25 mins
Format: colour
Sound: mono

PRODUCTION
Production Company: BBC
Executive Producer: Barry Letts
Producer: John Nathan-Turner

SCRIPT
Script: Robert Holmes
Story Editor: Eric Saward

DIRECTION
Director: Nicholas Mallett

PHOTOGRAPHY
Studio Lighting: Mike Jefferies

MUSIC
Title Music: Ron Grainer and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop
Title Music Arranger: Dominic Glynn
Incidental Music: Dominic Glynn

SOUNDS
Studio Sound: Brian Clark
Special Sounds: Dick Mills

MAKE UP AND COSTUMES
Make Up: Denise Baron
Costumes: Ken Trew

VISUAL EFFECTS
Visual Effects: Mike Kelt

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Designer: John Anderson

MISCELLANEOUS
Production Associate: Angela Smith
Production Assistant: Joy Sinclair
Assistant Floor Manager: Stephen Jefferey-Poulter

CAST
Colin Baker (The Doctor)
Nicola Bryant (Peri)
Michael Jayston (The Valeyard)
Lynda Bellingham (The Inquisitor)
Tony Selby (Sabalom Glitz)
Joan Sims (Katryca)
Glen Murphy (Dibber)
Tom Chadbon (Merdeen)
Roger Brierley (voice Of Drathro)
David Rodigan (Broken Tooth)
Adam Blackwood (Balazar)
Timothy Walker (Grell)
Billy McColl (Humker)
Sion Tudor Owen (Tandrell)
Mike Ellis (Drathro operator - uncredited)
David Backe, John Buckmaster, Rodney Cardiff, James Delaney, David Eynon, Peter Gates Fleming, Gary Forecast, Leslie Fry, Bob Hargreaves, Johnny Lee Harris, Jack Horton, Lew Hooper, Derek Hunt, Guy Matthews, Ken Pritchard, Roy Seeley, John Shereton, Kenneth Thomas, Leslie Weeks, Geoff Whitestone, David Wild, Llewellyn Williams (the jury - uncredited)
John Emms, Mark Kirby (train guards - uncredited)
Richard Aldridge, Robert Bicknell, Peter Dukes, Paul Ellison, John Emms, David
Hampston, Christopher Holmes, Mark Kirkby, Payl Lecomber, Oscar Peck, Rhett Stevens, David Wild (warriors - uncredited)

PLOT SUMMARY

The Doctor is put on trial by the Time Lords because of his interference in the affairs of alien worlds. The prosecutor The Valeyard plays a tape of an adventure of The Doctor's where he is caught between two tribes at war on a future Earth barren and light years distant in space.

After the first hiatus in the show's history, a move away from the violence that had upset the BBC higher-ups. Script editor Eric Saward had the idea of a linking storyline. The opening is a special effect worthy of the best of what was around at the cinema at the time, easily the best of the show's run. The trial is nicely set up. Then into a totally forgettable two-warring-tribes storyline. The Earth setting is redundant. The Doctor had obviously been tucking into the TARDIS' larder in the break.

UK
Television Distributor: BBC
Video Distributor: BBC Video

1986
September
6: UK - Part One television broadcast (on BBC1)
13: UK - Part Two television broadcast (on BBC1)
20: UK - Part Three television broadcast (on BBC1)
27: UK - Part Four television broadcast (on BBC1)

The Robots of Revelux
The Robots of Ravalox

BOOKS

Doctor Who: The Television Companion pp.488-497
credits, synopsis, review (by David J. Howe and Stephen James Walker)

OTHER SOURCES

screen
credits

KEYWORDS

aliens, time travel

Last Updated: 1 January, 2009