Doctor Who: The Trial of a Time Lord - The Ultimate Foe (1986)

Date(s) of Broadcast: 29 November 1986 - 6 December 1986
Number of Episodes: 2
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, Pip and Jane Baker
Story Editor: Eric Saward

DIRECTION
Director: Chris Clough

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: Shaunna Harrison
Costumes: Andrew Rose

VISUAL EFFECTS
Visual Effects: Kevin Molloy

DESIGN AND SET CONSTRUCTION
Designer: Michael Trevor

MISCELLANEOUS
Production Associates: Angela Smith
Production Assistant: Jane Wellesley
Assistant Floor Manager: Karen Little

CAST
Colin Baker (The Doctor)
Bonnie Langford (Mel)
Michael Jayston (The Valeyard)
Lynda Bellingham (The Inquisitor)
Tony Selby (Sabalom Glitz)
Anthony Ainley (The Master)
James Bree (The Keeper of the Matrix)
Geoffrey Hughes (Mr Popplewick)
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)
Ian Marshall Fisher (clerk of court - uncredited)
John Capper, Gary Forecast, Kevin O'Brien (court guards - uncredited)

PLOT SUMMARY

The Master has accessed The Matrix and The Valeyard is revealed to be a future dark self of The Doctor. The Doctor must defeat them in the unreality of The Matrix.

Plotted by Robert Holmes who passed away. Picked up and started again by Eric Saward who quit. Dropped into the laps of and finished by Pip and Jane Baker at the last minute. Confusing in the extreme though with some nice set pieces. Ultimately the trial was just a framing device so there was really nothing to resolve. So we get a chase through unreality with the Valeyard given an obscure character and raison d'etre.

UK
Television Distributor: BBC
Video Distributor: BBC Video

1986
November
29: UK - Part Thirteen television broadcast (on BBC1)

December
6: UK - Part Fourteen television broadcast (on BBC1)

Time Inc

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