Trial of a Time Lord vs Season 24

I'd say Trial is better. It went down hill once Peri left, but Mysterious Planet and Mindwarp weren't bad. Season 24 didn't have any very good episodes. I may be biased though, because I can't stand Mel.

They were both pretty troubled years for the programme, but back-to-back...

Season 24 was an unfortunate animal. Time and the Rani is really only worth watching for Kate O'Mara's performance as the titular character, Spaceport Fear is pretty much everything Paradise Towers nearly was, Delta and the Bannermen was forgettable and Dragonfire is marred by some pretty glaring production flaws. The show's ethos during at that year was pretty awful, the Doctor's characterisation started off badly (mixed metaphors and all) and only managed a marginal improvement by the end of the season. All the polish first garnered in 1984 has completely evaporated, our main characters are a mess and their supporting cast don't fare much better either.

Season 23 on the other hand feels like a return to form in some respects. The production values have shot down between Revelation of the Daleks and The Mysterious Planet, but the Trial feels like something necessary for the programme at the time. The Doctor and Peri's characterisations are far better than what they were in 1985, the former has the twinkle of his comic counterpart and the latter has plenty of do in lieu of standing around looking helpless. They don't quite have the same enthusiasm of writing that the Voyager saga or Profits of Doom does, but things are staying afloat under extremely difficult circumstances.

In exploring the show's past, present and future via its first three stories, Bob Holmes's first entry feels like quintessential Who. Nothing particularly ambitious, just an old fashioned tale like the nostalgic remember (fitting considering its resemblance to The Krotons). Mindwarp explores the morbid side of the show that had popped up in Davison's last year and is probably the best looking of the four stories. I think it was a mistake to make the Sixth Doctor so untrustworthy given misgivings about his first year, but to have it framed by the uncertainty of the trial manages to bring out a more sympathetic side to him. We get to see him shaken by the Valeyard's "shock tactics" and genuinely heartbroken by Peri's unfortunate fate. It's the most human we get to see his incarnation on television and a stellar moment of acting for Colin Baker and Michael Jayston.

Terror of the Vervoids is where things start to go awry, the story in question was written without the trial scenes, leading to no small amount of padding from what should now have been a vital aspect of the story. Instead we're wading through a pretty decent story waiting for what eventually comes with The Ultimate Foe. I can't help but feel that P.J. Hammond's Paradise 5 would have been the better entry for what they were trying to do with Lorelei having a connection to the Valeyard that tied into the present through more than just further distorted evidence. The final act of the story feels exactly like what it is -- unfinished. The Valeyard's lair in the Matrix is destroyed, the Doctor goes off with Mel and there's no real climax.

But the show still feels as though it's going somewhere, you can see the Sixth Doctor's third year being lined up in those final moments, but there's no such optimism with the Seventh Doctor and Ace. Irony of ironies is that it was switched around, we got an excellent opening story in Remembrance of the Daleks and had to wait a couple decades for The Marian Conspiracy.

Unfortunately, they are both pretty poor.

Trial: Baker Jayston, and Bellingham do quite well with the courtroom material and Mindwarp is decent.

Regards

mark687

I can definitely see either The Nightmare Fair or Yellow Fever being condensed primarily due to budgetary concerns. The latter would have been particularly difficult to manage, Singapore wasn't cheap even back then and Bob Holmes was a bit wary about period pieces. A futuristic setting may have worked to its advantage in this case. Maybe there could have been trims done to The Hollows of Time too? It's difficult to tell by its audio counterpart.

When I first sat down to listen to it I was expecting something a lot more in line with The Renaissance Man, I rather liked the idea of Pinacotheca's chronology pools in the library being attacked by "bookworms". It would have made for a pretty interesting adventure, starting out in a quiet English village only to soon find out it's just one of a multitude of special times and spaces preserved in posterity.

Hello again. What a dilemma, Trial or Panto? A teenager at the time, I felt that poor Colin Baker was badly served during most of his time on TV Who. I found the Trial interminable.

I thought it a major error to have a trial story that on screen mirroring the off screen trial. To me it felt poorly conceived. I would have preferred separate stories without the irritating interruptions of the dull trial scenes.

There were a few bright moments. The Doctor and Peri had settled into a great team. Peri's death at the end of episode 8 was a real shock and well-executed. Even the Vervoid story had some good points. Poor Bonnie Langford again given very little to work with. The last two episodes were a mess. Overblown, very theatrical and at times incomprehensible. Though again, there were nuggets of gold. The Doctor's speech condemning his people's duplicity was beautifully delivered.

I consider Season 23 a wasted opportunity. It did little to showcase Colin's Doctor. If he had had stories like his early stories for Big Finish with Evelyn he may have had a better outcome.

I tend to ignore Colin's TV stories and have really enjoyed how his Doctor has developed on audio. His stories with Peri have been a revelation. Also to give him an older companion was a stroke of genius. Evelyn Smythe is a super companion and complements the verbose and bombastic Sixie wonderfully. Charlotte Pollard also made a good foil for the Doctor.

I am still enjoying my listen through of the Six Doctor on Big Finish.
The stories prove what a good Doctor Colin is and long may he continue. Season 23 is now a distant nightmare...

I watched Trial in one sitting and really enjoyed it. Bizarrely I actually liked Mel on her first appearance (her enthusiasm is a nice antidote to all the whining companions of the eighties) though her screams do grate.

The courtroom scenes were actually quite entertaining for me, especially when they're cutting into Mysterious Planet (which is hardly the most thrilling of stories). Colin Baker and Michael Jayston manage to make those scenes.

I haven't seen any of Season 24, so can't judge in comparison but I was pleasantly surprised by Trial (except for that bloody love heart at the end)

Trial of a Time Lord isn't amazing, but it has lots of fantastic moments IMO and the idea itself deserves respect and when I rewatched it recently (in preparation for the release of The Last Adventure), I found myself enjoying the first twelve episodes quite a bit.

The Ultimate Foe is mostly garbage. There are positives here and there, but I don't feel like I'm being unfair when I say it's largely without merit - in the same way that The Last of the Time Lords was a crappy ending to the Season 3 Master Trilogy. Of course, in the defense of the Season 23 production team, it wasn't intended to go that way. TUF is a hodgepodge because it's a last-minute saving throw that didn't quite connect. But, hey, they TRIED.

Season 24? Well, I remember really liking Delta and the Bannermen but I haven't gone back to it since. Actually, I haven't re-watched any of the Season 24 stories in their entirety, although I have skimmed through the first episode of Dragonfire just to watch the Ace bits. Time and the Rani is perhaps the lowest point of Who for me, and I couldn't tell you much I remember about Paradise Towers except that Red Kangs are, apparently, best.

Personally, I lean towards Colin on this one. Season 24's not all bad, but I genuinely appreciate the ambition of Trial and enjoyed both watches of it - and will probably enjoy a third someday.

EDIT: Oh I forgot the "truly corrupt" speech is from TUF. That would be the "positives here and there" I suppose.

From the Valeyard's perspective, this is a perfect opportunity to wipe out the Court of Inquiry and blame it on the uprising. The Time Lords at the trial are the only ones who seem to be aware of who exactly the Valeyard truly is and without a stable High Council in place, there's adequate opportunity to seize the title of Lord President or its emergency powers equivalent. It's not exactly articulated in the story, but if he were sensible, I reckon that'd be his evil plan.