Doctor Who
TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS
AN ANALYSIS OF SEASON 23
Part Two
Welcome back to Trials and Tribulations, an analysis that looks at Season 23 of Doctor Who. The Doctor is on trial for his life, and the Valeyard is determined to prove the Doctor's guilt; in this second part we'll be discussing the last six episodes and what bits worked well, what bits could have been improved, and a reflection on the 1986 series.
THE TRIAL OF A TIMELORD: PARTS 9 - 12 - TERROR OF THE VERVOIDS
The next segment of The Trial Of A Time Lord was intended to introduce the Doctor's new companion, Melanie. An original outline for the character was devised by John Nathan Turner and Eric Saward, filling in background that would never be revealed on screen. 21 year old Melanie Bush (known as Mel) was a computer programmer from Pease Pottage in Sussex who had met the Doctor in an unseen adventure involving The Master, when he attempted a massive global computer/banking fraud. Mel helped the Doctor to stop the Master's plan and by the time of Terror of the Vervoids has been travelling with the Doctor for three months. She had red hair, fierce blue eyes and freckles, was into aerobics and health food, and forced the Doctor into aerobic workouts - useful for comic relief.
Armed with this character brief, Nathan Turner and Saward sought writers for Parts Nine to Twelve, which would serve as Mel's introduction. It was intended that two two part adventures would be commissioned, loosely linked narratively; writers David Halliwell and Jack Trevory story were subsequently contracted. Halliwell's two parter bore the working title "Attack From The Mind", and was intended to serve as another slice of prosecution evidence from the Valeyard. It detailed the Doctor's apparent interference on an alien planet between a race of rodent like miners (the Freds) and the lemur like 'Penelopeans', former corporeal beings who now dwell within their own imagination. The escalating conflict results in a war between these two races, which the Valeyard accuses the Doctor of inflaming. Meanwhile Jack Trevor's story episodes were developed under the title of "The Second Coming" but Saward quickly realised that story wasn't suitable for the programme. Also unhappy with the direction of Halliwell's scripts, Saward and Nathan Turner elected to abandon both stories and replace them with a new four part adventure.
Saward contacted ex-script editor/ writer Christopher H Bidmead and invited him back, his most recent contribution had been 'Frontios' a fifth doctor story for season 21. Commissioned on the 29th of October 1985, Bidmead developed an idea titled 'The Last Adventure' then 'Pinacotheca' a story constructed around a planet which had been designated ad a museum of universal places and times. By January 1986, John Nathan Turner became concerned about the lack of communication from Saward about these scripts; largely due to their ongoing tensions, the script editor was now working from home rather than in the office. Saward then wrote to Nathan Turner informing him that Bidmead's scripts were unusable; this was communicated to Bidmead days later. Bidmead was shocked and appalled by this news, especially since he had been in regular contact with Saward during the writing process, and never wrote for Doctor Who again.
A few days later, Saward approached Sapphire and Steel writer PJ Hammond, and commissioned him for a replacement four parter, which was called Paradise Five. Saward was pleased with the resulting storyline and first episode but Nathan Turner wasn't. Around this time, Nathan Turner bumped into husband and wife team Pip and Jane Baker, who had written 'Mark of the Rani' for Season 22. The producer explained that hew was in desperate need for a four part adventure, and asked them to develop a futuristic studio bound whodunnit that would serve as the Doctor's defence.
While Nathan Turner set about casting the new companion. It was intended to find an established star to play Mel, both as a publicity hook and as a drawcard for new viewers. His first thoughts were Bonnie Langford who he had recently seen in action as Peter Pan in the West End musical; Colin Baker had also independently suggested her as a possible replacement for Nicola Bryant, having worked with her on stage in 1981. "Bonnie is a superb performer" he later commented, "incapable of a lazy piece of acting. She is the hardest working person I have ever known." Nathan Turner met with Langford and briefed her on the character of Mel; at this stage of her career, the actor was planing to add more dramatic roles to her repertoire and saw Doctor Who as a perfect opportunity to do something different. "I didn't really appreciate the fact that he was basically offering me this job", she told Doctor Who Magazine. Langford read an audition scene written by Saward and was offered the role; she was subsequently contracted for the final six episodes of the season.
Nathan Turner saw much potential in Langford as a dramatic actress (an instinct proven correct, with her critically acclaimed, award winning performance in EastEnders amongst other roles), but Saward vehemently disagreed, unable to see past the stage school showbiz image that Langford was best known for. Her casting as Mel was unveiled in a press launch at the Aldwych Theatre on Thursday the 23rd January 1986, in her Peter Pan costume, she was hoisted upon Kirby wires alongside Colin Baker in his Sixth Doctor costume.
Working at breakneck speed, writers Pip & Jane Baker were inspired by Agatha Christie's Murder On The Orient Express, and devised a whodunnit in space called "The Ultimate Foe". Feeding into this was an idea about sentient plant life that would provide the monsters for the story. The name vervain inspired by a herb called vervain. "You never find any plot glitches in Pip & Jane writing', praised Colin Baker. "They are meticulous in their research and they understood the role of the Doctor. Also, they write good English and broaden the vocabulary of the viewer".
During the writing process, the Bakers discovered that their script editor Eric Saward had handed in his resignation, and Nathan Turner was left to perform script editing duties alongside all his other commitments.
THE TRAIL OF A TIMELORD: PARTS 13 & 14 - THE ULTIMATE FOE
In early 1986, Robert Holmes had been commissioned to provide the two part conclusion to the epic Trial narrative under the working title Time Inc. Working with Eric Saward, he had developed a nightmarish scenario which saw the Doctor enter the fantasy world of the Matrix, the Time Lords' strange repository for all knowledge which had been featured in Season 14's The Deadly Assassin. Aiming to resolve the mysteries planted in Part One to Four surrounding the stolen data tapes, Holmes reintroduced his character Sabalom Glitz to provide the necessary exposition. It had also been intended to use the character of The Master as a trial witness, but Nathan Turner was keen on making him the villain behind the entire trial scenario. Holmes and Saward disagreed, feeling this was predictable, and instead decided to make the Valeyard the arch villain. With the programme's future still very much up in the air, Holmes and Saward also elected to leave the season on a massive cliffhanger - a final confrontation between the Doctor and the Valeyard would leave their fates unresolved, a move deliberately echoing Sherlock Holmes' famous confrontation with Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls.
While Saward focused on rewrites of Parts One to Four, Holmes completed a first draft of Part Thirteen. This began with the Doctor and Mel in the courtroom, Glitz's arrival, the introduction of the Master and the revelation of the Valeyard's true identity. However, once inside the Matrix, the story veered into much darker territory, involving the hunt for Jack the Ripper. Soon after completing this script, Holmes was rushed to hospital - it was agreed that Saward would take over the scripts for the duration of Holmes' illness. But Saward's dissatisfaction with the programme had reached a crises point, and he tended his resignation as script editor, claiming he was "sick to death of Doctor Who and the way it is run". In subsequent meetings with Powell and Nathan Turner, he was persuaded to complete work on the season's conclusion while forgoing all script editor duties.
Saward completed the Part Fourteen script based on plans he had made with Robert Holmes, and also made alterations to Part Thirteen for narrative continuity. This version of Part Fourteen began with the Master rescuing the Doctor from the mud plain - the Master later revealed to the Doctor that he had been asked by the Time Lords to kill his nemesis in exchange for a pardon for his crimes. The Doctor then returned to the Victorian environment where he was reunited with Mel, and an apparent circular trap laid by the Valeyard.
Meanwhile, in the court room, the Master informed the Time Lords that the Valeyard's TARDIS had materialised around a time vent; if this vent was open for more than 72 seconds, it would destroy the time continuum. The Valeyard planned to hold the Time Lords to ransom in exchange for the Doctor's death. The Doctor fought with the Valeyard in an effort to close the vent, and both fell inside, which the Keeper Of The Matrix noted could remain the Doctor's prison forever.
On receiving the script, Nathan Turner was dissatisfied with the downbeat, inconclusive ending which he felt would be frustrating for the viewers as the climax of a fourteen-week story. This is where you have a divide, because you have Eric Saward who is protecting the story, and John Nathan Turner protecting the series as a whole, and ultimately Nathan Turner had to win. By keeping to original ending, it was almost like signing Doctor Who's death warrant.
The producer and the script editor couldn't agree on a mutually satisfying conclusion, so Saward decided to withdraw his script - delivering this news in a memo to John Nathan Turner and Jonathan Powell. Saward also tried to withdraw his amendments to Part Thirteen, however the BBC decreed that this work had been completed under Saward's role as script editor and therefore he was not in a position to refuse its use. Less than three weeks before shooting, and with locations already booked, all copies of Part Fourteen were collected and shredded, leaving John Nathan Turner with no ending to an already turbulent season - an just days to come up with a solution.
Nathan Turner mad an emergency call to Pip & Jane Baker; he advised them that a copy of Part Thirteen's script was en route in a taxi, they should read it then join him for a meeting the following morning, Nathan Turner revealed that he needed a brand new script to pick up from the end of Part Thirteen and end the trail storyline; however, the Bakers could legally have no knowledge of what Holmes and Saward had planned. Nathan Turner wanted a definitive conclusion to the story with an upbeat ending, a reveal that Peri was in fact alive and a hint that the Valeyard had escaped to play as a potential threat for future stories. The Bakers then met with Chris Clough and were shown images of the locations that had been booked. Within days, the Bakers delivered a full script, allowing Clough a few days to rehearse it before location filming could begin.
Season 23 is a season of many trials and tribulations, most would argue whether a lot of the big decisions that were made are the right ones. It is fiercely underrated and a season that isn't looked upon amongst the fandom of Doctor Who with a lot of fondness.
What Trial of a Timelord does do however is explore the drama of reality in a fun, theatrical way that would see an end to the Sixth Doctor's era and possibly the beginning the end of the original television series.
