Doctor Who: The Trial of a Time Lord

New to DVD! Digitally remastered fourteen-part Doctor Who classic The Trial of a Time Lord!

The three videos in this Limited Edition Boxed Set contain all four episodes of Doctor Who's immortal adventure, "The Trial of the Time Lord," starring Colin Baker as the Doctor.

VIDEO 1: THE MYSTERIOUS PLANET - The saga begins when the Tardis is drawn into mammoth space station. The Doctor emerges alone to face a tribunal of the Time Lords, and placed on trial for cosmic interference. The trial beings with a screening of the Doctor arriving on Ravalox.
VIDEO 2: MINDWARP - The cosmic prosecutor, Valeyard, builds his case against Doctor Who, with evidence recorded in the Matrix and through the Tardis. The Doctor's most recent adventure is introduced as evidence of his guilt.
VIDEO 3: TERROR OF THE VERVOIDS, THE ULTIMATE FOE - Doctor Who presents his case, a story from his near future that occurs after he has met a new companion, Melanie. Finally, in "The Ultimate Foe," the truth is revealed.

The Mysterious Planet
The TARDIS is drawn to a space station where the Doctor is subjected to a Time Lord inquiry into his behaviour, presided over by an Inquisitor. The prosecuting counsel, the Valeyard, presents the first piece of his evidence, which consists of a recording played back on a screen linked to the Matrix. It concerns a visit by the Doctor and Peri to the desolate planet Ravolox, which turns out to be a future Earth, shifted light-years through space.
The court watches as the pair get caught up in a conflict between the surface-dwelling Tribe of the Free, led by Queen Katryca, and the planet's other inhabitants, a group of subterranean technocrats and their robotic ruler Drathro.
Two shady off-worlders, Glitz and Dibber, are meanwhile attempting to appropriate from Drathro some mysterious 'secrets' - details of which are censored from the Matrix record. The 'secrets' are eventually destroyed, along with Drathro, as a result of the Doctor's actions.

Mindwarp
The Valeyard's second segment of evidence relates to the planet Thoros-Beta. Here the Doctor and Peri meet their old adversary Sil and others of his Mentor race, whose leader Kiv is awaiting an operation from a scientist named Crozier to transplant his brain into another body. They also form an uneasy alliance with a kidnapped Krontep warrior, King Yrcanos, and encounter a group of resistance fighters. Peri is eventually chosen as the recipient of Kiv's consciousness and is apparently killed in an ensuing mêlée sanctioned by the Time Lords to prevent Crozier's work from disturbing the balance of nature.

Terror of the Vervoids
The distraught Doctor gives the court his evidence for the defence. He chooses an incident from his own future, in which he and his companion Mel arrive on the space liner Hyperion III in response to a distress call. There they battle against and ultimately destroy a hostile race of alien plants, the Vervoids, while also helping to thwart a mutiny by the ship's security officer, Rudge.

The Ultimate Foe
With the evidence complete, the Doctor learns that the Master has gained illicit access to the Matrix in his TARDIS. Glitz is now revealed to be the Master's associate and the 'secrets' to be information stolen from the Matrix.
The Valeyard admits his identity as a distillation of the dark side of the Doctor's nature, somewhere between his twelfth and thirteenth incarnations, out to take control over his remaining lives.
With the help of Mel, who along with Glitz has been brought to the space station by the Master, the Doctor defeats his future self - although, as they leave in the TARDIS with all charges in the trial having been dropped, it appears that the Valeyard has taken over the body of the Keeper of the Matrix and may not have been as completely vanquished as they had thought...

The Mysterious Planet

Costumes by Ken Trew
Produced by John Nathan-Turner
Script Editing by Eric Saward
Title Music by Ron Grainer and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, arranged by Dominic Glyn
Written by Robert Holmes

Mindwarp

Crew Directed by Ron Jones
Costumes by John Hearne
Produced by John Nathan-Turner
Script Editing by Eric Saward
Title Music by Ron Grainer and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, arranged by Dominic Glyn
Written by Philip Martin

Terror of the Vervoids

Directed by Chris Clough
Costumes by Andrew Rose
Produced by John Nathan-Turner
Title Music by Ron Grainer and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, arranged by Dominic Glyn
Written by Pip Baker, Jane Baker

The Ultimate Foe

Directed by Chris Clough
Costumes by Andrew Rose
Produced by John Nathan-Turner
Script Editing by Eric Saward, John Nathan-Turner
Title Music by Ron Grainer and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, arranged by Dominic Glyn
Written by Robert Holmes, Pip Baker, Jane Baker