By Roy Mathur, on 2025-07-03, at 23:11:25 to 00:22:05 BST, for Captain Roy's Rusty Rocket Radio Show
Notable Cast: Sixth Doctor: Colin Baker, Peri Brown: Nicola Bryant, Sil: Nabil Shaban; see pod 567 Vengeance on Varos, King Yrcanos: Brian Blessed; apparently turned turn down succeeding William Hartnell and says he once punched a polar bear also Space: 1999, Blake's 7, Flash Gordon, The Phantom Menace
Director: Ron Jones also Black Orchid, Time-Flight, Arc of Infinity, Frontios, Vengeance on Varos
Writer: Philip Martin also Vengeance on Varos, Mission to Magnus (alt. unmade season 23 script, but Target Books novelization), Make your own adventure with Doctor Who: Invasion of the Ormazoids
Producer: John Nathan-Turner
Location: Peacehaven, East Sussex, BBC Television Centre, Shepherd's Bush, 1986
Broadcast: Story 143b, season 23, serial 2, following The Trial of a Time Lord: The Mysterious Planet (pod 577), 4 x c. 25 min, 4--25 Oct 1986
Media: Target novelization by Philip Martin in 1989, VHS 1993, DVD 2008, 2013, Blu-ray 2019, BBC iPlayer since 1 Nov 2023
The UK no. 1 single was the Communards excellent, catchy and earwormy Don't Leave Me this Way.
The Valeyard continues his prosecution, this time with evidence of the Doctor's actions on Thoros Beta.
The Tardis lands in the shallows on psychedelically coloured Thoros Beta. The Doctor liquifies nearby rocks with a phaser given to him by a "Warlord of Thordon" (referencing an off-screen adevnture). They are attacked in a cave, but the Doctor kills the creature with the phaser. The Doctor marvels at advanced power generators that use sea water, shortly before they are arrested for murder. They escape and are attacked by a lycanthrope and narrowly avoid Sil and others of his people, the Mentors. Peri is shocked and horrified to learn that this is their home world.
They find the scientist Crozier working on a method to transfer the mind of chief Mentor Kiv because his brain has grown too large for his skull. The barbarian King Yrcanos, then the Doctor are tested upon as suitable hosts. The Doctor, Peri, Yrcanos escape, but are betrayed by the Doctor who seems to be conflicted since the experiments. Peri temporarily becomes a maid of Crozier's assistant. The Doctor, pretending to torture Peri, reveals that his act is a ploy to avoid becoming the host. Yrcanos arrives and leaves with Peri, while Crozier, with the Doctor's help, transfers Kiv's mind to a dead native.
Yrcanos, allied with slave rebels, is captured, while Crozier decides to use Peri as the final host because Kiv is suffering in his new body. The Doctor helps Yrcanos escape, but can't save Peri, as his body, controlled by the Time Lords, travels in the Tardis to the Time Lords' court, while Yrcanos, also manipulated by them, becomes a maniacal and indiscriminate assassin. The Inquisitor tells him that the Time Lords interceded to destroy the mind transference technology that his interference is indirectly responsible for.
If I haven't mention it yet, there is a transition from Peter Howell's to Dominic Glynn's theme music began in The Trial of a Time Lord. To me it sounds more dancey, more housey. Well, it was the 80s and I like it.
This sequel to Sil's Vengeance on Varos (pod 567) is also a pastiche of past adventures, including The Macra Terror (pod 80) and The Brain of Morbius (pod 350).
I really liked the psychedelic colours of Thoros Beta. Colour filters perhaps? Then there's the striking sea, sky, and that ringed moon plunging into the ocean in the background.
The Raak creature design was wasted as there wasn't enough light to see it. I recall only something bulky, taller than a man, with a crab-like claw...? Dorff, genetically altered into a wolf-man, just looked hairy and stooped, but had pretty good mouth prosthetics. The Mentors were good as usual, but Sil's costume again excelled. Nabil Shaban kept his costume and who can blame him?
I like the techie-looking lab props and the different outfits of each class, with enough variation to keep them interesting to the eye.
There's some slightly meta content in the script. Brian Blessed's loudness I'll address soon, but there's the accusation by the Valeyard that the Doctor keeps risking the lives of his companions: "the Doctor's companions have been placed in danger twice as often as the Doctor."
Nabil Shaban's Sil isn't mispronouncing his words as much as in the previous adventure and isn't quite as scene-stealing because Brian Blessed's King Yrcanaos more than makes up for the shortfall. He is playing his stock brutish, hissing, and very loud sci-fi character. Flash Gordon's Prince Vultan, Space: 1999's Mentor (Maya's father), and Blake's 7's maniacal Lord Vargas of Cygnus Alpha; they're all slight variations on a theme and are even made up to look the same. At one point, his roaring scenery chewing is even addressed in the script, when an old Mentor says, "Oh, take him. But be careful, he has a very loud voice. Plays havoc with the audio system." And, "I was hoping we'd seen the last of him. He's such a noisy fellow."
There's some racial politics going on. There's the black middle class soldiers and bearers of the Mentors, then there's a slave class of Asians and whites. I have an idea that it's put in to make things in the future seem strange and different, but it strikes me as a little clumsy and old-fashioned for 1986. Though New Who can be pretty Farnham's Freehold about this stuff too. The less said about Chibnall's Asian Nazi Master from New Who, the better.
There's an absolutely hilarious scene when the lab is attacked and Crozier protects a brain in a dish.
In summation, it would better as a two-parter, without the usual running around to pad it out. If filler was required, more of that gorgeous alien landscape and it's primitive natives would be welcome. Brian Blessed is good value for money.
According to Howe, walker, and Stammer's Handbook: The Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to the Production of Doctor Who, when Colin Baker questioned his ambiguous flip-flopping turncoat post-experiment behaviour, of all the crew involved (Jones, Saward, and Martin), "no one had ever bothered to work it out".
Surely TNG's Ferengi, who first appeared in 1987 were influenced by Sil's people? Both are small, prefer the damp, like eating revolting, wriggling snacks, and excel at business.
Season 23's arc/frame story, The Trial of a Time Lord, consisted of four serials, not three as I said in pod 577.