History Recap / DoctorWhoS23E1TheMysteriousPlanet

** The first thing Peri comments about Ravalox is how much it reminds her of a wet November on Earth.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: A conversation between Glitz and Dibber about who moved Ravalox is bluntly censored at one point by the High Council of the Time Lords. Little surprise who the culprits turn out to be...

!The Trial of a Time Lord: The Mysterious Planet

* [[AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther Aww, Look! They Really Do Like Each Other]]: The story is generally held in higher regard than many Sixth Doctor stories in part because it's one of the few times where we see the Sixth Doctor and Peri actually enjoying each other's company for a change. It also becomes heartwarming in hindsight when you apply the extended universe stories that took place in-between Season 22 and Season 23 (such as "The Lost Stories" done by Big Finish, with Season 1 and parts of Season 3 of the range featuring Sixth and Peri), which allowed for Sixth and Peri's friendship to gradually improve.

* [[AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther Aww, Look! They Really Do Like Each Other]]: The story is generally held in higher regard than many Sixth Doctor stories in part because it's one of the few times where we see the Sixth Doctor and Peri actually enjoying each other's company for a change.

* TheUnreveal: The Doctor muses about publishing "Ancient Life on Ravalox, by Dr...", but is interrupted before he can say his name.

'''Production code:''' 7A

This four-episode serial first aired from September 6--27, 1986.

-->-- '''The Sixth Doctor''' after footage of his adventure is cut, [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall which might as well be him commenting on the ending of]] Creator/ColinBaker's [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall reign as the Doctor]].

-->-- '''The Sixth Doctor''' after footage of his adventure is cut, which might as well be him commenting on the ending of Creator/ColinBaker's reign as the Doctor.

* ''The Water Babies'', by Charles Kingsley

The original plans for Season 23 were shelved -- the stories that would have been made received varying fates; scrapped before anything was known about them, never made because the writers passed on without divulging much of their plans for a story before taking them into their tombs[[note]]such as one unmade serial given the working title "Yellow Fever and How to Cure It", since Creator/RobertHolmes got ill and died near the end of May that year, and vague details suggesting another story would have written by Michael Feeney Callan, "The Children of January"[[/note]], turned into Literature/DoctorWhoNovelisations (the Target Missing Episodes line) or picked up decades later as ''AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho'' episodes (the "Lost Stories" line, which initially focused on the cancelled Season 23 before expanding to other eras' WhatCouldHaveBeen stories). What the viewers got instead were four stories that cast a reflection of the show's own shaky terms on the air, "on trial" as it were, kitted into one overarching season. So began ''The Trial of a Time Lord'', a season-long serial broken into four smaller sub-stories and totaling at 14 parts.[[note]]Sources differ as to whether ''The Trial of a Time Lord'' is a single serial in its entirety or four serials encompassing an overarching plotline like the "Key to Time" arc in season 16. If it is counted as a single serial it'd be the longest in the show's history, beating out "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E4TheDaleksMasterPlan The Daleks' Master Plan]]" ''twenty seasons prior'' by two parts. For the sake of convenience (trying to devote one page to summarizing and thoroughly analyzing an entire season is no small order, after all), most wikis, this one included, and the liner notes booklet in the UK LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition of the Season 23 Blu-ray box set treat the four sub-stories as if they were separate serials. This is supported by the fact that despite the overarching title, they were considered separate serials for production purposes -- the four component stories have separate writers (''sort of'': the fourth was written by the writers of the first and third), but the third and fourth shared a director and production code, basically being made as a six-parter. [[/note]][[note]]Annoyingly, the Best Episodes Ranking in Doctor Who Magazine considers ''Trial'' as one long story.[[/note]]

The original plans for Season 23 were shelved -- the stories that would have been made received varying fates; scrapped before anything was known about them, never made because the writers passed on without divulging much of their plans for a story before taking them into their tombs[[note]]such as one unmade serial given the working title "Yellow Fever and How to Cure It", since Creator/RobertHolmes got ill and died near the end of May that year, and vague details suggesting another story would have written by Michael Feeney Callan, "The Children of January"[[/note]], turned into Literature/DoctorWhoNovelisations (the Target Missing Episodes line) or picked up decades later as ''AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho'' episodes (the "Lost Stories" line, which initially focused on the cancelled Season 23 before expanding to other eras' WhatCouldHaveBeen stories). What the viewers got instead were four stories that cast a reflection of the show's own shaky terms on the air, "on trial" as it were, kitted into one overarching season. So began ''The Trial of a Time Lord'', a season-long serial broken into four smaller sub-stories and totaling at 14 parts.[[note]]Sources differ as to whether ''The Trial of a Time Lord'' is a single serial in its entirety or four serials encompassing an overarching plotline like the "Key to Time" arc in season 16. If it is counted as a single serial it'd be the longest in the show's history, beating out "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E4TheDaleksMasterPlan The Daleks' Master Plan]]" ''twenty seasons prior'' by two parts. For the sake of convenience (trying to devote one page to summarizing and thoroughly analyzing an entire season is no small order, after all), most wikis, this one included, and the liner notes booklet in the UK LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition of the Season 23 Blu-ray box set treat the four sub-stories as if they were separate serials. This is supported by the fact that despite the overarching title, they were considered separate serials for production purposes -- the four component stories have separate writers (''sort of'': the fourth was written by the writers of the first and third), but the third and fourth shared a director and production code, basically being made as a six-parter. [[/note]]

The prosecutor, a Time Lord known as the Valeyard, starts the Trial with footage from the Matrix of the Doctor's interference on the planet Ravalox, a planet with the same mass, angle of tilt and period of rotation of the planet Earth, which it is. Ravalox also was supposedly ravaged by a solar fireball. We learn most of these facts as the Doctor and Peri are walking through a forest. We can also see that the Doctor/Peri relationship has elevated past the bickering of the previous season. Unknown to them, they're being watched by Mr. Sabalom Glitz and his assistant Dibber, two somewhat likable criminal types. Glitz has the Doctor in the sights of his gun, but at the last possible second the Doctor ducks down.

-->--'''The Sixth Doctor''' after footage of his adventure is cut, which might as well be him commenting on the ending of Creator/ColinBaker's reign as the Doctor.

The one where the stakes were at their peak.

* ArtShift: Due to a severely reduced budget, as well as problems with the film stocks during filming of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS22E4TheTwoDoctors The Two Doctors]]", starting here, and continuing to the end of the series, the show is now permanently shot on video, a practice they had done four times before, all during the Creator/TomBaker era.[[note]](They had actually looked at doing this as soon as the beginning of Tom Baker's run in the title role, but it proved impractical due to the size of the portable video cameras at the time. Creator/JohnNathanTurner then looked at doing this when he took over as producer, but the show's directors at the time preferred to keep with the VideoInsideFilmOutside approach)[[/note]]

* RearrangeTheSong: This story debuted a new arrangement of the ''Series/DoctorWho'' theme by Dominic Glynn, replacing the Peter Howell version which had been used for the previous five seasons, since "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS18E1TheLeisureHive The Leisure Hive]]". While it retained the 80s synth aspect of the previous theme, it had softer, more mysterious sound than its predecessor. It would only remain in use for one season before being replaced again in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS24E1TimeAndTheRani Time and the Rani]]", making it the shortest-lived version of the theme in the Classic show at just 14 episodes. It is, however, been firmly associated with the Sixth Doctor ever since, and Creator/BigFinishDoctorWho would prominently feature it as the theme for the Sixth Doctor stories.

The original plans for Season 23 were shelved -- the stories that would have been made received varying fates; scrapped before anything was known about them, never made because the writers passed on without divulging much of their plans for a story before taking them into their tombs[[note]]such as one unmade serial given the working title "Yellow Fever and How to Cure It", since Creator/RobertHolmes got ill and died near the end of May that year, and vague details suggesting another story would have written by Michael Feeney Callan, "The Children of January"[[/note]], turned into Literature/DoctorWhoNovelisations (the Target Missing Episodes line) or picked up decades later as ''AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho'' episodes (the "Lost Stories" line, which initially focused on the cancelled Season 23 before expanding to other eras' WhatCouldHaveBeen stories). What the viewers got instead were four stories that cast a reflection of the show's own shaky terms on the air, "on trial" as it were, kitted into one overarching season. So began ''The Trial of a Time Lord'', a season-long serial broken into four smaller sub-stories and totaling at 14 parts.[[note]]Sources differ as to whether ''The Trial of a Time Lord'' is a single serial in its entirety or four serials encompassing an overarching plotline like the "Key to Time" arc in season 16. If it is counted as a single serial it'd be the longest in the show's history, beating out "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E4TheDaleksMasterPlan The Daleks' Master Plan]]" ''twenty seasons prior'' by two parts. For the sake of convenience (trying to devote one page to summarizing and thoroughly analyzing an entire season is no small order, after all), most wikis, this one included, and the liner notes booklet in the UK LimitedSpecialCollectorsUltimateEdition of the Season 23 Blu-ray box set treat the four sub-stories as if they were separate serials. This is supported by the fact that despite the overarching title, they were considered separate serials for production purposes -- the four component stories have separate production codes, writers and directors. [[/note]]

* BaitAndSwitchGunshot: The cliffhanger for Episode 3 involves Merdeen firing a crossbow bolt at the Doctor and Peri after revealing he's been ordered to kill them. Episode 4 reveals that he hit his target -- who was actually Greel, who was taking aim at them from behind and intending to ''actually'' shoot them.

* EarthAllAlong: It wasn't the ending, per se, but this story does feature the discovery (due to a Tube sign) that Ravalox is actually Earth and that it had been shoved half way across the galaxy.

* RearrangeTheSong: This story debuted a new arrangement of the ''Series/DoctorWho'' theme by Dominic Glynn, replacing the Peter Howell version which had been used for the previous five seasons, since "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS18E1TheLeisureHive The Leisure Hive]]". While it retained the 80s synth aspect of the previous theme, it had softer, more mysterious sound than its predecessor. It would only remain in use for one season before being replaced again in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS24E1TimeAndTheRani Time and the Rani]]", making it the shortest-lived version of the theme in the Classic show at just 14 episodes.

The Valeyard starts the Trial with footage from the Matrix of the Doctor's interference on the planet Ravalox, a planet with the same mass, angle of tilt and period of rotation of the planet Earth, which it is. Ravalox also was supposedly ravaged by a solar fireball. We learn most of these facts as the Doctor and Peri are walking through a forest. We can also see that the Doctor/Peri relationship has elevated past the bickering of the previous season. Unknown to them, they're being watched by Mr. Sabalom Glitz and his assistant Dibber, two likable criminal types. Glitz has the Doctor in the sights of his gun, but at the last possible second the Doctor ducks down.

Back at Marble Station the stoning is ready and the Doctor stands ready. As the stoning begins he opens his umbrella and begins deflecting the stones, but one hits him and he drops to the ground.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: A conversation between Glitz and Dibber about who moved Ravalox is bluntly censored at one point.

* CoveredInGunge: Balazar gets a face full of green mash in Episode 4

* DeusEstMachina

* UrbanLegends: It continues to be stated as fact by otherwise perfectly accurate sources to this day that "Valeyard" is an obsolete term meaning "Doctor of law", the intention being to foreshadow the character's true identity. The word is completely meaningless; the source of this claim was allegedly Creator/RobertHolmes himself, so either it was a joke that got lost in translation or he didn't want to admit he'd just made the word up.

Episode one opens with a sweeping motion-controlled shot of the Time Lords' space station. The Doctor stumbles out of his TARDIS and enters a courtroom, where he is informed that an Inquiry has been set up to examine his actions. Very quickly the old "I'm the Lord President" escape clause is revoked when the Inquisitor tells the Doctor he was deposed after the events of "[[Recap/DoctorWho20thASTheFiveDoctors The Five Doctors]]" because he never showed up.

* BaitAndSwitchGunshot: The cliffhanger for episode 3 involves Merdeen firing a crossbow bolt at the Doctor and Peri after revealing he's been ordered to kill them. Episode 4 reveals that he hit his target -- who was actually Greel, who was taking aim at them from behind and intending to ''actually'' shoot them.

* CoveredInGunge: Balazar gets a face full of green mash in episode 4

* StabTheScorpion: The cliffhanger for episode 3 involves Merdeen seemingly firing his crossbow at the Doctor. However, the reprise in episode 4, reveals he was actually aiming at the traitor Grell, lurking behind the Doctor and Peri.

This serial first aired September 6-27, 1986.

* SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale: Probably the most spectacular example in is in this story, where Earth was apparently hidden by moving its entire solar system several million miles, which is the celestial equivalent of hiding from your date in an empty movie theater by leaning an inch to the left. For scale, Mercury never comes within 28 million miles of our Sun, despite being its closest planet. The distance that the Time Lords moved Earth is later given in various ''Doctor Who'' literature as being "two light-years", which whilst slightly more plausible than several million miles, is still only less than half the distance to Alpha Centauri, our nearest neighbouring star. It would be equivalent to hiding from your date in an otherwise empty cinema by moving one seat to the left.

* AndManGrewProud: Played for laughs. The underground colony of survivors on a far-future Earth renamed Ravalox, which has been ravaged by a fireball, refer to three sacred texts that are the only few surviving books they have, which govern their lives and their views of the world before the apocalypse, and which are trusted to learned scholars to unpack their meanings. They are, however, Herman Melville's ''Literature/MobyDick'', Charles Kingsley's The Water Babies, and a guide to the UK Habitats of the Canadian Goose by 'HM Stationery Office', which is apparently the most mysterious. The Doctor is not impressed.