History Recap / DoctorWhoS23E3TerrorOfTheVervoids

** The Doctor may also count in the frame story -- quite apart from the dubiousness of his defense being "I'll improve in the future", he also fails to notice that it shows him committing a capital crime.

* TheXOfY: Both the story title itself, and the Black Hole of Tartarus.

The Doctor will flirt with the hostesses of the ship, while Mel will overhear that things are going wrong with the secret plant research going on inside the ship's bowels. In fact, some "Demeter seeds" will have been stolen, silver seeds that look like painted stones. So the plant research crew will go to investigate, while the head woman Lasky will berate her subordinates for the fools they will be. Or something.

* GeorgeLucasAlteredVersion: The 2019 Blu-Ray release of Season 23 features a cut of this story which, in addition to updating the special effects, removes the scenes relating to the trial and frames the rest as if it were a standard ''Doctor Who'' story broadcast in the "missing" season of the show starring Colin Baker and Bonnie Langford. The episodes even have a new version of the opening and closing credits to reflect this.

* GeorgeLucasAlteredVersion: The 2019 Blu-Ray release of Season 23 features a cut of this story which, in addition to updating the special effects, removes the scenes of the trial and frames the rest as if it were a standard ''Doctor Who'' story broadcast as a serial in the "missing" season of the show starring Colin Baker and Bonnie Langford, the joke being that this is what the Sixth Doctor and Mel actually experienced before the Trial complicated everything. The episodes even have a new version of the opening and closing credits to reflect this.

* UnreliableNarrator: The Matrix itself, if the Doctor is to be believed.

* GambitPileup: Doland wants to get the Vervoids to Earth and sell them for a huge profit. Bruchner wants to destroy the Vervoids and all the team's research. The Vervoids themselves are playing the humans off each other and killing them when the opportunity presents itself. Rudge and the Mogarians intend to hijack the Hyperion III. Hallett/Grenville is trying to expose Lasky and her team. The Commodore is covertly using the Doctor to solve the mystery of what's happening on the ship. And near the end, the Doctor tricks Doland into revealing that he has been responsible for a lot of the chaos on the ship. The only ones without some ulterior motive are Mel and, ironically enough, Lasky, who is presented as the BigBad for the majority of the story.

* ItWorksBetterWithBullets: Doland pulls a gun on the Doctor. Fortunately, the Doctor had the foresight to disarm it...and inform Comodore Travers of his suspicions.

* OneSteveLimit: A revealing aversion - the ship is named Hyperion, the same as the ship from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS9E4TheMutants The Mutants]]". This appears trivial - you can't expect creators in 1986 to remember trivial details from 1972 - but makes a lot of sense if you know BNF 'continuity advisor' Ian Levine's first ever script tweak was to reject the name Hyperion for the ship in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS18E4StateOfDecay State of Decay]]" on the grounds of this trope. Levine had a fight with Creator/JohnNathanTurner over the casting of Bonnie Langford and quit, at exactly the same time this story was being produced. From this we can surmise that the aversion was intended as a TakeThat to Levine. As an extra hint, the ship was specifically Hyperion III: in other words, the third Hyperion.

The one with the killer clitorises.

* TheEighties: The two helmeted aliens are seen playing ''{{Galaga}}'' at one point. Also the equipment in the gym and the aerobics music.

*** To be fair, the Doctor does comment that he had reviewed the evidence privately before submitting it to the trial, you'd think he would've noticed then that it showed him committing genocide. And he also repeatedly claims the evidence has been tampered with - maybe the original untampered version showed him stopping the Vervoids non-lethally, but they died in the process anyway.

* KangarooCourt: Let's face it -- genocide or not, when the prosecutor is allowed to throw in new charges midway through a trial at what is basically a whim, it's a sign of a fairly dodgy legal proceeding. The novelization at least shows that the Valeyard can't do this unilaterally and that the Inquisitor has to okay the new charge... which, unfortunately for the Doctor, she readily does.

** Late in the story, Lasky decides that she can talk the Vervoids into a peaceful surrender, despite the fact that they have slaughtered almost all of the crew and passengers by this point. She fails dismally, and ends up as part of the Vervoids' human compost heap.

** The Doctor talks at length about how Hallett was a brilliant investigator with a mind quite unlike anyone else of his era. Yet all we see him do is act needlessly rude towards an old man, send a distress call to the Doctor, dress up like a Mogarian, and then die after drinking some poisoned tea.

* TimeyWimeyBall: So... ''does'' the Doctor remember the trial when this happens, and is just going through the motions [[JerkAss for no reason]]? Or does he have amnesia? Or will it happen different, rendering this entire episode pointless?

* OneSteveLimit: A revealing aversion - the ship is named Hyperion, the same as the ship from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS9EETheMutants The Mutants]]". This appears trivial - you can't expect creators in 1986 to remember trivial details from 1972 - but makes a lot of sense if you know BNF 'continuity advisor' Ian Levine's first ever script tweak was to reject the name Hyperion for the ship in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS18E5StateOfDecay State of Decay]]" on the grounds of this trope. Levine had a fight with Creator/JohnNathanTurner over the casting of Bonnie Langford and quit, at exactly the same time this story was being produced. From this we can surmise that the aversion was intended as a TakeThat to Levine. As an extra hint, the ship was specifically Hyperion III: in other words, the third Hyperion.

* CastingGag: Michael Craig (Commodore Travers) was known at the time for his role in ''Triangle'' as the captain of a North Sea ferry.

[[caption-width-right:320:Anything remotely [[FreudWasRight Freudian]] you see in this picture is purely the product of your dirty mind. [[OverlyLongGag The Doctor's coat]], on the other hand, isn't]]

* TheEighties: The two helmeted aliens are seen playing ''{{Galaga}}'' at one point.

** Hallett is an old friend too, but unfortunately he's dead before the Doctor comes across him.

[[caption-width-right:320:Anything remotely Freudian you see in this picture is purely the product of your dirty mind. [[OverlyLongGag The Doctor's coat]], on the other hand, isn't]]

* ScreamingWoman: JohnNathanTurner asked Bonnie Langford to do a CliffHanger scream on an "F" note, just so her scream would segue seamlessly into the ending credits. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VC6cFsPG7dE#t=72 She did.]]