History Recap / DoctorWhoS23E3TerrorOfTheVervoids

!The Trial of a Time Lord: Terror of the Vervoids

JustForFun/TheOneWith the killer clitorises.[[note]]There! [[FreudWasRight We said it!]][[/note]] Also the one where Creator/BonnieLangford ''screams in tune with the theme song.''

'''Production code:''' 7C

Written by Creator/PipAndJaneBaker. This four-episode serial first aired from November 1--22, 1986.

-> ''"This is a situation that requires tact and finesse. Fortunately, I am blessed with both."''

* {{Motifs}}: A very odd fixation on exercise. Mel's first scene has her coaching the Doctor on an exercise bike, characters often show up in the Hyperion's gym, and at one point, Mel raids Lasky's gym locker in search of a tape containing the Vervoids discussing their plans.

* InformedAttribute:
** 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. And why the hell did he use his real name on Stella Stora?
** The Doctor's claims about the Vervoid's ability to reproduce from a single leaf could also count as this. It's never mentioned at any other point in the story, and one could almost believe that the Doctor is making stuff up on the spot in order to head off the genocide charge that the Valeyard is trying to pin on him.

* IncrediblyLamePun: The Doctor, seeing a worker hauling away some garbage, pats himself on the stomach and says "Wish I could get rid of my waste ''[waist]'' as easily, eh?"

The one with the killer clitorises.[[note]]There! [[FreudWasRight We said it!]][[/note]] Also the one where Creator/BonnieLangford ''screams in tune with the theme song.''

[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/st--7c21_8128.jpg]]

The one with the killer clitorises.[[note]]There! [[Main/FreudWasRight We said it!]][[/note]] Also the one where Creator/BonnieLangford ''screams in tune with the theme song.''

The Doctor's future companion Mel, who the viewers never get a chance to properly meet, will apparently spend a lot of time badgering him to exercise and trying to persuade him to drink carrot juice. This will result in Creator/ColinBaker messing around on an exercise bike, so at least it's somewhat amusing. The Doctor will be relieved when the TARDIS receives a distress call from a luxury space liner, the ''Hyperion III''. Of course, the Doctor can't ever refuse a cry for help (if it will get him away from exercise and carrot juice), so he will decide to assist. Upon entering the ''Hyperion III'', though, the Doctor will declare he "[[MySignificanceSenseIsTingling senses something evil]]" about the place, but will continue on exploring anyhow. Hobnobbing around with the crew for a while, the Doctor and Mel will discover that the distress call was completely faked. But the Doctor will be convinced that the call was real for some reason, so Mel and the Doctor stick around -- deciding to enjoy the spaceship scenery for a bit before they'll part ways. The Doctor will nose around, while Mel will randomly decide to exercise.

* GoneHorriblyWrong: Subverted; Lasky thinks that this is what happened with the Vervoids, but the Doctor points out that it's really an example of GoneHorriblyRight, given how most plants will naturally try to defend themselves from animals, and the Vervoids are taking this UpToEleven.

* AnachronicOrder: Apart from the trial segments, this is actually the chronological latest of the Sixth Doctor's televised stories (not counting his appearing in "Time and the Rani" for just long enough to [[DroppedABridgeOnHim get a bridge dropped on him]]), as it's set after the trial.

* 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, Janet, and, ironically enough, Lasky, who is presented as the BigBad for the majority of the story.

* 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 Creator/ColinBaker and Creator/BonnieLangford, the joke being that the viewer is finally catching up on the story as it happened from when it "actually" happened. The episodes even have a new version of the [[https://youtu.be/2uZgftew2pk opening]] and closing credits to reflect this.

* {{Motifs}}: A very odd fixation on exercise.

** 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 Creator/BonnieLangford 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.

* SixIsNine: There's a scene early on where a newly-embarked passenger goes into the wrong room because of reading the tag on the room key upside down.
** Let's not ask how she managed to unlock the door to the wrong room with that key...
* TheEighties: The two helmeted aliens are seen playing ''VideoGame/{{Galaga}}'' at one point. Also the equipment in the gym and the aerobics music.

** According to the Doctor - and later verified by the Master in the final serial - the evidence being presented throughout the trial via the Matrix is all being tampered with. Some of the events shown actually happened differently to some degree, while other events may never have really happened (or going to happen, in this adventure) at all. So even if the Doctor remembers seeing this adventure in his trial when he and Mel arrive on the Hyperion III, he won't remember the ''actual'' course of events to copy and will just have to play it by ear anyway...

Written by Pip & Jane Baker. This four-episode serial first aired from November 1--22, 1986.

* WholePlotReference: At Creator/EricSaward's suggestion, Pip and Jane Baker used ''Literature/MurderOnTheOrientExpress'' for inspiration. Lasky is even seen reading it at one point.

* UnreliableNarrator: The Matrix itself, if the Doctor is to be believed, although much like the preceding story, we never find out exactly what was fabricated.

* 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 Creator/ColinBaker and Creator/BonnieLangford, the joke being that the viewer is finally catching up on the story as it happened from when it "actually" happened. The episodes even have a new version of the [[https://youtu.be/2uZgftew2pk opening]] and closing credits to reflect this.

* IDidWhatIHadToDo: Had a single Vervoid reached Earth, the human race would have been eliminated!

Written by Pip & Jane Baker. This serial first aired November 1-22, 1986.

The one with the killer clitorises.[[note]]There! [[Main/FreudWasRight We said it!]][[/note]] Also the one where Bonnie Langford ''screams in tune with the theme song.''

[[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]]

The one with the killer clitorises.[[note]]There! [[Main/FreudWasRight We said it!]][[/note]]

Meanwhile, there will be a murderer on the loose, with the body being dumped in the trash compactor. The Doctor and the captain of the ''Hyperion III'', Commodore "Tonker" Travers, will banter while Lasky will continue to berate her subordinates. Mel, for her part, will decide to tell the Doctor about Lasky's strange behavior -- but the Doctor will berate her for trying to be smart, yelling at Mel to go investigate on her own. In the present, the Doctor objects to his own defense presentation -- claiming that someone's altering the record of the future. The Valeyard laughs at the Doctor's apparent ineptitude, and the Doctor keeps ranting about the Matrix[[note]]No, not [[Film/TheMatrix the movie]]. Different one.[[/note]] being altered, which is apparently impossible. So, the Doctor gets depressed as we continue to watch the future.

** 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. Though given the UnreliableNarrator nature of the series, it's possible that the footage has been tampered to present it in a worse light; an ExpandedUniverse short story (written by Colin Baker) suggests that the actual event didn't end quite so genocidally, but a combination of malicious tampering and the Doctor's memory being affected by the paradox of seeing his future means that it has been distorted.

* WhatTheHellHero: The Valeyard invokes this by calling the Doctor out on exterminating the Vervoids, but only does it to swing the trial back in his favor.
* WholePlotReference: At Eric Saward's suggestion, Pip and Jane Baker used ''Literature/MurderOnTheOrientExpress'' for inspiration. Lasky is even seen reading it at one point.

* ExtyYearsFromNow: The story takes place in 2986.

* AnachronicOrder: Apart from the trial segments, this is actually the chronological latest of the Sixth Doctor's televised stories (not counting his appearing in "Time and the Rani" for just long enough to [[DroppedABridgeOnHim get a bridge dropped on him]]), as it's set before the events of the concluding "Trial" segment.

Picking up from [[Recap/DoctorWhoS23E2Mindwarp where we left off last time]], the Doctor has been given some time to recover from [[HeroicBSOD his reaction]] to Peri's unfortunate demise. Still, it's nowhere near time to wrap up the trial. Instead, it's finally the Doctor's turn to present evidence in his "trial." With the reason that he will improve, The Doctor decides to present an adventure that hasn't happened yet ''(described as his "near future")''. We resume watching the Doctor watch... the Doctor.

** This is the third time The Doctor has met someone named "Travers," having previously encountered Professor Travers in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E2TheAbominableSnowmen The Abominable Snowmen]]" and then him and his daughter, Anne, in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E5TheWebOfFear The Web of Fear]]."

* UniversalTranslator: The Mogarians use these, giving The Doctor an important clue: he notices one of them didn't turn its translator on, so it wasn't really a Mogarian.

* 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 joke being that the viewer is finally catching up on the story as it happened from when it "actually" happened. The episodes even have a new version of the [[https://youtu.be/2uZgftew2pk opening]] and closing credits to reflect this.

** 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.

* ScreamingWoman: Creator/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.]]

* 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 joke being that the viewer is finally catching up on the story as it happened from when it "actually" happened. The episodes even have a new version of the[[https://youtu.be/2uZgftew2pk 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 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 joke being that the viewer is finally catching up on the story as it happened from when it "actually" happened. The episodes even have a new version of the opening and closing credits to reflect this.

* {{Recut}}: For the bluray release of ''Trial of a Time Lord'', an re-edited version of this episode was made, removing all the trial scenes and updating the effects, complete with [[https://youtu.be/2uZgftew2pk new intro]].