I was going to comment, but instead I shall adduce an epistopic interface from the spectrum (whoops, that's Trial part 1), to whit, my review of this from 2008 when I was watching/reviewing all of Who in order:
The final segment of The Trial of a Time Lord (parts thirteen to fourteen) contains some brilliant ideas. Unfortunately, none are put into practice well. It is a great twist that the Valeyard is a future incarnation of the Doctor, but the Doctor does not deduce this, he is simply told by the Master (of all people). The idea that the Matrix was raided by aliens and the Time Lords moved the Earth, with apocalyptic results is also intriguing, but again the Doctor does not find this out himself, he is told by Glitz and the Master. Likewise, the Doctor does not prove his claim that the Matrix has been tampered with, the Master does. Worse still, none of these ideas are explored adequately.
Indeed, it is not clear why the Master is in this story at all. Both the Master and the Valeyard are conceived as evil versions of the Doctor, but the Valeyard, as a genuine future Doctor, is more interesting. One villain is more than enough for fifty minutes of story (or fifty-five – not for the last time, Doctor Who has an extra-long season finale when it really needed brutal pruning) and Michael Jayston, who is very good with some poor material, ends up rather sidelined. I suppose I should count myself lucky that the Valeyard did not turn out to be the Master.
There are other little details that do not work either. Half the Doctor’s “absolute power” speech is delivered with his back to the camera, which is terrible direction. Peri marrying Yrcanos is unlikely and most of Mel’s dialogue is awful. Why does the Valeyard wear his robes under his Mr Popplewick disguise? And the Key of Rassilon has changed function yet again. What is the point of doing a continuity-heavy story to please the fans if you get the details wrong? The ending is also odd. What is being implied? That the Valeyard has killed the Keeper of the Matrix, or that he has stolen his future regenerations? If the latter, is he no longer a threat to the Doctor?
To be fair, one aspect of the story which does work is the scenes set in the Matrix, which are appropriately surreal and draw on Dickens (as is often stated) and Kafka (less often noted, but bureaucratic procedure, doubles and doors that lead to unlikely places are all Kafka hallmarks, although to make matters more confusing, Dickens was a big influence on Kafka).
Back to 2012 and all I have to add to my earlier self (part-way between my twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth incarnations) is that Trial is still better than most of the season before it and that if you want to see the sixth Doctor in a surreal story done well, go for the Voyager arc in the DWM comic strip ("Logic tells you that the world is round. But logic is a new toy.").
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dancing_serpent
(no subject)
Date: 2012-09-28 02:25 pm (UTC)The final segment of The Trial of a Time Lord (parts thirteen to fourteen) contains some brilliant ideas. Unfortunately, none are put into practice well. It is a great twist that the Valeyard is a future incarnation of the Doctor, but the Doctor does not deduce this, he is simply told by the Master (of all people). The idea that the Matrix was raided by aliens and the Time Lords moved the Earth, with apocalyptic results is also intriguing, but again the Doctor does not find this out himself, he is told by Glitz and the Master. Likewise, the Doctor does not prove his claim that the Matrix has been tampered with, the Master does. Worse still, none of these ideas are explored adequately.
Indeed, it is not clear why the Master is in this story at all. Both the Master and the Valeyard are conceived as evil versions of the Doctor, but the Valeyard, as a genuine future Doctor, is more interesting. One villain is more than enough for fifty minutes of story (or fifty-five – not for the last time, Doctor Who has an extra-long season finale when it really needed brutal pruning) and Michael Jayston, who is very good with some poor material, ends up rather sidelined. I suppose I should count myself lucky that the Valeyard did not turn out to be the Master.
There are other little details that do not work either. Half the Doctor’s “absolute power” speech is delivered with his back to the camera, which is terrible direction. Peri marrying Yrcanos is unlikely and most of Mel’s dialogue is awful. Why does the Valeyard wear his robes under his Mr Popplewick disguise? And the Key of Rassilon has changed function yet again. What is the point of doing a continuity-heavy story to please the fans if you get the details wrong? The ending is also odd. What is being implied? That the Valeyard has killed the Keeper of the Matrix, or that he has stolen his future regenerations? If the latter, is he no longer a threat to the Doctor?
To be fair, one aspect of the story which does work is the scenes set in the Matrix, which are appropriately surreal and draw on Dickens (as is often stated) and Kafka (less often noted, but bureaucratic procedure, doubles and doors that lead to unlikely places are all Kafka hallmarks, although to make matters more confusing, Dickens was a big influence on Kafka).
Back to 2012 and all I have to add to my earlier self (part-way between my twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth incarnations) is that Trial is still better than most of the season before it and that if you want to see the sixth Doctor in a surreal story done well, go for the Voyager arc in the DWM comic strip ("Logic tells you that the world is round. But logic is a new toy.").