The Trial of a Time Lord II

At the close of yesterday's column we'd decided to be Joe Jim'll-Fixit-Watching Public tuning in to a new one-story season of Doctor Who in 1986. I don't actually recall any long hiatus in my childhood memories of Who, although back then I didn't know anything about things like between-season breaks or the Autumn schedules. Doctor Who just came on every so often, and in the gap since the end of "Revelation" I'd probably have been busy visiting Longleat, playing Star Wars or tracking down issues of Doctor Who Magazine. When it did come back, and I can recall excitedly spotting a trailer on our black and white kitchen portable, I did notice that instead of wrestling the new Radio Times from Mum every four weeks to uncover a new story title, the show's return heralded a 14-part epic. Even my young mind worked out that instead of lots of smaller stories, this time we were evidently going to get one long one instead.

The problems, certainly to this young boy, of such an ideal were that Doctor Who was always most exciting when kicking off a new adventure. What they'd effectively done was to remove all my favourite bits from the new season; TARDIS landings, Episode 1's, new monsters, new story titles. All were gone, in place of 14 long weeks remembered as some people in a Trial room talking. Well, actually this is a little unfair. I'm sure I enjoyed the Vervoid story, and probably Sil and the rest of it as well. But it is vivid images, iconography like the Malus Church or the distinctive (if not wholly lifelike) Kinda jungle that lodge a story in a kid's mind. I'm afraid with hindsight "Trial" just melded into one patience-testing whole.

From a more adult perspective, how does this one-story season stand up today? Well the first problem is that damn framing device. The very terminology suggests this tale houses smaller ones, but with no clear divide on screen or in Radio Times, it effectively makes for one long story but which is stuck in the same set all the time. This was certainly evident back in 1986, for I recall my Dad lamenting the static visuals after three months of patient viewing. We don't need to go into the problems linking the opening and closing parts, as we all now know the bizarre situation leading up to Pip 'n' Jane having to close the story blind to what the author of its start had in mind. But this unfortunately meant that little reward was gained for sitting through it all, other than the Valeyard=Doctor payoff, which isn't even hinted until the end anyway. It's a bit like following a murder mystery for fourteen weeks, then being told about a completely different crime at the end, rather than who actually did the murder or why he wanted to steal the black light in the first place.

This is a very bleak and somewhat unfair view to have, however, and one that deliberately turns its back on how the production team meant this story to be viewed. It's highly ambitious - perhaps too ambitious - and if you are lenient with how all the bits slot together, then what we have is something of an epic. It's perhaps stifled by the available resources - attempting to tell a 'past-present-future' narrative with one cast (bar the addition of an extra companion) means we resort to such devices as the Doctor's neck tie changing colour to visualise the oh-so-heady distant future. But it's still fascinating, like peaking into... yes, a missing season. Unfortunately, as a very young member of the viewing public, patience was thinner on the ground and we have to face the fact that more basic pleasures are diminished because of the overambitious nature of the season (not to mention that budget-blowing opening shot). It's not an expensive looking story for starters, neither does it offer to counterbalance its great length with a simplicity in storytelling, as "The Daleks Masterplan" did. It's rewarding, but hard work.

So "Trial" was not that fun to watch for this family and, judging by the ratings, a few others too. You may now hate me, because writing this I'm aware that there are people out there (most likely the ones reading this) who love "Trial". But aside from remembering that you can far more easily enjoy the story with the benefit of fore-warning and by not having to watch it over a quarter of a year, please cut me some slack. Because in the next column, we're going to examine how the serial has risen from its smoking ashes with a new audience and a defiant popularity. You are the Cult of "Trial" and you know who you are. We'll have a look at how and why you came to love Season 23 tomorrow.