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episode guide

trial of a time lord (the ultimate foe)

story 147 : season 23 : serial 7C2 : 2 episodes

Producer: John Nathan-Turner
Director: Chris Clough
Writer: Robert Holmes
Writer: Pip Baker
Writer: Jane Baker
Script Editor: Eric Saward
Designer: Michael Trevor

cast information

Colin Baker (The Doctor); Bonnie Langford (Melanie Bush); Anthony Ainley (The Master); Lynda Bellingham (The Inquisitor); Michael Jayston (The Valeyard); Tony Selby (Glitz); Geoffrey Hughes (Popplewick); James Bree (Keeper of the Matrix);

crew information

Karen Little (Assistant Floor Manager); Andrew Rose (Costumes); Dominic Glynn (Incidental Music); Shaunna Harrison (Make-Up); Jane Wellesley (Production Assistant); Angela Smith (Production Associate); Dick Mills (Special Sounds); Don Babbage (Studio Lighting); Brian Clark (Studio Sound); Dominic Glynn (Theme Arrangement); Ron Grainer (Title Music); Kevin Molloy (Visual Effects);

episode information

  Title First UK Transmission Duration Ratings Archive Status
1 Part Thirteen (Part One) 29 November 1986 at 17:20 24'42" 4.4mil PAL 1 inch colour videotape
2 Part Fourteen (Part Two) 6 December 1986 at 17:45 29'30" 5.6mil PAL 1 inch colour videotape
  1. Part Thirteen (Part One)
    » Always held by the FVTL
    » A 71-edit exists also
  2. Part Fourteen (Part Two)
    » Always held by the FVTL (73-edit)
    » A 71-edit exists also
    » A 72-edit exists also
    » A 74-edit exists also

release information

In Print:
Novelised as: Doctor Who -- The Ultimate Foe
Written by: Pip & Jane Baker
Number 131 in the Target Doctor Who Library

Versions
1988 Published by W. H. Allen, UK in hardback
With cover artwork by: Alister Pearson
15 September 1988 Published by W. H. Allen, UK in paperback
With cover artwork by: Alister Pearson
ISBN: 0 426 20329 1

plot synopsis

The Valeyard accuses the Doctor of committing genocide by destroying the Vervoids, and the next stage of the trial is reached as some unexpected witnesses arrive: Mel and Glitz. The Master suddenly appears on the Matrix screen, who explains that the Valeyard is in league with the Gallifreyan High Council, in an attempt to frame the Doctor over the secrets he discovered on Ravolox. The Valeyard tries to escape into the Matrix, with the Doctor and Glitz in pursuit, where they track him down in a bizarre nightmare world which he has created. He fights for survival, but is eventually defeated, with the Doctor leaving Glitz to escape back to reality, after overcoming the Master as well. The Valeyard was a future interim incarnation of the Doctor, and he deceived the court into believing that Peri was killed. She now lives with Yrcanos as his Queen. Mel leaves with the Doctor in the TARDIS, although she is actually a companion he has yet to meet.

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