This is the major turning point for the 6th Doctor as a character, with his attitude and carelessness finally catch up to him. Much like Twin Dilemma his behaviour isn't technically his fault, however it doesn't stop the trauma Peri goes through from being anymore real. And 6's reaction to Peri's death is one of Colin's best acting moments.
This one might be my favourite section of Trial. Sil was so disgustingly enjoyable that his return is very welcome but it is BRIAN BLESSED who steals the show. King Yrcanos is utterly delightful and then also his wolf-ified? friend is heartbreaking. I also love the guy that just wants them to be quiet, relatable haha. And yeah, poor Peri had a rough time as a companion and gets a truly shocking exit!
I once went to a book signing where Brian Blessed was signing his book. I was at the back of the queue and I could hear him yelling "Don't worry I'll get round to all of you!" Lovely person but he really is that loud!
Yes, PLEASE do a vid on actors who have appeared in both old and new Who. They're a pretty interesting and diverse bunch. And well done on spotting Christopher Ryan here - I wondered if you might!
Ah the fate of Peri. Her story gets picked up on in a beautiful Big Finish story that I love so much I hope they never outright undo it on TV cause it was so perfect. It's called The Widow's Assassin and Old 6ey outdoes himself to make things up to her.
I'm glad at least someone has more positive things to say about Trial of a Time Lord especially about the trial itself. I think it's very underappreciated. Mind Warp is probably my favourite part and while the whole ending involving Peri/Kiv is thorny at least in the episode itself I think it's executed (no pun intended) well. I think the 80's effects and weird sound distortion enhances the scene rather than detract from it. Although a lot of it comes from the acting; Brian Blessed being Brian Blessed, Nicola Bryant's evil zeal, Colin Baker's quiet despair and a little bit of subtlety from Michael Jayston as the Valeyard. Knowing the ending reveal of the trial there's something in his delivery of the line "Peri died Doctor because YOU abandoned her" that sounds more personally accusatory that's more resentful than his typical OTT prosecutor delivery.
I think Trial would be a lot better appreciated overall if the ending wasn't... I'm not even going to say bad, given the circumstances it's frankly a miracle anything broadcastable got written... Written under the circumstances that it was. I'll have more to say about that when Vera uploads her video on episodes 13 and 14.
Big "what might have been" musings: before Colin was cast, they were trying to persuade Blessed to sign on as the 6th Doctor. He wasn't interested in that degree of committment, but agreed to appear in one story. IIRC I read that in the Doctor Who monthly magazine in the 80s.
As presented, the ending is one of the darkest of the show. The Doctor is plucked out of time just as he's on his way to save Peri* and then has to watch as the Timelords orchestrate an assassination. Second rate gods indeed. *Given the unreliable storytelling of the matrix, I'm of the firm opinion that the Doctor wasn't too late to stop the transference as the timelords claim. The transference is depicted as occurring after Ycranos destroys the salve control which causes power fluctuations in the lab, which I doubt would be good for the process.
Agreed that this era of the show could be cruel. Again, that's largely due to script editor Eric Saward, who was being a middle-aged edgelord and trying to push Who in grittier directions. He said that younger sci-fi fans were gravitating towards 2000AD comics and perception was that Who had become twee. Buuut he seemed to miss that being violent and morally ambiguous wasn't what made 2000AD good, and that you couldn't just transfer those characteristics to Who without context.
My favourite quarter of the story, Six's reaction to Peri's 'death' is one of my favourite moments with him on screen. Doesn't this also have the actor who played Martha's Dad in it? I think he's a guard or something, can't remember.
This is where Trial of a Timelord really started to click for me. Not only did I feel the story was a lot better, but the trial concept seems to justify itself a lot more. It really represents a turning point in the series
I really enjoy this story! And I’d love to see a video of the actors who’ve appeared in both Classic & modern Doctor Who, or actors who’ve been in more than one Classic story!
I’m pretty well-versed in Classic trivia myself, I’m mostly just excited to see a RUclipsr who’s spent more time on NuWho than Classic start digging more into that lol
Thank you! I was just watching Mind Warp by coincidence recently (Roku has a free 24/7 classic Doctor Who stream) and I found it surprisingly enjoyable as well
Back in doctors of this era, the episodes were shot week to week. Stories that has a crazy good traction got lengthened, and stories like trial of a time lord that for some reason didn't work got cut short possibly even leaving plot threads dangling. Btw just listened to Jumpgate. I'm so envious you get to see the golden age of B5 which in my mind starts a few episodes back. I forced my uni bestie to pick up B5 in 2002, and he grudgingly watched season 1&2 in three or so months. Season 3 was about 2 weeks. I think he finished season 4, red eyed and missing lectures in less than 2 days.
I watched this as a child on original transmission and hated it. I didn't understand what was going on, Brian Blessed was loud and annoying and the ending was truly shocking. Having rewatched it several times since as an adult my opinion has done a full 180 and I now think it's the best of the season. Probably for the reasons you set out in the video. From various articles in DWM and documentaries on the DVD/Blu-rays, the working relationship between the Producer and Script Editor had broken down irreversibly by this point. Saward left as the next two stories were being made and Nathan-Turner had to cobble the rest of the season together without him. I suspect this is the reason Peri's departure was such a fudge and also why Baker wasn't told why the Dr was behaving erratically in this story. You make a good point about the companions being put into repeated peril (particularly Peri) but ironically the Sixth Doctor's cliffhangers were more often than not crash zooms of Colin Baker's face. Usually at particularly uninteresting moments in the plot.
Did you issue a video for "Terror of the Vervoids" and "The Ultimate Foe"? Can't find them. On the other hand, I love Mel! So happy that she's coming back!
@@BreakRoomofGeeks Great! I watched them. Thanks! 6th is one of my favourites. I'm so hurt that @WhoCulture put him at the bottom of the Doctors' list in their video! P.S. Silly feeling hurt because most people don't share your tastes, OK.
Luckily there is a short commercial for a boxset that came out like 2 years ago that resolves that most heavy of cliffhangers, co-starring the The Problem with Amazon is the Ungrateful Workers guy. (And an audio I guess, but what DON'T the audios write over, around and through?)
Also as a kid I THOUGHT it was Brian Blessed but then convinced myself that he was Sabalom Glitz in Dragonfire. So imagine my surprise when I find out it actually WAS Brian Blessed.
The serial ended with them doing the one thing you should NEVER do to ANY incarnation of the Doctor: telling him you killed his companion and then gloating about it. The 6th had been treating the trial as a joke up to that point, here was where the Valeyard made his fatal mistake.
Supposedly, the writer’s intention was that the Doctor’s brain was fried a bit to cause his erratic and traitorous behavior, but no one bothered to tell that to Colin Baker, so he plays the scenes as if he’s totally normal.
I really wish that Mindwarp and Mysterious Planet had their lighting designs switched. Marb station is meant to be a decrepit survival shelter, but is overlit to the point where it looks like it’s in an office building, while Thoros Beta looks like the Mentors forgot to pay their electric bill.
To add to what you said, it's not Brian Blessed, it's BRIAN BLESSED! Also fun fact, he was considered for the Second Doctor before Patrick Troughton (actually, according to him, he was actually approached, but he turned it down)
I've seen some of Brian Blessed in "Z Cars" from the sixties and there he was dialled to about 9 on a scale of 10, other than that I don't think I've seen him at anything below 12 and he's usually pushing 15
I'm so happy you like this one! I haven't rewatched Mindwarp in a while, but my brain thinks of it as the weakest of the season, Brian Blessed aside. Because Brian Blessed elevates anything he's in. I'm also happy to hear you like the framing narrative still - the trial portions are so often spoken of as taking away from the story, but in Mindwarp especially, I feel they elevate it. Your review reminded me of the bits I really liked in the story, and I can't wait to unpack my DVDs and pop this in! Colin Baker gets some really good stuff in Trial overall, and his Doctor works so well here. I think part of what makes me like him so much is that this was the first real story I saw him in (Trial as a whole), and only saw his earlier stuff after I'd watched this like a dozen times and had memorized dialogue and gotten used to his nature. But this is easily my favorite televised Sixth Doctor story (again, the Trial overall). I think it succeeds overall, but I am highly biased by nostalgia, so I can't wait to hear your thoughts on the next two portions.
Even as a kid first watching this in the late 80s, I felt something was kind of "off" with this particular series, and the following season 24 (but in a different way). This story though I got into, because it was pretty dark, because of BRIAN BLESSED, and that ending -- the ending gave me chills at the time and still does a bit. i wasn't the biggest Peri fan but to see her go like that was really something. I took it as being final, although the show will acknowledge that it isn't in a really slipshod way at the very end of the season.
I agree that the show never liked Peri. It is like none of the writers wanted Peri. Moreover, every story with Peri and the Sixth Doctor had a male figure that the writer clearly preferred to Peri. Sometimes, this figure is preferred to the Doctor. The script editor didn't want to write Doctor Who stories, he wanted to do stories about violent mercenaries.
Yeah this was an interesting and respectable episode, but nothing too amazing. I do enjoy it, but there sure is a lot of wonkiness. I'm glad you liked it too! Brian Blessing and the alien slugs gave wonderful performances, and the evil 6th Doctor was also really funny. Now I am not entirely clear on this but I'm pretty sure Peri's ultimate fate is covered closer to the finale, which sucks TBH, I feel like Vera's gonna be miffed at that in the coming reviews...
Apparently BRIAN BLESSED used to be a more nuanced actor. Then he played Prince Volton in Flash Gordon, played the part perfectly given, you know, 1980's Flash Gordon and... Never stopped?
i super value the dynamic between the 6th Doc & Peri coz it's such an abusive relationship and it feels honest in its depiction of that. It doesn't do it overly dramatically. It's subtle enough that I really value watching them as therapy for myself lol sob.
This is the episode I tend to skip, when rewatching the Trial. Brian Blessed. Ever since I was a kid, his voice just grates on me. Hearing it puts my teeth on edge even to this day.
This is the better one of the season cause next is the doctor’s defense where mel shows up but Perry’s fate is explained in a few lines of dialogue I have watched the whole season twice on dvd overall it’s good but the second serial the prosecution uses as evidence is better then there first serial as evidence
Weird how I never really liked this one much. Couldn't tell you why to be honest. I did always think that the ending was good and emotional though, especially Colin's reaction that the Time Lords killed Peri.
It reads as an attempt to do Twin Dillema properly - they gave the premise they botched to the writer of their best serial last season. But I just think with 6 they should have stopped trying this. Its alright, but l'll take Mysterious Planet any day over this
I definitely think that Mindwarp is the best televised Sixth Doctor story. That’s admittedly a pretty low bar, but I think it’s genuinely good. Not just “good by Sixth Doctor standards”, but “good by Classic Doctor Who standards” and even “good by Doctor Who standards”.
@@Donnagata1409I like the Sixth Doctor, even in his televised stories. But lots of his televised stories are…not good. Or pretty bad. I think it can be hard to like a Doctor if they mostly appear in mediocre or bad stories.
@@natbarmoreI like most of Colin's TV stories, even many of those that aren't so great (The Two Doctors and Attack of the Cybermen are quite flawed but they just work for me), but you do bring up a good point there. The funny thing is, I don't think the hitrate of good stories is too different from Davison's era, it's just that Colin had fewer stories. I mean, if Davison didn't have season 19, his era would look quite a bit weaker. I would, however, say that the writing probably got more inconsistent during Colin's time, where even the best stories usually have some wonky bits (endless arguing in the TARDIS and keeping the Doctor away from the action for much longer than necessary), which I assume is something that bothers some people more than others.
I really hate this story. Brian Blessed was the best part of it and your right the show really hates Peri and at the end of the last part of the trial of a timelord the doctor is told the Peri is not dead and she married Brian Blessed character. But we don't get to see how that happens. All in all I really don't like the trial of a timelord. The only story in it I like is the first one. And in the next story we are introduce to Mel his new companion but we don't get to see where they first meet or how the doctor and Mel get separated so she can go to the doctor trial and why does she go with the doctor at the end if he hasn't met her yet.
I really didn't like this one. It's only slightly better than the next one (which is terrible), and not a fan of what happens to Peri here, even if with the later explanation, this thing is a hot mess. Fully agreed: Peri gets treated badly by the show itself, I feel bad for the character and the actress! Christopher Ryan was also Mike on the Young Ones!
This is the major turning point for the 6th Doctor as a character, with his attitude and carelessness finally catch up to him. Much like Twin Dilemma his behaviour isn't technically his fault, however it doesn't stop the trauma Peri goes through from being anymore real. And 6's reaction to Peri's death is one of Colin's best acting moments.
This one might be my favourite section of Trial. Sil was so disgustingly enjoyable that his return is very welcome but it is BRIAN BLESSED who steals the show. King Yrcanos is utterly delightful and then also his wolf-ified? friend is heartbreaking. I also love the guy that just wants them to be quiet, relatable haha. And yeah, poor Peri had a rough time as a companion and gets a truly shocking exit!
Quite right! Brian Blessed is outstanding!
I once went to a book signing where Brian Blessed was signing his book. I was at the back of the queue and I could hear him yelling "Don't worry I'll get round to all of you!" Lovely person but he really is that loud!
Yes, PLEASE do a vid on actors who have appeared in both old and new Who. They're a pretty interesting and diverse bunch. And well done on spotting Christopher Ryan here - I wondered if you might!
Ah the fate of Peri. Her story gets picked up on in a beautiful Big Finish story that I love so much I hope they never outright undo it on TV cause it was so perfect. It's called The Widow's Assassin and Old 6ey outdoes himself to make things up to her.
I'm glad at least someone has more positive things to say about Trial of a Time Lord especially about the trial itself. I think it's very underappreciated. Mind Warp is probably my favourite part and while the whole ending involving Peri/Kiv is thorny at least in the episode itself I think it's executed (no pun intended) well. I think the 80's effects and weird sound distortion enhances the scene rather than detract from it. Although a lot of it comes from the acting; Brian Blessed being Brian Blessed, Nicola Bryant's evil zeal, Colin Baker's quiet despair and a little bit of subtlety from Michael Jayston as the Valeyard. Knowing the ending reveal of the trial there's something in his delivery of the line "Peri died Doctor because YOU abandoned her" that sounds more personally accusatory that's more resentful than his typical OTT prosecutor delivery.
I think Trial would be a lot better appreciated overall if the ending wasn't... I'm not even going to say bad, given the circumstances it's frankly a miracle anything broadcastable got written... Written under the circumstances that it was. I'll have more to say about that when Vera uploads her video on episodes 13 and 14.
Christopher Ryan, best known as Mike from the Young Ones.
Big "what might have been" musings: before Colin was cast, they were trying to persuade Blessed to sign on as the 6th Doctor. He wasn't interested in that degree of committment, but agreed to appear in one story. IIRC I read that in the Doctor Who monthly magazine in the 80s.
As presented, the ending is one of the darkest of the show. The Doctor is plucked out of time just as he's on his way to save Peri* and then has to watch as the Timelords orchestrate an assassination. Second rate gods indeed.
*Given the unreliable storytelling of the matrix, I'm of the firm opinion that the Doctor wasn't too late to stop the transference as the timelords claim. The transference is depicted as occurring after Ycranos destroys the salve control which causes power fluctuations in the lab, which I doubt would be good for the process.
Agreed that this era of the show could be cruel. Again, that's largely due to script editor Eric Saward, who was being a middle-aged edgelord and trying to push Who in grittier directions. He said that younger sci-fi fans were gravitating towards 2000AD comics and perception was that Who had become twee. Buuut he seemed to miss that being violent and morally ambiguous wasn't what made 2000AD good, and that you couldn't just transfer those characteristics to Who without context.
You can’t go wrong with some Brian Blessed.
I love Brian Blessed! He's great in anything he's in. Whether it's the Blackadder or Doctor Who, he's always awesome!
My favourite quarter of the story, Six's reaction to Peri's 'death' is one of my favourite moments with him on screen. Doesn't this also have the actor who played Martha's Dad in it? I think he's a guard or something, can't remember.
Let's do the Mind Warp again
This is where Trial of a Timelord really started to click for me. Not only did I feel the story was a lot better, but the trial concept seems to justify itself a lot more. It really represents a turning point in the series
Mindwarp is my favourite out of the Trial of a Time Lord stories.
I have to admit, Mind War does sound a lot better actually.
I really enjoy this story! And I’d love to see a video of the actors who’ve appeared in both Classic & modern Doctor Who, or actors who’ve been in more than one Classic story!
Nicholas Courtney was in the Dalek's Master Plan, before becoming the Brig.
I’m pretty well-versed in Classic trivia myself, I’m mostly just excited to see a RUclipsr who’s spent more time on NuWho than Classic start digging more into that lol
Thank you! I was just watching Mind Warp by coincidence recently (Roku has a free 24/7 classic Doctor Who stream) and I found it surprisingly enjoyable as well
It's Mike from the Young Ones
Back in doctors of this era, the episodes were shot week to week. Stories that has a crazy good traction got lengthened, and stories like trial of a time lord that for some reason didn't work got cut short possibly even leaving plot threads dangling.
Btw just listened to Jumpgate. I'm so envious you get to see the golden age of B5 which in my mind starts a few episodes back.
I forced my uni bestie to pick up B5 in 2002, and he grudgingly watched season 1&2 in three or so months. Season 3 was about 2 weeks. I think he finished season 4, red eyed and missing lectures in less than 2 days.
I watched this as a child on original transmission and hated it. I didn't understand what was going on, Brian Blessed was loud and annoying and the ending was truly shocking.
Having rewatched it several times since as an adult my opinion has done a full 180 and I now think it's the best of the season. Probably for the reasons you set out in the video.
From various articles in DWM and documentaries on the DVD/Blu-rays, the working relationship between the Producer and Script Editor had broken down irreversibly by this point. Saward left as the next two stories were being made and Nathan-Turner had to cobble the rest of the season together without him. I suspect this is the reason Peri's departure was such a fudge and also why Baker wasn't told why the Dr was behaving erratically in this story.
You make a good point about the companions being put into repeated peril (particularly Peri) but ironically the Sixth Doctor's cliffhangers were more often than not crash zooms of Colin Baker's face. Usually at particularly uninteresting moments in the plot.
Did you issue a video for "Terror of the Vervoids" and "The Ultimate Foe"? Can't find them.
On the other hand, I love Mel! So happy that she's coming back!
They’re coming up. This has been weekly.
@@BreakRoomofGeeks Great! I watched them. Thanks!
6th is one of my favourites. I'm so hurt that @WhoCulture put him at the bottom of the Doctors' list in their video!
P.S. Silly feeling hurt because most people don't share your tastes, OK.
Luckily there is a short commercial for a boxset that came out like 2 years ago that resolves that most heavy of cliffhangers, co-starring the The Problem with Amazon is the Ungrateful Workers guy. (And an audio I guess, but what DON'T the audios write over, around and through?)
Also as a kid I THOUGHT it was Brian Blessed but then convinced myself that he was Sabalom Glitz in Dragonfire.
So imagine my surprise when I find out it actually WAS Brian Blessed.
The serial ended with them doing the one thing you should NEVER do to ANY incarnation of the Doctor: telling him you killed his companion and then gloating about it. The 6th had been treating the trial as a joke up to that point, here was where the Valeyard made his fatal mistake.
By the late 80s they knew how to handle the budget. 7’s era in particular is proto Modern Who. Though season 23 has those qualities.
Would like to see that reoccurring actors video
Supposedly, the writer’s intention was that the Doctor’s brain was fried a bit to cause his erratic and traitorous behavior, but no one bothered to tell that to Colin Baker, so he plays the scenes as if he’s totally normal.
His mind was addled until he ate those fish eggs. Right?
I really wish that Mindwarp and Mysterious Planet had their lighting designs switched. Marb station is meant to be a decrepit survival shelter, but is overlit to the point where it looks like it’s in an office building, while Thoros Beta looks like the Mentors forgot to pay their electric bill.
To add to what you said, it's not Brian Blessed, it's BRIAN BLESSED!
Also fun fact, he was considered for the Second Doctor before Patrick Troughton (actually, according to him, he was actually approached, but he turned it down)
I've seen some of Brian Blessed in "Z Cars" from the sixties and there he was dialled to about 9 on a scale of 10, other than that I don't think I've seen him at anything below 12 and he's usually pushing 15
BRIAN BLESSED!!!!!
sorry, I simply had to!
I'm so happy you like this one! I haven't rewatched Mindwarp in a while, but my brain thinks of it as the weakest of the season, Brian Blessed aside. Because Brian Blessed elevates anything he's in. I'm also happy to hear you like the framing narrative still - the trial portions are so often spoken of as taking away from the story, but in Mindwarp especially, I feel they elevate it. Your review reminded me of the bits I really liked in the story, and I can't wait to unpack my DVDs and pop this in! Colin Baker gets some really good stuff in Trial overall, and his Doctor works so well here. I think part of what makes me like him so much is that this was the first real story I saw him in (Trial as a whole), and only saw his earlier stuff after I'd watched this like a dozen times and had memorized dialogue and gotten used to his nature. But this is easily my favorite televised Sixth Doctor story (again, the Trial overall). I think it succeeds overall, but I am highly biased by nostalgia, so I can't wait to hear your thoughts on the next two portions.
Despite seeing the slug creature thingy on Blue Peter prior to seeing this episode, it freaked me out, and Peri being mindwarped traumatised me.
Even as a kid first watching this in the late 80s, I felt something was kind of "off" with this particular series, and the following season 24 (but in a different way). This story though I got into, because it was pretty dark, because of BRIAN BLESSED, and that ending -- the ending gave me chills at the time and still does a bit. i wasn't the biggest Peri fan but to see her go like that was really something. I took it as being final, although the show will acknowledge that it isn't in a really slipshod way at the very end of the season.
I feel like they pick up on Peri's demise enough - it's just a shame they didn't get Nicole Bryant back for a proper ending.
It would have been awesome if Brian Blessed was in a Fourth Doctor story.
I agree that the show never liked Peri. It is like none of the writers wanted Peri. Moreover, every story with Peri and the Sixth Doctor had a male figure that the writer clearly preferred to Peri. Sometimes, this figure is preferred to the Doctor. The script editor didn't want to write Doctor Who stories, he wanted to do stories about violent mercenaries.
Yeah this was an interesting and respectable episode, but nothing too amazing. I do enjoy it, but there sure is a lot of wonkiness. I'm glad you liked it too!
Brian Blessing and the alien slugs gave wonderful performances, and the evil 6th Doctor was also really funny.
Now I am not entirely clear on this but I'm pretty sure Peri's ultimate fate is covered closer to the finale, which sucks TBH, I feel like Vera's gonna be miffed at that in the coming reviews...
Apparently BRIAN BLESSED used to be a more nuanced actor. Then he played Prince Volton in Flash Gordon, played the part perfectly given, you know, 1980's Flash Gordon and... Never stopped?
i super value the dynamic between the 6th Doc & Peri coz it's such an abusive relationship and it feels honest in its depiction of that. It doesn't do it overly dramatically. It's subtle enough that I really value watching them as therapy for myself lol sob.
This is the episode I tend to skip, when rewatching the Trial. Brian Blessed. Ever since I was a kid, his voice just grates on me. Hearing it puts my teeth on edge even to this day.
This is the better one of the season cause next is the doctor’s defense where mel shows up but Perry’s fate is explained in a few lines of dialogue I have watched the whole season twice on dvd overall it’s good but the second serial the prosecution uses as evidence is better then there first serial as evidence
I like The Trail of a Time Lord: Mindwarp
Weird how I never really liked this one much. Couldn't tell you why to be honest. I did always think that the ending was good and emotional though, especially Colin's reaction that the Time Lords killed Peri.
It reads as an attempt to do Twin Dillema properly - they gave the premise they botched to the writer of their best serial last season.
But I just think with 6 they should have stopped trying this. Its alright, but l'll take Mysterious Planet any day over this
Yeah the thing where the show didn't seem to like Peri was a major problem with this era for me... among many others
I definitely think that Mindwarp is the best televised Sixth Doctor story. That’s admittedly a pretty low bar, but I think it’s genuinely good. Not just “good by Sixth Doctor standards”, but “good by Classic Doctor Who standards” and even “good by Doctor Who standards”.
Sixth Doctor is fine! Don't know why people trash him!
@@Donnagata1409I like the Sixth Doctor, even in his televised stories. But lots of his televised stories are…not good. Or pretty bad. I think it can be hard to like a Doctor if they mostly appear in mediocre or bad stories.
@@natbarmoreI like most of Colin's TV stories, even many of those that aren't so great (The Two Doctors and Attack of the Cybermen are quite flawed but they just work for me), but you do bring up a good point there. The funny thing is, I don't think the hitrate of good stories is too different from Davison's era, it's just that Colin had fewer stories. I mean, if Davison didn't have season 19, his era would look quite a bit weaker. I would, however, say that the writing probably got more inconsistent during Colin's time, where even the best stories usually have some wonky bits (endless arguing in the TARDIS and keeping the Doctor away from the action for much longer than necessary), which I assume is something that bothers some people more than others.
I really hate this story. Brian Blessed was the best part of it and your right the show really hates Peri and at the end of the last part of the trial of a timelord the doctor is told the Peri is not dead and she married Brian Blessed character. But we don't get to see how that happens. All in all I really don't like the trial of a timelord. The only story in it I like is the first one. And in the next story we are introduce to Mel his new companion but we don't get to see where they first meet or how the doctor and Mel get separated so she can go to the doctor trial and why does she go with the doctor at the end if he hasn't met her yet.
I really didn't like this one. It's only slightly better than the next one (which is terrible), and not a fan of what happens to Peri here, even if with the later explanation, this thing is a hot mess.
Fully agreed: Peri gets treated badly by the show itself, I feel bad for the character and the actress!
Christopher Ryan was also Mike on the Young Ones!