Terror of the Vervoids (TV story)

This was the Doctor's evidence at the Trial of a Time Lord.

Synopsis

The distraught Doctor gives the court his evidence for the defence. He chooses an incident from his own future, in which he and his companion Mel arrive on the space liner Hyperion III in response to a distress call. There they battle against and ultimately destroy a hostile race of alien plants, the Vervoids, while also helping to thwart a mutiny by the ship's security officer, Rudge.

Plot

Part Nine:

The case for the proscution has ended, and the Doctor's companion, Peri, has been killed by order of the Time Lord's high council. The situation looks bleak for the Doctor as he commences his case for the defence.

Part Ten:

The Doctor is on trial defending his life. In the future, the Doctor and his new companion, Melanie, have received a mayday call which leads them to the Hyperion III, an intergalatic space liner. However, Commodore Travers and his passengers and crew deny all knowledge of the call, and the person the Doctor suspects as being the sender has mysteriously been killed. Meanwhile, in the hold of the ship, a group of scientists have set up a high security area, where high spectrum light only is permitted. And Melanie has decided to investigate.

Part Eleven:

The Doctor and Melanie are investigating a series of mysterious deaths aboard the space liner Hyperion III. In the cargo hold, seed pods have accidentally broken open and the contents disappeared. Meanwhile mystery surrounds the Isolation Room, which the Doctor and Melaine have decided to investigate.

Part Twelve

The Doctor and Melanie are investigating a series of deaths on board the space liner Hyperion III. The Vervoids, a plant species, have broken out of their pods and are planning the destruction of the human race. But which of the passengers or crew is helping their cause?

(This commentary was used on a contituity for Terror Of The Vervoids from The Trial Of A Time Lord Boxset.)

Cast

Crew

References

Article Seven of Gallifreyan law deals with Genocide.
The Doctor faced a similar choice on whether it was justified to wipe out a potentially genocidal species in Genesis of the Daleks, with him coming to a different conclusion.
Demeter Seeds are specially bred edible seeds that will grow almost anywhere.

Individuals

Melanie Bush comes from Pease Pottage, and has almost total recall. Her house had a large garden, with a compost heap.
Travers and Hallett have both met The Doctor on a previous occasion.

Planets

Mogar is a planet in the Perseus Arm of the Milky Way. It is rich in rare metals (including vionesium, similar to magnesium, which emits light and carbon dioxide when exposed to air and thus ignited), which are being exploitatively mined by humans, it is the home planet of the Mogarians.
Between Mogar and Earth lies the Black hole of Tartarus.
Stella Stora suffered from grain shortages around 2983.

Races and Species

Vervoids were created on Mogar by Lasky to be a workforce to replace robots.
Mogarians are gold skinned humanoids with grill like mouths who cannot breathe oxygen. They are a peace loving race, for whom water on the face is fatal, but who nevertheless drink tea.
Vervoids can produce a gas that smells like methane, but is non-explosive, in large enough quantities to kill humans.

Story Notes

This is the first appearance of Bonnie Langford as Mel, who receives no introductory story, and indeed no explanation of how she came to travel with the Doctor.
The story was commissioned as The Ultimate Foe but no working title is known to be recorded in production paperwork, though writers Pip & Jane Baker later recalled the story was called The Vervoids during production.
This story was a replacement for an original submission, "Attack From the Mind" by Jack Trevor Story, set on the planet Penelope; later drafts included "The Last Adventure" by Christopher H. Bidmead and "Paradise Five" by P.J. Hammond.
Honor Blackman (Professor Lasky) is best known for playing Cathy Gale in The Avengers and as Pussy Galore in the James Bond film Goldfinger.
Lasky is reading Murder on the Orient Express in the lounge.

Ratings

Numbers in brackets refer to parts relating to this story.

Part Nine (1) - 5.2 million viewers
Part Ten (2) - 4.6 million viewers
Part Eleven (3) - 5.3 million viewers
Part Twelve (4) - 5.3 million viewers

Myths

to be added

Filming Locations

BBC Television Centre (TC1 & TC3), Shepherd's Bush, London

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

Lasky has been into room 6, not finding her luggage there, because her key is actually for room 9. So how did she get in?
How did Grenville know that the unidentified craft on the Hyperion's scanner was the TARDIS? The Doctor states the message was sent directly to him. The Doctor has been known to leave his "calling card" to people he trusts (e.g., the Brigadier in Terror of the Zygons). As he had met Grenville before and obviously had respect for him it is not inconceivable that the Doctor left him a means of recognising the TARDIS or contacting him directly.
Why don't the Mogarians notice a major change in character in one of their number? Why would all of the Mogarians necessarily know each other? The Hyperion III is a passenger liner; any number of Mogarians could be aboard.
If the Vervoids are genetically engineered, why create them with lethal stings? Doland seems unaware of the existence of the stinger; he shakes hands with a Vervoid. It may have been an unintended consequence.
Why does the Captain state that the ship is hijack-proof, even though it has been hijacked by Brookner? Between the ease with which the door lock is cut, and the fact that the Vervoids have no trouble gassing Brookner, "hijack-proof" seems to be an exaggeration. The comment is obviously sarcastic: the Commodore states that the ship is "supposed" to be hijack proof when it has just been hijacked.
The Vervoids wear tracksuits and trainers (wilting and climbing through the tunnel in the final part).
Since the Doctor is shown viewing an event in his future, presumably he should already know what's going to happen once his personal timeline catches up to the Vervoid incident. Yet he appears totally unaware as he proceeds through the adventure. It can be speculated that the Doctor (or the Time Lords) likely erased his memory of the event so as not to corrupt the timeline later. Alternately, there is an unresolved issue as to how much of the evidence seen by the court (and us, the viewer) is genuine after the Valeyard's tampering. This may render the issue moot.
In the trial, why does the Doctor simply say that "The murderer" sabotaged the ship instead of giving the name?
Why does the Doctor edit the matrix in such a way as to hide the true form of the vervoid for a while, or to hide the identity of the killer until the events of the story reveal it.

Continuity

Mel meets the Doctor for the 'first time' in PDA: Business Unusual.
PDA: Instruments of Darkness reveals some information about the Doctor's previous adventure with Travers.

DVD and Video Releases

DVD release

Released in The Trial of a Time Lord boxset on the 29th September 2008.
Editing for DVD release completed by Doctor Who Restoration Team.

Video Releases

Released as Doctor Who: Terror of the Vervoids

Released:

UK October 1993 (Released with the other Trial of the Timelord stories in a Tardis-shaped tin with a random picture of one of the (then) seven Doctors on the base)
US October 1993 (Same as the UK release except packed in a cardboard box in honor of Doctor Who's 30th anniversary)
Australia October 1993

Novelisation

Main article: Terror of the Vervoids (novelisation)

Novelised by Pip and Jane Baker in 1988.

External Links

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