The Ultimate Foe (TV story)

The Ultimate Foe
Doctor:	[[doctor::Sixth Doctor]]
Companion(s):	Mel
Main enemy:	The Valeyard, The Master
Main setting:	Time Lord space station
Key crew
Writer:	Robert Holmes (Episode 13) Pip & Jane Baker (Episode 14)
Director:	Chris Clough
Producer:	John Nathan-Turner
Release details
Release number:	147
Premiere broadcast:	29th November - 6th December 1986
Format:	2 25-minute episodes
Production code:	7C-2

Synopsis

The final episode in the season-long 'Trial of a Time Lord' saga, a surprise appearance of the Master reveals the treachery of the High Council of Time Lords, and that the Valeyard is not what he appears to be.

Plot

With the evidence complete, the Doctor learns that the Master has gained access to his TARDIS. The Doctor proves his inocence, when he does a final battle with the Valleyard (Michael Jayston.) The Doctor is informed that all charges against him have been dismissed. The Doctor has saved everybody. He and Mel depart in the Doctor's TARDIS, and at the end, the Keep of the Matrix turns to us, and he revealed as the Valleyard.

Cast

• The Doctor - Colin Baker
• Mel - Bonnie Langford
• The Valeyard - Michael Jayston
• The Inquisitor - Lynda Bellingham
• The Master - Anthony Ainley
• Sabalom Glitz - Tony Selby
• Popplewick - Geoffrey Hughes
• Keeper of the Matrix - James Bree

Crew

• Assistant Floor Manager - Karen Little
• Costumes - Andrew Rose
• Designer - Michael Trevor
• Incidental Music - Dominic Glynn
• Make-Up - Shaunna Harrison
• Producer - John Nathan-Turner
• Production Assistant - Jane Wellesley
• Production Associate - Angela Smith
• Special Sounds - Dick Mills
• Studio Lighting - Don Babbage
• Studio Sound - Brian Clark
• Theme Arrangement - Dominic Glynn
• Title Music - Ron Grainer
• Visual Effects - Kevin Molloy

References

to be added

Story Notes

• Mel leaves with the Doctor at the end of this story, despite being from the Doctor's future.

This was Colin Baker's last appearance as The Doctor, (though he didn't know it at the time of filming.) Baker was fired by the BBC. He was invited to come back to do a regeneration scene in another 4-Part story, but he declined the invitation.

Ratings

to be added

Myths

to be added

Location Filming

to be added

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

• What the Master said about the Valeyard giving him the remainder of his regenerations to him contradicts the Master's explanation of his regeneration in The Sound of Drums and mostly The Five Doctors.

Continuity

Colin Baker was fired by the BBC after Part 14 of The Trial of a Time Lord. Baker was invited to come back and do a four-part story, where the Doctor would regenerate, but Baker declined to return on those terms.

DVD and Video Releases

Video Releases

Released as Doctor Who: The Ultimate Foe

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

DVD release

• Due for release in The Trial of a Time Lord boxset on the 18th August.

Target Novelisations

to be added

External Links

• The Tardis Library: Video release information for The Ultimate Foe

Television

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Next story: Time and the Rani

All Media

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Next story: Time of Your Life