Mindwarp (TV story)

Mindwarp was the unbroadcast title given to episodes five to eight of The Trial of a Time Lord, the season-long story that constituted Season 23 of Doctor Who. It was the second serial in the Trial of a Time Lord arc. It saw the final appearance of Peri Brown in the series from a present perspective and the guest appearance of Brian Blessed as King Yrcanos.

On 14 September 2019, the story was shown at BFI Southbank with 5.1 surround sound mix and re-recorded music by original composer Richard Hartley. A Q&A with Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant was also held.^[1]^[2]

Synopsis

As the trial of the Doctor continues, evidence is presented showing his most recent adventure - where he faces an old adversary, Sil. As a scientist conducts his unethical experiments to prolong the life of Sil's boss Kiv, the Doctor's memory of the events begins to return... and an unpleasant surprise awaits him.

Plot

Part five

The Valeyard and the Doctor argue about the Doctor's involvement in past events. The Inquisitor warns them to pay due respect to the judicial process. The Valeyard presents his second block of evidence - the Doctor's arrival on the planet Thoros Beta.

The TARDIS arrives on the planet, where the Doctor shows Peri Brown a weapon given to him by the "Warlord of Thordon", made on Thoros Beta. He says he has come to find out how the warlords obtained the technology. They enter a cave where Peri is grabbed by a monstrous creature. In the struggle, the Doctor shoots it.

The Valeyard accuses the Doctor of deliberately shooting the monster, but he insists the weapon went off accidentally.

A figure arrives and accuses the Doctor and Peri of murdering the Raak, despite their protestations that it attacked them first. The figure asks if they are part of Crozier's group. The Doctor says he is. They flee before they can be identified as imposters, but are quickly faced by another monster. It reacts kindly when the Doctor is nice to it. They flee further. As they hide, they see three reptilian figures being carried by guards. The third is their old enemy Sil. The Doctor realises Sil is probably behind the arms sales and informs Peri that Thoros Beta is the homeworld of Sil's race, the Mentors.

In Crozier's laboratory, King Yrcanos is being experimented on. The Doctor and Peri sneak inside. As the Doctor sabotages some of Kiv's equipment, Sil arrives in the laboratory. The Doctor is strapped to a table and Crozier applies a metal helmet to his head. Crozier states that the equipment will extract the truth from a suspect and could prove fatal. He starts to probe the Doctor's mind, and the Doctor screams in agony...

Part six

King Yrcanos awakes and destroys the equipment. Overpowering the guards, he departs the laboratory, followed by a stunned Doctor and Peri. Yrcanos outlines his plans to attack the Mentors. The Doctor says he would enjoy that and then collapses.

The Doctor tells the Inquisitor that he cannot remember these events. The Valeyard tells him he is in for a surprise if this is true.

Yrcanos, the Doctor and Peri go to where new slaves are brought into the base. Yrcanos plans to attack the guards and steal their weapons, but as he sneaks into the room, the Doctor calls out to the guards, giving him away. Yrcanos, unable to fight the guards, flees. Peri points a weapon at Sil and asks the Doctor for help, but he ignores her. Peri drops the weapon and flees after Yrcanos. Sil asks the Doctor why he helped the Mentors, and he replies that the odds were on their side.

The Doctor insists that the footage is not of him, but the Valeyard tells him that the Matrix cannot lie.

Peri comes across Matrona, who allows her to join the Mentors' servants rather than turn her over to the guards. Covered with a veil, she enters the Commerce Room with Kiv's medication. The Doctor asks her to get him a drink, so she disguises her voice to avoid being recognised. When she brings him a new drink, the Doctor uncovers her and denounces her as an enemy to the Mentors.

The Doctor tells the courtroom that what they are seeing is all part of his ploy. He says he planned to gain the Mentors' trust so that he would be allowed to interrogate her alone, giving them a chance to escape.

Peri is lashed to rocks on the shoreline and the Doctor stands over her, accusing her of being a spy. She asks why he is behaving the way he is, and the Doctor tells her that Crozier is planning to put Kiv's brain into his body unless he can help them. Crozier stops the interrogation, saying that they have more effective methods of extracting the truth from Peri. As they re-enter the complex, Yrcanos attacks the guard and threatens to kill the Doctor...

Part seven

However, Peri smashes the gun from Yrcanos's hands, allowing the Doctor to flee. In Crozier's laboratory, the scientist prepares to transplant Kiv's brain into a recently deceased Mentor corpse with the help of the Doctor. The operation proves successful.

Meanwhile, Yrcanos, Peri and Dorf team up with members of the Alphan resistance. Agreeing to allow Yrcanos to lead them in an attack on the Mentors, they go to the resistance arms dump, but they are ambushed by Mentor guards and shot down. However, it is revealed they have merely been stunned, and they are taken to cells. Watching these events on the Matrix screen in the Time Lord courtroom, the Doctor protests that he was not responsible. The Valeyard, however, replies, "In your mind, perhaps not. But in reality, it is somewhat different, Doctor." The Doctor looks perturbed...

Part eight

In Crozier's laboratory, Lord Kiv is rambling due to the body of the fisherman influencing his brain. Crozier makes plans to transfer the brain into another more suitable body and suggests using Peri. The Doctor says he would prefer that she is not experimented on, but while he is trying to find another candidate, Peri is brought to the laboratory and strapped to the operating table. Crozier begins to prepare her for the surgery.

The Doctor goes to Yrcanos's cell and tricks the guard, allowing Yrcanos and Dorf to escape. Together they free the remaining resistance members. They head towards the control room, from where all the slaves are mentally controlled. They succeed in freeing the slaves from mental control, but Dorf is killed by a passing guard. Lord Kiv is taken to the laboratory to prepare for the operation. Peri is strapped down and gagged, and Kiv gives the order to shave her head. As the Doctor heads towards the lab, his TARDIS suddenly appears in the hallway. The Doctor absent-mindedly reverses into it and it takes off, heading for the space station.

In the courtroom, the Inquisitor tells the Doctor that this was the result of an order from the High Council because the result of Crozier's experiment would affect all life in the Universe.

Kiv in Peri's body.

As Yrcanos prepares his attack on the laboratory, the Time Lords capture him in a time bubble so that his attack is perfectly timed to destroy Crozier's work. When Kiv awakes in Peri's bald body, the time bubble dissipates and Yrcanos bursts into the laboratory. Upon seeing the result of Crozier's experiment, he is consumed with fury and despiar and begins firing his gun wildly, seemingly killing Peri and the others in the process.

The Doctor is shocked by what he has seen. The Inquisitor and the Valeyard tell him that it was necessary to end Peri's life to prevent the disastrous consequences of Crozier's experiment. The Doctor, awash with rage, insists that he was taken out of time for another reason, and he declares that he's going to find out why...

Cast

Uncredited cast

The Raak - Russell West
Verne - Ernest Jennings (both DWM 249)

Crew

Assistant Floor Manager - Anna Price
Costumes - John Hearne
Designer - Andrew Howe-Davies
Incidental Music - Richard Hartley
O.B. Lighting - Colin Widgery
O.B. Sound - Mike Johnstone
Make-Up - Dorka Nieradzik
Producer - John Nathan-Turner
Production Assistant - Karen Jones
Production Associate - Angela Smith, June Collins
Production Manager - Kevan Van Thompson
Script Editor - Eric Saward
Special Sounds - Dick Mills
Studio Camera Supervisor - Alec Wheal
Studio Lighting - Don Babbage
Studio Sound - Brian Clark
Technical Co-Ordinator - Alan Arbuthnott
Theme Arrangement - Dominic Glynn
Title Music - Ron Grainer
Video Effects - Danny Popkin
Videotape Editor - Hugh Parson
Vision Mixer - Jim Stephens
Visual Effects - Peter Wragg

References

Foods and beverages

Yrcanos eats flay fish.
Lord Kiv is served sand snakes.

Individuals

Yrcanos is King of the Krontep, Lord of the Vingten, Conqueror of the Tonkonp Empire.
Kiv, leader of the Mentors, is addressed as Magnificence and the centre of power is the Great Commerce Room.
The Mentors' god is Morgo and they have the same concept of hell, the "Plague Hall of Mogdana", as do the Krontep.
Sil is one of the Mentors.
Linna is a spice trader.

Locations

The Krontep gods live on Verduna.
Thoros Betan seas include the Sea of Turmoil, the Sea of Despair and Longing, and the Sea of Sorrows. There is an island called Brak.

Medicine

In a first moment, the Doctor thinks the Lukoser is affected from lycanthropy.
According to Crozier, dreams are to be expected side-effects of sedation.
Crozied perfected a serum against tissue rejection.
In Crozier's laboratory the Doctor examines a preserved Alien Chestburster.

Organisations

The Search-Conv-Corp are a "bunch of burnt out space rangers who search for wrecked spaceships".

Planets

There is a Sondlex crop on Wilson One.
Skulnesh has very nasty sewers.
There are seven-legged chargers on Corojaan.
Thoros Alpha, home to a humanoid race called Alphans, enslaved by the Mentors, is the twin planet of Thoros Beta. It appears as a large, white body, clearly visible during the Betan day, and has a large, white ring belt.
The Mentors are dealing with a (short reptilian) representative from Posicar.
Tokl is a planet in the Rim Worlds.

Technology

All of the universe's commodity markets can be accessed by a communications device called the warpfold relay.
Crozier's equipment includes a lexifier and an endrodiotone.
Crozier works on a BTU - a brain transference unit.

Weapons

Phasers have been sold on Thordon from Thoros Beta.

Story notes

The special effect showing a ringed planet in the sky over Thoros Beta early in the serial duplicates an image seen at the end of the 1985 New Zealand SF film The Quiet Earth.
The Radio Times programme listing for part six was accompanied by a black and white publicity still of Yrcanos putting his fists up to the camera, with the accompanying caption "Rogue chieftain with the evil eye: Brian Blessed as Yrcanos / BBC1, 5.45 p.m. Doctor Who".
In keeping with the "colour coding" of the Doctor's cravats, this story sees him wearing his red cravat, consistent with its events leading directly up to the start of the trial. This is its earliest chronological appearance within his time stream, although he wears it throughout the court room scenes, from the previous story through to the end of The Ultimate Foe.

Ratings

Brackets refer to this story's individual parts

Part five (1) - 4.8 million viewers
Part six (2) - 4.6 million viewers
Part seven (3) - 5.1 million viewers
Part eight (4) - 5.0 million viewers

Myths

The expansion of Kiv's brain is a direct result of Crozier experimenting on him to increase his intelligence. (It isn't. Dialogue establishes that Kiv's intelligence and brain expansion are the result of his being a mutant and that Crozier wasn't hired until the expansion had already become a serious problem.)

Filming locations

Telscombe Cliffs, Peacehaven, East Sussex
BBC Television Centre (TC6 & TC1), Shepherd's Bush, London

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.

After the Raak has finished attacking the Doctor and Peri and dies, a boom shadow can be seen across Colin Baker's head.

Continuity

Sil first appears again, much to Peri's displeasure (TV: Vengeance on Varos) returning in PROSE: Mission to Magnus/AUDIO: Mission to Magnus before making his final appearance to date in AUDIO: Antidote to Oblivion.
Peri would later meet the Seventh Doctor in PROSE: Bad Therapy and (AUDIO: The Light at the End).
When meeting an older version of Peri in Los Angeles in 2009 who had no memory of their travels after their first encounter (TV: Planet of Fire), the Doctor mentioned Sil in an attempt to jog her memory. (AUDIO: Peri and the Piscon Paradox)
Shortly after disrupting the Alphan's control centre and after becoming separated from Yrcanos en route to save Peri, the Doctor is forcibly taken out of time by the Time Lords and brought to the trial room. (TV: The Mysterious Planet) After this point in the evidence, events are narrated by the Inquisitor, rather than by the Valeyard acting as prosecuting counsel.
The Doctor is also wearing his red cravat here. (TV: The Mysterious Planet)
The Doctor would later encounter Crozier's daughter Cordelia in London in 2382. She blamed the Doctor for her father's death. (AUDIO: Antidote to Oblivion)
The Doctor previously avoided visited Thoros-Beta due to its garish "colour" scheme. (AUDIO: Zaltys)

Home video and audio releases

DVD releases

This story was released in The Trial of a Time Lord box set on 29 September 2008.
Editing for the DVD release was completed by the Doctor Who Restoration Team.

DVD Contents

Audio Commentary featuring Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant and Philip Martin
The Making of Mindwarp
Deleted and Extended Scenes
Now and Then - On the Trail of a Time Lord - Locations used in The Trial of a Time Lord
A Fate Worse than Death? - Clip from Part 14 of Trial of a Time Lord in which the Inquisitor reveals Peri's ultimate fate, with commentary from Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant
Trails and Continuity
Production Subtitles
Children in Need
Lenny Henry - Segment of The Lenny Henry Show parodying Doctor Who
Photo Gallery

Region 2 UK cover

VHS releases

This story was released as Doctor Who: Mindwarp
It was released:
- UK October 1993 (released with the other The Trial of a Time Lord 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 honour of Doctor Who's thirtieth anniversary)
- Australia October 1993

External links

[1] ttps://twitter.com/ruther2/status/1153362125714284545?s=21

[2] ttps://whatson.bfi.org.uk/Online/default.asp?BOparam%3A%3AWScontent%3A%3AloadArticle%3A%3Apermalink=doctorwhomindwarpqanda&BOparam%3A%3AWScontent%3A%3AloadArticle%3A%3Acontext_id

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