The Doctor (The Trials of Tara)
The Doctor was a character in Paul Cornell's play The Trials of Tara.
He was from Gallifrey and had the ability to change his form. He travelled with his friend Bernice Summerfield in his ship, called the TARDIS, which was capable of visiting other planets. The Doctor was clearly based upon the Seventh Doctor, with Bernice a fictionalised version of his companion of the same name. (PROSE: The Trials of Tara [+]Loading...["The Trials of Tara (short story)"])
Character biography[[edit] | [edit source]]
Pre-play[[edit] | [edit source]]
Ten years prior to the events of the play, the Doctor visited Tara with his friend Romana, who resembled Princess Strella. During his visit, he helped to save the Taran state by using a secret android of Prince Reynart. This is involved foiling Count Grendel's plans. As a reward, Reynart bestowed upon the Doctor all the land from Freya's Furrow to the brook flowing by the wall of Klat, including the Pavilion of the Summer Winds.
At an unspecified point, he encountered the Kandyman on Terra Alpha.
Act I[[edit] | [edit source]]
Ten years after his last visit, having changed his face and form and now in the company of Bernice Summerfield, the Doctor returned to Tara. They arrived in a clearing in Act I Scene 3, wherein the Doctor explained that he had Bernice change her dress in favour of something boyish because Tara was a "warmly feudal place" and so it was best to "avoid the stare of amorous ducs". However, they were soon confronted by a Taran beast and split up to escape.
Act II[[edit] | [edit source]]
The Doctor next appeared in Act II Scene 1 after being found by guards on Castle Tara's drawbridge and taken before Swordmaster Zadek. He was able to convince Zadek, who told him about Reynart's disappearance years ago, he was the same man from a decade prior. He was then informed that as he had set foot in the inner castle he had committed to play a game where backing out resulted in death, with the prize being Strella's hand in marriage.
In Act II Scene 5, the Doctor met his fellow competitors, Augmentio and Bernice, who had adopted the name Bertrand to keep up the ruse of her identity. They each faced the first challenge, opening the casket of confusion while the others were blindfolded. The Doctor passed the test, also aiding Bernice by narrating his actions during his own attempt and subsequently talking to her in the language of a race from far away who used eyebrows to communicate.
Act III[[edit] | [edit source]]
His next appearance was in Act III Scene 2, where the Doctor reunited with the Archimandrite and successfully proposed that the next test should involve the three competitors acting out parts in familiar tales dressed in the female robes and courtly masks of Appolonia's troupe, the Girl Players of Outer Traken.
The performance of Zob's Labours Lost occurred during Scene 4, with the Doctor playing Dame Fibbetjon, during which Augmentio suddenly stopped speaking, becoming frozen like a statue, causing the Doctor to pull Augmentio's face off and exposing him as an android. After Augmentio revealed himself to be an agent of Grendel, the Doctor formulated a plan to have him act in their interests instead.
Act IV[[edit] | [edit source]]
In Act IV Scene 1, while Castle Tara was being beseiged by Grendel's forces, the Doctor explained that he had altered the circuits of Strella's complement of androids to defend the walls of the castle and even attack Grendel's troops.
In Scene 2, as the seige continued the Doctor told Zadek that he was repairing the androids as fast as he could. After this, he went to find Appolonia.
In Scene 3, the Doctor encountered Grendel and the Kandyman on the battlefield. He instructed Bernice to throw buckets of Taran red wine over the Kandyman, which killed him, while Grendel escaped.
In Scene 4, the Doctor and Grendel met on a cliff edge, fighting each other after Grendel rejected the Doctor's offer of being taken elsewhere in space to avoid the death sentence he faced from the other Tarans. The Doctor managed to cast Grendel's sword aside during the fight, with Grendel diving from the clifftop to escape.
In Scene 5, with Appolonia having been revealed as a disguised Prince Reynart, he offered the Doctor a boon for his great service for Tara. He asked that Merrybone and Claypole, two of Grendel's former soldiers, be allowed to serve on Reynart's council and warned that their class and faction must be heeded if Reynart wished to rule an honest Tara. He also surrendered his feifdoms on Tara to allow a new Gracht to be established, with the Pavilion serving as a memorial and a sign that injustice was never more to return. The Doctor and Bernice then planned to leave in the TARDIS on a distant heading, departing before the remarriage of Reynart and Strella. (PROSE: The Trials of Tara [+]Loading...["The Trials of Tara (short story)"])
Behind the scenes[[edit] | [edit source]]
The Doctor's prior adventures are references to the events of The Androids of Tara [+]Loading...["The Androids of Tara (TV story)"] and The Happiness Patrol [+]Loading...["The Happiness Patrol (TV story)"].
