Trial of the Valeyard

Like I said: Gallifrey can go hang!

The Sixth Doctor

In writing the follow-up to the Sixth Doctor’s final season, Alan Barnes and Mike Maddox fall on its strongest suite, the acting talent of Colin Baker, Michael Jayston and Lynda Bellingham. This dynamic was criminally underused on television, with this trio mainly involved in slow courtroom scenes that slowed down the action. Bellingham’s Inquisitor feels as though she has suffered as a result of the original trial, but she is more than capable of holding her own against the Doctor and the Valeyard. Here, the courtroom scenes are fast-paced and interestingly written, with the listener barely given time to think things through before the story has moved on. This is both a strength and a weakness of the story, as the pacing is good and keeps the plot moving along nicely, but it is also quite dense. It is definitely not a story for someone who is not up on their knowledge of Gallifreyan history or Time Lords in general, but does go some way to answer some questions left behind by The Ultimate Foe. There is plenty of corruption and hypocrisy at the heart of Gallifrey, including covering up what the Valeyard had been doing on Etahro and the proceedings of the Doctor’s trial. It’s clear that the deck is stacked against the Valeyard, and by extension, the Doctor, from the start.

Given the ambiguity, and general chaos, that surrounded the Trial of a Time Lord season, it is only natural for Big Finish to feel as though they need to fill in some gaps around the origins of the Valeyard, whilst keeping an air of mystery around the character. Here, we are told that the Valeyard was the result of the Doctor experimenting on himself to try and bypass the regeneration limit imposed by Rassilon, which is a horrific idea. There are numerous references to bits of Who-lore, including the scheming of the Doctor’s next incarnation and the Eighth Doctor’s brushes with death, which are alluded to by the Valeyard in attempts to prove his future knowledge of the Doctor, but the story does not seem determined to set the Valeyard’s origins in stone. Michael Jayston’s performance remains impeccable and his voice does not appear to have aged. It is harsh and abrasive but there is an undercurrent of charm which helps to make the audience believe that this could really be the Doctor after all. The hermit who is found on the mudball orbiting the planet Etarho is clearly deranged and adds to the fundamental uncertainty the audience feels about the story being told and whether to trust the Valeyard’s story in any way. This story does give us some answers but also poses new questions, leaving where the Valeyard fits in completely open to interpretation.

The concept of the Doctor having to defend the Valeyard in these trial proceedings is a solid one, especially given the previous season’s events. Colin Baker effectively portrays the Doctor’s fear at being back on Spacestation Zenobia, afraid of being put on trial once more, before the truth of the situation is revealed. Whilst he is curious about where the Time Lords have taken him this time, he denies that this is the case and is even reluctant to engage when it is revealed that he must defend the Valeyard, until he realises that the truth of his creation will die with him. Baker takes great glee in mentioning Ravalox, like a naughty child, knowing that it will have to be stricken from the record felt much more effective than the multiple unfunny nicknames the Doctor gives the Valeyard on TV.

I don’t know anything about you. All I know is that you want me dead so you can have my remaining regenerations.

Having seen what you did with them, I’d be doing the universe a favour.