Doctor Who fans i'm back with the second part of the my ongoing miniseries of review for Season 23 AKA The Trial Of A Time Lord. Since i'm watching all of these episodes in order in order to fully grasp what the story for the season (which is something I will comment on come The Ultimate Foe) that does mean that this weeks I guess look back is of the final episode to feature Nicola Bryant as Peri Brown Mindwarp.
The plot of the episode is The Doctor and Peri arrive on Thoros Beta where they discover that alien arms dealer Sil is looking to prolong the life of Lord Kiv. In all honesty I found the story for this weeks episode to be rather forgetful , it's not a bad story but more effort should have gone into making it more memorable which is a shame because this is the story that sees a companion leave and those are usually really good.
The guest cast for this episode is Lynda Bellingham as The Inquisitor , Michael Jayston as The Valeyard , Brian Blessed as King Yrcanos , Nabil Shaban as Sil , Christopher Ryan as Kiv , Patrick Ryecart as Crozier , Thomas Branch as The Lukoser/Dorff , Gordon Warnecke as Tuza , Alibe Parsons as Matrona Kani , Trevor Laird as Frax and Richard Henry as Mentor. Along with regular cast members Colin Baker as The Doctor and for the last time Nicola Bryant as Peri Brown.
I will say that there is some fine acting in this episode and there is one scene in particular which really blew me away which i'll talk about later. I honestly feel that just based of these first two stories that the acting for this series is going to be really good in every episode but there's a huge chance that I could be wrong , I really cannot praise the acting in this episode enough because both Colin and Nicola really do kill it in this episode and each get a chance to show how good they really can be.
Like I said there is a scene in this serial that really did blow me away and it's the scene where Peri explains to Yrcanos what love is. Just everything about that scene just worked the writing of it was top notch , the direction was perfect and the acting from Nicola was truly phenomenal , to me that scene shows how far her character might have come I say might have because i've not seen any other series with her character and so I can't say for sure but everything about it just screams character development to me.
I was shocked to find that there wasn't that many scenes from the actual trial in this serial which I guess makes sense since there's only so many times you can show two characters arguing with each other before it gets boring. That being said tho there is meant to be a story developing during those scenes and I don't think that it's coming across as well as it could have done which is a shame because it does seem to be an interesting story.
Like I stated before this is the last episode to feature Nicola Bryant altho she would reappear in the best forgotten Dimensions In Time special several years later. I will say that how her character leaves show is one that I honestly wasn't expecting just because it's not the type of thing that one would expect from Doctor Who but at the same time it was also a fitting way to end this serial in my opinion.
It's also due to her leaving that we get some great acting from Colin he's solid all throughout this serial but there are two examples in particular where he just takes it up a notch. The first one being the fact that he seemingly betrays his companion and how your not quite sure if he's got a plan or if he's turned evil and the second is when he finds out Peri has died and he gets very emotional that to me was such a well acted scene and it's honestly how I feel The Doctor would act in that situation.
This episode does also feature the second on screen appearance of apparent fan favourite Sil and I say apparent because until a few months ago I haven't heard of the character. Based on this serial I will say that he does seem like a pretty character with actor Nabil Shaban being perfect for the role but i'd have to see more of the character to really form an opinion but he must be good since in 2019 he got his own direct to DVD movie with Shaban and creator Philip Martin as star and writer called Sil and the Devil Seeds of Arodor.
What I found to be really interesting about this serial was the fact that there's no clear good guy or bad guy. Granted alot of that does come from somethings that will get revealed later on in the season but it's interesting to think that the Doctor Who team would try and make this approach late into the shows run and even more shocking when you realise that the show was on the decline at the time that this season was being made.
What was really shocking since I was expecting this to play a part so soon in the season was the fact that they reveal that the scenes with trial are taking place at the same time as this serial. That right there was such a good idea simply because we the audience know that The Doctor would never willingly do the things that he's seen doing in this serial and so to have that reveal was so cool and yet so chilling because it leads to the death of Peri.
Overall this wasn't a bad episode but it was a forgettable one and in terms of companion leaving episodes id say that it's one of the worst just due to how forgettable the story is. That said as i've listed in this review there are a few good things to be found in the serial you just have to try really hard to remember what actually happens and so Doctor Who fans this serial gets a 6 out of 10 from me.