Production Code: 7B
First Transmitted
5 - 04/10/1986 17:45
6 - 11/10/1986 17:45
7 - 18/10/1986 17:45
8 - 25/10/1986 17:45
Plot
The Valeyard's second segment of evidence relates to the planet Thoros-Beta. Here the Doctor and Peri meet their old adversary Sil and others of his Mentor race, whose leader Kiv is awaiting an operation from a scientist named Crozier to transplant his brain into another body. They also form an uneasy alliance with a kidnapped Krontep warrior, King Yrcanos, and encounter a group of resistance fighters. Peri is eventually chosen as the recipient of Kiv's consciousness and is apparently killed in an ensuing mêlée sanctioned by the Time Lords to prevent Crozier's work from disturbing the balance of nature.
Episode Endings
The Doctor is strapped to an operating table in Crozier's laboratory and a metal helmet placed on his head. Sil instructs Crozier to use the equipment to extract from the Doctor the truth about his and Peri's earlier encounter with a sea creature called the Raak, which ended in the creature's death. Crozier warns that this could prove fatal, but Sil is unconcerned. The equipment is switched on and the Doctor convulses in agony.
King Yrcanos aims a gun at the Doctor, who has apparently allied himself with the Mentors, and tells him 'Now Doctor, it is your turn to die.' The Doctor looks horrified.
Peri, Yrcanos, Yrcanos's squire the Lukoser and the resistance fighters are all shot down by the Mentors' guards, led by Frax. 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.
The distraught Doctor alleges that the Time Lords had an ulterior motive for taking him out of time and thus preventing him from saving Peri - and he has every intention of finding out what it is. The Doctor looks resolute.
Roots
The Island of Doctor Moreau.
Gangsters.
The Prisoner episode A Change of Mind.
Space: 1999 (The Metamorph).
Flash Gordon.
The Black Adder.
Mad scientist/brain transplant films.
Dialogue Triumphs
King Yrcanos : "Today prudence shall be our watchword. Tomorrow we shall soak the land in blood!"
Kiv : "Dead, no, worse than that - poor!"
Dialogue Disasters
Peri : "Nobody likes brain alteration."
Double Entendre
Inquisitor : "We had to act!"
Continuity
The Doctor is taken out of time during this story [the Time Lords can remotely control the TARDIS, and force him to get into it by putting the Doctor into a trance. This was not possible during The War Games: perhaps changes were made to the Doctor's TARDIS during Arc of Infinity].
The Time Lords use Yrcanos as an assassin [to kill Crozier, his assistants, Kiv, Sil and to destroy the equipment, but not actually to kill the, still unharmed, Peri] because Crozier's discovery would affect natural evolution throughout the universe. [Not to mention giving everybody Time Lord length life spans.] They do this by holding him in a time bubble [frozen until his targets are in the ideal place for him to shoot them without risk].
The Raak is a genetically engineered amphibious creature. Another example of an unjust trial was that of the so called Witches of Enderheid. There is a Sondlex crop on Wilson 1. Skulnesh has very nasty sewers. There are seven-legged chargers on Corojaan.
Yrcanos is King of the Krontep, Lord of the Vingten, Conqueror of the Tonkonp Empire, whom he defeated on Thordon 2. The Krontep gods live on Verduna. Their warrior queens fight beside their kings. Yrcanos eats Flayfish. 'Screedner' is one of many Krontep swearwords. They believe in a form of reincarnation.
Kiv, leader of the Mentors, is addressed as Magnificence, and the centre of power is the Great Commerce Room. Their god is Morgo, and they have the same concept of hell, the Plague Hall of Mogdana, as do the Krontep [which says a lot about their cultural influence]. Thoros Alpha, home to a humanoid race called Alphans, enslaved by the Mentors, is in the same system as Thoros Beta.
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. Some, less developed, Mentors have a sting in their tail. All of the universe's commodity markets can be accessed by a communications device called the warpfold relay. The Mentors are dealing with a representative from Posikar (a short reptilian [perhaps related to the Terileptils]).
It is never revealed how much of this story is fabricated.
QV
Location
Thoros Beta, 3 July 2379.
Future History
There will be many battles over the ringworlds of the planet Tokl in the 24th century. The Mentors approve a loan to the Search Conv Corps, a salvage company.
Links
References to Vengeance on Varos
Untelevised
Immediately prior to this, the Doctor and Peri were on Thordon, where the warlords were being supplied phasers by Thoros Beta.
Trivia
Part two sees larger-than-life actor Brian Blessed taking on the role of King Yrcanos. Also appearing is Christopher Ryan, who rose to prominence as one of The Young Ones in the BBC's pioneering alternative comedy series, heavily made-up and costumed as Kiv.
Technobabble
Crozier's equipment includes a lexifier and an endrodiotone.
Goofs
The TARDIS is missing its information notice on location.
The third Mentor appears to be watching The A-Team on TV!
Fashion Victim
Peri's white stilettos. Very 80s.
Everybody's eye make up.
Cast & Crew
Cast
The Doctor - Colin Baker
Peri - Nicola Bryant
Crozier - Patrick Ryecart
Frax - Trevor Laird
King Yrcanos - Brian Blessed
Kiv - Christopher Ryan
Matrona Kani - Alibe Parsons
Mentor - Richard Henry
Sil - Nabil Shaban
The Inquisitor - Lynda Bellingham
The Lukoser - Thomas Branch
The Valeyard - Michael Jayston
Tuza - Gordon Warnecke
Crew
Director - Ron Jones
Mindwarp