Production Code: 7C
First Transmitted
9 - 01/11/1986 17:45
10 - 08/11/1986 17:45
11 - 15/11/1986 17:45
12 - 22/11/1986 17:45
Plot
The distraught Doctor gives the court his evidence for the defence. He chooses an incident from his own future, in which he and his companion Mel arrive on the space liner Hyperion III in response to a distress call. There they battle against and ultimately destroy a hostile race of alien plants, the Vervoids, while also helping to thwart a mutiny by the ship's security officer, Rudge.
Episode Endings
A crewman named Edwardes takes Mel down to the hold of the Hyperion III and shows her a caged area, assigned to the agronomist Professor Lasky, in which a number of large plant pods are growing. He offers to take her inside, but when he touches the gate he receives a fatal electric shock. Mel screams as electric sparks fly around the pods, causing one of them to break open and a strange growth to protrude.
The Doctor and Mel, wearing gas masks, enter a quarantined room on board the Hyperion III and find lying on a bench an unconscious woman with a horribly mutated face. The woman suddenly opens an eye and Mel screams. The Doctor looks grim.
The Doctor tells the Commodore of the Hyperion III that his colleague on the bridge is steering the ship straight into the eye of the Black Hole of Tartarus. Professor Lasky is stunned by this news. The Doctor looks accusingly at the Commodore.
In the Time Lord courtroom the Doctor admits that his actions on board the Hyperion III resulted in the deaths of all the Vervoids. He justifies this by arguing that if even one of the creatures had reached the ship's destination, Earth, it would have meant the end of the human race. The Valeyard, however, asserts that the charge in the Doctor's trial must now be one of genocide. The Doctor looks shocked.
Roots
Romeo and Juliet ('Parting is such sweet sorrow').
Walter de la Mare's The Traveller.
Ten Little Indians.
The Day of the Triffids.
'On with the Motley'.
The Just-So Stories of Kipling.
Alien.
Golden Rendezvous.
The Mutations Triangle.
The Eagle comic.
Little Shoppe of Horrors.
Lasky reads Murder on the Orient Express.
Dialogue Disasters
"Whoever's been dumped in there has been pulverised into fragments and sent floating into space, and in my book, that's murder."
Travers : "On the previous occasion that the Doctor's path crossed mine, I found myself involved in a web of mayhem and intrigue."
Continuity
A story from the future [extracted from the Matrix, which contains future knowledge also, although the Doctor's failure to use his continued future existence as a defence indicates that the future can be changed, which is why the Matrix is called predictive in The Deadly Assassin. The Valeyard continues to edit the material, leading to such bizarre comments as the Doctor saying 'The weird atmosphere down there could lead to phantasmagoria.'] Article Seven of Gallifreyan law deals with Genocide.
Mel comes from Pease Pottage, and has almost total recall. Her house had a large garden, with a compost heap.
The Doctor's coat contains conjuror's flowers. He carries an electronic lock pick.
The TARDIS can receive textual Mayday messages [the Doctor having told Hallet how to signal the TARDIS directly, the signal causing the TARDIS to arrive nearby].
Mogar is a planet in the Perseus Arm of the Milky Way. It is rich in rare metals (including vionesium, similar to magnesium, which emits light and carbon dioxide when exposed to air and thus ignited), which are being exploitatively mined by humans, and home to the Mogarians. Between Mogar and Earth lies the Black Hole of Tartarus. Mogarians are gold skinned humanoids with grill like mouths who cannot breathe oxygen. They are a peace loving race, for whom water on the face is fatal, but who nevertheless drink tea.
Stella Stora suffered from grain shortages around 2983. Demeter plants grow in deserts and have high yields. [There is a famine that the seeds will end.]
Vervoids can produce a gas that smells like methane, but is non-explosive, in big enough quantities to kill humans. They appear to learn very quickly: they know how showers work. A tiny piece of Vervoid pollen in a cut can transform a human into a semi-Vervoid. The Vervoids were created on Mogar by Lasky to be a workforce to replace robots. A consortium has been established to exploit them. High frequency light causes them to emerge from their pods, and strong light can accelerate their life cycle and kill them.
QV
Location
Hyperion 3, an intergalactic liner [not used here for intergalactic purposes] on scheduled Mogar-Earth flight 113 on 16 April 2986.
Untelevised
There are generalised references to other adventures with Mel. The Doctor met Commodore (then Captain) 'Tonker' Travers, and the Captain nearly lost his ship, caught up in 'a web of mayhem and intrigue' with fatalities. The Doctor also knew Hallet, and admired him. He's also been to Mogar.
Trivia
Honor Blackman, famous for her role as Cathy Gale in The Avengers, is seen here as Professor Lasky.
Goofs
Lasky has been into room 6, not finding her luggage there, because her key is actually for room 9. So how did she get in?
The Vervoids wear tracksuits and trainers (wilting and climbing through the tunnel in the final episode).
Some of them have West Country accents.
If the Vervoids are genetically engineered, why create them with lethal stings?
Why don't the Mogarians notice a major change in character in one of their number?
Why does the Captain state that the ship is hi-jack proof, even though it has been hi-jacked by Brookner?!
Fashion Victim
The Doctor's waistcoat.
Cast & Crew
Cast
The Doctor - Colin Baker
Melanie - Bonnie Langford
Atza - Sam Howard
Bruchner - David Allister
Commodore - Michael Craig
Doland - Malcom Tierney
Duty Officer - Mike Mungarvan
Edwardes - Simon Slater
First Vervoid - Peppi Borza
Grenville/Enzu - Tony Scogg
Guard/First Guard - Hugh Beverton
Janet - Yolande Palfrey
Kimber - Arthur Hewlett
Mutant/Ruth Baxter - Barbara Ward
Ortezo - Leon Davis
Professor Lasky - Honor Blackman
Rudge - Denys Hawthorne
Second Guard - Martin Weedon
Second Vervoid - Bob Appleby
The Inquisitor - Lynda Bellingham
The Valeyard - Michael Jayston
Crew
Director - Chris Clough
Terror of the Vervoids