Doctor Who:
The Trial of a Time Lord
Terror of the Vervoids
By Pip and Jane Baker
VALEYARD: Whether or not
the Doctor has proved himself innocent of meddling is no longer the cardinal
issue before this court. He has proved himself guilty of a far greater crime.
INQUISITOR: You refer to
Article seven of Gallifreyan law?
DOCTOR: No, my lady, that
cannot apply! Had a single Vervoid reached Earth, the human race would have
been eliminated!
VALEYARD: Article seven
permits no exceptions. The Doctor has destroyed a complete species. The charge
must now be genocide.
The Doctor is now ready to
present his case after a short time to mourn the death of Peri shows the court
an adventure from his future. The Doctor
and new companion Mel respond to a distress signal from the Hyperion 3. Apparently there is something sinister going
on as a string of murders has taken place.
The Commodore is an old friend of The Doctor and lets him take charge of
the investigation.
That is not the only
strange occurrence going on as there appears to be some strange seed pods in
the cargo deck. In fact the pods are
big enough for a human to fit in them.
Mel wanted to see them but is stopped by a member of the crew who
decides to show her the pods. He
proceeds to open the gate when he is electrocuted and that bright light has
brought to life the creatures inside the pods.
Now more people have started to disappear and and there are leaves being
left at the scene. The Doctor now has
two mysteries and the task of saving everyone on the ship and preventing the
Vervoids from getting to Earth and killing the entire population.
Terror of the Vervoids is
the one story from The Trial of a Time Lord that could easily stand on its own without
the aid of the trial linking segments.
In fact it is the one story so far that has the least amount of trial
segments in it. In fact it is the one
story that actually feels like a Doctor Who story as The Doctor seems like
himself and the relationship with the companion isn’t strained yet. What we also have here is an old fashioned
mystery with a true alien presence roaming around also. In fact it is the good ole base under siege
scenario which works so well in Doctor Who.
I like the fact that there
are two things going on. First there is
the murder mystery as passengers and crew is dropping like flies. There is someone up to something and with The
Doctor on board it has really mucked their plans. Then there is Professor Lasky and her crew
and the pods they have on board which turns out to be inhabited by the villainous
Vervoids who hate humans with a passion
and the proceed to killing everyone on
the ship also.
I liked the Vervoids as
they were malicious and did not ally or try to bargin with the humans at all. They even killed the scientists that were
trying to help them as they ended up killing them also. What was funny was they also killed the
hybrid human Vervoid that was turning into one of them. The plant like Vervoids were one of the
better looking aliens of the Eighties as their plant like features made them a
tad scary especially when they popped out of nowhere.
Terror of the Vervoids has
the dubious distinction of being the first story for Mel. Mel ends up being one of the more annoying
companions of all time. For one she
screams at everything no matter how trivial the threat may be. Plus Mel is annoying in her mannerisms as
they made her not so bright it would seem as she often gets into trouble and
acts without thinking. Did I mention the
screaming? The chemistry is there with
Colin Baker and it is unfortunate that the two of them did not have more time
together as there was not much chemistry with Sylvester McCoy.
The trial scene ended
Terror of the Vervoids with a pretty good twist as it would appear that The
Doctor did not help his cause but hurt it.
The Valeyard added the charge of genocide as it would appear The Doctor
killed the last of The Vervoids. This
was a good twist to the trial proceedings as they had started to become pretty
boring as they appeared to be just a bunch of bickering matches between The
Doctor and The Valeyard and that was getting old and boring to watch.
Terror of the Vervoids was
one of the better stories of the Trial season and one of the better stories
during the Colin Baker story also.
Grade B-
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