 "The Ultimate Foe" is the title given to parts thirteen and fourteen, the concluding story of The Trial of a Time Lord - the season-long storyline that constituted Season Twenty Three -, and attempts to wrap up all of the disparate plot threads from the previous twelve episodes.
The working title for this story was "Time Inc." but it is now more popularly identified by the original third segment’s title "The Ultimate Foe". The on-screen title was simply The Trial of a Time Lord.
Part Thirteen was originally written by Robert Holmes. Robert Holmes had originally been asked to write the first four and final six episodes of the season. Robert Holmes agreed to write the first four episodes - which became "The Mysterious Planet" - but as he was not a fan of six-part stories he only agreed to write the final two episodes which would wrap up The Trial of a Time Lord storyline.
Robert Holmes sought inspiration from the novels of Charles Dickens. Namely: the fictional landscape in the Matrix resembles Victorian Britain, and the character (and name) of Mr. Popplewick are strongly Dickensian. The Doctor also quotes the final two lines of "A Tale of Two Cities", prompting Melanie Bush to chide him: ‘Never mind the Sydney Carton heroics!’.
Because of the need to carry out rewrites on his earlier story meant that Robert Holmes had to delay work on the storyline for this story. Unfortunately, the comments made by Head of Drama Jonathan Powell and his ill health meant that Robert Holmes was unable to complete this story. He was only able to complete a draft of Part Thirteen and only a plot outline for Part Fourteen. Unfortunately, the man who was arguably Doctor Who’s most successful writer passed away in May 1986. Therefore Script Editor Eric Saward had to extensively rewrite Part Thirteen after Robert Holmes’ death and to write Part Fourteen himself.
The broadcast version of Part Fourteen, however, was written by Pip and Jane Baker at the last minute, as Eric Saward withdrew his script following a final falling-out with Producer John Nathan-Turner that resulted in Eric Saward’s departure from the show.
Fully aware of the fact that Doctor Who’s future beyond Season Twenty Three was not guaranteed, it was decided that the final episode should feature a cliffhanger conclusion, so that if the show was cancelled, it would end on a particularly significant note. Inspired by the Arthur Conan Doyle novel "The Final Problem", which was supposed to have killed off both Sherlock Holmes and his arch-nemesis Professor Moriarty in a fall over the Reichenbach Falls, The original ending to The Trial of a Time Lord season would have seen The Doctor and The Master locked in combat falling through a ‘time vent’ and seemingly plunging to their deaths as an extra ‘hook’.
However, John Nathan-Turner felt this was too downbeat and believed that it was important that the season did not end on an inconclusive note since it was important after the hiatus to prove the show was back in business. Eric Saward, unhappy at John Nathan-Turner’s comments, decided to leave the show. He also withdrew his permission for the use of his version of Part Fourteen - despite the fact that the locations had already been scouted by director Chris Clough (who was assigned to handle parts nine to fourteen) and rehearsals using his script had already begun.
This resulted in John Nathan-Turner contacting Pip and Jane Baker, who had just completed "Terror of the Vervoids". Already aware that Season Twenty-Three was in dire straits, Pip and Jane Baker agreed to write a new version of Part Fourteen. John Nathan-Turner was able to provide them with a copy of Part Thirteen, but could not reveal any information about Eric Saward’s original Part Fourteen without transgressing copyright law. This resulted in Pip and Jane Baker having to create their own way of tying together all the season’s loose ends. Despite acting as script editor John Nathan-Turner this role, as with the previous story, would go uncredited on the broadcasted episodes.
Not surprisingly, Pip and Jane Bakers’ script differed from Eric Saward’s rewritten Robert Holmes version in several respects. The Master was now more overtly villainous and less of an anti-hero, while the role of the Keeper of the Matrix was significantly reduced (reportedly much to the discontent of James Bree, the actor cast to play him). The Valeyard was now a future regenerative hybrid of The Doctor instead of simply The Doctor’s final incarnation, and was no longer the weak, fearful figure of the earlier draft. Popplewick was now The Valeyard disguise, and instead of holding the court ransom with the time vent, The Valeyard now used a particle disseminator. The new script also ended on an optimistic note, with The Doctor departing for new adventures.
During recording it was found that Part Fourteen was about thirty-eight minutes long. This prompted Chris Clough to cut a number of scenes mostly involving humorous material between The Master and Glitz. Even so Part Fourteen was still around half an hour long - which is five minutes longer than a standard length of an episode. John Nathan-Turner though was able to gain permission for the episode’s slot to be extended by five minutes for the week of its transmission so that most of the recorded material could be retained.
Some stock barrel organ music was used for the scenes featuring Mr. Popplewick’s Fantasy Factory offices. This was ‘Can You Handle This?’, composed by Ken Jones and Keith Grant from an LP called Hymns, Carols, Mechanical Instruments.
Because the final six episodes were being made as though they were a single story, parts nine to twelve were confined to the studio while parts thirteen and fourteen were made principally on location. This took place at Camber Sands at Rye in East Sussex and the Gladstone Pottery Museum in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire - a genuine Victorian pottery.
It was decided by John Nathan-Turner and Eric Saward that The Master should appear in this story, and so Anthony Ainley returned to reprise the role of The Master.
John Nathan-Turner had been impressed by the character Glitz, which Robert Holmes had created for "The Mysterious Planet", and asked that he return for the final story of this season. Therefore Tony Selby (who played Glitz) returned so enabling a tie-in to "The Mysterious Planet" - the opening trial segment. Glitz has done many business deals with The Master, including his mission to steal the Matrix secrets from Ravolox. In this story he becomes a pawn in the struggle between The Master and The Valeyard.
Both Glitz and Melanie Bush (from after The Trial of a Time Lord but before "Dragonfire" (for Glitz) and "Time and The Rani" (for Melanie Bush) are brought to the space station in cabinets by The Master. Melanie Bush hasn’t met The Master or Glitz before.
This story introduces a new Gallifreyan post, Keeper of the Matrix, who carries the Key of Rassilon (see the 1978 Fourth Doctor story "Invasion of Time").
James Bree (who plays The Keeper of the Matrix) had appeared in the 1969 Second Doctor story "The War Games" (though in a different role) which was the first story to feature the Time Lords.
The Valeyard is revealed to be a future evil incarnation of The Doctor himself. In Part Fourteen’s original draft, The Valeyard was actually The Doctor’s final incarnation.
The Valeyard was promised The Doctor’s remaining incarnations by the High Council. He is an amalgamation of all The Doctor’s evil, and is between The Doctor’s twelfth and final incarnation. This distinction though would only be made if The Valeyard is different from The Doctor’s twelfth and thirteenth selves. Thus, he seems to be of the same nature as Cho-Je (see the 1974 Third Doctor story "Planet of the Spiders") or the Watcher (in the 1981 Fourth Doctor story "Logopolis"), a projection of The Doctor’s future self, one which might not be like what the Thirteenth Doctor actually turns out to be. He wants to make The Doctor’s seventh incarnation onwards in his own image, to become the Seventh Doctor.
The Valeyard instead takes over the body of the Keeper of the Matrix (like The Master took over Tremas in of in the 1981 Fourth Doctor story "The Keeper of Traken") - presumably settling to become the next regeneration of this old Time Lord.
It is revealed that sensory overload causes Time Lords to fall into a catatonic state (see the 1974 Third Doctor story "The Monster of Peladon").
The Sixth Doctor and The Valeyard have the same handwriting. Interestingly in the 1989 Seventh Doctor story "Battlefield", The Doctor and Merlin’s handwriting are also the same.
It is revealed that The Master previously entered the Matrix, using a duplicate key, and has been watching the whole trial. His TARDIS, inside the Matrix, is disguised as a beach hut and a statue of Queen Victoria.
The Doctor is heard to comment about the Time Lords when he states to the court ‘In all my travelling throughout the universe I have battled against evil, against power mad conspirators. I should have stayed here. The oldest civilisation: decadent, degenerate, and rotten to the core. Power mad conspirators, Daleks, Sontarans... Cybermen, they're still in the nursery compared to us. Ten million years of absolute power. That's what it takes to be really corrupt’.
At the end of this story The Doctor is also asked to stand again for Lord President but he refuses (see also the 1976 Fourth Doctor story "The Deadly Assassin" and the Twentieth Anniversary special "The Five Doctors").
The very last scene has The Valeyard breaking the fourth wall by looking directly into the camera and laughing.
This is the last onscreen appearance of the Time Lords for twenty three years. Apart for a brief flashback, in the 2007 Tenth Doctor story "The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords", they would not be shown again until the 2009/2010 Tenth Doctor story "The End of Time".
In keeping with the more optimistic ending John Nathan-Turner decided to amend the script at the last minute to show how Peri had not died as shown in "Mindwarp" but had in fact survived and was now happily married to King Yrcanos – so making her apparent death a part of The Valeyard’s tampering with the Matrix. A slow-motion clip from "Mindwarp" was used to show this.
It is The Master who reveals Peri’s true fate after The Doctor’s removal from time in Part Eight. He does not reveal this to The Doctor, but to the open court in The Doctor’s absence, in answer to a query by The Inquisitor. Also although The Inquisitor commented knowledgeably on events involving King Yrcanos and the seeming death of Peri, it is revealed here that she was apparently unaware that some actions and consequences did not occur in the way presented to the court.
Nicola Bryant was disappointed to learn how the fate of her character had been changed.
Virgin Books’ The New Adventures novel "Bad Therapy", written by Matthew Jones, includes an account of when Peri encounters The Doctor again.
Thanks to the paradoxes of time travel, since Melanie Bush is from The Doctor’s future, she has already met him, but from The Doctor’s perspective he is meeting her for the first time. Most spin-off media, including the Target novelisation by Pip and Jane Baker, have assumed that The Doctor, at the end of his trial, takes Melanie Bush back to her proper place in time and eventually travels to her relative past to meet Melanie Bush for the first time from her perspective. That meeting, never seen on screen, is related in the BBC Books’ The Past Doctors Stories novel "Business Unusual", written by Gary Russell, and also in the Big Finish Productions Unbound audio story "He Jests at Scars..." which provides a semi-sequel to this story.
This story marked the final appearances of The Inquisitor and The Valeyard as recurring characters.
Michael Jayston returned to play an alternate version of The Valeyard in "He Jests at Scars...". The Valeyard has also featured in a number of novels (including Virgin Books’ The New Adventures and The Missing Adventures and BBC Books’ The Past Doctors Stories range) – Namely "Matrix", and, in a sense, "Millennial Rites" and "Head Games"", a variation of him also appeared in the 2010 Eleventh Doctor story "Amy's Choice". The Valeyard’s origins are also explored in the unlicensed charity release novel "Time's Champion".
The Inquisitor is never given a formal name, but Lynda Bellingham reprised the role - as Inquisitor Darkel - in Big Finish Prodoctions Gallifrey audio series - appearing in most of the episodes.
Glitz is presumably sent home while The Master is to be punished - but presumable escapes.
Whereas previously Anthony Ainley had appeared, as The Master, in at least one story per year since Season Eighteen, it would be another three years before he returned for the last time in the 1989 Seventh Doctor story "Survival", the final story of the show’s original run. Information about his escape is provided in Virgin Books’ The Missing Adventures novel "State of Change", written Christopher Bulis.
What happens to Earth is never explained. The Time Lords might put it back into its original location, or even prevent it from ever having been moved in the first place.
In the 2008 Tenth Doctor story "The Stolen Earth/Journey's End", a Magnetron is used to move a number of planets to another spot in the universe. Since then, the technology appears to have been modified and/or improved as the planets apparently just teleport rather than being ‘thrown’.
This was Colin Baker’s final appearance during the original run of the show (though he was unaware of it at the time of filming). When Season Twenty Four was commissioned, he was sacked by BBC executives who blamed him (unfairly) for the lower ratings. Colin Baker was offered the chance to appear as in all four episodes of the first story of Season Twenty Four, but he declined this and the invitation to return for the traditional regeneration sequence in "Time and The Rani" - deciding instead that it was best, from both a personal and a professional perspective, to make a clean break from Doctor Who.
Colin Baker later returned, as the Sixth Doctor, in 1989 when he replaced Jon Pertwee in the stage play "Doctor Who: The Ultimate Adventure". He also took part in the Thirtieth-Anniversary Children In Need special "Dimensions in Time", in 1993. Colin Baker also created the role of ‘the Stranger' for Bill Baggs Videos (BBV) as well as appearing on the "Colin Baker Years" and "Cybermen: The Early Years" tapes. He has also reprised the role of the Sixth Doctor in the Big Finish Productions Doctor Who audio range.
The Target novelisation, published in September 1988, differs from the televised adventure. In the novel The Master says ‘The Valeyard, Doctor, is your penultimate reincarnation ... Somewhere between your twelfth and thirteenth regeneration...and may I say you do not improve with age...’. As televised The Master’s line is ‘The Valeyard is an amalgamation of the darker sides of your nature, somewhere between your twelfth and final incarnation...and may I say you do not improve with age...’. The Master also explains how he survived his previous adventure ("The Mark of The Rani").
| |
|
The Lasts (Subject to Future Stories):
The last story of Season Twenty Three.
Colin Baker's last regular appearance as the Sixth Doctor.
The last appearance in the show for The Valeyard played by Michael Jayston.
The last onscreen appearance of the Time Lords for twenty three years.
The last Doctor Who story to be written by Robert Holmes.
Eric Saward's last involvement in the show as Script Editor.
|
|
(Position = 86 out of 159)
(Position = 142 out of 200)
(Position = 168 out of 241)
