The Ultimate Foe
Joe Siegler
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TOATL: The Ultimate Foe
This Story: Season 23, Story 1. Production Code 7C
Overall: Story 144, Episode 658-659
Airdates: 29 Nov 1986 – 6 Dec 1986
Written by Robert Holmes (Part 13) & Pip and Jake Baker (Part 14)
Directed by Chris Clough
Notes
- Officially the whole of Season 23 is a single story with 14 episodes. As transmitted, “The Ultimate Foe” appears nowhere, it is officially all “The Trial of a Time Lord” episodes 1-14. However, for brevity’s sake, I’m having separate pages for the four parts of the story, as they have individual directors, writers, and production codes (for the most part). All four parts (and 28 or so tweets) on a single page would be too much, I think.
- Both The Ultimate Foe and the previous part of Trial (Terror of the Vervoids) have the same production code (7C), as they were both directed by the same guy (Chris Clough), despite having different actors and sets (minus the Trial room), and whatnot.
- These tweets are longer than usual, and embedded tweets don’t show 100% of the text, so you’ll need to click through to read 100% of what I wrote.
Links
[ Wikipedia | Tardis Data Core | SPS Historium | Amazon US DVD | Amazon US Blu-Ray | Amazon UK DVD | Amazon UK Blu-Ray ]
#DoctorWhoMarathon Ep 658 - The Trial of a Time Lord 13/14 (Serial 7C Story 144) - 29 Nov 1986 #DoctorWho 1/2
— jᎾᎬ sᎥᎬᎶᏞᎬᏒ (@JoeSiegler) April 18, 2023
The shit hits the fan. First off, this is the last ever episode by Doctor Who mainstay writer Robert Holmes. He wrote the first 4ps of Trial, and this one. He sadly died… pic.twitter.com/mgPrgIk0Fq
#DoctorWhoMarathon Ep 658 - The Trial of a Time Lord 13/14 (Serial 7C Story 144) - 29 Nov 1986 #DoctorWho 2/2
— jᎾᎬ sᎥᎬᎶᏞᎬᏒ (@JoeSiegler) April 18, 2023
But the most confusing part is when the Master refers to the Valeyard as "The Doctor". Many people have taken this to mean that the Valeyard is a future regeneration of… pic.twitter.com/A01msXB06A
#DoctorWhoMarathon Ep 659 - The Trial of a Time Lord 14/14 (Serial 7C Story 144) - 6 Dec 1986 #DoctorWho 1/2
— jᎾᎬ sᎥᎬᎶᏞᎬᏒ (@JoeSiegler) April 19, 2023
That's it. The Trial (& six) end in a somewhat confusing mess with a "megabyte modem". The Master is dispatched, the Valeyard is seen to be killed, yet escapes, Mel goes pic.twitter.com/WWz27RucXX
#DoctorWhoMarathon Ep 659 - The Trial of a Time Lord 14/14 (Serial 7C Story 144) - 6 Dec 1986 #DoctorWho 2/2
— jᎾᎬ sᎥᎬᎶᏞᎬᏒ (@JoeSiegler) April 19, 2023
with the Doctor (in wrong time zone), Peri is shown to not be dead. The original Saward scripted ending would have worked better w/Colin's forced departure. #CarrotJuice pic.twitter.com/vvXSTYxaPn
