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The Ultimate Foe

  • byJoe Siegler
  • Posted on April 19, 2023July 4, 2024
  • 2 minute read
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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

  • The final story for Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor, as he was fired by BBC execs after the series was over.
  • 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.
  • The final story to use any variant of the titles that began back in Tom Baker’s final series (Series 18).  The next series has a completely new title sequence.
  • 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

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

— jᎾᎬ sᎥᎬᎶᏞᎬᏒ (@JoeSiegler) April 18, 2023

#DoctorWhoMarathon Ep 658 - The Trial of a Time Lord 13/14 (Serial 7C Story 144) - 29 Nov 1986 #DoctorWho 2/2

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

— jᎾᎬ sᎥᎬᎶᏞᎬᏒ (@JoeSiegler) April 18, 2023

#DoctorWhoMarathon Ep 659 - The Trial of a Time Lord 14/14 (Serial 7C Story 144) - 6 Dec 1986 #DoctorWho 1/2

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

— jᎾᎬ sᎥᎬᎶᏞᎬᏒ (@JoeSiegler) April 19, 2023

#DoctorWhoMarathon Ep 659 - The Trial of a Time Lord 14/14 (Serial 7C Story 144) - 6 Dec 1986 #DoctorWho 2/2

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

— jᎾᎬ sᎥᎬᎶᏞᎬᏒ (@JoeSiegler) April 19, 2023

Proof that this was all one story, and not four. From the Episode 14 titles.

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