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Classic Who: Trial of a Time Lord
Wednesday, 1 April 2009 20:22I'd already noticed a lot of self-referentiality in the Sixth Doctor era, but Trial of a Time Lord obviously takes the theme to a whole new level. A year off the air had certainly caused the programme to take a careful look at itself and pull its socks up a bit, and the result is definitely a stronger effort than season 22. Colin Baker is enjoyable throughout and the stories are fairly consistently decent. Having watched all the extras on the DVD though, its clear that with the benefit of hindsight most commentators feel that greater efforts were needed to reinvent the programme at this stage if it was to continue with any real success or credibility - and I can't disagree.
The opening credits are a good index of what's afoot. There's a very self-congratulatory interview on the first DVD with the creator of the Trial-era theme tune, in which he speaks of completely re-inventing it and trying to give it a 'timeless' feel. But the truth is that it is terrible - still beholden to the previous version (which I already disliked), and weighed down with the very dated-ness which he was trying so hard to avoid. Where at its centre there was once a living, pulsing bass-line, now we have some sort of inept flapping sound. Meanwhile the star-field visuals (which I really liked when they were introduced at the beginning of the JNT era) have now been distorted to the extent that they seem more like a spectacle of tasteless bling than a glimpse into the majestic mysteries of the Universe. People in all areas of the programme were obviously trying hard to up the ante, but too often they seem to have been directing their efforts in exactly the wrong direction.
( Sixth Doctor: The Mysterious Planet )
( Sixth Doctor: Mindwarp )
( Sixth Doctor: Terror of the Vervoids )
( Sixth Doctor: The Ultimate Foe )
And so that is me for season 23. What I am going to do now is polish matters off neatly by watching the only remaining Sixth Doctor story I haven't seen - Attack of the Cybermen - and then just leave this era of Doctor Who quietly behind...
Click here to view this entry with minimal formatting.
The opening credits are a good index of what's afoot. There's a very self-congratulatory interview on the first DVD with the creator of the Trial-era theme tune, in which he speaks of completely re-inventing it and trying to give it a 'timeless' feel. But the truth is that it is terrible - still beholden to the previous version (which I already disliked), and weighed down with the very dated-ness which he was trying so hard to avoid. Where at its centre there was once a living, pulsing bass-line, now we have some sort of inept flapping sound. Meanwhile the star-field visuals (which I really liked when they were introduced at the beginning of the JNT era) have now been distorted to the extent that they seem more like a spectacle of tasteless bling than a glimpse into the majestic mysteries of the Universe. People in all areas of the programme were obviously trying hard to up the ante, but too often they seem to have been directing their efforts in exactly the wrong direction.
( Sixth Doctor: The Mysterious Planet )
( Sixth Doctor: Mindwarp )
( Sixth Doctor: Terror of the Vervoids )
( Sixth Doctor: The Ultimate Foe )
And so that is me for season 23. What I am going to do now is polish matters off neatly by watching the only remaining Sixth Doctor story I haven't seen - Attack of the Cybermen - and then just leave this era of Doctor Who quietly behind...
Click here to view this entry with minimal formatting.
