Mindwarp (TV story)

Mindwarp was the unbroadcast title given to the second story of The Trial of a Time Lord, the season-long story arc that covered Season 23 of Doctor Who. It saw the final appearance of Peri Brown in the series from a present perspective and the guest appearance of Brian Blessed as King Yrcanos.

On 14 September 2019, the story was shown at BFI Southbank with 5.1 surround sound mix and re-recorded music by original composer Richard Hartley. A Q&A with Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant was also held.

Synopsis
As the trial of the Doctor continues, evidence is presented showing his most recent adventure - where he faces an old adversary, Sil. As a scientist conducts his unethical experiments to prolong the life of Sil's boss Kiv, the Doctor's memory of the events begins to return... and an unpleasant surprise awaits him.

Part five
The Valeyard and the Doctor argue about the Doctor's involvement in past events. The Inquisitor warns them to pay due respect to the judicial process. The Valeyard presents his second block of evidence - the Doctor's arrival on the planet Thoros Beta.

The TARDIS arrives on the planet, where the Doctor shows Peri Brown a weapon given to him by the "Warlord of Thordon", made on Thoros Beta. He says he has come to find out how the warlords obtained the technology. They enter a cave where Peri is grabbed by a monstrous creature. In the struggle, the Doctor shoots it.

The Valeyard accuses the Doctor of deliberately shooting the monster, but he insists the weapon went off accidentally.

A figure arrives and accuses the Doctor and Peri of murdering the Raak, despite their protestations that it attacked them first. The figure asks if they are part of Crozier's group. The Doctor says he is. They flee before they can be identified as imposters, but are quickly faced by another monster. It reacts kindly when the Doctor is nice to it. They flee further. As they hide, they see three reptilian figures being carried by guards. The third is their old enemy Sil. The Doctor realises Sil is probably behind the arms sales and informs Peri that Thoros Beta is the homeworld of Sil's race, the Mentors. Peri is particularly displeased by this, since Sil once tried to turn her into a bird woman.

In Crozier's laboratory, King Yrcanos is being experimented on. The Doctor and Peri sneak inside. As the Doctor sabotages some of Kiv's equipment, Sil arrives in the laboratory. The Doctor is strapped to a table and Crozier applies a metal helmet to his head. Crozier states that the equipment will extract the truth from a suspect and could prove fatal. He starts to probe the Doctor's mind, and the Doctor screams in agony...

Part six
King Yrcanos awakes and destroys the equipment. Overpowering the guards, he departs the laboratory, followed by a stunned Doctor and Peri. Yrcanos outlines his plans to attack the Mentors. The Doctor says he would enjoy that and then collapses. The Doctor tells the Inquisitor that he cannot remember these events. The Valeyard tells him he is in for a surprise if this is true.

Yrcanos, the Doctor and Peri go to where new slaves are brought into the base. Yrcanos plans to attack the guards and steal their weapons, but as he sneaks into the room, the Doctor calls out to the guards, giving him away. Yrcanos, unable to fight the guards, flees. Peri points a weapon at Sil and asks the Doctor for help, but he ignores her. Peri drops the weapon and flees after Yrcanos. Sil asks the Doctor why he helped the Mentors, and he replies that the odds were on their side.

In the courtroom, the Doctor is shocked by this scene, but quickly realises that he must be playing a clever ploy to gain the Mentors' trust and disrupt their operations from the inside.

Peri comes across Matrona Kani, who offers to let her to join the Mentors' servants rather than turn her over to the guards. With very little choice open to her, Peri accepts. Covered with a veil, she enters the Commerce Room with Kiv's medication. The Doctor asks her to get him a drink, so she disguises her voice to avoid being recognised. When she brings him a new drink, the Doctor uncovers her and denounces her as an enemy to the Mentors.

The Doctor tells the courtroom that what they are seeing is all part of his ploy. He says he planned to gain the Mentors' trust so that he would be allowed to interrogate her alone, giving them a chance to escape.

However, the Matrix screen instead shows Peri lashed to the rocks on the shoreline, with the Doctor standing over her, accusing her of being a spy. She asks why he is behaving the way he is, and the Doctor tells her that Crozier is planning to put Kiv's brain into his body unless he can help them. Crozier stops the interrogation, saying that they have more effective methods of extracting the truth from Peri. As they re-enter the complex, Yrcanos attacks the guard and threatens to kill the Doctor...

Part seven
However, Peri smashes the gun from Yrcanos's hands, allowing the Doctor to flee. Back in the courtroom, the Doctor begins to suspect that aspects of the matrix recording have been altered, to portray him in a more negative light.

In Crozier's laboratory, the scientist prepares to transplant Kiv's brain into a recently deceased Mentor corpse with the help of the Doctor. The operation proves successful. Meanwhile, Yrcanos, Peri and Dorf team up with members of the Alphan resistance. Tuza, the leader of the rebels is initially suspicious, but upon who Yrcanos is, he agrees to allow Yrcanos to lead them in an attack on the Mentors. They go to the resistance arms dump, but they are ambushed by Mentor guards and shot down. Watching these events on the Matrix screen in the Time Lord courtroom, the Doctor protests that he was not responsible. The Valeyard, however, replies, "In your mind, perhaps not. But in reality, it is somewhat different, Doctor." The Doctor looks perturbed...

Part eight
However, it is revealed Peri, Yrcanos and the other members of the resistance have merely been stunned, and they are taken to cells. Whilst locked up, Peri and Yrcanos start to develop affectionate feelings for each other, as Peri tells Yrcanos about the concept of 'love'.

In Crozier's laboratory, Lord Kiv is rambling due to the body of the fisherman influencing his brain. Crozier makes plans to transfer the brain into another more suitable body and Matrona Kani suggests using Peri. The Doctor says he would prefer that she is not experimented on, but while he is trying to find another candidate, Crozier decides to examine Peri anyway.

As Peri is taken from the cell, she shares a final fond moment with Yrcanos, briefly holding his hand before being escorted to the laboratory.

Arriving at the Induction Centre, the Doctor finds Tuza being held in a cubicle in preparation for a mind control implant to be installed. Promising to help Tuza, the Doctor persuades Frax to take him to Yrcanos.

In the laboratory, the results of Crozier's initial examination of Peri prove promising and he begins to prepare for some antigen tests. Recognising this as a blood test, a confused and worried Peri protests that she is not marrying anyone. Approving of Peri's spirit and strength, Crozier remarks that he will try to retain those personality traits of hers if at all possible. Peri's expression grows more anxious as she silently wonders what exactly Crozier has planned for her.

The Doctor goes to Yrcanos's cell and tricks Frax, allowing Yrcanos and Dorf to escape. A puzzled Yrcanos is initially suspicious, but the Doctor is able to convince the king that they are on the same side.

With Sil assisting him, Kiv begins his business negotiation with the Posicarian delegate. Unfortunately, due to still suffering after-effects from the brain transplant, a confused Kiv mistakenly manages to negotiate a fish concession with the ambassador, even though Sil points out that Kiv hates fish.

Peri is lying flat on an examination bed with a pillow, with medical sensors attached to her forehead. She is initially pleased to hear that the results of Crozier's tests have found her to be fit and healthy. However, while Peri's unsuspecting attention is on Crozier, the Matrona proceeds to buckle restraining straps around her arms and waist, securing her to the table. Taken by surprise, Peri angrily exclaims 'Hey!', but her protests are then immediately muffled when Kani stuffs a cotton swab into the American girl's mouth, gagging her. Crozier then secures the swab in place by wrapping a wide red-orange bandage over Peri's lips and lower face. As Crozier finishes fastening the bandage in place, he informs the struggling Peri that she is perfect for what he believes will be his finest experiment.

Returning to the Induction Centre, the Doctor, Yrcanos and Dorf overpower the guards and free Tuza. They then set off to liberate the slaves from the Mentor's mind control implants, much to the annoyance of an aged Mentor who cannot stand Yrcanos' bellowing.In the laboratory, Peri is securely strapped down and gagged, and she looks questioningly up at Crozier as he silently ponders his next move regarding her. Crozier looks to Matrona and instructs her to shave Peri's head, as he has decided to attempt direct transference. Horrified, Peri clenches her eyes shut and screams desperately into her gag, but her muffled pleas are ignored as Crozier removes the medical sensors from her forehead, and the Matrona reaches over with a pair of surgical scissors and proceeds to cut Peri's hair off.

The Doctor's group head towards the control room, from where all the slaves are mentally controlled. They succeed in freeing the slaves from mental control, but Dorf is killed by a passing guard. As the complex descends into chaos, the Doctor, Yrcanos and Tuza head to the lab to rescue Peri, but the Doctor ends up getting lost in the crowd of confused slaves.

Peri has been fully prepared for the operation to turn her into Kiv's new host body, with all her hair cut off and removed, and her skull shaved completely smooth. Although she is no longer gagged, Peri is unconscious, apparently sedated, and the surgical helmet has been fitted on her bald head. The Matrona finishes connecting wires and electrodes to the helmet, and declares that all is ready, as Lord Kiv is taken to the laboratory for the medical procedure to begin.

As the Doctor heads towards the lab, the TARDIS suddenly appears in the hallway. The Doctor is drawn backwards into it and it takes off, heading for the space station.

In the courtroom, the Inquisitor tells the Doctor that this was the result of an order from the High Council because the result of Crozier's experiment would affect all life in the Universe.

On the Matrix Screen, the operation in the lab is shown to have been successfully completed. As the Matrona gently removes the transfer helmet from Peri's shaved head, Crozier proclaims that he has altered the basis of all future life. Instead of surgically transplanting Kiv's brain into Peri's bald body, Crozier has successfully transferred the contents of Kiv's mind into Peri's brain. Although Peri is still physically alive, she has effectively been brainwashed into becoming Kiv, with her original memories and personality erased, and her mind now a perfect copy of the Mentor Leader's. As Peri begins to stir from her sedated sleep, Crozier states that mentally the person she once was no longer exists. Crozier further explains that when Peri's brain eventually ages, he can then transfer Kiv's consciousness into another body, meaning that the Mentor leader need never die.

As Yrcanos prepares his attack on the laboratory, the Time Lords capture him in a time bubble so that his attack is perfectly timed to destroy Crozier's work.

In the lab, the bald girl who used to call herself Peri opens her eyes, her brain now completely possessed by the mind of Kiv. Her voice has been altered, the American accent gone and replaced by a more distorted one similar to a Mentor. Delighted with the results of the transference, Peri/Kiv revels in her new warm-blooded female form. Upon catching sight of her old Mentor body, Peri/Kiv expresses her revulsion and orders it to be destroyed. Crozier gently lies her back on the bed and assures her that it already is dead. He welcomes the Mentor Leader to her new body, while Sil laments that Crozier could not find a more attractive host body for Kiv.

The time bubble dissipates and Yrcanos bursts into the laboratory, firing upon Sil. Upon seeing Yrcanos, Peri/Kiv sits up and commands the guards to protect her, causing a horrified Yrcanos to realise that he has arrived too late to save Peri from Crozier's experiment. Consumed with fury and despair, Yrcanos begins firing his gun wildly, seemingly killing Peri and the others in the process.

The Doctor is shocked by what he has seen. The Inquisitor and the Valeyard tell him that it was necessary to end Peri's life to prevent the disastrous consequences of Crozier's experiment. The Doctor, awash with rage, insists that he was taken out of time for another reason, and he declares that he's going to find out why...

Cast

 * The Doctor - Colin Baker
 * Peri - Nicola Bryant
 * The Valeyard - Michael Jayston
 * The Inquisitor - Lynda Bellingham
 * King Yrcanos - Brian Blessed
 * Sil - Nabil Shaban
 * Kiv - Christopher Ryan
 * Crozier - Patrick Ryecart
 * Matrona Kani - Alibe Parsons
 * Frax - Trevor Laird
 * The Lukoser - Thomas Branch
 * Tuza - Gordon Warnecke
 * Mentor - Richard Henry

Uncredited cast

 * The Raak - Russell West
 * Posicarian Delegate - Deep Roy
 * Linna - Johnny Clayton
 * Verne - Ernest Jennings
 * Mentors - Deep Roy, Philip Rostant, Tony Fray (all DWM 249)

Crew

 * Assistant Floor Manager - Anna Price
 * Costumes - John Hearne
 * Designer - Andrew Howe-Davies
 * Incidental Music - Richard Hartley
 * O.B. Lighting - Colin Widgery
 * O.B. Sound - Mike Johnstone
 * Make-Up - Dorka Nieradzik
 * Producer - John Nathan-Turner
 * Production Assistant - Karen Jones
 * Production Associate - Angela Smith, June Collins
 * Production Manager - Kevan Van Thompson
 * Script Editor - Eric Saward
 * Special Sounds - Dick Mills
 * Studio Camera Supervisor - Alec Wheal
 * Studio Lighting - Don Babbage
 * Studio Sound - Brian Clark
 * Technical Co-Ordinator - Alan Arbuthnott
 * Theme Arrangement - Dominic Glynn
 * Title Music - Ron Grainer
 * Video Effects - Danny Popkin
 * Videotape Editor - Hugh Parson
 * Vision Mixer - Jim Stephens
 * Visual Effects - Peter Wragg

Foods and beverages

 * Yrcanos eats flay fish.
 * Lord Kiv is served sand snakes.

Individuals

 * Yrcanos is King of the Krontep, Lord of the Vingten and Conqueror of the Tonkonp Empire.
 * Kiv, leader of the Mentors, is addressed as Magnificence and the centre of power is the Great Commerce Room.
 * The Mentors' god is Morgo and they have the same concept of hell, the "Plague Halls of Mogdana", as do the Krontep.
 * Sil is one of the Mentors.
 * Linna is a spice trader.

Locations

 * The Krontep gods live on Verduna.
 * Thoros Betan seas include the Sea of Turmoil, the Sea of Despair and Longing, and the Sea of Sorrows. There is an island called Brak.

Medicine

 * In a first moment, the Doctor thinks the Lukoser is affected from lycanthropy.
 * According to Crozier, dreams are to be expected side-effects of sedation.
 * Crozier perfected a serum against tissue rejection.
 * In Crozier's laboratory the Doctor examines a preserved Xenomorph "Chestburster".

Organisations

 * The Search-Conv-Corp are a "bunch of burnt out space rangers who search for wrecked spaceships".

Planets

 * There is a Sondlex crop on Wilson One.
 * Skulnesh has very nasty sewers.
 * There are seven-legged chargers on Corojaan.
 * Thoros-Alpha, home to a humanoid race called Alphans, enslaved by the Mentors, is the twin planet of Thoros Beta. It appears as a large, white body, clearly visible during the Betan day, and has a large, white ring belt.
 * The Mentors are dealing with a Posicarian delegate from Posicar.
 * Tokl is a planet in the Rim Worlds.

Technology

 * All of the universe's commodity markets can be accessed by a communications device called the warpfold relay.
 * Crozier's equipment includes a lexifier and an endrodiotone.
 * Crozier works on a BTU - a brain transference unit.

Weapons

 * Phasers have been sold on Thordon from Thoros Beta.

Ratings

 * Brackets refer to this story's individual parts.


 * Part Five (1) - 4.8 million viewers
 * Part Six (2) - 4.6 million viewers
 * Part Seven (3) - 5.1 million viewers
 * Part Eight (4) - 5.0 million viewers

Myths

 * The expansion of Kiv's brain is a direct result of Crozier experimenting on him to increase his intelligence. (It isn't. Dialogue establishes that Kiv's intelligence and brain expansion are the result of his being a mutant and that Crozier wasn't hired until the expansion had already become a serious problem.)

Filming locations

 * Telscombe Cliffs, Peacehaven, East Sussex
 * BBC Television Centre (TC6 &amp; TC1), Shepherd's Bush, London

Production errors

 * After the Raak has finished attacking the Doctor and Peri and dies, a boom shadow can be seen across Colin Baker's head.

Continuity

 * Sil appears again, much to Peri's displeasure, (TV: Vengeance on Varos) returning following the events of PROSE: Mission to Magnus/AUDIO: Mission to Magnus, before making his final appearance to date in AUDIO: Antidote to Oblivion.
 * It would later be revealed that numerous iterations of Peri had been created from the events on Thoros Beta. The result of repeated attempts at historical revisionism by various Time Lord administrations. (AUDIO: Peri and the Piscon Paradox) The currently known versions of Peri are as follows:
 * In the original timeline, witnessed during the Doctor's trial, Peri died at the hands of Crozier and his mind transference experiment. A victim of temporal interference from the Time Lords. She was avenged by Yrcanos. (AUDIO: Peri and the Piscon Paradox)
 * One account implies that Peri survived the assassination and continued to be possessed by Kiv, until a new host body was needed. (PROSE: Sil and the Devil Seeds of Arodor)
 * In a later timeline, Peri was rescued from the mind transference experiment by Yrcanos, whom she subsequently married, thus becoming a Warrior Queen of Krontep. (TV: The Ultimate Foe) In this version of events, Yrcarnos was murdered seven days after their wedding. (AUDIO: The Widow's Assassin)
 * Another version of Peri only experienced TV: Planet of Fire before being returned to Earth, settling down to a career as a therapist in Los Angeles. (AUDIO: Peri and the Piscon Paradox)
 * One version, under the name Queen Gilliam, fled her unhappy twenty-year marriage to Yrcarnos, encountered the Seventh Doctor, and later planned to go backpacking across the Earth. (PROSE: Bad Therapy)
 * And yet another iteration bore a family with King Yrcarnos -- including a daughter named Yrcanthia -- that led to a generation of grandchildren. Two grandsons and a granddaughter. Peri protected the Doctor, Frobisher, and her granddaughter, Princess Actis, from the various dangers of Krontep. (COMIC: The Age of Chaos)
 * Another version of Peri, having been rescued by Yrcanos, married him and became Warrior Queen of Krontep, ruling alongside her husband for many years and bringing about a new age of prosperity to the planet. Years later, following Yrcanos' death, Peri resumed travelling with the Doctor, as she saw that her former subjects no longer needed a figurehead, though she took to revisiting to Krontep once a year to check on their progress, as well as to pay loving tribute to her late husband. (Webcast: The Eternal Mystery)
 * Peri would meet the Seventh Doctor in PROSE: Bad Therapy and AUDIO: The Light at the End.
 * When meeting an older iteration of Peri in Los Angeles in 2009 who had no memory of their travels after their first encounter, (TV: Planet of Fire) the Doctor mentioned Sil in an attempt to jog her memory. (AUDIO: Peri and the Piscon Paradox)
 * Shortly after disrupting the Alphans' control centre and after becoming separated from Yrcanos en route to save Peri, the Doctor is forcibly taken out of time by the Time Lords and brought to the trial room. (TV: The Mysterious Planet) After this point in the evidence, events are narrated by the Inquisitor, rather than by the Valeyard acting as prosecuting counsel, implying knowledge of the High Council's actions. A detail that would later become relevant in AUDIO: Trial of the Valeyard.
 * The Doctor is also wearing his red cravat here. (TV: The Mysterious Planet)
 * The Doctor's preoccupation with the console responsible for the mechanical tide control, despite the klaxons and Peri's warnings they should leave, mirrors a similar error made by the First Doctor on Skaro with Susan. There, his preoccupation, despite Susan's urgings, leads them to be trapped by the Daleks. Here, the Doctor and Peri are trapped by Frax, who accuses them of murder. (TV: The Daleks)
 * The Doctor would later encounter Crozier's daughter Cordelia in London in 2382. She blamed the Doctor for her father's death. (AUDIO: Antidote to Oblivion)
 * The Doctor previously avoided visiting Thoros-Beta due to its garish "colour" scheme. (AUDIO: Zaltys)

VHS releases

 * This story was released as Doctor Who: Mindwarp
 * It was released:
 * UK October 1993 (released with the other The Trial of a Time Lord stories in a TARDIS-shaped tin with a random picture of one of the (then) seven Doctors on the base)
 * US October 1993 (same as the UK release except packed in a cardboard box in honour of Doctor Who's thirtieth anniversary)
 * Australia October 1993

DVD releases

 * This story was released in The Trial of a Time Lord box set on 29 September 2008.
 * Editing for the DVD release was completed by the Doctor Who Restoration Team.

DVD Contents:
 * Commentary by Colin Baker (The Doctor), Nicola Bryant (Peri) and Philip Martin (Writer)
 * The Making of Mindwarp - A new documentary featuring members of the cast and crew
 * Deleted and Extended Scenes
 * Now and Then - On the Trail of a Time Lord - How the locations used in Mindwarp look today
 * A Fate Worse than Death - Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant's commentary over the closing scenes of Part Fourteen, in which the Inquisitor reveals Peri's ultimate fate
 * Trails and Continuity - From the original 1986 transmission
 * Children in Need - Terry Wogan and Patrick Moore greet a plethora of Doctors and companions
 * Comedy Sketch - Lenny Henry is the Doctor in this 1986 sketch
 * Photo Gallery
 * Production Information Subtitles

Blu-ray release
Blu-ray Contents:
 * This story was released in the Season 23 Boxset on 3 October 2019.
 * Audio Commentary featuring Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant and Philip Martin.
 * 5.1 Surround Sound Mix
 * Isolated Music Soundtrack - The original music master for these episodes are lost, so a new recording was commissioned from composer Richard Hartley. This new music can be heard on the 5.1 mix and as Isolated Music, while the original is present on the broadcast mono sound mix.
 * Production Subtitles.
 * The Making of Mindwarp
 * Behind the Sofa, featuring Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant, Bonnie Langford, Fraser Hines, Matthew Waterhouse & Mark Strickson.
 * Deleted and Extended Scenes.
 * Studio and Location Footage
 * Temps X - a report from a French Magazine programme that visited the set during production of this story. (French language, English subtitles). Also includes behind-the-scenes photo gallery.
 * Breakfast Time - Producer John Nathan Turner, Nicola Bryant and Janet Fielding promote the Companions book on 20/10/86.
 * Now & Then - Revisiting the original locations used in the first, second and fourth segments of the Trial season.
 * Blessed on Doctor Who - Legendary Actor Brain Blessed talks about his career and lifelong love of Doctor Who in this 2007 interview.
 * 50 Years in the TARDIS - Colin Baker recalls his time as the Doctor in this 2013 interview.
 * The Sixth Doctor Revisited - A celebration of 'Sixie'. Contributors include Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant, Bonnie Langford and Steven Moffat (Executive Producer 2010-2017).
 * A Fate Worse than Death? - Clip from Part 14 of Trial of a Time Lord in which the Inquisitor reveals Peri's ultimate fate, with commentary from Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant.
 * Trails and Contiunity announcements.
 * HD Photo Gallery.
 * PDF Written Archive.
 * Alternative/Extended Edits based on the director’s initial cuts for each episode, most episodes contain scene extensions and entire sequences that were removed before transmission. While some episodes are not much longer than the final broadcast versions, they may contain alternative takes or a different story structure.