Classic Who Watching - The Mysterious Planet (Trail of a Time Lord Pt1)

Oh Six and your Amazing Technocolor Dream Coat... What sort of trouble will you get the Doctor into next?

In 'The Mysterious Planet' the Doctor is captured by his fellow Time Lords and put on trial for meddling too much with lesser life forms.

Is the Doctor guilty? (probably) Will he get off scott free? Watch this episode saga to find out!

Since when was the Doctor the President of Gallifrey? Sure, he apparently got disposed, but when did that happen? Other then that this episode was just dripping with information about the Time Lords. From seeing all of them in their robes with those hilarious hat things (and that lady's winged hat was just terrible! The fabric was all wrinkled!) to the talk about the Matrix, this episode was a quick primer to the ways of the Time Lords. Makes me miss them again...

I gotta say that I'm not the biggest fan of Peri. She doesn't really seem to fit the Doctor. Her interactions with the Doctor (as he continually ignores her feelings, abandons her, otherwise acts like an annoyed older brother) were just sort of painful to watch. He's just such a jerk to Peri! And she isn't the most sympathetic person either. I get that she's a bit emotional since she thinks she's on a destroyed Earth, but she's whiney and sort of annoying.

I rather liked the final showdown between the Doctor and the robot. The Doctor trying to convince the robot that that the humans are more important was funny and would not have happened if people remembered to program all robots with Asimov's laws of robotics. I also rather liked the two blond guys who I dubbed the geek twins. Their bickering made me laugh. I loved how they managed to live through the whole mess and once they hit the outside they realized that they actually were going to like the surface. It seems strange that such minor characters would so easily become my favorites, but I loved those two.

The two crooks were rather hilarious too. I loved how they lied their way through the entire episode.

And I can't really talk about this episode without mentioning the terrible special effects. From the long computer simulation of the space station with the TARDIS flying into it to the really really really terrible laser show at the end, it's obvious that things are improving on the special effects front while still managing to make everything look super cheesy.

Overall though, I thought this was a pretty good episode. I think it would have been better with a different Doctor (I'm sorry Six, but you're never going to be counted as the best Doctor), but it was enjoyable and sets up the rest of the series well. With the lingering questions of what evidence the Valeyard will present next as well as why the data feeds are being edited, it sets up 'Mindwarp' well in a way we haven't seen from previous episodes of Classic Who.

Now who wants to help me go back in time and rip that coat from the Doctor's grasp? I'll help hold him down if someone else burns that colorful nightmare.

So what did you think? Did you like it? Were your eyeballs seared whenever the Doctor was on screen causing you not to remember what happened at all this episode?

Next week we'll be watching 'Mindwarp' the second part of the 'Trail of a Time Lord' series!