History Recap / DoctorWhoS23E4TheUltimateFoe

->''"In all my travels throughout the universe I have battled against evil, against power-mad conspirators. I should have stayed here! The oldest civilization: decadent, degenerate and rotten to the core! Power mad conspirators? Daleks, Sontarans, Cybermen — they're still in the nursery compared to us! Ten million years of absolute power: that's what it takes to be '''really''' corrupt!"''

'''Production code:''' 7C

->''Carrot juice, carrot juice, carrot juice...'' (The last words of the Sixth Doctor on TV, at least)

The one where Creator/ColinBaker gets fired.

Either way, the Valeyard flees into the Matrix and the Doctor and Glitz pursue. Inside the Matrix, the Doctor and Glitz are tormented by the Valeyard repeatedly until finally winding up in what can only be described as a world that was co-designed by MC Escher and Charles Dickens on PCP and acid. The Valeyard continues to gloat in his own way, while Mel and the entire judge and jury stare at the viewscreen like it's the Monday Night Football game. (Both U.S. AND U.K. versions!)

Not much later, things go back to the courtroom, where the Doctor is convicted of his so-called crimes and will be executed. Only it's all an illusion, and the Doctor [[ThePlan knows it's an illusion]], but Mel [[GambitPileup doesn't know that he knows]], so she runs into the Matrix to try and stop it all. The Valeyard gets all pissy about this, deciding to vanish for the time being. Meanwhile, Glitz and the Master decide to steal the records of the Matrix to make some cash in a story that, sadly, goes nowhere.

This gap is also where the Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse ''really'' takes over the Sixth Doctor. Since this was his last appearance onscreen, Creator/ColinBaker and the writers were left with a blank slate on which they could entirely reinvent the Sixth Doctor, correcting many of the deficiencies of his television era, giving him massive amounts of CharacterDevelopment, many more adventures with Mel, and eventually, giving him [[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWhoSpecialTheLastAdventure a real finale]] to hand the role over to Creator/SylvesterMcCoy properly.

Well, not exactly. The Valeyard is a piece of the Doctor: specifically, the Doctor's dark side, split off from around the last of his regenerations. Even when being specific, this origin is incredibly abstract (not that it wasn't entirely unprecedented among the production staff, having originally been a twist designed for ''the Master'' in what would've been Creator/RogerDelgado's swan song had he not died in a car crash).

Either way, the Valeyard flees into the Matrix and the Doctor and Glitz pursue. Inside the Matrix, the Doctor and Glitz are tormented by the Valeyard repeatedly until finally winding up in what can only be described as a world that was co-designed by MC Escher and Charles Dickens on PCP and acid. The Valeyard continues to gloat in his own way, while Mel and the entire judge and jury stare at the viewscreen like it's the Monday Night Football game.

Finally, the Doctor and Mel find themselves face-to-face with the Valeyard, and his plans to destroy the current government of the Time Lords. Through a brief struggle, the Valeyard spits out technobabble about things not going his way and is finally defeated [[NotQuiteDead (OR IS HE...?!)]]. The Time Lords saved, the random Time Lady presiding over the trial tells the Doctor that Peri survived and is living with [[Recap/DoctorWhoS23E2Mindwarp King Yrcanos]] after his rambling that she would be his queen... for [[BuxomIsBetter some reason]]. Mel and the Doctor leave together, presumably for him to drop her off somewhere for his future self to pick up later, so he can eventually meet her for the first time (See the Past Doctor Adventures novel ''Business Unusual''... or maybe the Big Finish Audio "[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho169TheWrongDoctors The Wrong Doctors]]". Either one works.[[note]]In fact, ''The Wrong Doctors'' goes out of its way to avoid contradicting ''Business Unusual'', so both can exist side-by-side[[/note]]), and the Sixth Doctor [[TheNthDoctor goes on]] to many, many more [[Recap/DoctorWhoS24E1TimeAndTheRani adventures]], where th--

Finally, the Doctor and Mel find themselves face-to-face with the Valeyard, and his plans to destroy the current government of the Time Lords. Through a brief struggle, the Valeyard spits out technobabble about things not going his way and is finally defeated [[NotQuiteDead (OR IS HE...?!)]]. The Time Lords saved, the random Time Lady presiding over the trial tells the Doctor that Peri survived and is living with [[Recap/DoctorWhoS23E2Mindwarp King Yrcanos]] after his rambling that she would be his queen... for [[BuxomIsBetter some reason]]. Mel and the Doctor leave together, presumably for him to drop her off somewhere for his future self to pick up later, so he can eventually meet her for the first time (See the Past Doctor Adventures novel ''Business Unusual''... or maybe the Big Finish Audio ''[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho169TheWrongDoctors The Wrong Doctors]].'' Either one works.[[note]]In fact, ''The Wrong Doctors'' goes out of its way to avoid contradicting ''Business Unusual'', so both can exist side-by-side[[/note]]), and the Sixth Doctor [[TheNthDoctor goes on]] to many, many more [[Recap/DoctorWhoS24E1TimeAndTheRani adventures]], where th--

* TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou: Stated by the Master in Part Two as to why he's helping the Doctor.

* {{Retcon}}: Peri's death in "Mindwarp" was meant to be real. However, between the filming of Nicola Bryant's final scenes and the end of production, John Nathan-Turner got cold feet about killing her off (given that the previous season's heavy violence was a big factor in BBC controller Michael Grade's crusade against the show) and decided to reveal in this story that it was a fabrication, seemingly without checking if it tallied with the rest of the story. Some Big Finish stories deal with these events, but pretty much everyone has deemed this CanonDiscontinuity as a result of how last-minute it was.

* ExtraLongEpisode: Part two clocks in at 30 minutes instead of the usual 25; Creator/JohnNathanTurner found himself unable to truncate it even after cutting down the even longer first draft.

* TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou: Stated by the Master in part two as to why he's helping the Doctor.

The final draft of Part 2 was written by Pip and Jane Baker[[note]]no relation to Colin, Tom or prolific [=70s=] ''Who'' writer Bob Baker, all of whom are unrelated as well.[[/note]] of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS22E3TheMarkOfTheRani The Mark of the Rani]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS23E3TerrorOfTheVervoids Terror of the Vervoids]]"; because of legal problems with Holmes's estate and Saward, the Bakers were prohibited from even knowing about the original script, resulting in a finale with a massively different tone from its direct predecessor's.

* PurpleProse: The Valeyard is prone to overly-verbose language, because his dialogue was penned by Pip & Jane Baker.

* RevisedEnding: Part Two originally ended on a {{cliffhanger}} with the Doctor and the Valeyard trapped in the Matrix, locked in a seemingly endless battle. However, Creator/JohnNathanTurner felt that the ending would've given Creator/TheBBC an excuse to cancel the show (having already tried to do so after the previous season, which became an 18-month hiatus) and rejected it, resulting in writer and script editor Creator/EricSaward walking out and legally prohibiting the show's staff from using any of his material. As a result, the serial's last episode was rewritten from the ground up by Pip and Jane Baker, with a new ending where the Doctor triumphs over the Valeyard and returns to the TARDIS with Mel.
* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: In Part Two, as is pretty much par for the course in Pip and Jane Baker scripts. Key example: "there's nothing you can do to prevent the catharsis of spurious morality."

Episode 1 was written by Creator/RobertHolmes and script editor Creator/EricSaward together; because Holmes [[DiedDuringProduction had died of a sudden disease before finishing Episode 2]], Saward finished that by himself and preserved the BolivianArmyEnding intended by Holmes. However, his draft was rejected by Producer Creator/JohnNathanTurner, who felt Holmes's ending was an easy excuse for the BBC to cancel the show[[note]]The BBC had already tried it before, but it led into the eighteen-month hiatus that birthed ''The Trial of a Time Lord''.[[/note]]. Having had one too many CreativeDifferences with Nathan-Turner, Saward quit the show, took the script with him, and threatened to sue if anything resembling his script went to screen.

The final draft of Episode 2 was written by Pip and Jane Baker[[note]]no relation to Colin, Tom or prolific [=70s=] ''Who'' writer Bob Baker, all of whom are unrelated as well.[[/note]] of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS22E3TheMarkOfTheRani The Mark of the Rani]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS23E3TerrorOfTheVervoids Terror of the Vervoids]]"; because of legal problems with Holmes's estate and Saward, the Bakers were prohibited from even knowing about the original script, resulting in a finale with a massively different tone from its direct predecessor's.

* ExactWords: The Master's description of the Valeyard as originating from somewhere between the Doctor's "twelfth" and "final" incarnations was retroactively made into this a long time later (well, either that or the Master was just lying). At the time, it was assumed that the Doctor's thirteenth incarnation would ''be'' his final one (or just that the show was unlikely to reach the point where it would be a problem), and thus the assumption is clearly that the Valeyard - whatever exactly he is -- would be created somehow when the twelfth incarnation of the Doctor regenerated into the thirteenth. [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E13TheNameOfTheDoctor Later]] [[Recap/DoctorWho2013CSTheTimeOfTheDoctor episodes]] made it so that we've now ''already seen'' more than twelve incarnations of the Doctor, with [[Recap/DoctorWho2017CSTwiceUponATime still more to come]], and no clear idea any more of which number of incarnation (if ''any'') we can expect to be the "final" one. If we assume that the Master was correct, then "between twelfth and final" is now retroactively just a fancy way of saying "some point after Creator/MattSmith but before the BBC finally cancels Series/DoctorWho for good".

* {{Infodump}}: The first fifteen minutes of Episode One are basically one long courtroom infodump courtesy of the Master, who reveals the answers to almost all of the questions that have been building throughout the entire Trial of a Time Lord story arc.

* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: In Episode Two, as is pretty much par for the course in Pip and Jane Baker scripts. Key example: "there's nothing you can do to prevent the catharsis of spurious morality."

Picking right up where the previous story left off, ''The Ultimate Foe'' opens up with the Doctor being accused of genocide. The Doctor objects, and both he and the Valeyard get into a well-written argument that suddenly ends when [[Recap/DoctorWhoS23E1TheMysteriousPlanet Sabalom Glitz]] and future companion Melanie show up almost literally out of nowhere. When the Doctor asks how they got there, the Master shows up to torment the Doctor and everyone else-- revealing major plot points like how Ravalox (from the first part) was really the Earth. Furthering his gloating, the Master reveals that [[WhamLine the Valeyard is really the Doctor]].

Either way, the Valeyard flees into the Matrix ''([[Film/TheMatrix no, not that one!]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E3TheDeadlyAssassin We've been over this!]])'' and the Doctor and Glitz pursue. Inside the Matrix, the Doctor and Glitz are tormented by the Valeyard repeatedly until finally winding up in what can only be described as a world that was co-designed by MC Escher and Charles Dickens on PCP and acid. The Valeyard continues to gloat in his own way, while Mel and the entire judge and jury stare at the viewscreen like it's the Monday Night Football game.

Finally, the Doctor and Mel find themselves face-to-face with the Valeyard, and his plans to destroy the current government of the Time Lords. Through a brief struggle, the Valeyard spits out technobabble about things not going his way and is finally defeated [[NotQuiteDead (OR IS HE...?!)]]. The Time Lords saved, the random Time Lady presiding over the trial tells the Doctor that Peri survived and is living with [[Recap/DoctorWhoS23E2Mindwarp King Yrcanos]] after his rambling that she would be his queen... for [[BuxomIsBetter some reason]]. Mel and the Doctor leave together, presumably for him to drop her off somewhere for his future self to pick up later, so he can eventually meet her for the first time (See the Past Doctor Adventures novel ''Business Unusual''... or maybe the Big Finish Audio ''[[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWho169TheWrongDoctors The Wrong Doctors]].'' Either one works.[[note]]In fact, ''The Wrong Doctors'' goes out of its way to avoid contradicting ''Business Unusual'', so both can exist side-by-side[[/note]]), and the Sixth Doctor [[TheNthDoctor goes on]] to many, many more [[Recap/DoctorWhoS24E1TimeAndTheRani adventures]], where th-

* CallBack: When the hands grab the Doctor and try to drag him under the sand he tries to counteract the illusion by yelling “[[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E3TheDeadlyAssassin I DENY IT!]]”. Promptly {{lampshaded}} by the Valeyard:

* ExactWords: The Master's description of the Valeyard as originating from somewhere between the Doctor's "twelfth" and "final" incarnations was retroactively made into this a long time later (well, either that or the Master was just lying). At the time, it was assumed that the Doctor's thirteenth incarnation would ''be'' his final one (or just that the show was unlikely to reach the point where it would be a problem), and thus the assumption is clearly that the Valeyard - whatever exactly he is - would be created somehow when the twelfth incarnation of the Doctor regenerated into the thirteenth. [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E13TheNameOfTheDoctor Later]] [[Recap/DoctorWho2013CSTheTimeOfTheDoctor episodes]] made it so that we've now ''already seen'' more than twelve incarnations of the Doctor, with [[Recap/DoctorWho2017CSTwiceUponATime still more to come]], and no clear idea any more of which number of incarnation (if ''any'') we can expect to be the "final" one. If we assume that the Master was correct, then "between twelfth and final" is now retroactively just a fancy way of saying "some point after Creator/MattSmith but before the BBC finally cancels Series/DoctorWho for good".

* HijackedByGanon: Subverted - the Master turns out to have caused most of the events of the "Trial" season, but then the Valeyard took advantage of his actions to become the real "Ultimate Foe".

* MeaninglessMeaningfulWords: Perhaps the most famous example from the series' half-century run: "'''There's nothing you can do to prevent the catharsis of spurious morality!'''" [[note]]A very roundabout way of saying "If your morals are phony, you'll get your comeuppance." Now was that so hard to say?[[/note]]

* {{Retcon}}: Peri's death in "Mindwarp" was meant to be real. However, between the filming of Nicola Bryant's final scenes and the end of production, John Nathan-Turner got cold feet about killing her off and decided to reveal in this story that it was a fabrication, seemingly without checking if it tallied with the rest of the story. Fortunately, aside from Big Finish stories that deal with it, pretty much everyone has deemed this CanonDiscontinuity.

* ShoutOut: The Doctor quotes ''Literature/ATaleOfTwoCities'':
-->It is a far, far better thing that I do than I have ever done. It is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.
* ShoutOutToShakespeare: The Valeyard quotes ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'':
-->The undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveller returns.
* SpannerInTheWorks: TheMaster, of all people, derails the whole plot against the Doctor. Not out of any sense of altruism, naturally, but for both the chance to [[PlayingBothSides pit two aspects of the Doctor against himself]] and topple the High Council of Time Lords.
** For bonus points, he makes himself this as literally as he possibly can, by revealing the plot from within the Time Matrix viewing screen.

* {{Troll}}: The Doctor has pursued the Valeyard into a computerized micro-universe where the only logic is that there is no logic and where the Valeyard is already adept at manipulating his surroundings. Does the Valeyard create an utterly deadly environment where his foe couldn’t possibly survive? . . . . Actually, he delays their confrontation by creating an [[ObstructiveBureaucrat Obstructive Bureaucrat]] who has to fill in an interminable number of forms before he can allow the two enemies to meet, just to annoy the Doctor.

* XanatosSpeedChess

* {{Infodump}}: The first fifteen minutes of episode one are basically one long courtroom infodump courtesy of the Master, who reveals the answers to almost all of the questions that have been building throughout the entire Trial of a Time Lord story arc.

* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: In episode two, as is pretty much par for the course in Pip and Jane Baker scripts. Key example: "there's nothing you can do to prevent the catharsis of spurious morality."

->''"In all my travels throught the universe I have battled against evil, against power-mad conspirators. I should have stayed here! The oldest civilization: decadent, degenerate and rotten to the core! Power mad conspirators? Daleks, Sontarans, Cybermen — they're still in the nursery compared to us! Ten million years of absolute power: that's what it takes to be '''really''' corrupt!"''

->''"In all my travels through time and space I have battled against evil, against power-mad conspirators. I should have stayed here! The oldest civilization: decadent, degenerate and rotten to the core! Power mad conspirators? Daleks, Sontarans, Cybermen — they're still in the nursery compared to us! Ten million years of absolute power: that's what it takes to be '''really''' corrupt!"''

This serial first aired November 29-December 6, 1986.

** Technically, also FutureMeScaresMe

** [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation You can also interpret that speech]][[invoked]] as Creator/RobertHolmes and Creator/ColinBaker himself telling off Creator/TheBBC for their contemptuous treatment of the show and plans to cancel it.

This gap is also where the DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse ''really'' takes over the Sixth Doctor. Since this was his last appearance onscreen, Creator/ColinBaker and the writers were left with a blank slate on which they could entirely reinvent the Sixth Doctor, correcting many of the deficiencies of his television era, giving him massive amounts of CharacterDevelopment, many more adventures with Mel, and eventually, giving him [[Recap/BigFinishDoctorWhoSpecialTheLastAdventure a real finale]] to hand the role over to Creator/SylvesterMcCoy properly.

The final draft of Episode 2 was written by Pip and Jane Baker[[note]]no relation to Colin, Tom or prolific [=70s=] ''Who'' writer Bob Baker, all of which are unrelated as well.[[/note]] of "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS22E3TheMarkOfTheRani The Mark of the Rani]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS23E3TerrorOfTheVervoids Terror of the Vervoids]]"; because of legal problems with Holmes's estate and Saward, the Bakers were prohibited from even knowing about the original script, resulting in a finale with a massively different tone from its direct predecessor's.

** [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation You can also interpret that speech]] as Robert Holmes and Colin Baker himself telling off Creator/TheBBC for their contemptuous treatment of the show and plans to cancel it.