10 Doctor Who Episodes We Were WAY Too Harsh On

In many ways, it’s actually surprising that Trial of a Time Lord ended up being as good and coherent as it is. Possibly the season of Doctor Who with the most stacked against it from a production standpoint, it saw the show returning after an 18-month hiatus, with a reduced episode count, and absolutely decimated budget.

The producers’ solution? Combine the season's four stories into one gigantic story arc involving the Doctor being put on trial by the Time Lords for his crimes of interference.

The results are infamously mixed, with the Trial of a Time Lord arc quickly devolving into a barely-followable legal drama that would randomly interrupt stories just to reiterate what had already been said, and to cram in some more back-and-forth verbal sparring between the Doctor and his prosecutor (and would-be executioner) the Valeyard.

But while the overarching trial concept ended up something of a failed experiment, the episodes within this framing device do actually have some merit to them.

The Mysterious Planet is, admittedly, one of Robert Holmes’ weaker efforts, but Mindwarp is one of the Sixth Doctor’s very best outings, with its uniquely bleak tone and unusually grim fate for Peri proving highly memorable. And Terror of the Vervoids is fun in its own ridiculously campy way, with some truly terrifying – if slightly iffy-looking – creature designs.

Even the trial itself has some redeeming qualities, if only in how unintentionally comedic the Sixth Doctor’s endless reaction faces are, and how funny it can be to try and decipher Gallifrey’s utterly incomprehensible legal system.