Doctor Who/Recap/S23/E03 Terror of the Vervoids: Difference between revisions

Picking up from [[Doctor Who/Recap/S23/E02 Mindwarp|where we left off last time]], the Doctor has been given some time to recover from [[Heroic BSOD|his reaction]] to Peri's unfortunate demise. Still, it's nowhere near time to wrap up the trial. Instead, it's finally the Doctor's turn to present evidence in his "trial." With the reason that he will improve, The Doctor decides to present an adventure that hasn't happened yet ''(described as his "near future")''. We resume watching the Doctor watch... the Doctor.

 

 

The Doctor will flirt with the hostesses of the ship, while Mel will overhear that things are going wrong with the secret plant research going on inside the ship's bowels. In fact, some "Demeter seeds" are stolen, silver seeds that look like painted stones. So the plant research crew will go to investigate, with the head woman Lasky deciding to berate her subordinates for the fools they will be. Or something.

 

 

Mel will arrive at the hydroponics bay of the Hyperion III and gets a random crewman to help her investigate. However, nothing good will come of this, as the poor random crewman will be electrocuted the second he tries to open it. We will be left seeing the hydroponics bay ''explode'' as Mel will scream as the whole thing explodes around her. Meanwhile, [[Murderer POV|a camera surrounded by a green mist will wander around killing people]]. The Time Lords object to this, claiming that Mel was the one that could have died in the future rather than the hapless crewmen who will die. Why they complain about this when it's in the future is anybody's guess, but [[Timey-Wimey Ball|Wibbley Wobbley Timey Wimey]]. Mel will be questioned as to why stuff will blow up when she's around, but Mel will convince everyone that this has to be some sort of sabotage. So, the Doctor and Mel will begin to investigate the crew, and most of the passengers will have something to hide in some form from our investigating duo. In fact, several of them will not be what they seem. It will all be very [[Agatha Christie]], if Agatha Christie had ever thrown in a twist ending in which the hero will have to battle genetically-engineered plant creatures with homemade hand grenades.

The Doctor will save the day, of course, destroying all the Vervoids before they can get loose and wipe out animalkind with those lovely hand-grenades made of what will be poison to the Vervoids. Back in the courtroom ''(and the present)'', the Doctor claims the presentation as evidence that sometimes his meddling is necessary for the greater good, or will be in this case. The Valeyard counters by pointing out that he's just confessed to committing genocide, and calls for an immediate death penalty. The camera zooms in dangerously close to the Doctor's face as the episode ends...

 

* [[Bait and Switch Boss]]: Lasky. Despite being presented as the villain for the first two episodes, the ''actual'' villains are Doland and the Vervoids.

* [[Body Horror]]: Ruth Baxter's infection by Vervoid pollen and transformation into a Vervoid-Human hybrid.

* [[Timey-Wimey Ball]]: So... ''does'' the Doctor remember the trial when this happens, and is just going through the motions [[Jerkass|for no reason]]? Or does he have amnesia? Or will it happen different, rendering this entire episode pointless?

* [[Too Dumb to Live]]: Late in the story, Lasky decides that she can talk the Vervoids into a peaceful surrender, despite the fact that they have slaughtered almost all of the crew and passengers by this point. She fails dismally, and ends up as part of the Vervoids' human compost heap.

* [[Turned Against Their Masters]]

* [[Unreliable Narrator]]: The Matrix itself, if the Doctor is to be believed.