The crime was in being there, Doctor!
When I look with a critical eye, there should be a lot of reasons why I should not like The Mysterious Planet. However, this is a story that just works for me for some reason.
The Trial of a Time Lord kicks off with the first four episodes written by Robert Holmes and it shows. Right from the beginning, the dialogue is snappy and witty. The Doctor is sufficiently outraged during the trial and his back and forth with Peri is still in the disagreeing vein but it's more like playful banter. Two people who enjoy each other's company but still like to poke each other in the ribs a bit.
The backside of this being written by Robert Holmes is that he was falling into poor health at this time and opted to rip off two previous stories for the majority of the plot. A robot taking people in to be trained to follow his commands as well as controlling their society is a straight rip off Holmes' story in The Krotons while a civilization staying underground because they have been tricked into believing that the surface world has been destroyed by nuclear war is taken from The Enemy of the World, although that was written by David Whitaker.
Despite that, the dialogue is not a rip off and it keeps you engaged. The cuts back to the trial sequence are spaced in such a way that they actually draw you further in to the story. In The Hobbit (the book, not the movie), Gandalf gets Beorn further invested in the Dwarfs' story by having them arrive bit by bit with a series of interruptions feeding Beorn's interest in the story. The cuts back to the trial do the same. It probably helps hide the fact that there are a number of recycled elements in this story.
Also aiding this story is the quality of the acting. There are a couple of performances that edge on hamminess, but most of it is well played. Glitz and Dibber are probably the best with their back and forth but no one was was bad. One of the most interesting was the robot Drathro himself. He starts off in the Kroton vein of being a bossy and somewhat shouty villain. But, when meeting the Doctor, he softens and becomes almost elegant. It's interesting to see a villain with a certain aspect of charm; even more so when it isn't accompanied by the sly evil that you get from a Bond-type villain. Drathro accepts the Doctor as his intellectual equal and treats him with the courtesy that role entitles him to. It was enjoyable and refreshing and helped to offset the slight silliness of the robot costume.
On the subjects of sets and costumes, no one will ever be able to deny that this wasn't made in the 80's. It's not overly garish, but the costumes and make-up (especially Peri) all scream mid-80's. Of course, the Fourth Doctor era screams 70's so that is not a significant knock against it. The camera work isn't too bad either with the outside shots being done on OB-video. This helped reduce the shock when switching between location and studio shooting but still gave a nice use of exterior locations for realism.
There are some flaws but overall this was an enjoyable story to watch. I think I would happily sit down to watch this one again. In fact, I think I'd watch this one over The Krotons, despite my preference for the Second Doctor.
Overall personal score: 4 out of 5
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