Terror of the Vervoids

143c^[1] – *The Trial of a Time Lord: Terror of the Vervoids*
143c – The Trial of a Time Lord: Terror of the Vervoids
Doctor Who serial
Cast
	Doctor Colin Baker – Sixth Doctor;
	Companion Bonnie Langford – Mel Bush;
	Others Lynda Bellingham – The Inquisitor; Michael Jayston – The Valeyard; Honor Blackman – Professor Sarah Lasky; Malcolm Tierney – Doland; David Allister – Bruchner; Michael Craig – Commodore Travers; Denys Hawthorne – Rudge; Yolande Palfrey – Janet; Arthur Hewlett – Kimber; Sam Howard – Atza; Tony Scoggo – Grenville/Enzu; Leon Davis – Ortezo; Simon Slater – Edwardes; Barbara Ward – Mutant/Ruth Baxter; Peppi Borza – First Vervoid; Bob Appleby – Second Vervoid; Mike Mungarvan – Duty Officer; Hugh Beverton – Guard/First Guard; Martin Weedon – Second Guard;
Production
Directed by	Chris Clough
Written by	Pip and Jane Baker
Script editor	John Nathan-Turner (uncredited)
Produced by	John Nathan-Turner
Music by	Malcolm Clarke
Production code	7C
Series	Season 23
Running time	4 episodes, 25 minutes each
First broadcast	1 November 1986
Last broadcast	22 November 1986
Chronology
← Preceded by; The Trial of a Time Lord: Mindwarp	Followed by →; The Trial of a Time Lord: The Ultimate Foe
	List of episodes (1963–1989)

Terror of the Vervoids is the third serial of the larger narrative known as The Trial of a Time Lord which encompasses the whole of the 23rd season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 1 to 22 November 1986. The title Terror of the Vervoids is never used on screen and was first used in relation to these episodes for the 1987 novelisation, with the four episodes that comprise the season being referred to as The Trial of a Time Lord Parts Nine to Twelve. This serial is the first appearance of Bonnie Langford as the companion Mel Bush.

In the serial, the alien time traveller the Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker) is put on trial by his people, the Time Lords, and is accused of meddling in the affairs of other worlds. Much of the story consists of video testimony presented by the Doctor, his own defence, of his own future where the last of a race of plants called Vervoids on board a spaceliner in 2986 plot to wipe out all animal life on board for their own survival.

^ From the Doctor Who Magazine series overview, in issue 407 (pp26-29). The Discontinuity Guide, which counts the unbroadcast serial Shada, lists this segment of The Trial of a Time Lord as an individual story, number 146. Region 1 DVD releases follow The Discontinuity Guide numbering system.
^ Pixley, Andrew (1992). "Archive Feature Serial 7C The Ultimate Foe". Doctor Who Magazine (Winter Special 1992). London: Marvel UK: 43–49. ISSN 0957-9818.

[1] From the Doctor Who Magazine series overview, in issue 407 (pp26-29). The Discontinuity Guide, which counts the unbroadcast serial Shada, lists this segment of The Trial of a Time Lord as an individual story, number 146. Region 1 DVD releases follow The Discontinuity Guide numbering system.

[Pixley-2] Pixley, Andrew (1992). "Archive Feature Serial 7C The Ultimate Foe". Doctor Who Magazine (Winter Special 1992). London: Marvel UK: 43–49. ISSN 0957-9818.

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