Thursday 22 October 2020

I is for... Inquisitor

 

The Inquisitor was a senior Time Lord judge who was tasked with overseeing a judicial inquiry into the recent conduct of the Doctor. He was removed from time and brought to the tribunal, which was to take place on a giant space station, by the combined mental powers of the Time Lord jury. The Doctor elected to conduct his own defence, whilst the High Council employed the Valeyard as prosecutor. The Inquisitor found the two men constantly sparring with one another and disrupting court proceedings, and often had to step in and remind them of the seriousness of the affair - especially once the inquiry turned into a full blown trial.
Even after the shock reveal that the Valeyard was a future incarnation of the Doctor, employed by a corrupt High Council to stop the Doctor meddling in their crimes, the Inquisitor maintained that the trial should proceed. It transpired that she and the jury members were also marked for assassination by the High Council. After the Valeyard had apparently been destroyed, and the High Council deposed, the Inquisitor suggested that the Doctor resume his old role as Lord President, but he recommended she take on the role herself. Tricked into thinking his companion Peri had been killed, the Inquisitor was able to inform the Doctor that she had survived, and was now living with King Yrcanos.

Played by: Lynda Bellingham. Appearances: Trial of a Time Lord (1986).
  • Unnamed on screen, the Inquisitor has been given a name in spin-off media - Darkel. She has appeared in numerous books and audio adventures.
  • Despite a lengthy career on film, stage and TV in the UK, Bellingham was best known for her role as the mum in a long running series of commercials for Oxo stock cubes (she made 42 of them between 1983 and 1999). Towards the end of her life (she died in 2014), she was also well known as a presenter on the day time chat show Loose Women.
  • Prior to this story she had been considered for another Time Lord role - that of Thalia in Arc of Infinity.

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