One of the problems with this story is the one which Colin Baker often mentions in interviews - namely what is going on with the Doctor when he acts in a hostile manner towards Peri and sucks up to the Mentors? Having asked the usual "What's my motivation in this scene" question of director Ron Jones, he was told to ask the script editor. When he asked Eric Saward for an answer, he was then asked to speak to the writer - who referred him back to Saward. There are three possibilities as to what is going on:
1. The Matrix is lying and has been tampered with,
2. The Doctor is only pretending to be nasty in order to curry favour with the Mentors so that he can undermine them,
3. His brain has been frazzled by Crozier's equipment.
Left with no answer from anyone else, Baker opted to play it as No.3.
We, the audience, are left asking the same question as Baker - why is he acting like this? He made up his own answer, but it's never explained to us what's happened.
Once again we have to question the Gallifreyan legal system. As mentioned last time, they seem to be able to make it up as they go along, so that an investigative tribunal can suddenly become a trial. The Doctor was brought here because of his continued meddling / interference in the affairs of others - but suddenly they bring up the fact that Crozier's experiments could change everything across the entire universe - and they appear to be blaming him for this.
If they knew about Crozier's work, why not put a stop to it themselves? If they used the Doctor as an unwitting pawn once again, then they sent him to Thoros Beta in the first place - so they can hardly accuse him of interfering in this instance.
In fact, rather than allow the Doctor to put a stop to the scientist's work, they actually pull him out of the situation and opt for a less than subtle assassination, involving the deaths of bystanders.
The Valeyard accuses the Doctor of abandoning Peri - when it was the court which dragged him away and prevented him rescuing her.
The process which takes the Doctor out of time results in short-term memory loss - so is it really fair to put someone through a legal process which involves answering lots of questions about recent events when they know their memory of these is impaired?
The Inquisitor is supposed to be impartial, but she suddenly announces that she knew all about Crozier, the assassination and Peri's death all along.
The stupid thing is that we'll later discover that none of this part of the story happened anyway. Just where does the story actually end, and what's Matrix manipulation?
(How can the Time Lords even know what happened once the TARDIS leaves, as that's what's supposed to be providing the pictures?).
It's not just the Gallifreyan legal system that varies from minute to minute. Crozier is supposed to be a brilliant brain surgeon, but next thing he's able to transfer the contents of the mind into a new brain - which I would have thought must be an entirely different medical discipline.
Can't be many surgeons who allow food and drink - or exposed brains - in their supposedly sterile laboratory.
The idea that someone can transfer their mind into another body is hardly universe-shattering stuff. A giant slug was able to do it in Baker's very first story, and we've seen lots of instances of possession over the years - certainly since the Hinchcliffe-Holmes days.
Talking of mind transference, Sil seems to have undergone a personality transplant. He's quite a different character in this from when we first met him on Varos. He looks different as well - smaller cranium and he's changed colour.
And what were the chances of finding a dead marine Mentor who is the spitting image of Lord Kiv?
A few other questions: why does the Doctor leave the TARDIS door open when the ship has landed in the middle of the sea?
Why are there never any guards at the big metal door to Crozier's laboratory, despite the importance of what is going on and who is in there?
Why does Frax think that the Lukoser will kill the Doctor and Peri when (a) it's chained to a wall leaving room to get past, and (b) is quite a nice bloke really? Has he killed others? Just how many prisoners manage to escape from Frax's guards and get along that tunnel?
If Crozier is employed principally to save Kiv through brain transplantation - and there's urgency to do so, at the cost of his own life - why is he messing about making wolfmen, pacifying warlords and aging rebels?
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