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The Trial of a Time Lord is the title of the fourteen-part serial that encompasses the entirety of Season 23 of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast in 14 weekly episodes between 6 September and 6 December 1986. Unusually for Doctor Who, no on-screen titles were given to the four distinct stories; however, titles were used in production documents and novelisations.

In the serial, the Doctor is tried by the High Council of the Time Lords with breaking several Gallifreyan laws, including interference with outside worlds and genocide. In the first two stories, The Mysterious Planet and Mindwarp, the prosecutor, a mysterious character called the Valeyard, uses events from the Doctor's past and present as evidence of the Doctor's guilt. The third story, Terror of the Vervoids, presents future events in the Doctor's defence. In the final story, The Ultimate Foe, the Doctor's trial is abruptly stopped by accusations of subterfuge; the Doctor confronts the Valeyard and his old rival, the Master, to clear his name and to save the High Council.

The Trial of a Time Lord features the last onscreen performance of Colin Baker in the lead role of the Sixth Doctor and Nicola Bryant in the role of Perpugilliam "Peri" Brown, the Doctor's companion; their last appearances are The Ultimate Foe and Mindwarp respectively. Replacing Peri as the Doctor's companion, Bonnie Langford portrayed Melanie Bush in the remaining two stories. The serial features several guest stars:Michael Jayston as the Valeyard; Lynda Bellingham as the Inquisitor; Joan Sims as Katryca; Tony Selby as Sabalom Glitz; Brian Blessedas King Yrcanos; Nabil Shaban as Sil; Christopher Ryan as Kiv; Honor Blackman as Professor Lasky; and Anthony Ainley as the Master.

The serial marks several production changes to Doctor Who; the reduction of episodes from the twenty-six of the previous season to fourteen prompted a different format than had been used previously. Several problems occurred during production, including the death of scriptwriter Robert Holmes and the resignation of the show's script editor Eric Saward, who withdrew his contribution to Holmes' final serial. On its original broadcast, public reaction was mixed; its viewing share was lower than the previous season, but its average Audience Appreciation Index was higher.

Production
The unique format of a serial lasting the entire season was first proposed in 1985 for several reasons: the twenty-third season was postponed from January 1986 to September 1986; the amount of screen time was reduced from twenty-six to fourteen 25-minute episodes; and BBC controller Michael Grade wanted the series to contain less violence. Executive producer John Nathan-Turner and script editor Eric Saward realised the new system would need a different format; they scrapped all of the planned serials and focused on a trial story with an A Christmas Carol-inspired "past, present, and future" storyline. By July 1985, the characters of the Valeyard, the Inquisitor, and Mel were conceived.

The original writers chosen to provide scripts for the season were Robert Holmes, Philip Martin, award winning playwright David Halliwell and the novelist Jack Trevor Story. The idea was that Holmes and Martin would contribute the first two stories for evidence, each in four episodes. Halliwell and Story would then write two episodes apiece of the third four-part story, liaising closely to ensure that their ideas worked together and could be realised using the same sets. Finally, Holmes would provide the final two episodes to form the concluding story.

On 9th July 1985, all four writers travelled to the BBC for an initial discussion with John Nathan-Turner and Eric Saward, who explained the different format to them and briefed them on their respective contributions.

While work proceeded relatively smoothly on the stories commissioned from Robert Holmes and Philip Martin, which were given the final working titles The Mysterious Planet and Mindwarp respectively, the same could not be said of the two-part contributions by Jack Trevor Story and David Halliwell.

Little progress was made on Jack Trevor Story's story. 'He came up with an idea for his section of the trial,' recalls Eric Saward. 'He said, "I've got an idea of a man sitting in an empty gasometer playing a saxophone." I told him, "That sounds wonderful, but I don't think we can use it in Doctor Who!"'

Robert Holmes was commissioned to write the first and fourth stories of the season. His draft of the first story, The Mysterious Planet, was criticised heavily by BBC Head of Drama Jonathan Powell for its comedic content. Holmes had to postpone writing the fourth story, Time Inc. (also known as The Ultimate Foe), to make several changes, and was unable to return to finish it due to his deteriorating health; he died of liver failure on 24 May 1986. His death was one of several problems encountered during the writing of the final story; Saward quit working for Doctor Who after disagreeing with Nathan-Turner about the ending of the fourteenth episode. Pip and Jane Baker, who had written Terror of the Vervoids, were commissioned by Nathan-Turner at short notice to write episode 14, having been provided with Holmes' thirteenth episode.

The second story, Mindwarp, was written by Philip Martin. Martin's character Sil—from Vengeance on Varos—was popular among the production team; they asked Martin to feature the character in another serial. Sil was to appear in Mission to Magnus, the third serial of season twenty-three until the show was put on hiatus. Nathan-Turner asked Martin to write a serial, and asked for Peri to be killed. The third story was to be interlinked with the fourth story, and Holmes was asked to write it; he declined, citing a dislike of six-part serials. After rejecting submissions by Christopher H. Bidmead and PJ Hammond, Nathan-Turner approached Pip and Jane Baker to quickly write a studio-based serial, Terror of the Vervoids.

Filming of the serial began on 7 April 1986 and ended on 14 August 1986. For the opening sequence, Nathan-Turner commissioned a 45-second model sequence that cost £8,000. The outdoor sequences in The Mysterious Planet were filmed in mid-April in Queen Elizabeth Country Park, and studio work followed on 24 Apriland 10 May. Studio work for Mindwarp took place on 27–29 May and 11–13 June, and location shots were filmed in Brighton on 15–16 June. Terror of the Vervoids and Time Inc. were produced together. Production began with location filming for the latter in late June, before returning to the studio to film scenes for both segments on 16–17 July. Terror of the Vervoids was the last segment to be completed; studio work took place on 30 July–1 August and 12–14 August.

Ratings and figures
Public reception to the season was mixed. Although the Audience Appreciation figures had improved since the previous season—the lowest figure was 66% for parts seven and nine and the highest was 72% for parts one, four, and eight  — the viewing figures for the season were considerably down on the previous season.

The Discontinuity Guide
Paul Cornell, Martin Day, and Keith Topping, co-authors of The Discontinuity Guide, gave a mixed reaction to the serial. They stated "the plot hangs together remarkably well". They said the "opening shot is lovely" and "episode 13 is a masterpiece". They praised Brian Blessed's acting in Mindwarp, but thought the script "[tried] to be comic, grotesque, straight, and farcical all at the same time, and, directed without much thought, falls between several stools". Their reaction to Terror of the Vervoids was also mixed, calling it "a well constructed, archetypal Doctor Who story, let down by ridiculous dialogue and the by now intrusive trial scenes".

Doctor Who: The Television Companion
David J. Howe and Stephen James Walker, authors of Doctor Who: The Television Companion, negatively reviewed the serial in its fourteen-episode form. The opening sentence of their analysis stated that "Sadly [...] The Trial of a Time Lord, although a brave attempt, falls a long way short of expectations". They criticised the production team's ambivalence between classing the season as one or four serials and felt the story's quality could have been improved by more consultation in writing; in defence, they lamented Holmes' death and the rejection of two scripts. Their opinion of the trial storyline was negative, finding it "very difficult to believe that in the Time Lord legal system - or indeed in any reasonable legal system - the charge directed at the accused, and even the type of proceedings involved, could really be changed at a moment's notice seemingly on the whim of the prosecuting counsel". However, they found the meta-humour of "the Doctor effectively sitting down to watch Doctor Who for fourteen weeks" amusing but repetitive. They also liked Baker's acting during the season. Closing their analysis, they considered the serial a "monumental wasted opportunity".

Howe and Walker's opinion of the serials when treated as four segments was more positive. In The Mysterious Planet, they enjoyed the beginning, but found the story to be decreasing in quality towards the end. They liked the Doctor's calmer relationship to Peri and the character of Sabalom Glitz, but summarised the segment as "uncharacteristically lacklustre". They thought Mindwarp was "a little better than part one", citing Peri's death and Sil as positive; the former was labelled "one of the most dramatic and impressive moments of the entire season" and Bryant's best scene since The Caves of Androzani. Their review ofTerror of the Vervoids was mostly positive: they said "Arguably the most successful segment of the story as a whole is the third one [...] This is partly because the irritating courtroom scenes are kept to a minimum, allowing the story to flow rather better than during the other segments, but mainly because the scripts themselves are entertaining and quite easy to follow, complemented by Chris Clough's well paced and stylish direction". Their only objection wasBonnie Langford's appearance. They appreciated the final segment for its imagery and direction, but thought that it was a "severe let-down" as a conclusion to the serial.