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 | Reviews for Trial of the Valeyard |
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| By: | David Layton, Los Angeles, United States |
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| Date: | Tuesday 19 September 2017 |
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| Rating: |   7 |
The Trial of the Valeyard returns us to the scene of Trial of a Timelord, with the space station court, the Inquisitor, the Valeyard, and the Doctor. This time, we find The Valeyard on trial. The story focuses on the question of who, or what, the Valeyard is. Sadly, we don't get much of an answer because the story the Valeyard weaves cannot be trusted. The basics of the trial are the same as before - the trial is set so that the Time Lords can hide something they have done and blame it on someone else. The court is not allowed to know even the specific crimes the Valeyard is on trial for. The drama is a three-way, with just the three principal characters (plus one near the end) having all the say. This very much limits the dramatic effect of the science-fiction aspects of the story. Additionally, Gallifreyan law is once again shown to be nonsensical, and the trial proceeds as a set of pompous speeches rather than as an inquiry into truth. In the end, this is a bit too much of a revisit to Trial of a Time Lord without adding much that the listener didn't already know.
