"Mel first appears in the serial Terror of the Vervoids, part of the 14-part story The Trial of a Time Lord. At this point, she and the Sixth Doctor have been travelling together for some time."

"Mel is at present the only one of the Doctor's companions (not counting the special case of his granddaughter, Susan) never to have her actual first adventure with the Doctor chronicled on screen."

So, does that mean when the series started, she was just already 'in place' and playing the part like she had been there for years?? How strange!

Wasn't that because the Vervoids was set in the Doctor's future, so he'd already met Mel at the time, in between Peri going and then.

Should I have put a spoiler around that?

Trial of a Timelord makes my head hurt.

I read on DWF the other day that Bonnie Langford will not make any contribution to the dvd extras; she apparently thinks if you can't say anything nice it's better to say nothing at all. Shame.

Yup, it's true. When we first meet her in "The Trial Of A Time Lord" it's in an adventure from the Doctor's future. Then she turns up in the courtroom, from a point in her timeline after the adventure in the future. So when the Doctor goes off with her at the end of the trial, he's going off travelling with her before he's even met her.

I still haven't worked out the logic in that one...

Presumably, the Doctor drops post-trial Mel off somewhere. He then meets pre-trial Mel for the first time and travels with her until she's summonsed by the Master. He then goes and picks up post-trial Mel and they continue travelling together. Maybe.

I think it must of got lost somewhere between Pip & Jane Baker and Eric Saward. I think you just have to not think too hard about the continuity sometimes.

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Bonnie Langford will not make any contribution to the dvd extras; she apparently thinks if you can't say anything nice it's better to say nothing at all
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I had wondered if Bonnie would ever appear. Such a shame she's not on the Trial DVDs, and I don't think she's on Delta (not got it yet). Such a shame as I am sure she'd have plenty to say. I had wondered whether she is simply too expensive, or too busy, to take part. I guess it's something we'll never know for sure.

I've met Bonnie a couple of times, and she's happily autographed DW stuff for me. She's happy to talk about the show in-person, and was really happy to know how scared I was (and still am) of Vervoids.

I recall reading that Lis Sladen won't be on anymore DVDs, as she has priced herself out of the market.

If you're planning to find the logic in that one I'd take sandwiches for the trip. No reflection on Langford I'm sure but her time on the show seemed to co-incide with a production process that involved getting a chimp with ADD high on Sunny-Delight, giving it a paint gun then filming what spattered onto the walls.

At least the Big Finish audios have served her better.

Trial was promising but became a bit of a mess, no matter how hard I try and like it. It has some really good bits but some very poor bits too.

The whole Mel thing. Confusing or what! You've got to hope the Doctor did drop her off somewhere else or surely she woild get stuck in an unending loop of travelling with the Doctor, being summoned by the Master and going to the trial and meeting the Doctor all over again!

It gets worse - as I remember it, two novels offer completely different accounts of her first meeting with the Doctor.

One of the guys who works on the DW DVDs told DWM they can't afford Langford.

I'll see if I can find the full quote later...

Around 50 years pass for the Doctor between the Trial and his regeneration to Doc#7.

Obviously Mel does not travel with him for all this time he probably only meets up with her again a couple of years at most before we see them together in "Time and the Rani".

"Terror of the Veroids" takes place in this unseen two years.

Thanks DS9: I'd really like to know more, so would be grateful if you could find the quote.

Bonnie Langford has loads of "real work" on (she's doing a couple of months on Broadway in Chicago, shortly), so is hardly knocking on the Dr Who DVD people's doors with begging bowl in hand. Shame though.

This is the only one I remember:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Unusual

G

Oh my.....reading all that has given me a headache!

I love the idea that the Doctor tries to avoid having to meet her at all!

That makes sense! Once they leave the 'Trial' and he's muttering carrot-cake - he dumps her back in Pease Pottage or wherever she came from, and re-meets her (off-screen) again before being bombarded by the Rani - when he has suddenly regenerated for no reason.

This is how I remember it all:

In Trial of a Time Lord, the Doctor uses the Matrix to look into his own future, and presents an adventure with a companion he has not yet met - Melanie Bush - to try and convince his trial that he changes his interfering ways.

Later in the trial, The Master (I think) sends Mel herself from the Doctor's future to the court room to help the Doctor battle against the Valeyard (let's not go into that).

At the end of Trial of a Time Lord, the Doctor is seen leaving in his TARDIS with Mel, and the following episode - Time and the Rani - sees the Doctor and Mel still travelling together.

The implication seemed to be (to me at least) that - after Trial - the Doctor somehow returns to the time stream at a point after he and Melanie met. In this way, they simply continue travelling together.

However, the novel Business as Usual suggests that after Trial the Doctor returned Mel to her correct point in the time stream (with his future self) and then carried on travelling without her.

Indeed, the Big Finish audio adventures suggests he had a whole host of adventures and previously unseen companions between Trial and meeting Mel (properly) for the first time.

In Business, it is stated he actually tried not to meet Mel and have her travel with him, as he thought by not fulfilling this part of his future, he might be able to avoid becoming The Valeyard. But by the end of the book, he has accepted that Mel is destined to travel with him and so allows her onboard the TARDIS.

What is perhaps more interesting is that, after leaving the Trial, the 6th Doctor didn't head straight to Thoros Alpha to pick up Peri!

And the simplest thing would be to have had two Tardises materialise independently a la at teh end of The Five Doctors.
If that had occurred nobody would have these continuity headaches