Mindwarp
Doctor Who serial
Mindwarp is the second serial of the larger narrative known as The Trial of a Time Lord which encompasses the whole of the 23rd season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 4 to 25 October 1986. The title Mindwarp is not used on screen and appears only on the serial's scripts with the four episodes that comprise the story being transmitted as The Trial of a Time Lord Parts Five to Eight. This story marks the final appearance of Nicola Bryant as Peri Brown.
In the serial, the alien time traveller the Sixth Doctor (Colin Baker) is put on trial by his people, the Time Lords, and is accused of meddling in the affairs of the planet Thoros Beta in the 24th century. Much of the story consists of a video testimony presented by the prosecutor – the Valeyard (Michael Jayston) – of The Doctor discovering the alien arms dealer Sil (Nabil Shaban) is looking for a way to prolong the life of Lord Kiv (Christopher Ryan) by transplanting Kiv's mind into another.
Plot
The serial is presented as video evidence of a trial prosecuted by the Time Lord, the Valeyard, of the Sixth Doctor's interference into the affairs of other species.
As shown by the video, on Thoros Beta, Crozier, a scientist employed by the Doctor's old enemy, arms dealer Sil, is attempting to perfect the ability to transplant the mind of Kiv, Sil's superior, into another body to overcome Kiv's impending death. The Doctor and Peri are captured while investigating the planet, and the Doctor is tortured using a mind-altering device, before he and Peri are broken out by King Yrcanos, one of Crozier's test subjects.
With his mind apparently affected by the device, and the Doctor at the trial having minimal memory of events past this point, the Doctor suddenly betrays Peri and Yrcanos, who flee into the tunnels, and claims that he wants to work with Sil and the Mentors.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Mindwarp” as doctor Who serial. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as doctor Who serial. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6312988. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1986.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Mindwarp” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.