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| - Picking right up where the previous story left off, The Ultimate Foe opens up with the Doctor being accused of genocide. The Doctor objects, and both he and the Valeyard get into a well-written argument that suddenly ends when Sabalom Glitz and future companion Melanie show up almost literally out of nowhere. When the Doctor asks how they got there, the Master shows up to torment the Doctor and everyone else - revealing major plot points like how Ravalox (from the first part) was really the Earth. Furthering his gloating, the Master reveals that the Valeyard is really the Doctor. Wait, no. Not the Doctor. A piece of the Doctor split off from him around the last of his regenerations. And made of pure evil. Or something. Even when being specific, this origin is incredibly vague. Either way, the Valeyard flees into the Matrix (no, not that one! We've been over this!) and the Doctor and Glitz pursue. Inside the Matrix, the Doctor and Glitz are tormented by the Valeyard repeatedly until finally winding up in what can only be described as a world that was co-designed by MC Escher and Charles Dickens on PCP and acid. The Valeyard continues to gloat in his own way, while Mel and the entire judge and jury stare at the viewscreen like it's the Monday Night Football game. Not much later, things go back to the courtroom, where the Doctor is convicted of his so-called crimes and will be executed. Only it's all an illusion, and the Doctor knows it's an illusion, but Mel doesn't know that he knows, so she runs into the Matrix to try and stop it all. The Valeyard gets all pissy about this, deciding to vanish for the time being. Meanwhile, Glitz and the Master decide to steal the records of the Matrix to make some cash in a story that, sadly, goes nowhere. Finally, the Doctor and Mel find themselves face-to-face with the Valeyard, and his plans to destroy the current government of the Time Lords. Through a brief struggle, the Valeyard spits out technobabble about things not going his way and is finally defeated (OR IS HE...?!). The Time Lords saved, the random Time Lady presiding over the trial tells the Doctor that Peri survived and is living with King Yrcanos after his rambling that she would be his queen... for some reason. Mel and the Doctor leave together, presumably for him to drop her off somewhere for his future self to pick up later (Business Unusual), and the Sixth Doctor goes on to many, many more adventures, where th- Oh. Shit. The two episodes were written by four different people, though few really notice. The first episode was written by Robert Holmes and script editor Eric Saward together, with Holmes slowly dying from disease. He passed away without finishing the final episode, which was finished off by Eric Saward himself — and then withdrawn when Producer John Nathan-Turner disagreed with it. The final episode was then entrusted to Pip and Jane Baker (no relation to Colin or Tom Baker, who themselves are also unrelated), who had written previously for the series. In fact, Pip and Jane weren't even allowed to see the original script, not to mention they had no clue how the story was supposed to end.
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