Plot
As with the other serials from Season 23, Mindwarp is framed by the trial of the Sixth Doctor, prosecuted by the Valeyard, accusing him of meddling in other species' affairs in a way unbecoming of a Time Lord. The Valeyard provides evidence to the presiding Inquisitor via a screen linked to the Matrix showing the details of the Doctor's actions on the planet Thoros Beta. The bulk of the episode centres on recorded narrative.
As shown by the video, the Doctor and Peri arrive on Thoros Beta to investigate weapons smuggling. As they explore a cave system, the Doctor discovers this to be the work of his one-time enemy Sil, an arms dealer for the Mentors. Exploring further, they find that the scientist Crozier in Sil's employ is attempting to perfect the ability to transplant the brilliant mind of Kiv, Sil's superior, into another body to overcome Kiv's pending death. When discovered, 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, the Doctor suddenly betrays Peri and Yrcanos, who flee into the tunnels, and claims that he wants to work with Sil and the Mentors. Peri is temporarily recaptured and left uncertain whether he's genuinely been driven insane by the device or is just acting out a ploy, before Yrcanos rescues her; they then meet up with a gang of rebels from the neighbouring planet Thoros Alpha and together they try to attack the Mentors, but are swiftly recaptured. With Kiv's condition fast deteriorating, the Doctor helps Crozier transplant Kiv's brain into the body of a deceased fisherman as a temporary solution, but complications that arise in the procedure cause Crozier to realise the brain will not survive being transplanted again, and he instead suggests using his machine to transfer Kiv's consciousness into Peri's body. This causes the Doctor, now definitively in his right state of mind, to free Yrcanos and the rebels, and they destroy the device controlling the Mentors' slaves, throwing the complex into chaos right as Kiv's condition starts to deteriorate again.
Before the Doctor can rescue Peri he is suddenly drawn hypnotically into the TARDIS, with it being revealed that this was the point when he was brought to the trial. Despite the Doctor claiming that the Time Lords' interference has put Peri's life in danger, the Valeyard retorts that she would have been in no danger had the Doctor not gotten involved in the first place. Events on Thoros Beta continue after the Doctor's removal, as it is shown that Kiv's mind was successfully transplanted into Peri, destroying her personality. Yrcanos, his entry into the lab delayed by the Time Lords until after Kiv awakens in Peri's body, is distraught at the results of the operation, and fires wildly, killing Peri. The Valeyard insists that the interference of the Time Lords was to prevent a greater disaster befalling the universe due to the mistakes in the Doctor's actions. The Doctor insists that the present trial appears to be serving an ulterior motive, and resolves to determine what it is as the trial continues.
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