Story #129 - The Five Doctors (1983)

Harry -
It's the twentieth anniversary special -- we have watched 20 years' worth of Doctor Who. Time for a celebraish! Pop that champagne, Sarah!


Sarah -
Hang on, Chuck. The cork is sticking. *POP* Ah, there were go. Cheers, Old Boy!


Harry -
Cheers ducks.

Well, when it came to producing a fitting tribute to mark two decades of Doctor Who, JN-T followed the impulse that most of us would have, and he threw absolutely everything into it. He asked the legendary Terrance Dicks to pen the adventure and Peter Moffatt to direct it, and he managed to cram almost every Doctor and companion up to that point into the thing.


Sarah -
We Doctor Who fans do love to complain, but there's something here to make everyone (at least a little bit) happy.


Harry -
It continues the template from "The Three Doctors" and would be emulated in future anniversary specials. The story serves as a vehicle for a seemingly endless round of cameo appearances, each one delightful. So good to see characters like Jamie and Zoe, and Liz and Yates, even if just for a moment. Characters like Susan, the Brigadier and Sarah Jane get bigger billing in the story and Carole Ann Ford, Nicholas Courtney and Elisabeth Sladen step right back into the Whoniverse with ease.


Sarah -
It's like a school reunion!


Harry -
Best of all...five Doctors! Squee!


Sarah -
Well, five(ish).


Harry -
Technically, it was three actual Doctors. The late William Hartnell appears in a brief prologue, reciting his famous "One day I shall come back" speech. For the main story, his Doctor was played by Richard Hurndall. Tom Baker -- recently departed from the show -- chose not to appear in the story, so the producers made use of the punting scene from "Shada", which had not yet been broadcast. Both moves worked out for the best. Hurndall captured Hartnell's cantankerous feistiness, and the Doctor-Romana punting scene is one of my favourites. It's so sublime. We need to go punting sometime.


Sarah -
I'm game. Have you punted before? Do I get to lounge and read while you do all the hard work, or will we have to fight it out?


Harry -
We'll figure it out as we go, Doctor & Romana style.


Sarah -
That's the spirit! I love, love, love that the story opens with the Hartnell clip. It's reassuring to have the First Doctor inviting us into the adventure, isn't it?


Harry -
One of the best moments in Doctor Who's history, despite its sad context.


Sarah -
Only if you consider being abandoned by your grandfather on a planet that had been invaded by Daleks, after having lost your shoes, to be sad. Richard Hurndall really did a wonderful job. It was so good that Mr. Smith -- who is admittedly a casual viewer but has also been watching the show with me for more than 25 years -- didn't initially realize that it wasn't William Hartnell.

It sounds like there were weeks of back and forth between Tom Baker and JN-T -- he was coming back, he wasn't coming back, he was coming back, no he really wasn't coming back. Using the "Shada" footage was a brilliant way to have the Fourth Doctor in the story without having Tom Baker in the story.


Harry -
Once we've made the rounds and watched the first four Doctors getting scooped out of their time streams with varying degrees of success, the fifth and present Doctor collapses in pain. "I am being diminished," he says. Tegan and Turlough drag him back into the TARDIS, where he lies prone and fades in and out as if he himself is dematerializing. The TARDIS lands in a foggy wasteland. Whomever has been kidnapping the various Doctors has been plunking them down in the Death Zone. It's Gallifrey! It's time for another Time Lord conspiracy!


Sarah -
Oh, those Time Lords and their conspiracies!


Harry -
The high council of Gallifrey has been observing these events. In a strange turn, the Master is brought before them. President Borusa asks the Master to go to the Death Zone and rescue the Doctor in exchange for a new cycle of regenerations.


Sarah -
I quite like Anthony Ainley in this scene. He’s so wonderfully smarmy – like the class smart-ass called to the principal’s office. “What makes you think I want your forgiveness?” His reaction when they ask him to save the Doctor is priceless: “A cosmos without the Doctor scarcely bears thinking about.” This is probably Ainley’s best performance so far.


Harry -
Meanwhile, the various Doctors team up with their companions and head to a tall tower in the middle of the Death Zone -- the tomb of Rassilon.


Sarah -
The First Doctor and Susan get to dash down some quite stylish corridors, trying to evade a Dalek, before finding the Fifth Doctor’s TARDIS. I love when the companions all sit down to fancy drinks and snacks in the console room while the Doctors work out the problem.

Don’t you love the moment when the Third Doctor and Sarah meet the Master and the Doctor doesn’t recognize him? He’s so dismissive of the Master and even steals the seal from him. He gets the same reaction from the Fifth Doctor, who steals the recall device when they are attacked by Cybermen. The Master can’t catch a break when he’s trying to be good, which leads him to an faux alliance with the Cybermen.


Harry -
The First Doctor and Tegan take the high road, straight into the tower. The Second Doctor and the Brigadier take the low road, entering from beneath but not before a couple of scary encounters: first with a Yeti, then with Zoe in a bubble wrap costume.


Sarah -
Don’t forget our dear Jamie, who’s looking quite fetching in his kilt – sans bubblewrap – and Mike Yates and Liz Shaw!


Harry -
Great to see Liz Shaw get one more appearance after her abrupt departure from the show. After lifting Sarah Jane Smith from a perilous ditch of death, the Third Doctor takes her all the way to the top of the tower via zipline and they enter from above.


Sarah -
Speaking of Sarah Jane, what the hell is she wearing? That jacket makes her look hugely pregnant. It’s an absolute relief when she takes it off.


Harry -
The fashions of the 80s are something we shall never understand, even if we did live through them.


Sarah -
They weren’t all bad. I distinctly remember wanting Tegan’s dress when I watched this for the first time.


Harry -
In addition to the Master, there are brief encounters with some classic monsters (Daleks, Cybermen) and a new one: a Raston Warrior Robot, the most perfect killing machine in the universe. Is it terrible to admit that I get a kick out of imagining Terrance Dicks saying "Raston Warrior Robot" out loud?


Sarah -
It seems you haven’t watched the featurette, where you get to hear him say it! It’s brilliant!


Harry -
Hah!

I guess we could spare a moment to talk about the actual story here. "The Five Doctors" completes the informal Borusa cycle. We have seen Borusa four times over the years, each time played by a different actor. His rise began in "The Deadly Assassin", when he was a Cardinal. In "The Invasion of Time" he was Lord Chancellor and teamed (loosely) with the Doctor to combat the Vardans and Sontarans. In "Arc of Infinity" he was finally Lord President of Gallifrey, but something of a tired character while someone else's conspiracy played out around him. Finally, here in "The Five Doctors", Borusa's ambitions have been rekindled as he seeks the secret of true immortality and ultimate power from Rassilon himself. Thankfully, Philip Latham was not required to act with his hands for half the story.


Sarah -
Lantham is really brilliant as Borusa. The scene where he frames the Castellan, leading to his death, is chilling. What a bastard!


Harry -
Borusa was cool, calm and collected throughout the story. This is one of my favourite Borusas.


Sarah -
He's the most cunning Borusa, that's for sure.


Harry -
Eventually, everyone arrives at the tomb of Rassilon and the slow-moving story comes to a rapid conclusion. Borusa is unmasked as the conspirator du jour, having used virtually everyone else in the story as a dupe for his ambitions. He seeks the ring of Rassilon and the promise of immortality and never-ending power. Rassilon appears and offers it up without hesitation.

Naturally, Borusa is undone by his own wickedness and becomes imprisoned in the tomb for eternity. Having sorted that out, Rassilon gives a Brian Blessed-like laugh and fades away again.


Sarah -
Say what you will about the silly Great and Powerful Oz-like appearance by Rassilon, Borusa's entombment is horrifying. I feel absolutely claustrophobic just thinking about it.


Harry -
It's all in the eyes. Horrible fate. An eternity of living entombment is a chilling prospect.

Sadly for Borusa, no one felt too bad about what happened to him. That leaves our Doctors and their friends to make a big series of goodbyes as the story wraps up. I say "story" but "The Five Doctors" is more of a celebration, a greatest hits or whatever cliché you want to attach to it. This would be one of the first stories I would encourage new viewers to watch, just because it gives you a sampling of all the eras from the first 20 years of Doctor Who.


Sarah -
The story is a bit of an afterthought, which makes sense when you consider all the rewriting Terrance Dicks had to do as actors dropped in and out during the planning. Still, it's a delightful romp and a moment to pause and feel the love.


Harry -
Well, looks like the champagne didn't last very long. Shall we move on to Peter Davison's third and final season?


Sarah -
Final season? It feels like we just got started!


Harry -
I know, it's crazy!

Best Line:
SECOND DOCTOR: "And, er, and who is this?"
BRIGADIER: "That's Colonel Crichton, my replacement."
SECOND DOCTOR: "Ah. Yes, mine was pretty unpromising, too."

BAM! HAHA!

Favourite Moment: Really, every cameo was a favourite.

Lasting Image: The Doctors all congratulating themselves at the end.

8/10


Sarah -
Best Line: There are so many, but I have to go with the closer,

Tegan: "You mean you're deliberately choosing to go on the run from your own people, in a rackety old TARDIS?"
The Doctor: "Why not? After all, that's how it all started."

Favorite Moment: The Second Doctor meeting up with the Brig.

Lasting Images: All the Doctors together!

8/10

Our marathon continues with Story #130: Warriors of the Deep...

Story #128: The King's Demons (1983)

Sarah -
I'm fairly convinced this story exists only to introduce Kamelion and everything else is just dressing. At least it's only a two-parter, so it can't do too much damage.


Harry -
Very glad to have zipped through this one in less than an hour. Anything more than that and I'd have started clawing at my eyes and ears.


Sarah -
"The King's Demons" wasn't originally scheduled to be the final story of Season 20. Industrial action at the BBC forced the shortening of the season, so we end up with what has to be one of the most anticlimactic Doctor Who finales.


Harry -
While watching it I made sure to note that this goes down as one of the worst season finales ever. Maybe we should keep our comments short to prevent us from collapsing into a total whinge-fest. So much to whinge about here!


Sarah -
The story starts out promisingly -- in medieval England in the home of Ranulf Fitzwilliam, a vassal of Good (or not so good) King John, in March 1215. If there's one thing we can count on, it's that the BBC can do period drama and these opening scenes sparkle.


Harry -
It was a very promising start, with the castle set and location filming.


Sarah -
The King has come to Ranulf to demand more support for his planned crusade and Ranulf insists that he's given all he can. In response to an insult, Ranulf's son, Hugh, is challenged to a joust by the King's champion, Sir Gilles Estram. The action moves out of the castle for the joust, which is really quite well done. The joust is interrupted by the arrival of the TARDIS, which is taken strangely in stride by our medieval King and his court.


Harry -
King John, who seemed a bit stiff at first, delights in the arrival of the Doctor, Tegan and Turlough. He dubs them his demons, and welcomes them by his side to observe the joust. This was a sure sign that something was up. You would expect a medieval king or at least his courtiers to react to strange newcomers with loads of suspicion. Instead, everyone takes their cue from the king, who mellows out with the new arrivals. He accepts the Doctor's request to end the joust without bloodshed, and repeatedly bleats on about his demons. (I wondered if "king's demons" was an actual term from medieval history, but a google search turned up nothing other than a Doctor Who story.)


Sarah -
It's as if TARDISes are turning up all over the place. No one is even slightly bothered.


Harry -
Everyone retires to the castle. Here, we get our first close up look at Sir Gilles - it is a poorly disguised Anthony Ainley! However, neither the Doctor nor Tegan recognize him. The dim lights of the castle worked in his favour, for now.


Sarah -
Apparently, Tegan was too busy freezing in her fetching new frock. How happy do you think Janet was to get rid of the boob tube?


Harry -
Poor Janet! The highlight of her story is the ever-growing mound of wraps and furs she kept putting on to battle the cold. Sadly, she's back to having not much else to do, which only puts more emphasis on the negative lines she has to deliver. It's all very unfair.


Sarah -
Why start being fair to her this late in the game?


Harry -
I read the review of The King's Demons in Outside In and the reviewer made some good points about this story: as a two-parter it was almost doomed from the start to be too short to be able to make a complex story of it. Part one was a nice build up, but part two is basically a 24-minute runaround. Adding the Master to the mix didn't work, especially because our favourite megalo-haha plotter of grandiose schemes is here reduced to tinkering with British history. This story would have been better as a more lighthearted Meddling Monk vehicle and I totally agree.


Sarah -
There's really no point to the Master's meddling here. He feels like an afterthought more than anything. Even the swordplay was boring. And what was with that ridiculous French accent?


Harry -
Ainley's marble-mouthed accent was essentially a series of grunted lines with awkward syllabic stresses. Oh for a chuckling monk! What could have been!


Sarah -
I do have to give a nod to the guest actors, who really do the most they can with weak material. Gerald Flood, as King John, gets the best moment of the entire story when he gets to sing this enticing little ditty:

We sing in praise of total war
Against the Saracen we abhor.
To free the tomb of Christ our Lord,
We'll put the known world to the sword.

There is no glory greater than
To serve with gold the son of man.
No riches here on Earth shall see,
No scutage in eternity.

I had to play the scene back again because I was laughing so hard the first time around.


Harry -
What a mad moment! Maybe we should have reviewed this as a comedy. What with Tegan playing a mound of laundry, and Ainley's out-rrrrageous Franch accent... and now here's barmy King John calling for his lute. The Doctor and Tegan look on like they've found themselves at some bizarro Medieval Times. The whole scene is totally looney tunes.


Sarah -
The Kamelion era, as it were, is just so silly that I tend to completely retcon it out of my memory. I guess there's no avoiding it now, is there?


Harry -
We've read repeatedly that Kamelion was a great concept that the production crew were unable to realize. And this is true. Instead of a C-3P0, we got a herky-jerky animatronic carnival robot. Thank you, BBC budget. Hopefully Flood was paid double for his dual performances, as he should have been.


Sarah -
Kamelion is exactly the sort of thing that non-Whovian friends would toss at you when criticizing your love of Doctor Who back in the 80s -- not that I'm bitter about it, or anything.


Harry -
I don't even know what to add here. The story had promise but fell apart when the Master revealed himself. The sets were nice, but Kamelion was lousy. Worst of all was probably the concluding scene in the TARDIS, when everyone starts getting snippy. Kamelion invites himself aboard in much the same way that Turlough did. Tegan is not impressed and says so. Turlough naturally takes the opposite side. An exasperated Doctor decides he's had enough Australia in his life and announces that he's taking Tegan home. Tensions flare. I hate watching TARDIS teams get snippy.


Sarah -
Total overreaction by the Doctor. And then he reveals that he was never planning to take her home anyway. Nice emotional manipulation, Doctor.


Harry -
Fortunately, every one takes it down a notch and they agree - for now - that the best place to go is the Eye of Orion. Sure why not. And so ends the weakest season finale we've seen for some time. Ugh, let's move on.


Sarah -
I'm ready to move on and quite looking forward to our next destination!

Best Line:
Ranulf: "He is said to be the best swordsman in France."
The Doctor : "Well, fortunately, we are in England.

Favorite Moment: The King's Song.

Lasting Image: Kamelion sitting in the chair, flanked by the Doctor and Master.

3/10


Harry -
Best Line: "All I care about is getting back to the Tardis, where it's nice and warm. No wonder they forced him to sign Magna Carta. Bet there was something in it about underheated housing."

Favourite Moment: Definitely the King's song.

Lasting Image: Tegan looking cold and miserable.

4/10

Our marathon continues with Story #129: The Five Doctors...

Story #127: Enlightenment (1983)

Sarah -
Goodbye "Terminus" and Hello "Enlightenment"!


Harry -
It's kind of notable that it took this long in our marathon - Peter Davison's second season - for us to reach a story where our opinions differed so greatly. That it would be over the not-often-mentioned "Terminus" was surprising. But like the start of many a Davison story, here we are still talking about the previous one and assuming the readers will know exactly what's going on.


Sarah -
I'm pretty sure "Terminus" was the farthest apart we've ever been in our ratings.


Harry -
On to "Enlightenment". Did you like this one better? Or... has Mr. Smith now taken to imitating the Black Guardian's uber-panto stage laugh? Perhaps one of the kiddos is going around the house parroting Captain Wrack's saucy pirate ha-ha-ha's?


Sarah -
"Enlightenment" is brilliant! I would rank it as one of my favorites of the Davison Era so far. It was so good I watched it twice. Mr. Smith merely watched it once, but I'm confident all is forgiven.

In addition to being a cracking story, "Enlightenment" also has the distinction of being the first-ever Doctor Who story to be both written and directed by women. Barbara Clegg was the first woman to write for Doctor Who and it's a pity "Enlightenment" is her only work on the series. The excellent Fiona Cumming returns to direct the third of her four Doctor Who stories. Her direction is as strong as it was in "Castrovalva" and "Snakedance", but everything seems to come together in "Enlightenment".


Harry -
To borrow an Edwardian term, this is a ripping yarn. It's enjoyable because it's so unsettling. It's not an "easy" watch, if that makes sense.


Sarah -
There’s so much going on that isn’t apparent to the TARDIS crew or the viewer.


Harry -
Everyone involved did a brilliant job of casting the Doctor and his friends into a series of situations where escape never looked possible, and that's a mark of excellence in Doctor Who.


Sarah -
There are so many times in other stories when the Doctor walks into a situation completely confident that he’ll work his way out it. That doesn’t happen in "Enlightenment". He really doesn’t know what’s going on for much of the story.


Harry -
It's a great peeling-back-the-onion story, with a new twist coming from each teased-out revelation. It begins once again in the TARDIS console room. Tegan and Turlough play chess without acknowledging the obvious symbolism of the game.


Sarah -
I love the opening shot of the chessboard. In fact, I have to say I adore this entire opening sequence in the TARDIS. After suffering through the brightly lit sets in "Terminus", I love the subdued lighting in the TARDIS when the power is low. The orange hue looks spectacular and makes the TARDIS look mysterious, which really it how it should look. It’s much closer to how the TARDIS looks in the contemporary series.


Harry -
Dim lights equals instant atmosphere. The Doctor, meanwhile, starts hearing voices. The TARDIS suddenly lurches and the lights dim. Something or someone is draining vast amounts of energy from the ship. The Doctor suddenly encounters an apparition - it's the White Guardian. Using the energy of the TARDIS, he tries to relay a message but the Doctor can only make out part of it. The Black Guardian then makes himself seen, and the Doctor realizes that the gig might be up, and his long flight across the universe may be at an end.

And just like that, they land in the hold of a sailing ship.


Sarah -
Tegan is left behind to wait for a message from the White Guardian, while the Doctor and Turlough set out to do a bit of exploring. They manage to evade one of the ship’s officers and end up in the crew quarters, where they discover that no one remembers when they came on board.


Harry -
The sailors were very authentic. They looked, sounded and spoke like one imagines they would have a hundred years ago.


Sarah -
The crew quarter scenes were delightful, especially the moment when they realized that “The Doctor” means you’re the new cook on board. Turlough got a good laugh off that.

Meanwhile, Tegan receives a warning message from the White Guardian and leaves the TARDIS only to fall into the hands of Marriner, the ship’s first mate. I love the moments before she opens the TARDIS door, when Marriner’s face fills the screen in the console room. It’s so wonderfully creepy.


Harry -
Marriner is skin-crawlingly creepy throughout -- especially when we first see him pawing the TARDIS, or when he calls out to Tegan in the dark. Christopher Brown was great in the role.


Sarah -
He’s brilliant. In the commentary track, there’s much speculation about whether he’s acting or if that’s just how he is.

Eventually, the Doctor and Tegan end up in the same dining room with the ship’s captain, Striker, and the rest of the officers. Dinner is cut short when the winds pick up and the Captain announces that the race has begun. The crew is ordered on deck and Turlough finds himself expected to go with him, which he manages to avoid, being the clever little weasel he is.


Harry -
Enlightenment features a lot of tight shots on the characters' faces, which made me realize what bugs me most about Turlough: his weird upturned eyebrows. That, coupled with his alternating weasel/wuss nature means I'm finding it hard to like him.


Sarah -
The eyebrows really are disconcerting – brushed up and doused with hairspray, it seems. Strickson even comments on how weird they make him look.


Harry -
We finally found something alien about him.


Sarah -
This leads us to episode one’s excellent cliffhanger, in which it is revealed that we are not on a Edwardian racing schooner, but are, in fact, on a space ship – surrounded by other space ships that look like sailing vessels from various points in Earth’s history. Brilliant!


Harry -
The revelations begin! The officers are not merely aliens, but eternals who are competing in a race through space as a diversion.


Sarah -
Eternals who never blink! When I realized they weren’t blinking, I became obsessed with watching for any signs of blinking. I only caught one from Marriner. All this focus on blinking made me wonder what would happen if the eternals met up with the angels – nothing would ever happen!


Harry -
Stalemate!

The crew, however, have been plucked from the Earth -- as have the crews of the other racing ships -- and their minds are ransacked for the knowledge to create and operate a period-accurate ship. The eternals can read the minds of ephemerals, which sounds about as haughty and perjorative a thing an eternal could say about a human. The Doctor and Tegan are outraged by their dismissive attitude.


Sarah -
Striker is so dismissive of the Time Lords. We don’t run into that very often!


Harry -
But the eternals are not all-powerful. Everyone looks on as an ancient sailing vessel is blown up, seemingly by a buccaneer ship. And for a brief moment, Stiker is unable to read the Doctor's mind, which the Doctor finds fascinating.


Sarah -
The doctor is off to Tegan’s room when this happens, which leads me to the moment when the story started to get under my skin. When Tegan entered her room, I noticed it contained the same chair as her room on the TARDIS…and her purple uniform…and a photo of her Aunt Vanessa. She tells Turlough that it’s a combination of her room on the TARDIS and her room at home in Brisbane. Can you imagine how terrifying that would be?


Harry -
That was one of those "not easy to watch" moments, very unsettling.

Meanwhile, Marriner is increasingly fascinated by Tegan. And he keeps telling her so, repeatedly. But his mannerisms leave Tegan creeped out rather than enamoured, which the eternal doesn't seem to understand.


Sarah -
He is totally that creepy guy who won’t leave you alone at the bar. He’s clearly never met an Australian air hostess before now!

Things really get going when the Doctor, Tegan, and Marriner visit Captain Wrack’s pirate ship – to retrieve Turlough, who managed to toss himself overboard and attend a fancy dinner party. Tegan gets to play dress up and it quite fetching in her Edwardian gown and wig, which the Doctor completely fails to notice, of course.


Harry -
Turlough's mad act of suicide was the first really bold thing he's done. What a shocking moment.


Sarah -
It really is quite shocking, and perhaps our first indication that Turlough is moving to the Doctor's side of things.


Harry -
He drifts away from the Edwardian yacht, bumps up against the buccaneer vessel and is promptly scooped up by a net and hauled before its captain for questioning.


Sarah -
How wonderful is Captain Wrack? Lynda Baron’s performance is beyond broad – she positively devours the scenery. Unfortunately, Leee (with 3 E’s, mind you) John’s Mansell can’t manage to deliver even the most basic line without sounding like a first year drama student. On second thought, he’s not even that good.


Harry -
Lynda Baron was another example of stunt casting in the JN-T era, where he often plucked a well-known light entertainment persona and put them into a more serious role. I say serious, but Baron clearly has the time of her life playing the pirate captain.

Watching Leee John's performance reminded me that his is one of the most notoriously bad outings in the history of Doctor Who. He fights through his lines and has a terrible time of it. I looked him up and it turns out he was a last-minute replacement for another actor. His only other claim to fame is that he was part of a forgettable pop trio called Imagination in the mid 80s. Can't say I know any of their numbers.


Sarah -
Should you strike up a conversation with Mr. Smith about "Enlightenment", it's unlikely that he'll want to talk about anything beyond Leee John's performance. It will come as no surprise to you that he's familiar with Imagination and may even have some of their work in the collection.

In the bonus featurette, John is very actorly in describing his process -- which seems to have been essentially to learn his lines. He won me over a bit by talking about how nervous he was in taking the part and how kind Lynda Baron was to him on set. Still, it's got to be the worst performance in Doctor Who, ever.


Harry -
Back to Captain Wrack. I love her scenes with Turlough, as he tries to win her confidence and she's not buying any of it. She plays him for a fool and seems to accept his services, even showing him the red crystals that she has been using to destroy the other ships. I think Mark Strickson was at his best when he was toadying up to other characters.


Sarah -
He carries it off much better than Matthew Waterhouse ever did.


Harry -
The party scene aboard Wrack's ship was amusing. Tegan seemed wildly overdressed, and the Doctor didn't say a word about it. I liked that moment when he quietly picked out a fresh celery stalk for himself, like it was nothing unusual at all.


Sarah -
It's a delightful moment. Do you think Eternal celery is more powerful than Time Lord celery? Did you notice when he took the wine glass away from Tegan without a word? No getting tipsy on this mission!


Harry -
Tegan's gown and tiara do come into play, as Wrack decides to install one of her killer crystals into the tiara before sending her guests back to the Edwardian yacht... without Turlough, who has foolishly gotten himself into trouble again. Is it just me or did the Black Guardian give him about 10 or 12 "last chances"? By "Enlightenment", it felt like we were watching them have the same conversation over and over.


Sarah -
This is the problem in trusting minions to do your work. The Black Guardian really should know by now that if you want something done properly, you've got to do it yourself. He really backed the wrong horse in Turlough.


Harry -
And Marriner chose the wrong human to become obsessed with. "Love? What is love? I want existence." His mewly pleadings to Tegan are probably the least charming things she's ever heard from a suitor. It was never meant to be.


Sarah -
Tegan’s got no time for that! Speaking of Tegan, I couldn’t help by notice her enhanced cleavage in this story. She’s been wearing that costume all season and suddenly she’s busting out all over. This follows Nyssa’s strip act and cleavage shots in Terminus, so it was clearly an intentional decision to sex up the female companions after two seasons of making it clear that there was no hanky panky going on in the TARDIS.


Harry -
By this point Tegan and the Doctor have returned to the Edwardian yacht, killer crystal embedded in her tiara. Back on the buccaneer ship, Wrack invokes an unseen power -- the one that has been helping her blast the other ships out of existence by training a death ray on those crystals. Turlough looks on in horror as the Black Guardian's voice rings out, urging Wrack to focus her mind and destroy the yacht. It was quite an effective scene.


Sarah -
The Black Guardian really gets around, doesn’t he?


Harry -
Over at the yacht, the Doctor finally becomes aware of the crystal and smashes it into bits. He scoops up the fragments and tosses them overboard before they can destroy the ship, then heads back to the buccaneer for a final confrontation with Wrack.


Sarah -
Ah yes, another exciting run through the corridors – or should I say corridor? They did their best with the single corridor/stairs set, but it was painfully obvious that the actors were just being shot from different angles as they ran around in circles.


Harry -
That was amusing to watch.  But now...

Here's where the TARDIS, the yacht, the buccaneer and everyone aboard plunge through a plot hole the size of Venus. As the folks on the yacht look on, two figures are thrown from the buccaneer ship, their bodies in shadow as they drift away in space. It seems that Wrack and her horde have sent the Doctor and Turlough to their deaths, just in time for her ship to dock at the glittery finish station. She has won enlightenment. The White and Black Guardians appear on board, ready to present the prize. But instead of Wrack, the Doctor and Turlough appear and completely and utterly fail to explain how they got there. Seriously, this was one of the most disappointing moments in our entire marathon. Their escape was completely glossed over without a word of acknowledgement. Did they overpower the villains? Did they trick them? Did the White Guardian intervene? We are left with no explanation at all.


Sarah -
The plot hole is the one gaping problem with "Enlightenment". It’s disappointing to have this lazy resolution in an otherwise carefully plotted script. Even the brief moment when Tegan thinks the Doctor and Turlough are dead carries no emotional weight whatsoever.


Harry -
While I was raging over that, Turlough was presented the prize, and he faced his moment of truth. Kill the Doctor, or rebel against the Guardian. He chooses the latter, and Valentine Dyall spontaneously combusts and vanishes amid the most epic fit of smoker's cough ever filmed. What a finish!


Sarah -
The final scene makes up for the preceding silliness. Turlough finally makes his choice and becomes a full member of the TARDIS team.


Harry -
Enlightenment contained many echoes of previous Who stories, like "The Celestial Toymaker" (omnipotent beings making sport with mortals), "The War Games" (groups of humans snatched up to take part in, er, war games), "Four to Doomsday" (groups of humans snatched up again), and even "Horror of Fang Rock" (the Doctor and friends finding themselves stuck in an enclosed space with a bunch of Edwardian characters). It still managed to be a totally unique story, and probably the strongest of the Black Guardian trilogy. However, I'm still raging at the Doctor's unexplained escape from death. That's going to cost it a point.


Sarah -
I thought of "The War Games" while watching "Enlightenment", but, to be fair, I don’t need much of an excuse to think of "The War Games". I’m willing to cut the story some slack on the resolution because the rest of the story is so strong. It’s definitely the best of the trilogy and I really enjoyed rewatching it for the first time in about thirty years.


Harry -
Best Line: "Enlightenment was not the diamond, enlightenment was the choice."

Favourite Moment: Striker listens in on the Doctor's conversation with Tegan, and visibly perks up with interest when the TARDIS is mentioned.

Lasting Image: Marriner pawing the TARDIS.  That creepy freak!

7/10


Sarah -
Best Line: “You are a Time Lord. A lord of time. Are there lords in such a small domain?”

Favorite moment: Every line Leee John delivers filled me with a twisted joy.

Lasting Image: Dashing around the single corridor.

8/10

Our marathon continues with Story #128: The King's Demons...

Story #126: Terminus (1983)

Harry -
This is never one of the Peter Davison stories that leaps to mind when I think of his classics, but I love watching it every time.

It's got space action, memorable sets and costumes, a gripping story, a cuddly monster, a score that Vangelis would have been proud of, great performances by all the regulars, and even a companion farewell. I daresay it's an underrated classic.


Sarah -
I have to ask, Old Boy, did we watch the same story?

To be fair, "Terminus" is in a difficult position. With a few notable exceptions, like The Empire Strikes Back, the middle story in a trilogy is often the most challenging to script and the easiest to overlook. "Terminus" has lots of good ideas, but the production does it no favors.


Harry -
Ohh! This sets things up for a rare round of point-counterpoint.


Sarah -
I have to admit I was a bit excited when I realized we were not on the same page for this story.


Harry -
We could use the list I posted above as broad subject categories. Shall I begin?


Sarah -
We can give it a try, but I'm not sure my critiques and your praise will line up.


Harry -
SPACE ACTION
Continuing on from "Four to Doomsday," "Earthshock," and "Mawdryn Undead," we have another Davison-era story set mostly or partially aboard a spacecraft. In this case, Turlough is guided by the Black Guardian to start sabotaging the TARDIS. When the Doctor discovers things have gone awry (yet again), he and the others observe as the TARDIS "melds" with a mysterious, seemingly abandoned cargo ship. A series of skull motifs on the walls tell us this is no place for good people.

One by one, our friends enter the ship: Nyssa, followed by the Doctor, followed by Tegan and Turlough.

KA-BLAM! Two space raiders blast their way aboard the ship, holding the Doctor and Nyssa at gunpoint, while Tegan and Turlough get stuck in a series of shafts below decks.

Sure, there are no dogfights in space or planets to explore, but along comes a giant space station called Terminus, which space raider Olvir recognizes as a destination for so-called lazars. "It's a leper ship!" he memorably cries out, "We're all going to dieeee!" More space than action, but I liked the setting.


Sarah -
I question your definition of action.


Harry -
Well...


Sarah -
In a rare turn of events, Mr. Smith joined me to watch this story, which was a terrible choice. I had been going on about how good "Mawdryn Undead" was and had forgotten how not-good "Terminus" is. For the next 48 hours, he punctuated conversations with "We're all going to dieeee!" This was not an homage to its greatness.

The script is just so weak and boring. It seems promising in the beginning. I like the opening scenes in the TARDIS, where Tegan is definitely keeping an eye on Turlough, whom she doesn't trust a bit. At the Doctor's request, she takes him to his new bedroom, which is Adric's old room. This was such a sad moment for me, "Here, you can have my dead friend's room." It would have been better if the TARDIS ejected it, like Romana's room after she had left the TARDIS.


Harry -
Yeah. The TARDIS is supposed to be so vast, the Doctor could have found some other space for Turlough, unless he just didn't care.


Sarah -
While, like many things in the story, it's not really clear why the TARDIS is melding with the cargo ship, those scenes are handled well. The skull doors are appropriately menacing and Nyssa having to leave the TARDIS is quite scary. It's heartbreaking that sweet Nyssa is being treated this way, but I guess it balances things out with Tegan's possession by the Mara.


Harry -
MEMORABLE SETS AND COSTUMES
Were the space raider uniforms of Kari and Olvir not the greatest thing ever? They looked like a Duran Duran cover band. The giant space helmets, the flowing mini-capes, the flashy white boots, and the epic hair. Kari's mane alone made it obvious why they had to wear those giant fishbowls on their heads. I think most of my appreciation for this story is coming from the camp point of view.


Sarah -
Oh, there's camp for days. I was thinking more along the lines of an Abba tribute band. Nick Rhodes wouldn't be caught dead in that getup. Still, Olvir did have a brunette version of Thompson Twin Tom Bailey's hairstyle, whom I found quite fetching in 1983.


Harry -
Interesting.

The Vanir, who are slaves tasked with managing the operations on Terminus, were decked out in metallic anti-radiation armour, but they also got to swish around in capes. Their flip-up helmets were amusing because I thought of Monty Python and the Holy Grail every time someone raised their face mask.


Sarah -
The armour may have been the best thing in the entire story. They looked like a Serbian metal band.


Harry -
I'll be thinking up names for Serbian metal bands for days now. CHETNIK FIST. TIGAR-TIGAR. BOSANSKI KORPS. Ok that's already crossed the line...

Terminus! I'm not sure why Nyssa had to play most of the story in a general state of undress. Did you happen to watch any of the extras with this story, Sarah?


Sarah -
Prepare yourself for a rant here. WHAT THE HELL? We've discussed the fact that one of the challenges of Nyssa's character has always been that she's played by a woman but written as a girl. Seems like they decided to change all that in the final story, which makes me so angry on behalf of Sarah Sutton. First she has to strip off her skirt and wanted around in her lingerie. Then we get two shots that completely disregard everything we know about her character -- she and the Doctor on their hands and knees while she's wearing a low-cut top and no bra, and then Nyssa laid our spread-eagle with the camera shooting up her skirt. Not to mention the fact that the Doctor apparently has a video camera to see into Nyssa and Tegan's bedroom. It's all just so creepy.


Harry -
I think Sarah Sutton shrugs it off these days as "one of those things" she was asked to do which made little sense at the time and looks even worse now. It was unfortunate that her streak of drab-to-outright-awful costumes had to end with her running around in lingerie.

As for the sets, you have to appreciate how they were able to make Terminus look vast. The set was probably no larger than one of our kitchens, but director Mary Ridge and her camera crew brought a convincing sense of scale to each shot. The "forbidden zone" was the only disappointing set. For all its ominous aura, it was mostly just an empty space piled with junk.


Sarah -
I was never sure which ship they were on. There may have been things that distinguished the two ships, but the differences were quite lost on me.

I also have to mention the lighting. Could it have been any brighter? The story may have been more effective if it wasn’t all so over-lit.


Harry -
A GRIPPING STORY
Beneath the campy wardrobes and questionable acting was a bleak tale, not the usual fare for Doctor Who. The Doctor and his friends discover a leper ship, taking a cargo of infected humans to a place with an obvious "final solution" connotation to it. The place is run by slaves who themselves are slowly becoming infected by radiation poisoning. There is no Big Villain here, no Master or Cybermen or otherwise. There are two groups of miserable wretches, with the Doctor and friends caught in between them. Impending death hangs heavy over this one. No one hopes to find a better place, no one dreams of escape - it was interesting to watch as writer Steve Gallagher plunked our friends into this story and basically made them squirm (or crawl, or fall ill).


Sarah -
I agree that it’s a potentially good story. Unfortunately, the actual telling of the story undercuts the brilliance of its premise. The nadir of the story for me is when the Doctor suddenly intuits all the center-of-the-universe-big-bang crap. What? How the heck did he make that leap? It’s just stupid and doesn’t make any sense. (Cue the Bidmead science rant!)

And another thing – what’s with the lazars? It seems some of them are cured – what happens to them afterward?


Harry -
Hmmm, good question.  Maybe they join the Vanir ranks.


Sarah -
The Vanir seem to think the Garm carries them off to kill them, which we find out is not the case. What the hell is going on in Terminus? I’m usually willing to shrug off minor plot holes, but these are gaping plot canyons that irritate me beyond belief.

Can you imagine what a stronger script editor would have done with this? Not that I’m dreaming of how Terrance Dicks would have handled this story, or anything…


Harry -
A CUDDLY MONSTER
One more slave is introduced in the form of the Garm, a giant canine/lupine looking thing that lurks in the forbidden zone and administers treatments to the lazars. It's given burning eyes and a growly voice, but it also walks in a silly wobbling manner. It's supposed to be terrifying, but I want to give it a hug.


Sarah -
I’m not sure how the production team could have handled this, given that he has to carry Nyssa, but the Garm really disappointed me. Apparently, Gallagher envisioned the Garm being more of mysterious, unseen creature.


Harry -
A SCORE THAT VANGELIS WOULD HAVE BEEN PROUD OF
This story came out when Vangelis was at the height of his fame. His themes for Chariots of Fire, Blade Runner and The Bounty were all big hits at the time. The score in this story borrows heavily from his ethereal synth sound. It really stood out, and you might have guessed I liked it a lot!


Sarah -
This may be our biggest point of contention, Harry. I LOATHE the score. I found it tinny and distracting through the entire story. It really made me dislike the story even more.


Harry -
GREAT PERFORMANCES BY ALL THE REGULARS
Peter Davison delivered a perfect Fifth Doctor here. He's curious and sensitive, gets frustrated to the point of violence, and tries his damndest to remain smiling and affable in the face of death and despair. That pretty much sums up his portrayal of the Doctor.


Sarah -
I find it interesting that, once again, the Doctor was separated from the companions and paired up with a more mature woman. And, once again, the chemistry is really good. This seems to be a recurring motif in the Fifth Doctor Era.


Harry -
That occurred to me too.

Janet Fielding pouring scorn all over Turlough was a highlight early on in the story, and the perfect set up to having her and Mark Strickson thrown into a series of confined spaces for most of the story. Rather than hokily becoming best buds with Turlough at the end, Tegan remains skeptical and wary of him. Turlough was Turlough, which for now is a mixture of being a sneaky jerk and being a cowering wuss.


Sarah -
At last, we’ve hit up on my favorite part of the story! Separating the Doctor and companions into three groups -- the Doctor and Kari, Nyssa and Olvir, and Tegan and Turlough – finally gives us a story where everyone has something to do.

I adore the Tegan and Turlough subplot. Both Janet Fielding and Mark Strickson are wonderful – even when they’re just crawling through tunnels with Mark trying not to look at Janet’s bum. I have to admit I was feeling more than a bit claustrophobic watching these scenes.

My favorite thing about these scenes is that they give us something we so rarely see in this era of Doctor Who – character development!


Harry -
Hallelujah!


Sarah -
I particularly like the scene where they’re sitting on the stairs and Turlough ask Tegan if she thinks she could ever kill someone. It’s the first time we get to see Turlough acting in a non-panto manner and it makes me look forward to the next story in the Trilogy.


Harry -
It's hard to get past the frilly underthings, but Sarah Sutton finally got to develop Nyssa's character. She shows huge empathy for the lazars and badly wants to help them. She puts her Traken knowledge to use in a makeshift lab, determined to cure the sufferers and even help the lazars make their own hydromel. It's frustrating that Nyssa finally got a good story, which ended up being her final story.


Sarah -
How disappointing is it that Nyssa’s first really great story is her last? Sarah Sutton is wonderful when she’s finally given something significant to do.

Have you listened to any of the Doctor-Nyssa Big Finish stories?


Harry -
I don't think so.


Sarah -
I’ve only heard good things about them. It would be nice to hear some strong Nyssa stories – and will work with our ongoing plan to just give Big Finish all our money!


Harry -
A COMPANION FAREWELL
Just as Nyssa breaks from the "child" character that far too often had to stand around and watch a story take place around her, Sarah Sutton made her departure from the show. In keeping with companion departures throughout the classic series, it was sudden, played out over the space of a minute or two, and the Doctor seemed a bit too cool about it. Time constraints, yeah yeah, but at least Tegan showed some emotion when saying goodbye. Arguably, the Doctor has had to say goodbye time and time again, and he's spent centuries building a wall around his emotions, but come on! It's Nyssa! Peter could have given us more here.


Sarah -
It’s quite sudden, but I love that Nyssa’s reason for leaving is true to her character. At the beginning of "Terminus", we see Nyssa in her bedroom/lab (seriously, Doctor, you couldn’t find space to give her a proper lab somewhere in the TARDIS?) doing sciencey stuff. Staying on Terminus finally gives her the opportunity to do something important with her skills.

Having watched the Fifth Doctor stories for the first time as teenager, I was always more drawn to Tegan than Nyssa. I just found Nyssa a bit too compliant and kind of boring. On this rewatch, I’ve realized that she has more moments of strength than I remembered, but, like most companions, was the victim of writers who couldn’t be arsed to give her something to do.

Nyssa has to overcome so much emotional abuse at the hands of the Master that it’s a wonder she survived. More than anything, I think it’s her fellow companions who got her through. One of the things I really like in her early stories is her friendship with Adric. They worked well as a team and Nyssa acknowledges her reliance on Adric’s ability to do calculations for her in "Terminus". After Adric’s death, she begins to develop a stronger relationship with Tegan, which is expressed in the teary farewell. We haven’t seen a companion friendship in the TARDIS since Sarah and Harry and there hasn’t been a friendship between two female companions since Barbara and Vicki (which is really more of mother-daughter relationship than friendship).

Davison really underplayed Nyssa’s departure. His only reaction seems to be an expression that implies that he can’t believe Nyssa is leaving while he’s stuck with Tegan.

Harry -
Well, that about wraps it up. Not sure if any minds were changed here today. We may have even had a hardening of opinions - pretty much like every point-counterpoint ever, haha!

I appreciate the glaring problems with the plot that you pointed out, but I cling to the camp and can't let go. I'll still give this one high marks.


Sarah –
Best Line:
Turlough: "We’re friends?"
Tegan: "Not yet."

Favorite Moment: Tegan and Turlogh’s discussion on the stairs.

Lasting image: The Serbian Metal Band Vanir!

4/10


Harry -
Best Line: "You're weird, Turlough." Tegan sums it up nicely.

Favourite Moment: Nyssa announces she wants to remain on Terminus and help the lazars.

Lasting Image: The Duran Duran Space Raiders!

8/10

Our marathon continues with Story #127: Enlightenment...