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...

Story #125: Mawdryn Undead (1983)

Sarah -
"Mawdryn Undead" is another story that I have not watched since sometime in the 80s. Other than knowing that it introduced Turlough, I had no strong memories to remind me what was coming. What a great story!


Harry -
This is more like it. This is the Peter Davison era as I remember it.


Sarah -
The Brigadier returns in one of the most timey-wimey stories in Doctor Who history. The Brig!


Harry -
Two Brigs!


Sarah -
What could be better? The story begins in a boys' school, as young Turlough convinces the unfortunately nicknamed Hippo that they should take a quick spin in the 1929 Humber 16/50 open tourer, Imperial model parked in front of the school. To the surprise of no viewer ever, the joyride ends badly and the car is smashed. While unconscious, Turlough is visited by the Black Guardian, who offers him a deal. He will get Turlough, an alien who has been stranded on Earth disguised as an English school boy, off the planet in exchange for Turlough killing the Doctor.


Harry -
It's a leap of faith for the viewer to simply accept that Turlough is an alien. He doesn't look like an alien (no ginger jokes here). He doesn't act like an alien. There's a mention from the headmaster that his parents are dead and a solicitor in London handles his estate, but that's the only slightly irregular detail about him.

The Black Guardian, on the other hand, is campy as all get out. That sneer, that voice, that 80s video game background whenever he appears to Turlough. I love it. Best of all, the bird on his head. I love the bird! Now if that's not a sign of an unearthly presence, I don't know what is. I suppose it could be another indirect sign that Turlough was an alien that he so gullibly accepted to become the Black Guardian's minion.


Sarah -
The bird headgear is brilliant! I've worked a whole new cosplay for you, Harry!

The car turns out to be the property of none other than Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, formerly of UNIT and currently maths teacher at Brendon Public School. I didn’t remember that the Brig was in this story and shouted with delight at his first appearance!


Harry -
Love the Brig's return appearances. It's a staple of 80s Who. And here, Brig '83 is dressed once again like the Most English-Looking Man in England. The hat, the vest, the checked jacket with elbow patches. The only thing he's missing is a fancy walking stick or a pipe.


Sarah -
We join the TARDIS crew with a poorly conceived attempt to establish continuity between the stories. Tegan wanders into the console room to be reassured that the Mara is actually dead and will not try to possess her again. Nyssa arrives in a fetching costume, which is clearly an attempt at apology for what she was made to wear in Snakedance. Tegan hassles the Doctor for not being able to control the TARDIS as they’re caught up in a warp ellipse and forced to materialize on an abandoned luxury liner.


Harry -
Deserted? Abandoned? Something is up with this ship. Our friends wander the art deco rooms and corridors before the Doctor finds a computer panel that reveals the ship has been in orbit for 3,000 years.


Sarah -
How wonderful are the spaceship sets?


Harry -
They really did a much better job with the sets and costuming in this story compared to "Snakedance". The production crew made the ship seem vast, and my favourite room was the one with the row of portraits on the walls. I kept waiting for one of the portraits to speak, and was freaked out when the Black Guardian appeared out of one of the faces. But that was later on...


Sarah -
I had the same expectation and was so disappointed -- until the Black Guardian appeared.


Harry -
Turlough suddenly appears in the transmat pod, and the Doctor determines that it is the cause of a disruption that trapped the TARDIS in the same coordinates as the liner. So, he and Turlough pop back to Earth while Tegan and Nyssa remain with the TARDIS. Things do not go as easily as hoped. The Doctor finds himself stranded on Earth with the homicidal schoolboy, while the TARDIS abruptly lurches to 1977. Oh, it's getting a bit timey-wimey.

After a quick look around, Tegan and Nyssa return to find -- to their horror -- the badly burned body of what they presume to be the Doctor, writhing in agony on the TARDIS floor. Tegan rushes out for help, finding assistance in the form of Brig '77, looking younger and more regimental than the older version we have already met.


Sarah -
I love this SO MUCH! What a brilliant idea to have the TARDIS crew meet the Doctor in two different time streams. It's as if the entire series has been leading us to this story.

Apparently, the original plan was to have William Russell return to the series, but it didn't work out, so they asked Nicholas Courtney. I'm so glad it was the Brig, as much as I'd love to see Ian return.


Harry -
You also get the sense that with so much of the script given to two Brigadiers, it left Nyssa and Tegan with little to do.


Sarah -
So, what else is new? Leaving the companions with nothing to do is a hallmark of this era. I like that Tegan is becoming the Tegan we know and love -- resourceful, clever, and not willing to be bossed around by the Brigadier!


Harry -
They return to the ship to find the "Doctor" recovering rapidly. It is in fact Mawdryn, an alien and one familiar with the Time Lords of Gallifrey. He uses his knowledge to bluff the ladies into thinking he is the Doctor suffering post-regeneration trauma. He was doing a good job of it, and it was all going so well until the production crew decided that what he really needed to complete his look was a plate of spaghetti on his head. Oh dear. At least the transformation is played dead seriously by David Collings, whom we last saw as the robophobic Poul in "The Robots of Death".


Sarah -
I liked how Tegan never really entirely bought Mawdryn's story that he was Doctor. Her skepticism was well-placed!


Harry -
Things get a bit too back and forth around the midpoint of the story, and it slows down. In fact, Brig '83 complains that he's "yomped up that wretched hill" to the obelisk three times in one day. That's a lot of yomping.


Sarah -
It could be worse -- he could be running through corridors. Yomping can be quite leisurely.


Harry -
Basically most of part three is a lot of explanation of Mawdryn and the plight of his fellow aliens, who sought immortality from the Gallifreyans. They acquired it, but have become desperate for mortality again.


Sarah -
Immortality always sounds like a good idea -- until you have it. It's hard to feel too sorry for them.


Harry -
Everyone finally converges at the spaceship, including both Brigadiers, whom the Doctor tries to keep apart. One must look out for that Blinovitch Limitation Effect.


Sarah -
Of course.


Harry -
There is a way the Doctor could help, but he would have to surrender his remaining regenerations to make it happen. At first he resists and tries to pull the TARDIS away from the spaceship, but with disastrous timey-wimey effects on Tegan and Nyssa, who almost-catastrophically become older and then younger in rapid succession, shifting back and forth in time to the Doctor's horror. He returns the TARDIS and agrees to help Mawdryn and company, accepting the huge consequences to himself in order to help his friends.


Sarah -
The mutant aliens are really a bunch of big jerks. "Oh, we've made a stupid decision and now you have to destroy yourself to help us or we're going to hurt your friends." Also, what was with their eyebrows being wrapped around their heads? That was seriously creepy.


Harry -
Creepier than the spaghetti.  Then, at the pivotal moment - at just the right second - the two Brigs encounter one another, touch, and set off a massive discharge of energy.


Sarah -
As Tegan would say -- ZAP!


Harry -
Everything resolves itself immediately (with just a couple of minutes left in the story, whew!). The Mawdryns become mortal and embrace death. The Doctor's regenerations remain with him. Tegan and Nyssa shake off the timey-wimey infection. The Brigadiers are returned to their respective time streams. Turlough decides to stick around with the TARDIS crew, although no one seems thrilled by the fact. And we don't know what happened to his pact with the Black Guardian. One can only assume he remains out there in 80s video land, watching and waiting...


Sarah -
Tralalalala! All is well and off to the next adventure, with a new companion in tow. Wasn't it just last season that JNT decided the TARDIS was too crowded and a companion had to go?


Harry -
Mm-hmmmm...


Sarah -
I'm sure we'll have more to say about Turlough as the season continues, but I have to admit that I often forget about him when discussing companions. It will be interesting to see how we feel about Turlough by the end of his run, but for now I just don't find him that interesting.


Harry -
Overall, a creative story but also a fun runaround. Maybe too much running around, but still fun. And the Brigs!


Sarah -
"Mawdryn Undead" is a really ambitious story and it was a delight to watch it again. Nicholas Courtney's performance is spectacular. He has to create two distinct versions of the Brigadier and is absolutely brilliant. Still, I have to admit I'm disappointed to find out that my beloved Benton is now a used car salesman.


Harry -
But he's probably the most tenacious and respectful and loveable used car salesman in the land.

Best Line: "In thirty years of soldiering, I've never encountered such destructive power as I have seen displayed here and now by the British schoolboy."

Favourite Moment: Seeing Lethbridge-Stewart again was my favourite part of the story.

Lasting Image: the Black Guardian giving orders to Turlough.

7/10


Sarah -
Best Line: "I wonder... if I reverse the polarity of the neutron flow..."
Sometimes, it's the small things that delight!

Favorite Moment: The walk down memory lane we take when the Brig regains his memory and we see clips of his previous adventures with the Doctor.

Lasting Image: The Black Guardian and his fabulous headgear!

8/10

Our marathon continues with Story #126: Terminus...

Story #103 - The Armageddon Factor (1979)

Harry -

Here we are, Sarah, the grand finale of the Key to Time season. It's "The Armageddon Factor." The name conjures up images of an epic war, a space opera, perhaps the end of time itself.

Sarah -

The first-time viewer can only be giddy with the anticipation of what is to come! Silly fools.

Harry -

Indeed, but for the first few episodes all we get is a terribly tedious marshal cooped up in a bunker, directing invisible armies in a losing battle against an unseen enemy. At first he seems quite smitten with himself, always creeping over to that alcove to smile at himself in a mirror. Yes, definitely creepy. But when the Doctor, Romana and K-9 arrive on the scene, we soon find out that the warmongering marshal is merely a puppet.

Sarah -

Oh, look, another tedious, shouty, bullying authority figure -- a recurring trope in the Key to Time series. Fortunately, we have our favorite counter-trope: the skeptical aide-de-camp. The Armageddon Factor gives us Shapp, who delivers his put-upon best -- and even, we think, manages to survive the story.

Harry -

Davyd Harries could have made a career for himself as a John Cleese impersonator. The resemblance is uncanny. I was half expecting him to do a silly walk behind the Marshal's back.

Sarah -

That would liven up the bunker.

Harry -

Rogue Harries!

Sarah - 

We also meet the lovely Princess Astra, who bears a striking resemblance to a soon-to-be-regenerated Time Lady of our acquaintance. Astra is the nominal ruler of Atrios, but the Marshal is the one calling the shots.

Harry -

The first half of this story really did drag on after the premise was established. It seemed stuck in a recurring loop between the Marshal's command centre and the tunnels in K Block, with everyone shuffling back and forth. The story almost became a parody of itself when the Doctor rigged up an actual time loop. (Fire!)

Sarah -

The time loop is one of those Doctor Who moments that always takes up a little part of my brain. Perhaps it's because it distills the entire Key to Time into one moment.

Harry -

If you scrape away all the padding -- and there was a lot of it -- it's basically a good guys/bad guys runaround with the Key to Time as the prize. (Fire!) As the concluding story in this season's arc, it was always going to come down to that. (Fire!)

Sarah -

Could the episode wrap-arounds be any longer? This is the most padding we've seen since the Pertwee era.

Harry -

I couldn't help being a bit disappointed by the ending, when the resolution was to break up the key and scatter the segments throughout time and space. It brought us right back to the beginning again. Presumably both Guardians would restart their pursuit of the key immediately.

Sarah -

There are so many individual moments of this story that are burned into my brain, that it's always disappointing to get to the end and be so, well, disappointed.

Harry -

I've jumped to the ending, but it's worth noting a few memorable guest performances. William Squire gave us one of the most sinister villains in all of Doctor Who. That voice was something else. And the skull mask and weird makeup made for a truly shadowy Shadow.

Sarah -

I was going to suggest you slow down there a bit, Old Boy!

The Shadow never fails to creep me out. I love that the baddie in this story turns out to be just a puppet himself.

Harry -

The Doctor's encounter with Drax in the tunnels of the third planet will always be one of the show's biggest "WTF?" moments for me. Amidst all the, er, shadowiness perpetrated by the lead villain, out pops this unexpected character, who turns out to have been a classmate of the Doctor's back on Gallifrey, now working as something of a space-time mercenary. An interesting premise, but Barry Jackson's chirpy cockney caricature makes the whole thing, well, WTF?

Sarah -

As I've mentioned, the Key to Time was my introduction to Doctor Who, so the first time around I didn't realize how "WTF?" Drax's appearance really is. The second time I watched the season, having caught up on previous Third and Fourth Doctor seasons, I nearly fell out of my chair at the appearance of another Time Lord. Drax still feels like such an anomaly in the history of Doctor Who. How fun would it be to have him turn up again sometime?

Harry -

Lalla Ward did so well as Astra that she would return next season as a regular. Which means it's time for us to say goodbye to the first Romana, Mary Tamm.

Sarah -

I like Romana! Both Romanas, truth be told -- but we'll get to Lalla later.

Mary Tamm was the perfect companion to anchor this season. Her Romanadvoratrelundar was meant to be an entirely new direction from Leela and she could not have been more different. I love that she is a Gallifreyan and a Time Lady -- and that she is more than a match for the Doctor. It's been a while since we had a companion, Zoe and Liz come to mind, who was as smart as or perhaps smarter than the Doctor. Mary Tamm's calm, cool performance was perfect for the quest for the Key.

Harry -

Travel broadens the mind, as we've heard. Like the first Doctor, the first Romana evolved as she travelled. She threw out the proverbial book that she arrived with, and by this story she was leading chunks of the story on her own while the Doctor caught up with his obviously not-a-well-missed old classmate. Posh and haughty? Definitely Mary Tamm's Romana, but to me that's not a bad thing. One thing I forgot was how often she wore all-white this season. That really became her signature look.

Sarah -

Romana's character really develops in our first season with her. I suspect more changes are ahead for her -- perhaps she'll even make President someday. (Spoilers, children, spoilers!)

Harry -

And so the quest is at an end, and the key has once again been dispersed. This season-long arc was unique for Doctor Who. Prior to it, there were arcs involving the Master and the Ark in Space, but this was all about the quest. I'd call the season a roaring success.

Sarah -

A smashing success!

Harry -

Another thing that stood out was the absence of all the classic monsters, so everyone got a break. This season also provided a good recalibration of the Tom Baker era. We've now done five seasons with Tom. Didn't we predict we'd have gone doo-lally by now?

Sarah -

I believe you have been on the lookout for that, Old Boy.

Harry -

Tom certainly rallied in this season, aided by Mary Tamm's arrival. They both performed great in every story and while I wish we could have seen more of Mary Tamm, I'm glad we still have more Tom to come.

Sarah -

Mary Tamm's Romana is an excellent sparring partner for the Doctor. It's hard to tell what reeled him in, but there was so much less hamming it up for the camera in this season.

Harry -

Way less hamming, much appreciated.

Sarah -

Speaking of classic monsters, I have a sneaking suspicion that we're on the verge of running into some of them in the not-too-distant future...

Harry -

Oh boy!

Sarah -

Best Line:

The Doctor: Whenever you go into a new situation, you must always believe the best until you find out exactly what the situation's all about, THEN believe the worst.

Romana: Ah, but what happens if it turns out NOT to be the worst after all?

The Doctor: Don't be ridiculous. It always is.

Favorite Moment: Meeting Drax

Lasting Image: "FIRE!"

7/10

Harry -

I liked this entire sequence as Best Lines:

Doctor: "Think positive. Why do you always assume the worst?"

Romana: "Because it usually happens."

Doctor: "Empirical poppycock. Where's your joy in life? Where's your optimism?"

Romana: "It opted out."

K-9: "Optimism. Belief that everything will work out well. Irrational, bordering on insane."

Doctor: "Oh do shut up, K9."

Favourite Moment: the Shadow's over-the-top evil laughter.

Lasting Image: Drax literally appears out of a hole in the wall.

6/10 (I was going to give it 7, but the annoying "universal distress signal" noise was stuck in my head after watching.)

Our marathon continues with Story #104: Destiny of the Daleks...