October 28: Terminus Parts Three & Four

In a way, you sort of feel bad for Janet Fielding and Mark Strickson; with one exception, their actions have no bearing on anything going on in the main plot -- it's as if writer Steve Gallagher didn't know what to do with Tegan and Turlough, and so shunted them off to do their own, not very exciting thing.  The only thing they do that's related to the main plot is when Turlough pulls some wires, trying to get the door to the TARDIS to reappear, and sends an electrical surge through the transport ship into Terminus, triggering an automatic fuel jettison.  Everything else they do is padding.  Mind you, there are some good moments in said padding: "If ever you had to kill someone, could you do it?  Could you?" Turlough asks Tegan thoughtfully at one point.  "No," Tegan replies.  "I don't know.  If it was important... to save my friend, to defend myself."  "But cold-bloodedly?" Turlough persists.  "You're weird, Turlough," she says.  "What a subject to bring up at a time like this."  Looks like Turlough is continuing to have second thoughts about his deal with the Black Guardian.

Terminus's dead pilot, the Doctor, and Kari in Terminus's control
room. (Terminus Part Three) ©BBC

Terminus's main storyline is content to move along without Tegan and Turlough, however, and it remains quite entertaining.  There are actually two storylines on Terminus itself: one involves the Doctor and Kari learning about the origins of Terminus, and the other is about Nyssa's treatment at the hands of the Vanir and the Garm, and Olvir's efforts to rescue her.  There's also another subplot regarding the leadership of the Vanir, and how they're in thrall to a faceless company that sends them drugs and patients, that neatly ties in with the Nyssa plot.  That Nyssa plot, involving her being cured of Lazar's disease, is more interesting for the way it shows us how Terminus is supposed to work than for any other reasons -- that said, the fight scenes are reasonably good and Sarah Sutton does a fine job of showing Nyssa in distress and then cured, with a new purpose in life as a result.

The Doctor's plotline has more of a bearing on events in terms of threat level, as he and Kari make some interesting discoveries about Terminus -- due in part to Bor, the Vanir who went into the Forbidden Zone in part one and made some unpleasant discoveries of his own.  Bor is probably the best of the all the Vanir, concerned far more with the possibility of another of Terminus's engines exploding than with anything else, including his own safety.  Of course, this means that he's contracted radiation sickness from being inside the Forbidden Zone so long -- "Short-term memory's the first to go," he tells the Doctor -- but he still remembers enough to tell the Doctor how to find the control room.

I really like the idea of Terminus being inadvertently responsible for the Big Bang by jettisoning its unstable fuel, leading to the explosion that created the universe -- and that's why Terminus appears to be at the exact center of the universe.¹²⁴  It's a "big" idea in an otherwise small-scale story, but it never feels out of place here.  In fact, it leads to some intriguing thoughts, which are never really explored but are still tantalizing to think about: if Terminus created the universe, what was there before?  Is the Garm from the original ship or was it brought aboard?  Plus it gives added impetus for the danger faced in the cliffhanger to part three and much of part four: if the jettisoned fuel the first time around was enough to create the universe, jettisoning the fuel a second time would be powerful enough to end everything.

But while there are big ideas driving the plot, the resolution is ultimately on a personal level; the Vanir wish to be free of the company and run Terminus on their own; the Garm is willing to save the universe in exchange for its freedom (to put it crudely); and Nyssa is cured and wants to help.  This last one is the big one, because it means that Nyssa has decided to leave the TARDIS.  Tegan is, predictably, unhappy about this ("She'll die here," Tegan says), but the Doctor seems accepting of the decision -- and, rather sweetly, Nyssa gives him a farewell kiss on the cheek.

Terminus is a story that often gets a lot of grief from fandom, but it's honestly hard to see why.  There are a few questionable moments here and there, and some design decisions that don't work, but the core of the story is solid, and there are a lot of entertaining parts to a well-written script -- and one that seems to have had most of its plot bugs worked out ahead of time (not always the case at this point in the show's history).  It's a story that strikes a fine balance between big ideas and small interpersonal relationships, and it does so in a suitably compelling fashion.  Something of an overlooked gem, then.







¹²⁴ That said, I know that the Big Bang wasn't an actual explosion and that the universe doesn't actually have a center.  But it's still a nice big idea.