November 3: Warriors of the Deep Parts Three & Four

Commander Vorshak on his bridge with two Silurians and a Sea
Devil. (Warriors of the Deep Part Four) ©BBC

These episodes are a bit better, just because there's more action going on, but they're still not much fun to look at.  Let's be perfectly honest, though; the Myrka really isn't that bad.  It's not great, and it generally moves with great silliness (and giving it arms was a bad move), but it doesn't look that bad, and it's at least a huge imposing presence in a story that needs a huge imposing presence.  It's just that, taken as a whole with all the other misfires in this serial, the Myrka does nothing to counteract criticisms (and Ingrid Pitt's ludicrous-looking death, where she tries to karate-chop the Myrka into submission, doesn't help at all).

But perhaps the most frustrating thing about Warriors of the Deep is that the basic script is actually rather good.  It's a proper base-under-siege tale, of the sort we haven't really had since Horror of Fang Rock, and while the reasoning behind the Silurians' actions is a bit woolly (they can't kill off humanity but they can make it so humanity kills off itself, which is somehow more noble), it still makes a sort of sense.  Other than the fact that it's an incredibly bloodthirsty script -- at least with script editor Eric Saward's rewrites -- and that it has the occasional lapses in consistency I mentioned last time, this is actually a reasonable action story.  But the whole thing is sabotaged by all sorts of production problems.

The Target novelization (from On
Target - Warriors of the Deep)

Some of this can be blamed on Margaret Thatcher (she called a surprise election in the wake of the Falklands which threw the production for this story into chaos, as studios had to be reallocated to cover that instead), but some of it looks like it was going to be a problem no matter what.  The red flashing eyes are incredibly stupid-looking, but that's because no one's thought to include moving mouths for the Silurians (or the Sea Devils for that matter, but as there's really one talking Sea Devil at any one time it's less of a problem for them) and so it's the only way to tell which one is talking.  The Sea Devil heads appear to be top-heavy, and so they wander through the corridors of Sea Base 4, cocking their heads quizzically at everything they see.  Sea Base 4 is all gleaming white walls (not the rusting, forgotten place writer Johnny Byrne originally scripted) and thus is rather boring to look at, and the whole thing is generally very brightly illuminated, which leads to a lack of shadows for characters to hide and lurk in -- allegedly there was going to be a power cut when the Sea Devils began their assault, but there's no evidence of this on screen.  (One version of the story claims that the lighting director simply refused to lower the lighting for the action moments.)  And it's probably churlish to criticize the computer graphics again, but even at the time they weren't very impressive.  At least the model work is really nice.

So it's too brightly lit, it's often excessively macho ("You'll get no help from me, Silurian"), and it's incredibly bloodthirsty -- the only survivors at the end appear to be the TARDIS crew and Bulic (and the cynical side of me assumes that's because Eric Saward, who added the extra deaths to Byrne's script, forgot to kill him off at the end).  While the final line ("There should have been another way") is powerfully delivered by Davison, it's also a bit hypocritical, because nothing about this feels inevitable.  There's no sense of tragedy behind the characters but every sense of being cannon fodder.  If they'd managed to get the look of Warriors of the Deep right, they could have pulled this off -- as I said before, despite the occasional problem the basic script is quite good, and there's enough going on that we haven't seen for a while/at all to give the story a sense of potential.  But they didn't; that potential is squandered, and the final result is sadly a mess.  You're better off reading the Terrance Dicks novelization instead.

November 2: Warriors of the Deep Parts One & Two

It's really hard to shake the feeling, watching this opening story for season 21, that as an audience member I'm just supposed to know who the Silurians and Sea Devils (this story's returning creatures) are.  Which obviously I do, but Warriors of the Deep seems to assume that the general public will also remember the two races -- which seems like a bit of a stretch for creatures not seen since 1970 and 1972, respectively.  Certainly virtually no concessions are made for anyone who doesn't remember.  I've been trying hard to see if it matters though, and it's difficult to tell.

But even if you did remember the Silurians from their eponymous 1970 story, you might wonder what's happened to them since then -- their third eye now flashes whenever they speak (just like a Dalek), and their voices sound almost identical to the current Cyberman voices.  And their behavior doesn't really distinguish them from the Cybermen either -- at least not at this point in the story.  They're there instead to provide some excess paranoia for the already paranoid crew aboard Sea Base 4, and to unleash their troops upon the base -- but that won't happen until the end of part two.  The Sea Devils look and sound rather better, even if they're wearing some sort of armor instead of blue string vests and their necks seem to be really fat (because that's where the performer's head is).

In the meantime we've got that incredibly paranoid crew to deal with -- writer Johnny Byrne is clearly intending for this story to be an allegory for then-current events (note his choice to set the story exactly 100 years in the future, in 2084), although wisely he doesn't identify the two opposing sides, other than that they're set against each other and that tensions are high.  Still, it's clear we're meant to draw parallels between the United States and the Soviet Union.  But that said, there are some typical melodramatic elements: Doctor Solow and Nilson, for example, are enemy agents aboard the Sea Base, but for all the subtlety they exhibit they might as well be wearing signs indicating their status -- yet no one seems to notice.  Of course, the base's crew is also relying on an untrained student to man their missiles, and no one seems terribly concerned when he exhibits clear signs of a mental breakdown.  (And incidentally, the graphics used to indicate the missile run are terrible -- they're barely even up to Missile Command's standards.)

And into this environment the Doctor, Tegan, and Turlough are inserted, where they get to also behave oddly (the Doctor, for instance, decides to create a diversion by overloading the base's nuclear reactor -- this is after he wanted to announce his presence to the base and then changed his mind).  There is a great moment where he gets the base's crew to begin to trust him by handing over the weapon he's pointing at them -- but these moments are rather thin on the ground.  There's also the part where the Doctor recognizes the Silurian ship (the underwater model sequences, at least, are very well done), and we get an incredibly quick summation of who they are -- "The race that ruled this planet long before your species evolved", and then later, "They're honourable.  All they ever wanted to do was live in peace", which doesn't exactly match what we saw in the '70s -- before their assault begins.

While that Silurian assault begins by the end of part two, there's not really much to mention here, other than we get our first look at the giant monster the Silurians send in: the Myrka.  It's not too bad when it just has to stand there and look menacing -- it's certainly a hell of a lot better than the incredibly stupid-looking foam rubber bulkhead door that falls on Tegan -- and the "electrical death via touch" is handled decently too.  The cliffhanger's a bit generic though; the Doctor and Tegan are trapped on the same side of the bulkhead as the Myrka, with Turlough on the other side.  Wonder how they'll get out of this one...

November 1: The Five Doctors

Special and 25th anniversary edition DVDs

Twenty years!  That's quite an achievement for a show, and what better way to celebrate than with a party, just in time for the show's twentieth anniversary?  (Well, two days late if you were in the UK, but some places in the US got it on 23 November -- the first time Doctor Who had its world premiere somewhere other than the UK.)

It's not a big, deep story, but what The Five Doctors lacks in nuance and intricacy it more than makes up for in sheer entertainment.  It starts with a perfectly chosen William Hartnell clip from The Dalek Invasion of Earth (thus properly representing Hartnell, who died in 1975), and moves from there into the best kind of nostalgic fun.

It's a simple plot, to be sure -- each Doctor is pulled out of his time stream and sent on a quest in the heart of Gallifrey, in search of a way to fix whatever's going on and get everyone back where they're supposed to be.  It's as simple as that, but writer Terrance Dicks gives each of the Doctors and their companions plenty of things to do.  And while they often act more like caricatures of themselves than how they actually were, it's still quite thrilling to see Jon Pertwee and Patrick Troughton back in action.  As for the first Doctor... Richard Hurndall is, perhaps wisely, not doing a William Hartnell impersonation -- there's little here in the way of "hmm"-ing and lapel grabbing -- but is instead choosing to give his own take on the first Doctor's personality.  It's occasionally a bit too severe, lacking the twinkle that Hartnell would have provided, but Hurndall does a decent job with what he's given.

It's also quite fun to see past companions and friends, though it's perhaps not quite as impactful as it might have otherwise been, given that we saw the Brigadier earlier this season and Sarah Jane in K-9 and Company a couple years earlier.  But it's an absolute genuine delight to see Carole Ann Ford as Susan again, and her reunion with her grandfather (even if it's not the same actor) still resounds with feeling.  The cameos from other companions are also nice -- it might have been more exciting to have seen larger parts for Mike Yates, Liz Shaw, Jamie, and Zoe, but even the small moments they get are fun.¹²⁷  And while some of the returning baddies are also reduced to cameos (the Dalek, the Yeti), the Cybermen and the Master are both put to good use.  This is in fact probably Anthony Ainley's best performance as the Master -- he's both full of fun ("If I may be seated?" he asks the High Council after sitting down, and the way he deals with the third Doctor is also very entertaining) and sufficient villainy, even if he's removed from the action by the end of the story.

The first, fifth, third, and second Doctors react to Rassilon.
(The Five Doctors) ©BBC

It's not just pure nostalgia, though; it may be a simple plot, but it's still filled with great moments that aren't steeped in the past: the brand-new look for the TARDIS console; the use of the Castellan as a red herring (and it's fun to listen to Paul Jerricho's odd line choices -- "No, not the mind probe" is the best known version, but, as About Time mentions, there's also the way he delivers an interrupted line as if it's a full sentence ("...are unanimous!")); the Raston Warrior Robot is a great creation, and the way it takes care of that group of Cybermen is very well done; and while the revelation that President Borusa is the villain comes out of left field (as he's never shown any signs of being power-mad before), it's nevertheless handled quite well -- and the sight of Rassilon, and his method of handling those seeking immortality, is also quite clever.

But let's be honest: the most impressive thing about The Five Doctors is how it gives each of the four Doctors more or less equal screen time (since Tom Baker decided not to participate -- but the use of the then-unseen Shada footage is a smart move to still get him in there), and yet Peter Davison still comes across as the star of the show.  He's the main mover behind the events -- it's he who uncovers Borusa as the traitor and arranges with the first Doctor the plan to get everyone back to where they should be -- but even when he's in the background you still get the sense that this is his show.  "I'm definitely not the man I was.  Thank goodness," he says at the end, and you agree with him.

It's a fun-filled romp, full of all the things you love about Doctor Who, and while it's steeped in the past (right down to the old theme tune in the end credits -- although, since the new theme is in a different key, that means the original version sounds really odd, as it's been transposed up to be in that newer key), that past isn't required viewing to enjoy this (I should know; I watched this story over and over as a kid while knowing little about the other Doctors' stories and was incredibly entertained every time).  There's also a sense of coming full circle at the very end; after Chancellor Flavia (seemingly the only surviving High Council member) appoints the Doctor as Lord President, the Doctor appoints her as deputy and flees Gallifrey.  "You mean you're deliberately choosing to go on the run from your own people in a rackety old TARDIS?" Tegan asks him.  "Why not?" the Doctor replies.  "After all, that's how it all started."  As the show began, so it means to go on.  Even though this really isn't the same show that started in 1963, there's nevertheless a sense of continuity that runs through everything -- so while this isn't really a show about exploring strange new environments anymore, the basic core of who the Doctor is and what he does has been more or less constant.  As a final look back before moving on, as well as a story in its own right, The Five Doctors is a glorious success.







¹²⁷ While we're here, though, let's take a moment to address something that's often brought up as a mistake but doesn't actually seem to be.  It's often commented on that the second Doctor's reasoning for knowing that Jamie and Zoe aren't real (that they know who he is) is flawed, as the Time Lords left Jamie and Zoe with the memory of their first adventure with the Doctor -- so therefore they should know who the second Doctor is anyway.  But this is more a problem with the way the Doctor explains his reasoning -- the actual realization for him seems to be that they know who the Brigadier is, which (correctly) neither of them should remember.

October 31: The King's Demons Parts One & Two

I have to wonder: was anyone fooled by "James Stoker" (as the Radio Times billed him) as Sir Gilles Estram?  Yes, he's wearing a ginger beard and a false nose, but it doesn't really disguise Anthony Ainley's features -- and it doesn't help that he has a reasonably distinctive voice, even if he is speaking in what I assume is intended to be a French accent.

The unfortunate side effect of this is that you spend almost all the first episode waiting for the Master to reveal himself, which doesn't actually happen until the cliffhanger.  (Although kudos to them for the actual shot -- the blurring between the two versions of the Master's face is whatever, but they do a really nice job of matching the body shot, such that you have to actively look to see when the changeover happens.)  And, unfortunately, there's not much else to go on for the duration.  Something's up with King John, that much the Doctor deduces (since he's supposed to be in London that day, according to history), but there's little else in the way of clues as to what's going on, beyond additional reinforcement of "this king is an imposter".  Still, the jousting is entertaining to watch, and the swordfight between the Doctor and "Sir Gilles" is half decent.

But no, part one (which is also Doctor Who's 600th episode -- 600 episodes!  Now that's a milestone) is all set-up, and then part two is almost all wrap-up, as this is only a two-part story.  The reversal by the Master (where he changes out of the Sir Gilles make-up and reappears as the Master), where he convinces them that it's the "king's demons" (the TARDIS crew) that have been adversely affecting King John, is rather nice -- even if you have to wonder why Lord Ranulf doesn't recognize the Master as the unmasked Sir Gilles, who was then shoved into an (anachronistic) iron maiden which disappeared.  And while the Doctor calls the Master's plan of altering history so that King John is deposed and thus never signs Magna Carta "small-time villainy", it's still potentially a big change, as Magna Carta is quite an important document (even if it wasn't at the time, as King John almost immediately got Pope Innocent III to declare it null and void and refused to obey it himself).  That said, it's not clear what the Master hopes to gain from this plan, other than amusement.

Turlough, Tegan, the Doctor, and Kamelion. (The King's
Demons Part Two) ©BBC

But ultimately this story comes down to a battle of wills between the Doctor and the Master over a shapechanging alien appropriately named Kamelion.  Kamelion is genuinely a robot that they've got someone off camera programming, and it's sort of effective here, even if it's not as good as they probably would have liked (and by all accounts was a nightmare to work with). But as Kamelion in the story is controlled by psychokinetics, it comes down to that aforementioned battle (shot rather well, it should be noted), which then ends when the Doctor transforms Kamelion's appearance into that of Tegan and pulls her inside the TARDIS.  Kamelion, it seems, is going to be a new companion, despite Tegan's (rather worryingly close-minded) objections.  (Don't hold your breath though; Kamelion was such a pain to work with -- not least because one of the people who developed him, Mike Power, died tragically in a boating accident not long after filming on this story was completed -- that he won't show up again until his swansong, Planet of Fire.)

It's only two episodes, so it might be unfair to judge it by the same standards as stories that have more time to develop, but The King's Demons is a rather slight affair.  For all the talk about Magna Carta, it's hard to get the sense that any of this actually matters.  Still, at least it looks decent, and the direction is good as well.  But ultimately, The King's Demons just feels like a throwaway tale, and a less-than-stellar way to technically end season 20.¹²⁶  Maybe if the industrial action hadn't killed Eric Saward's Dalek script The Return we would have had a more effective season closer, but as is what we get is limp.

Season 20 itself hasn't been the most effective of seasons.  Producer John Nathan-Turner told us that, while it wasn't intentional, season 20 would feature an element of the show's past in every story.   This might be part of the problem.  There's a tendency here to focus more on the past than on the future, but the issue is that too often there doesn't seem to be enough of a story to support those elements.  What we get instead are a series of small scale threats, stories that are charming in their own way but don't stand out much from the crowd.  The greater fluctuations in ratings this season (a lot less stable than season 19, and generally lower as well) seem to indicate that the audience hasn't been terribly impressed either.  There's nothing that's really terrible this season, but too often there's a sense that nostalgia is enough to carry them through -- even if the nostalgia evoked isn't terribly strong in the first place.

But before we reach season 21, there's one more blast of pure nostalgia left, in time for Doctor Who's twentieth anniversary...







¹²⁶ I say technically because the next story, The Five Doctors, was made with season 20 funds, but didn't air until some eight months later.  Still, for organizational purposes I'm counting it as part of season 20.

October 30: Enlightenment Parts Three & Four

The first two episodes of Enlightenment were set primarily on Striker's ship (the Shadow, according to the name on the lifebuoys), while the latter two split their time evenly between the Shadow and the Buccaneer, a 17th-century Spanish galleon.  Wrack, the captain of the Buccaneer, seems far more lively than any of the other Eternals we've seen -- but maybe that's because she's doing her best to emulate a pirate captain, as opposed to, say, Striker's English "stiff upper lip" approach.

However, the standout performance here has to be from Mark Strickson.  Turlough spends the entirety of these two episodes aboard Wrack's ship (well, once the Buccaneer scoops him up from his jump overboard), and he spends all that time being devious and conniving.  "Your mind is divided, confused, hard to read sometimes," Wrack tells Turlough, "but one thing is clear in it always.  Greed."  But Mark Strickson (who hasn't exactly started this story as the most subtle actor) turns it up in an extremely entertaining performance.  "I heard the power that speaks to you!  I heard it, and I know the voice," Turlough wheedles to Wrack, in an effort to save his neck.  "He speaks to me as well.  I serve him, as I wish to serve you."  It's tremendous fun, and it's a tribute to Strickson's abilities that, until the final moments of part four, you're never quite sure which side he's on.  Is he, for instance, actually betraying the Doctor in part four by claiming the Doctor's a spy?  Even though Turlough and the Doctor had a conversation about staying aboard the Buccaneer, and the fact that the Doctor seems sufficiently convinced by his intentions ("I think he wants to prove himself.  At least, I hope so," the Doctor tells Tegan), you're still not certain if he's going to side with the Doctor or the Black Guardian.

The Black Guardian and the White Guardian, ready to present
Enlightenment. (Enlightenment Part Four) ©BBC

But then these two episodes, at their heart, really are about Turlough, and while there are other incidents along the way (Tegan being frozen in time so that Wrack can plant a deadly jewel on her, the destruction of another vessel due to Wrack, Marriner's desire to be with Tegan -- "You are life itself," he tells Tegan.  "Without you I am nothing.  Don't you understand? ... I am empty.  You give me being.  I look into your mind and see life, energy, excitement.  I want them.  I want you.  Your thoughts should be my thoughts.  Your feelings, my feelings."  "Wait a minute," Tegan says.  "Are you trying to tell me you're in love?"  "Love?" responds Marriner, confused.  "What is love?¹²⁵  I want existence"), none of them are the focus of the story the way Turlough is.  And so the resolution ultimately comes down to him: as he helped sail the winning ship to the prize of Enlightenment, and as the Doctor isn't ready for Enlightenment, he's entitled to a piece of Enlightenment.  And thus Turlough is presented with a choice: does he take the diamond, as well as power and all the other things he would get from the Black Guardian, or does he spare the Doctor's life?  In the end he makes the right decision, giving the diamond to the Black Guardian, who disappears in flames:

WHITE GUARDIAN: Light destroys the dark.  I think you will find your contract terminated.
TURLOUGH: (discarding the now-blackened communication crystal into the fire) I never wanted the agreement in the first place.
DOCTOR: I believe you.
TEGAN: You're mad.
TURLOUGH: What I've said is true.
TEGAN: You believe him because he gave up Enlightenment for your sake.
DOCTOR: You're missing the point.  Enlightenment was not the diamond.  Enlightenment was the choice.

(from The Doctor Who Transcripts - Enlightenment)

Enlightenment brings an end to the Black Guardian trilogy, and while the White Guardian warns of a third encounter, to date this hasn't happened yet (unless Missy in series 8 is actually the Black Guardian...).  It's a satisfying conclusion, one that sparkles with energy and charm.  There's hardly a word or design choice out of place (well, except for the giant flashing VACUUM SHIELD OFF sign in Wrack's ion chamber, but I guess you can't have everything).  Imaginative and clever, Enlightenment is one of the best stories of the Davison era.







¹²⁵ Baby don't hurt me
Don't hurt me
No more

October 29: Enlightenment Parts One & Two

Well, it only took twenty years, but Doctor Who finally gets its first female writer for the show in the form of Barbara Clegg.  (Remember, by all accounts Lesley Scott did no actual work on The Ark.)  And so far, what she's written has been really wonderful indeed.  I like the slow build in part one, as the TARDIS arrives on a sailing ship that nevertheless has some oddities about it: the crew don't remember signing up, there are wetsuits for the crew, and the officers are decidedly peculiar.  And it's interesting how the officers are similar yet different from each other: none of them seem to be terribly good at understanding people, but where Captain Striker is incredibly calm and collected, First Officer Marriner comes off as incredibly creepy in his pursuit of Tegan.  Of course, they all seem to know what our heroes are thinking before being told, which might be extremely good anticipation or something else entirely.  And then it all leads into that gorgeous first cliffhanger, where we learn that this sailing ship is in fact a spaceship, racing against a number of other sailing ships from Earth's history through the blackness of space...

There are some great moments throughout these first two episodes, of which that first cliffhanger is only one.  There's also the interaction between the Doctor, Turlough, and the crew -- the crew's mistake of thinking the Doctor is in fact the ship's cook, and Turlough's cackling joy when the Doctor figures this out, is a particular highlight; the way the Doctor wants to finish his dessert before heading off after dinner; Turlough's decision not to kill the Doctor, in defiance of his deal with the Black Guardian ("I can't kill him!" Turlough cries), which leads to his desperate attempt to get off the ship, in the second cliffhanger, after the Black Guardian tells him he'll never leave Striker's ship; the nature of the Eternals, and their dependence upon Ephemerals -- those who live in one time and place -- and Striker's dismissal of the Time Lords ("Are there lords in such a small domain?"), even as he acknowledges that the Time Lords are more than mere Ephemerals; the way the scenes on deck are shot on film, suggesting location filming in an impossible locale...  Enlightenment is filled with things like this, which add to a sense of groundedness even as we're told this is an unreal situation.

So there's been some fabulous acting and some sterling writing, and the whole thing looks beautiful as well -- so kudos to director Fiona Cumming, designer Colin Green, and costumer Dinah Collin for their work on that front.  It's all especially impressive when you consider that this story was plagued by the same sort of industrial action that killed Shada and nearly ended The Invasion of Time.  The whole thing is beautiful and a joy to take in -- it'll be good to see what's in store for the final two episodes.

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.