The Doctor Who Real Time Marathon: Terminus

TERMINUS (Part One) 15/02/2023 

So, this story is written by Steve Gallagher who gave us the impeccable Warriors' Gate from Tom's last season. So far, this doesn't look quite as beautiful but has nonetheless looked better and displayed more interesting ideas than most of this season thus far.

Turlough is still being ordered about by the Black Guardian and has this time been persuaded to sabotage the TARDIS console by fucking with the Space/Time element that was removed and replaced in Arc Of Infinity. This resulted in the TARDIS interior starting to break up (or something) which led to it latching onto a spaceship (due to a failsafe) so that Nyssa could escape being killed by the break up when it (temporarily) spread to her room.

Much of the episode was spent with the Doctor and Nyssa, and Tegan and Turlough separately investigating the seemingly abandoned ship. Much like the last story, however, it isn't abandoned. It is, in fact, a ship transporting Lepers to a place called Terminus (of the title) as revealed by Olvir at the end of the episode - one of two Space Pirates who arrived on the ship and were subsequently abandoned by their comrades, presumably when they noticed they were speeding toward a leper colony.

Nyssa has dumped her jacket from the last story and has been working on experiments in what seems to be her chemise and skirt. Not that this is an issue; she was sat in her bedroom messing about with her chemistry kit so that's perfectly understandable, but given Tegan's boob-tube and shorts combo since her return, it does feels like this is 'Something For The Dads' which is pretty dodge. Nevertheless, Turlough has also removed his school blazer, so maybe this is an ongoing thing and we'll soon have all the companions parading around in their underwear. I digress.

Speaking of costumes, the Space Pirates (or 'Space Raiders' as they call themselves which just leads me to view them as a tasty snack) were dressed in very New Romantic versions of the costumes from HG Wells' Things To Come which, had the hair and, subsequently, the space helmets, not been so unbelievably big, would have looked rather good (I've since watched Things To Come again and the space helmets actually seem smaller than the ones featured in the 1936 film!). They're played by Alvin Stardust's wife, Liza Goddard (of Skippy The Bush Kangaroo fame) and Dominic Guard (of Picnic At Hanging Rock fame) - I'm sure this is another attempt by John Nathan-Turner to appeal to the Australian audience after the introduction of Tegan.

Elsewhere, the lepers are dressed in garments straight out of a Medieval horror film such as The Devils or even Monty Python And The Holy Grail; this, I think, works quite well as shorthand, and it was quite unnerving when Tegan was grabbed by pasty, bandaged, discoloured hands as she tried to open a door she thought Nyssa was on the other side of. Actually, they had their diseased fingers all over her face and even in her mouth! No doubt she's going to contract leprosy and need curing!

I'm still not fully on board with all this Black Guardian malarkey. For a start, what's with the crystal? It seemed, in the last serial, that it was a communication device and was shown to be cracked at the end of the last episode, yet this week we started off with Turlough wandering the corridors of the TARDIS not-so-merrily chatting with the Black Guardian sans crystal, and then later going to the console room, taking the crystal from his pocket and noting it was undamaged. Also, in regards to Turlough, there was a rather bittersweet scene where Tegan took him to his room - Adric's old room - which he decided needed clearing of Adric's old junk. The Terileptil Android's mask was there, as was a Kinda double helix necklace which Tegan took with her. I'm sure the Doctor could have given Turlough a completely different room, but it did give a nice sense of continuity.

So far, the look, tone, design and atmosphere of this story has been a vast improvement on the rest of the series. It feels starker and grittier, more muted and with much better sound effects and score. The pirates are a little flamboyant, but on the whole this wasn't a bad start.

TERMINUS (Part Two) 16/02/2023 

So far, I'm enjoying this one a bit more than the last one. The sets for Terminus - a hospital located directly at the centre of the known universe, run by pasty men in interestingly Norse-influenced armour who describe themselves as 'baggage-handlers' who pass the lepers on to a being called 'The Garm' for treatment (of dubious success) [more about him later] - are fairly impressive, as is the model work; moreso than the 2D ship that carried Mawdryn. The scenes of Tegan and Turlough crawling around in the service ducts they hid in to escape the Lazars at the end of Part One are very nicely shot on film, which helps as they spent the entire episode there.

The shambling lepers are well costumed and made up, emphasising the sickness they're suffering from. The focus on their debilitation was subtly referred to by Valgard (played by none other than Emmerdale Farm's Jack Sugden - Andrew Burt!) at one point when Nyssa, having rapidly contracted the illness, asked him a question - "They don't usually speak!" - which also nicely covered the fact that the extras have no lines.

The Vanir - the 'baggage handlers' - are actually quite an interesting bunch, although I'm not entirely sold on their lispy leader, Eirak. I'm liking the huge influences of Norse mythology, though. Many of the names are Norse, the armour has major influences, and they seem to rely on a serum called Hydromel which slots into their breastplate above the head of a serpent and, I assume, feeds them (or is it an addictive drug?). This was conveyed by one of the Vanir, Sigurd, stealing a vial for himself upon retrieving the batch sent to them on the transport ship (held behind a hatch on the bridge labelled 'Hazard') with the clunky line "The bittersweet taste of life!"; not the only dodgy dialogue this week, either.

And I'm not 100% sold on the presence of Kari and Olvir, either. Olvir is clearly there to infodump, but it was nice to have him get reasons for his actions - his sister died of Lazars disease, or so he assumed since she went to Terminus and never returned - and when he realised Nyssa had caught it he let her be taken by the service robot but then followed her off the ship. Kari, however, feels like a temporary companion to the Doctor, much like Todd in Kinda but not as good - a mature woman paired with the Doctor to give him someone to talk to whilst his companions are absent.

Also, Nyssa has cut herself and has been bleeding, apparently, but we never saw it happen. The first indication we had was outside the ship where she told Valgard and used it as a way to unconvincingly push him over (by the chin) in order to get back on the ship (only to be stopped by Sigurd). Then, the Doctor found her skirt (which she'd removed for 'reasons') and spots of blood on the floor nearby. He later found more as he and Kari made their way to the exit, so maybe the service robot nipped her when it grabbed her wrist, except Nyssa seemed to be looking at her thumb. I can only assume it was just shit Directing, something which isn't a major feature in this story so far, but seems to suddenly appear in short, isolated scenes which tend to stand out in an otherwise okay story.

The script, I think, and the whole concept so far is actually rather good and this story certainly stands out from the rather-too-plastic and soulless gloss that has permeated the preceding three serials.

So, on the the Garm. What the actual fuck??? It's a tall, fat man with the really unconvincing head of a fucking Terrier! It looks like an aging Yorkie with alopecia and red lights for eyes! I mean, I know the Garmr is the hound which guards Hel's gate but what the mother of fuck was the designer thinking? It looks ridiculous, especially with its big, round belly teetering around on a pair of spindly legs and tiny feet. The designers this series really need to get their shit sorted, because compared to last season, this is a huge step down!

TERMINUS (Part Three 22/02/2023 

That was an interesting if fairly slow episode. Warriors' Gate it is not, although the ideas are clearly there. Nyssa was informed by one of the Lazars that they're all there to be cured but the Lazar doesn't think they will be, and because she was fitter than the others, Nyssa was taken away to be given to the Garm. Olvir proved completely ineffectual in stopping this from happening, even though he shot at the Garm (is it a robot? That might explain its ridiculous appearance). There was some politics between Valgard and his lispy leader (despite them all being slaves to the company and receiving increasingly less consignments of Hydromel) resulting in Valgard following the Doctor and Kari into the Forbidden Zone.

Meanwhile, they both encountered Bor, the bloke from Part One who wandered in there, who's been badly burned trying to shore up one of Terminus' damaged engines. He found the control room where they later learnt Terminus had once had time travel capabilities and previously jettisoned one of its other engines and, seemingly, created the Big Bang.

While all this was going on, Tegan and Turlough escaped the service ducts and Turlough was told by the Black Guardian how to retrieve the door linking the transport ship to the TARDIS using an override switch. I'm not entirely sure how this works (or if it will), but what he did seemed to set off a series of explosions in the Terminus control room which will lead to the second damaged engine exploding and bringing about the end of the universe. It's a nice Big Idea, but I'm not sure it's being presented very well.

To be fair, if the Garm didn't look so fucking rubbish I don't think this story would be all that bad. There are several really nice central ideas and the sets are well constructed and shot. Tegan and Turlough have been somewhat side-lined but did get an amusing moment at one point - sat wondering what to do next, Turlough asked Tegan if she could ever kill somebody. If it was to help save a friend's life, she replied. "Yes, but in cold blood..." Turlough mused, at which point Tegan slowly turned to look at him and stated "You're weird, Turlough." Despite them not getting much to do, I like that they're being forced to work together, especially since they dislike each other so much. If this story was Directed as stylishly as Warriors' Gate it would likely be the highlight of the season so far, but there are some very odd design and directorial choices. Much better in tone and look than Arc Of Infinity and Mawdryn Undead, it's so far on a par with Snakedance, but even then we aren't quite on the same high level as the majority of the last series.

TERMINUS (Part Four) 23/02/2023 

Overall, I think that was a pretty good story. It had its faults, and it wasn't as good as most of the last season, but it exhibited the same big Sci Fi ideas that Steve Gallagher's last script did even if the production values weren't quite as good.

That's probably a little unfair. The sets for Terminus were great, and the service ducts where Tegan and Turlough spent most of the story were very nicely designed and filmed, plus the costume design - on the whole - was pretty good. However, I wasn't entirely struck on the liner, although it had a decent, spartan, clinical look, and whilst I can see where Kari and Olvir's costumes' influences come from, I can't help thinking both they (and their hair-dos) were rather ridiculous, especially the little capes.

As for the Garm, I'm just astounded the Production Team actually allowed it on screen! I seem to recall saying something similar about the horrible video effects at the start of Mawdryn Undead, so I'm wondering exactly what the fuck John Nathan-Turner and his creative team think they're playing at, especially since this is the Twentieth Season and should be a celebration of that! I mean, these are the same people who gave us such a striking, glossy start to the new decade, and such variety and energy to Davison's first series, yet so far we're half way through the series and have been served shoddy shenanigans in Gallifrey and Amsterdam, a good but curtailed and oddly paced sequel to Kinda, a tonally odd adventure with the Brigadier, and a gritty slog with a shitty dog!

To be fair, both Terminus and Snakedance have come across the best of these down to the writing and performances. Ignoring the Garm, I think I preferred the look of Terminus, but Snakedance used its potential better, despite the ending. Everything worked narratively for Terminus, though, especially since Nyssa has left.

It wasn't exactly signposted, but in the last half of the episode it made utter sense for her to stay behind to help the Vanir, especially since she was the one stating that they could make Terminus work as a proper hospital, working with the (newly freed of control) Garm to perfect the hit and miss process which cured her. It fitted really well with her character and background, and was actually quite a sweet leaving scene reminiscent of Romana's good-bye. 

Incidentally, we got to see Nyssa's bandaged thumb confirming that this is where she was somehow cut. Also, Tegan seems to have survived the episode without contracting Lazar's disease despite having some of the infected stick their fingers in her mouth in Part One, and Nyssa apparently catching it without anyone being seen to even touch her. I'm putting these down to shoddy directing on the part of Mary Ridge, who hasn't done a bad job but seemed to drop the ball at least once per episode in, unfortunately, very noticeable ways.

Of course, then we had a final sequence with Turlough and the Black Guardian (who I feel we've seen far, far too much of) with a final shot with a zoom on Valentine Dyall's face which had one unable to focus on anything but his nosehair. Given the Black Guardian is meant to be an omnipotent, god-like force, it's astounding that he's allowed Turlough to repeatedly fail upon threat of death and repeatedly not kill him! It's almost as if he's aware that Mark Strickson has been contracted for the rest of the season! Given this was only Turlough's second story it feels quite odd to have sidelined both him and Tegan, yet very much in keeping with the introduction of other companions such as Jamie, K9, Adric and even Nyssa, who joined the show only to do fuck all in their second serial. I guess I can also forgive the focus being on Nyssa since it was her last story.

This series is really turning out to be a mixed bag and, I'm sorry to say, very much a let down after the brilliance of Season 19. We're just over half way through this series, if the last is anything to go by, so I guess there's still time for improvement. Just please no more Ergons, Garms, awful costumes or shitty video effects!