the first thing to note about this story is slavery. the vanir, the garm and turlough are all slaves in one sort of way. i think this works it making turlough more sympathetic whilst he is trying to kill the doctor, as we can understand how he can be made to attempt these things. i think it's also good in this being the only s20 story without any deaths. it wouldn't have been at all nice for the vanir to die. as a nyssa departure story, i wish this focused more on her. it is a cool thing for her to be doing with her life, and she has been established as being good at bioelectronics, which is similarish to medicine - would have been cool to see that more in other stories though. a healer is a useful thing. yeah this episode does not balance its companions well.we needed more nyssa and more turlough for sure. turloughs narrative is so divorced from the doctor. i like tegan and nyssas goodbye. its so sweet and sad, tegan loves her so much. it's hard to not read them as a couple. nyssa getting leprosy is so wild though. the non-companion stuff in this story is a little boring though. olvir acts suspicious but it does not really go anywhere, and kari doesn't really do much. also the company would definitely send troops to terminus, no question. it's just much less exciting than arc of infinity and mawdryn overall. this whole series has felt underwhelming