Terminus

This is part of a series of reviews of Doctor Who in chronological timeline order.

Previous Story: Mawdryn Undead

Yikes, that was rough. In just 4 parts this story manages to be duller and more of a slog than the 12-part mostly missing The Daleks' Master Plan. I suppose that says more about Master Plan than it does this story, but I think the point I'm trying to make gets across regardless.

There's very little redeeming about this story, but I'll try anyway. Turlough is a much more interesting character in this story; he feels a lot less one-dimensional and you really sympathise with the moral dilemma. I enjoy how he's paired up with Tegan, as they both dislike each other at the start of the story. This leads to some great moments as Tegan begins to trust Turlough and Turlough begins to reconsider his dea with the Black Guardian, culminating in an epic cliffhanger.

Speaking of epic cliffhangers, the cliffhanger to part one was brilliant if a bit camp. I will forever remember that scream. I'll also admit I like the concept of this story, it's got generally interesting ideas all-round. I'm actually quite a fan of the explanation for the Big Bang, it feels quintessentially Doctor Who to explain the beginnings of the universe with a ship jettisoning unstable fuel and causing a chain reaction.

All that seeming positivity, and yet I've rated this story low and why? Because it's just so boring! Genuinely, it feels like nothing is happening. ever. I was surprised when it ended that a plot had actually happened because it feels like they were just endlessly walking around corridors the whole time. The worst thing to me in a Doctor Who story is not plotholes or canon inconsistencies, it's a lack of entertainment. And this story provided me extraordinarily little.

Next Story: Enlightenment

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

I didn't find this one the easiest to follow. Which is strange given that its directed very nicely and the plot, when you boil it down, is not too complicated. Turlough is still trying to kill The Doctor on The Black Guardian's behest, he makes the TARDIS malfunction and appear on a plague ship that has gone wrong and is holding everyone prisoner, including its guards who require a drug to stay alive and will only receive that drug if they subjugate the infected.

The interplay between the companions and The Doctor continues to be really interesting. I particularly enjoyed seeing Tegan chastise Turlough for being weird - talking about death and asking what it would take for her to kill someone. It was rewarding seeing Nyssa get passionate about wanting to turn the fate of Terminus around, though its a shame that they could only do this as a way of telegraphing that she was shortly to leave The Doctor. It would have been nice to see more of this passion from her in other stories. This is often a relatively passive group of time travellers. The kiss on the cheek from The Doctor at the end was very sweet though (the first time The Doctor has kissed a companion?)