Who Review: Terminus
Under the direction of the Black Guardian, Turlough tries to sabotage the TARDIS. Tegan nearly catches him when she comes to take him to his room–Adric’s old room. She leaves him to visit Nyssa who is busy with test tubes in her room, when an instability field opens up threatening to swallow her. The TARDIS’s emergency protocols kick in and they materialize on a space ship. Nyssa walks through, and when things stabilize, the Doctor goes off to find her. Things start to go downhill from there. The TARDIS crew discover the ship is full of Lazars, people infected with the deadly Lazar’s disease, on their way to Terminus, a space station serving as a sort of leper colony. It’s said that the people on Terminus are working on a cure, but so far no-one has returned alive. Then the Doctor and Nyssa are caught by a couple of raiders, the advance party of a raiding team that promptly abandons them. And then Nyssa falls ill, and is carted away with the other Lazars to join their fate. Is this the end of the line for Nyssa?
SPOILER ALERT!! My comments may (and likely will) contain spoilers for those that haven’t seen this serial. If you want to stay spoiler-free, please watch the story before you continue
“Terminus” continues the story arc began with the previous story in which new companion Turlough, under pressure from the Black Guardian, has to kill the Doctor. However, the more Turlough spends time with his victim and the TARDIS crew, the harder it is for him to complete his task. Not only is it nearly impossible to get the Doctor alone somewhere where he can bump him off, but he’s discovering that the Black Guardian’s description of the Doctor as the most evil being in the universe is not entirely accurate. But Turlough has no choice, since the Black Guardian promised him passage to his home planet if he is successful, and a painful death if he fails.
Unlike the previous story, “Mawdryn Undead,” the Black Guardian arc doesn’t interact with the main plot of “Terminus.” Certainly, at one or two points the Guardian gives Turlough some tips, but he is in no way manipulating events to help Turlough complete his task. The Guardian simply prods and pokes him into action, leaving it up to the boy to figure out how to get the job done. And yet very quickly, Turlough gets caught up in the story, with only a few moments here and there to have a quick chat with the glowing crystal.
The opening TARDIS scene has Turlough pleading with the Black Guardian when Tegan comes along. Turlough claims he was singing to himself, but Tegan remains suspicious of the newcomer. She shows him to Adric’s room, which will now be his. As a Twentieth Anniversary gift to the fans, the room is full of memorabilia from the previous season, including a Kinda helix necklace and the mask of the robot from “The Visitation.” When Tegan catches up with Nyssa in her room, she is experimenting with test tubes, getting back to her science roots from when she was on Traken. Not only does this serve as a reminder to viewers of Nyssa’s background, but it’s a plot point that will become important later.
Inevitably with three companions, the TARDIS crew gets separated fairly soon into the story. The Doctor goes off in pursuit of Nyssa, while Turlough and Tegan are teamed together. This was no doubt deliberate given their argument at the beginning. You might think that after all they go through, crawling around in vents and nearly getting sterilized, Tegan might begin to warm to Turlough. But any chance of that disappears when Turlough bolts for the TARDIS as soon as he makes a way back. I suppose this is a shame, but I don’t think Tegan is ever supposed to really trust Turlough, which makes for an unusual vibe on the TARDIS.
I thought it interesting the way the Turlough-Tegan plot intersects with the Doctor’s plot. Turlough, following a suggestion from the Black Guardian for making a way back to the TARDIS, inadvertently triggers a computer sequence that will result in the ship jettisoning unstable fuel. This will, in turn, trigger a “big bang” that could destroy the universe. The Doctor manages to prevent the explosion, completely oblivious to the fact that it was Turlough who was behind it. And he will never know, because Turlough is oblivious to the fact that his actions caused this emergency situation.
The effects on “Terminus” are pretty standard for BBC sci-fi drama at this time. Not bad, but not stunning, either. The Garn, a large dog-like creature, is not the disaster it could have been, though it clearly needs some CGI ear twitching, and a bit of realism around the mouth. The other costumes are not exceptional, and the guards’ armor seems a bit impractical. Probably the most eye-opening costume is Nyssa’s, since she loses much of her clothing (at least as much as is appropriate for 1983 family viewing). Apparently, this was Sarah Sutton’s idea, responding to complaints that Nyssa was too well dressed–no doubt from some of the show’s older male viewers.
The big upset of the story is the fact that we say goodbye to Nyssa. Not only was this an upset to Sarah Sutton, who had not asked to leave, and to Peter Davison, who thought Nyssa was a great companion and enjoyed working with Sarah. There were fans who didn’t think this was a good idea–me being one of them! Not only was Sarah Sutton excellent in the role, reminiscent of Elisabeth Sladen (“Sarah Jane Smith”) in many ways, but her character had depth and dimensions that had barely been touched on. After all, she’s a young scientist whose father was taken over by the Master, and the Master then caused her home planet to be consumed by entropy. Her race instinct is toward peace, thinking the best of people, and being hopeful about life and circumstances. And yet she nurses a deep sadness at having lost so much. The Doctor gives her an anchor, the TARDIS a home, and Tegan a friend. The tears she cries in her parting scene are genuine. Sarah cried those tears for real. And I think Nyssa did too. Which, of course, makes this one of the most powerful and moving companion departure scenes in Classic Who history.
“Terminus” is not a bad story. Not one of the best, but not bad. If you watch the trilogy (“Mawdryn Undead,” “Terminus,” and “Enlightenment”), most likely this will be the weakest, but the performances are good (again, Sarah Sutton is excellent), and the plot doesn’t drag. Certainly not “must-see” Who, but not a waste of time either.
