Terminus is the final story for Sarah Sutton and also is the
middle story in the Black Guardian trilogy. It’s not a story that I have ever
really enjoyed but I think that after watching this episode the reasons will
become evident (if at all) in the latter stages of this story. This story
features yet another costume for Nyssa which makes four in four stories and at
risk of sounding like a fashion blog, this is one of the worst ever. I don’t
think that its in keeping with the character and just shows that it was perhaps
the perfect time for Sarah Sutton to leave the show. After what started off as
a promising start for the character, she quickly got sidelined for being the
one companion that actually had some brains.
The episode starts off quite well because there is a great
scene with Turlough and Tegan. Due to the fact that Tegan doesn’t trust him
there is a nice little discussion about which approach to things is better,
Tegan’s bull in a china shop approach or Turlough’s more subtle approach. It doesn’t
really get resolved because Turlough plans of sabotage through the story into
gear as the TARDIS becomes connected to what would become a ship that has the
cure for lazar disease. The sets used for the ship are quite grim and dank
which is in contrast to most ships used in Doctor Who.
The story has a nice pace to it and Mary Ridge has done a
good job of keeping the pace going and Steve Gallagher has written a story that
sets things up quite well. We are introduced to two characters who don’t get
introduced in the best way. Kari (Liza Goddard) and Olvir (Dominic Guard) are
introduced wearing the sort of helmets that wouldn’t look out of place in a
Buck Rogers episode. Once they get those silly things off then they become much
more believable as characters and Kari is quite a good character played as a
strong lead by Goddard whereas Olvir is a bit of a wuss and unfortunately Guard
has been given a rather dud role but is playing it as best as he can.
As this is her last story, Nyssa gets perhaps the better
part of the story as she spends it with the Doctor. Sarah Sutton has always
played the role perfectly and in this episode she continues that. At the
beginning of the episode she is back to being scientist Nyssa which is one of
the things that I liked about the character and then after that she sort of
resorts to what she has become. Tegan and Turlough are stuck together but do
have good chemistry and there will be plenty of time to enjoy that in future
episodes.
On a related note, this story was directed by Mary Ridge
becoming the fourth woman to direct a Doctor Who. Out of 47 directors only 8%
of them have been female and out of 52 writers there have been 0. Given that
there has been a lot of talk about women writers and directors in new who, its
interesting to see how things work out in the classic era. It’s worrying that
there have been 126 stories in Doctor Who and not one of those have been
written by a woman.
As a opening story there seems to be some promise and with
the rating that I have given it (7.52) at the moment it makes Terminus the
highest rated story of the season. This wont last of course but its an
interesting thought that Terminus is the best story of the season.
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