Four episodes
Aired between 1st March 1983 and 9th March 1983
Written by Barbara Clegg
Produced by John Nathan-Turner
Directed by Fiona Cumming
Synopsis
The TARDIS still hasn't recovered from Turlough's tampering. It's powered down to emergency lights and the Doctor is trying to fix it when they get a faint visitation from the White Guardian.
The Doctor instructs Turlough to increase the power feed in the TARDIS so they can effectively hear the message that the White Guardian is trying to impart, but on advice from the Black Guardian, he shuts down the feed.
The Doctor is angry at him, but he makes an excuse that it was risking the destruction of the TARDIS to keep the power so high.
The Doctor manages to get the TARDIS to work enough to follow coordinates that the White Guardian told him. They materialise inside what looks to be an Edwardian sailing vessel. Turlough and the Doctor begin snooping around and befriend the crew below decks.
Tegan ends up snooping on her own and meets a super creepy officer of the ship.
Through various means, the TARDIS crew are taken to the wheelhouse and discover that they are indeed on an Edwardian ship, but it's crewed by a race of eternal, emotionless beings and it is flying through space.
They are partaking in a race around the solar system as a means of fun for the eternals (who pilot different vessels). The prize for winning this race is enlightenment.
These eternals can read minds and they try to make the Doctor and his companions at home but Tegan is thoroughly creeped out, especially by Mr Mariner, an eternal that fancies her, and Turlough is creeped out by the Black Guardian insisting that he's doomed in result for failing him too many times. The Doctor isn't concerned with all that though, he's more interested in why another eternals ship seems to explode without warning.
They all go on deck (with spacesuits of course) to get a better look, but Turlough has had enough and throws himself overboard in desperation.
Thankfully, he's rescued, but it's by a competing ship - A pirate ship called The Buccaneer.
It turns out that Captain Wrack, the leader of that ship is a sly and devious eternal who has no qualms about eliminating her competition. As a peace offering, she invites the crew of the Edwardian ship to hers for a banquet so they can regain Turlough.
In the meantime, Turlough spies on Captain Wrack who uses a secret room to do something and another ship spontaneously explodes.
The Doctor, Tegan and of course, Mr Marriner go over there. Whilst there, Tegan is separated from the group and hypnotised. A red gem is placed in her tiara and she is sent on her way back to the group.
When alone, Wrack tries to make Turlough walk the plank, but again, he convinces her that he's working for the Black Guardian, the same boss as she.
As the Edwardian ship closes in on the Buccaneer, Wrack takes turlough to the eye chamber and shows him that she is summoning the power of the Black Guardian to destroy the ships.
Meanwhile, the Doctor hunts frantically for the red gem that he suspects is aboard their ship. He only just finds it on Tegan's Tiara in time and gets rid of it overboard.
He convinces the captain to let him use the TARDIS to get back to the Buccaneer.
He does so, but is soon captured by Turlough, Wrack and her first mate. The Doctor pleads with her, but she doesn't want to listen.
From the Edwardian ship, Tegan sees two figures jettisoned into space and believes it's the Doctor and Turlough.
The Buccaneer wins the race to a big crystalline city and whilst all the human crews of the ships are sent back home via teleportation, Tegan Marriner and Captain Striker (of the Edwardian ship) go into the structure to congratulate the winners on the Buccaneer.
It turns out that it was Wrack and the first mate that were jettisoned and the Doctor and Turlough brought the ship in. Tegan is happy and Striker and Mariner are banished. The Guardians appear before them and offer the Doctor enlightenment, a shiny crystal on a table.
He refuses it and says he doubts anyone is ready for it. They offer it to Turlough and the Black Guardian says he can have enlightenment AND the TARDIS if he sacrifices the Doctor, or he can choose to give up the crystal and be ignorant forever.
After what seems like a difficult decision, Turlough throws the crystal at the Black Guardian and foregoes being manipulated again. The Black Guardian disappears in fire and the White Guardian says that the crystal was never really the prize in the first place, hinting that Turlough's wisdom in his choices was the real prize.
He also warns that the Black Guardian will never go away and will be waiting for the Doctor in the future.
The Doctor is now happy with Turlough and sees that he's been manipulated by the Black Guardian. Turlough asks their forgiveness and says he'd like to be taken back to his home planet. The Doctor agrees.
Trivia
- Believe it or not, this is the first Doctor who story actually written by a woman. It would also be the last one until well into the new series
- The story met with huge delays due to strike actions and a lot of this was to be re-mounted after initial filming
- A knock on effect of this was that the original man to play Striker was Peter Sallis (Clegg from Last of the Summer Wine, and also see The Ice Warriors). He couldn't make the dates for the re-mount, so Keith Barron was put in place instead
- This is the last story (so far) to feature the Guardians
- The scene where Turlough jumps off the ship was shot on a stage, where Mark Strickson was suspended by a wire. The wire actually snapped and he was significantly injured, which is why he doesn't do much running around and why he and Tegan are playing chess at the start (because he can't walk very well!)
- Finally, Wracks First Mate is actually a singer from a band called Imagination. They were popular at the time, and this was his first attempt to break into acting.
The Review
This story has a mish-mash of styles running across it, thanks to the trilogy plot arc of the Black Guardian and John Nathan-Turner's meddling.
The story as written by Barbara Clegg is old in style and has the feeling, like Four to Doomsday that it's come about twenty years too late. William Hartnell or Patrick Troughton would not be out of place, jaunting around on jolly sailing ships in space, but by now we've seen the horror of Alien and the epic scope of Star Wars and the Empire Strikes Back. Audiences I would imagine wanted more than this.
Linda Baron, although good, is so over the top as to make me cringe and the less said about her first mate the better. Mr Mariner and Striker are much better, and the ships crew are okay, but nothing in this is exciting or gripping.
One change of pace is that the Black Guardian has now finally stopped giving Turlough chances to prove his worth, but even he's now inept and has turned into a comedy villain with his "nyarr harr harr" laughter.
The special edition that had re-conceptualised shots and CGI makes the story much more bearable, but still, it just feels flat to me.
This story is a very drab and uninspiring end to a very uninspiring trilogy of stories. Mawdryn Undead was the best of the three, but this story shows just how far the traitorous companion could go without becoming repetitious - i.e. not very far.
The angelic beings abducting and using humans has been done before, and has been done better. This one's a miss for me.
Rating
4 out of 10
Rewatchability Factor
4 out of 10
Watch this if you liked...
- The Curse of the Black Spot (Doctor Who, Series 7)
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