Four episodes
Aired between 15th February 1983 and 23rd February 1983
Written by Steve Gallagher
Produced by John Nathan-Turner
Directed by Mary Ridge
Synopsis
Under orders from the Black Guardian, Turlough messes around with the TARDIS circuitry. Tegan suspects him of sabotage, but he acts nonplussed. As she goes off to complain to the rest, the TARDIS begins to break up. Cracks in time begin to appear and Nyssa is trapped in her room.
The Doctor can see as part of these cracks, a mysterious door with a skull on it has appeared.
He tells her to go through it and then he finds a way to go looking for her. He figures out that the door belongs to a space vessel that the TARDIS in emergency has locked on to. He intends to go in and find her and warns them they are not to follow.
The Doctor's warning lasts about five minutes before Tegan disobeys him and goes in after him. Turlough is contacted again by the Black Guardian and told to go and kill the Doctor. After he goes through the door, the TARDIS fades away, trapping them there.
The Doctor finds Nyssa and together they go exploring the ship.
Meanwhile, two space pirates called Kari and Olvir blow their way onto the ship.
They head straight for the bridge where they meet the Doctor and Nyssa, and takes them prisoner. The pirate ship they came on however detaches from the spaceship they're currently on and flies away. Olvir tries to threaten the Doctor into him taking the pirates on his ship, but it's no good as the TARDIS isn't working right now.
Meanwhile, searching for the Doctor, Tegan finds a locked room but hears voices behind it.
Her and Turlough break the lock and find that there's hundreds of zombie-like humans behind it.
An electronic voice comes over the ships speakers and announces that the ship is about to dock at Terminus. Olvir freaks out when he hears this and says no wonder the pirates left them, they're on a lepper ship.
Through Tegan and Turlough crawling around under the floor, listening to what's happening and through the Doctor's investigations and conversations, we find out that Teminus is a space station at the very heart of the known universe. It's a place run by an uncaring coroporation that ship leppers to it. Olvir said his sister had the disease, but from what he knows, nobody returns from Terminus.
There are guards walking around in strange armour, and Tegan and Turlough see one of them go off into an area the others call a "forbidden zone".
The Doctor agrees to try and find the TARDIS entrance again, but as they search, Nyssa starts to feel ill and warm. She removes most of her clothing to keep cool but ends up collapsing and is taken away by a robot drone.
She's taken to the men in armour who are effectively unhappy slave caretakers of the station. They're there only because they get sent a drug called Hydromel that keeps them alive and free of disease. They are uncaring and their leader, Valgard calls forth a large monster with a dog's head called the Garm. He instructs it to bring back the armour from the body of the man who went into the forbidden zone.
Later, Valgard finds the Doctor and the pirates and attacks them. They manage to stun him and escape into the forbidden zone. Once inside the zone, they find the missing armoured man, Bor. He is dying, but tells them that one of terminus' engines is leaking radiation and if it explodes, it will be very bad for the universe. He tells them to follow the cables.
The Garm then arrives and takes Bor away. The monster is summoned again, this time to take Nyssa to the area for curing.
Olvir surprises them all and fires on the Garm but has no effect. The Garm doesn't retaliate, but instead takes Nyssa into the forbidden zone as she is deemed to be diseased now, too. Olvir has little choice but to follow.
The Doctor and Kari meanwhile find a cockpit at the heart of Terminus. It contains a dead alien astronaut.
The Doctor pieces together that Terminus is an ancient time-ship and it was faulty. It had to dump fuel mid flight to avoid overload, and accidentally caused a huge hydrogen reaction, thus creating the big bang. The Doctor discovers that now the other engine is damaged, the ships auto pilot has started a countdown to do the same again, only this time it will destroy the universe.
Olvir is confronted by Valgard and attacked, as the Garm takes Nyssa away and chains her up in a room. Olvir eventually wins and goes to find her and when he does, he sees that the Garm wasn't going to hurt her at all, in fact, because of the radiation, she's somehow cured of the disease.
Turlough when alone asks the Black Guardian to help him back to the TARDIS. He does so, reluctantly and when the announcer says that the ship will be departing Terminus, he smiles as Tegan rushes off to stop it. He is about to set off, but the ships launch is cancelled. The Black Guardian's crystal then knocks the boy unconscious.
Back at the console room in Terminus, the Doctor sees a huge switch that is too powerful for them to move.
He finds the control box that summons the Garm and brings it to the room.
He explains to the Garm what's going on and gets the Garm to push the switch back into place, cancelling the fuel dump and thus the explosion. In return, the Doctor smashes the control box and give the Garm his freedom.
Valgard finds the Doctor trying to shut down the engine and fights him, but they're rescued by Nyssa and Olvir.
The Doctor explains everything to him and Nyssa says that the Garm, now free, can help improve treatment for all with the disease. Valgard says even if it's true, it's useless as the corporation control the hydromel that keeps them safe. Nyssa says she can synthesise it and tells the Doctor she's staying behind.
They all make it back to the spaceship and Nyssa gives a teary farewell.
Turlough meanwhile comes back to life and hears the echoing voice of the Black Guardian warning him of his final chance.
Trivia
- Mark Strickson was very unhappy about being made to crawl around in tunnels for four episodes
- John Nathan-Turner made the call to drop Nyssa from the series before this season started. Sarah agreed to it because she didn't think there was much else that could be done with the character.
- It was Sarah's decision (for some reason) to strip off during the story, and she now regrets it because it's the one thing people always remember her for and ask about, rather than the strong, scientific and moral character that she portrayed
- The production team got a stern letter after the broadcast of this story though for crediting the announcers voice as a "tannoy" man. The letter came from the Tannoy company. It turns out that the device was commonly named as the company name like a hoover.
- Surprisingly enough, until 2018's initial story in Series 11, this was the last story to feature three regular TARDIS companions
The Review
There are few words to describe how utterly boring this story is. I mean the concept at the heart of this could be halfway decent, with the alien race being responsible for the big bang, but to do so because it jumped from another dimension... when there's entities of immense power such as the Guardians and the Daemons, and the creature that could well be Satan (see Doctor Who series 2, The Satan Pit). All of those began and were effectively spawned because a spaceship's engine blew up? Come on.
So, that concept to me is lackluster at best. And then, it's wrapped in the most dismal of plots that fill out the rest of the three and a half episodes. The men in armour are meant to be bored, but they're also representations of the audience in my opinion. The Black Guardian even gets stale by this point, threatening countless times to end his minion and then giving him ANOTHER final chance.
The Garm is crap and we're meant to feel like there's an ominous uncaring threat from the "evil corporation", but it turns out to be just that - uncaring. Nyssa says they'd never go to Terminus and take it back by force because of all the leppers, but has she never heard of a spacesuit and flamethrower.
This story is abysmal in my eyes and I'm so glad I've had a chance to watch it now, because I'll not have to sit through it ever again. It's not as bad as The Crusades, or The Celestial Toymaker, but it's certainly on a par with them. Terrible. Just terrible.
Rating
3 out of 10
Re-watchability Factor
2 out of 10
Watch this if you liked...
- New Earth (Doctor Who, Series 2)
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