Day 302 — October 29th 2021
Terminus Parts One and Two
Terminus — Part One
I suppose the natural end point to all these guest characters ending up in the TARDIS was going to be the other sets from an episode ending up in there, too…! Tell you what, though, the idea that the TARDIs latches on to the nearest place when it’s in trouble is brilliant, and I love the idea of a doorway appearing which leads them straight out to somewhere new. I know they’ll get the ship back before the story is through, but right now they feel genuinely cut off from safety in a way that we don’t usually get, and I’m really enjoying that.
I sort of wish they’d gone further with the idea of the two ships being locked together — stick a couple of roundels on the wall of the other ship while the door to the TARDIS is still there or something — but I’m complaining for the sake of it, really, because the idea is sound.
And for those keeping track at home, the Black Guardian pops up briefly in Nyssa’s bedroom to taunt Turlough in this episode.
While I’m on the subject, I just want to say how much I hate seeing the companions’ bedrooms. It’s something I’ve been meaning top bring up for ages, since this became a thing with Romana’s room back in Full Circle, but I never seem to find the time to mention it. Every room we’ve seen — Romana’s, Adrics, and Nyssa and Tegan’s looks properly rubbish. I think it robs the TARDIS of some mystery when the rooms inside look as ordinary and boring as this, populated with knick knacks found at the back of a BBC cupboard. And I find it odd that Turlough should have to use Adric’s old room at all — surely there’s somewhere else he can sleep?!
We don’t get any real guest cast in this episode until fifteen minutes in (the Black Guardian has already popped up to taunt Turlough by this point, but he doesn’t feel like guest cast in the same way), but when they do show up, Kari and Olvir make a real impact. I was expecting to bang on about how rubbish they looked, in the most 1980s costumes and hairstyles that the series has ever given us, but actually I sort of love them! There’s something so wonderfully over-the-top and fun about them, and they stand out brilliantly against the drab grey surroundings of the ship. I’ve seen Dominic Guard’s performance in the cliffhanger described as one of Doctor Who’s most over the top and silly, but even that I had fun with, and I’ve been acting it out around the house for the last hour. We’re all going to diiiieeeeee!
Elsewhere, there’s some suitably creepy moments in this one, but I’m not sure the direction is quite up top making the most of them. Tegan finally getting the door open only to be grabbed at by decaying hands clothed in rags should be a proper scary moment, and the fact that it manages to elicit any kind of chills now is more down to the strength of the idea than the fairly lifeless direction of the scene., Can you imagine the same moment helmed by someone like Peter Grimwade or Douglas Camfield? A moment of real horror.
The Lazzars shuffling down the corridors at the end manages to be striking and scary, largely because the episode has been so free of other cast members. To suddenly see those sets packed with people, and our regulars being squashed together by the crowd feels properly claustrophobic. It’s less about their condition and more about how suddenly the atmosphere changes.
On the whole there’s been more to enjoy in here than I was expecting — I had Terminus down as the weak link of the season. Maybe it’ll all go downhill from here, but for now it’s a decent enough start.
7/10
Terminus — Part Two
It’s an inexact science, rating Doctor Who episode by episode. There’s so many outside factors which have to be considered, and which have an impact. I think I was more cautious in the first couple of months of the year, so William Hartnell episodes which I gave a five would now score a six or seven. I’ve been more willing to score low at the other end of the spectrum, too, so there’s episodes which have had a one or two more recently which might have scored a little higher early on.
The other thing which has an impact on the scores is my own preconceived notions about whether I’m going to enjoy a story or not. Sometimes it means I’ve already made my mind up before I start on it, and other times — as I’m finding with Terminus — it means I’m pleasantly surprised. So when I say that I’ve given this episode an 8/10, it’s probably not quite worth that. On another day I might have given it a seven. But I’m so surprised to find myself enjoying this one that I’ve scored a little higher in response.
There’s even things in this one which I know I’m not supposed to like, but I’m just getting swept along with. Specifically, I’m thinking of the Garm, which isn’t the best monster we’ve ever seen Doctor Who produce, but it’s also not half as bad as I was expecting, so I’ve come away from it feeling fairly charitable. It probably helps that we only see a couple of brief shots of it in this episode, so you spend more time thinking about the fact that it’s a giant dog than you do critiquing the thing itself.
Elsewhere there’s some genuinely great things in this episode. The blueprints of the spaceship look fantastic, and I don’t think we’ve ever had anything quite like it in Doctor Who before. It’s the kind of thing the New Testament has done a few times in recent years, but I can’t remember any previous examples from the olden days. It’s one of those moments where I thought it looked so good I skipped back thirty seconds to watch it again, and it held up well.
Tegan and Turlough spend most of this episode on film which suits them nicely, the lighting in their sequences is especially good, casting shadows from the grates above them across their faces and making the whole thing carry on with that claustrophobic air that flared up at the end of Part One. This is the first time in a while that I’ve looked at the film material and wished the entire series had been shot like this.
There’s some nice direction in the studio material in places, too. There’s an especially notable example late in the episode when Peter Davison walks into a set and the camera does a nice sweep to end on a close up of his concerned expression.
All things considered, I’m just happy to be enjoying an episode I expected nothing from.
