Day 304 — October 31st 2021
Enlightenment Parts One and Two
Enlightenment — Part One
When I was thinking about Season Twenty, I put the ‘Black Guardian Trilogy’ down as being one half-decent story (Mawdryn Undead), one terrible story (Terminus) and one slightly nothing story to round it off — this one. I figured that this would be the unremarkable one because it’s one of those tales I can remember next to nothing about from the last time I saw it, which would have been back in 2014 for my last marathon.
Imagine my surprise and delight, then, to discover that this first episode is brilliant. It’s the strongest episode of the season so far, and a solid 9/10.
The biggest thing for me is the atmosphere, which is great right from the beginning. The TARDIs set has been lit largely from behind the roundels, which always looks beautiful. It calls back to The Ribos Operation and the last time that the White Guardian appeared, as I’m sure was the intention. If anything it’s better here, because we get some time to really appreciate it. I wish they could have always paid this much attention to lighting the Control Room because it looks so much more dramatic than the usual bland and flat effect. I’ve done a fair bit of complaining lately that we’re spending too much time inside the ship during this era, but I’m not minding so much today because it’s so different to usual. By the time they blow up the console I was totally sold. I’d have happily sat through two TARDIS-based episodes of Castrovalva if they looked like this throughout!
The atmosphere continues once we’re out and on the sailing ship, and again the lighting plays a big part in that. Basically, they’ve switched half of them off, so sets are bathed in darkness and the shadows cast interesting shapes across peoples’ faces. Even in simple scenes, like Doctor Who and Turlough encountering the crew for the first time, the lighting helps to make it look better than I’m used to. If anything, these sequences remind me a lot of the film material in Terminus, and it’s nice to see that transposed to studio material.
While we’re on the subject of things looking great in this episode, I think we’ve finally reached the perfect length for Peter Davison’s hair. I’ve been wondering when it would happen — his hair changes more between stories than pretty much any other Doctor Who, thanks to the stop-and-start nature of the production during his era — but right from the word go in this one he looks perfect. That’s my Doctor Who!
I know the big twist at the end of this episode — the sailing ship they’re on is actually in space — but that hasn’t spoilt the enjoyment, because it becomes more about spotting all the little hints and clues that get dropped at the episode goes along. There’s talk early on about how ships can ‘fly’, the crewmen who scream when they first head above to the deck (‘It sometimes affects them that way, especially when it’s the first time,’ explains Marriner), the diving suits in the hall, and of course the revelation that there’s advanced electronics hidden beneath all the period woodwork. The cliffhanger itself is a brilliant one, and it’s absolutely the kind of image which would havs stuck in my head had I seen this as a kid. Sadly, the actual moment itself feels a little rushed — as though they’ve realised they’ve only 20 seconds left — and that’s the one thing which stops this episode from scoring a perfect ten. I want that moment given a little more space to breathe!
I’m also surprised by just how scary this episode is. The tension as the TARDIS crew creep around in the hold, the face appearing on the scanner and peering in at Tegan. The atmosphere builds and builds throughout and I think it’s making more of an attempt to be creepy than any story we’ve had in a long time. It works — there’s far more to grab your attention in this episode than pretty much any other in the Davison era so far.
We can add both the Black and White Guardians to the list of guest characters who get inside the TARDIS here — the White Guardian appears to be in the form of a mental projection, and is surrounded with a video effect, but the Black Guardian doesn’t get a similar overlay, so whether they’re both there in the same way is debatable, but they make the list all the same.
Enlightenment — Part Two
Peter Davison has been very good right from the start, and even when you look at the stories he recorded first — Four to Doomsday and The Visitation — you can see him really putting in the effort to work out how he’s going to play this part. When episodes might be fairly poor around him, Davison tends to be a constant presence for good in these stories, but I don’t think he’s really had any particular standout moment in the way several other Doctors have early on. That all changes with this episode, though, which is Davison’s best performance as Doctor Who yet. He’s surprisingly powerful in his confrontation with Captain Striker, possibly helped along by some of the best writing his era has had;
Striker: ‘You are not an Ephemeral. You are a time dweller, you travel
in time...’
Doctor Who: ‘You’re reading my thoughts.’
Striker: ‘You are a Time Lord. A lord of time. Are there lords in such a small domain?’
Doctor Who: ‘And where do you function?’
Striker: ‘Eternity.’
Later, when he lets rip at the man about the way they scoop up humans as part of their ‘distraction’ it’s the first time that anger from Davison has felt genuine. He’s really getting his teeth into this one. Janet Fielding is shining here, too, and she’s given just as much good material to work with. Her discussion with Marriner is fantastic, and even the slightly odd line it ends on which would otherwise feel a little feeble and silly comes across as having some proper weight;
Tegan: ‘What happened to the crew? Were they all killed?’
Marriner: ‘Ephemerals have such short lives in any case.’
Tegan: ‘Human beings, you mean.’
Marriner: ‘Whatever you wish to call them. And on this ship at least, they are treated well.’
Tegan: ‘Well? I happen to think that human lives are just as valuable as yours. I happen to be a human being.’
Marriner: ‘But you’re different. You’re not like any Ephemeral I’ve
met before.’
Somewhat incredibly for Doctor Who’s twentieth season, this is the first story to be written by a woman. Barbara Clegg didn’t contribute any more stories to the programme, and I think that’s a massive shame because this is the best writing we’ve had in a very long time. Alongside Christopher Bailey she’s the stand-out star of this era.
I’m impressed by how well this episode manages to build on the last one, keeping the sense of unease and mystery going even following the big revelation about the true nature of the ship. Here we’re introduced to the idea that the Eternals on this ship can read your thoughts and create things from them. Tegan realising that her cabin here is filled with items from her home is wonderful, and I feel like each of these revelations is carefully seeded in, so you feel like all the characters discover things at the same time and in the right moment.
It also amuses me that they went to the trouble of getting Dolore Whiteman back in to do a full photoshoot as Aunt Vanessa specifically to have a framed image on Tegan’s bedside cabinet! We’re almost two years on from Logopolis at this point, so that’s both incredible and ridiculous in equal measure!
The final sequence, in which our heroes go out onto the ship’s deck — is rather wonderful. The switch between studio and film isn’t as jarring here as it can be in some other stories. Indeed, it has the effect of making the sequence feel even more strange and dreamlike. Add to this the strange soundtrack which plays out under the dialogue and it feels oddly like something from the early Troughton era. It’s unusual and slightly scary. Somehow it manages to be a huge and beautiful concept and every bit as unsettling as all the creeping around in a darkened hold during Part One.
Another 9/10.
