127: Terminus

8/12/08

The Black Guardian is still instructing Turlough do destroy the Doctor, and to do so he must sabotage the TARDIS. He does what he can to destroy the TARDIS, causing it to materialize in a ship in space. There are skulls painted on the doors, and the ship seems abandoned. The Doctor and Nyssa end up separated from Turlough and Tegan, and eventually run into a band of armored men who call themselves the Vanir. We learn that behind the doors with skulls on them are many people who are basically lepers.

As time passes and investigations are made, the Doctor learns that the name of the ship is Terminus, and that it is sitting at the exact center of the universe. One of the engines has failed, resulting in radiation, and this is what the people on board suffer from.

What follows contains spoilers.


The crux of the whole episode hinges on the fact that this ship went back in time billions of years and jettisoned it's fuel into a highly combustable atomosphere. The fuel ignited, then caused the atmosphere in space to ignite, and in turn created the largest explosion in history. In other words, Terminus created the Big Bang. It lept forward in time at the precise moment of ignition, and the resulting explosion rocketed the ship farther into the future than it planned to go. It destroyed one of the engines and damaged the other, creating the radiation problem.

Through all of this, there is a creature named Garm aboard the ship who is the slave of the Vanir. he looks really great, a bit like a minotaur, perhaps a bit more doglike. He's huge. He is the one who must save the day at the request of the Doctor.

At the end of the episode, Nyssa decides that she is going to stay on board Terminus and help the people rebuild their lives with her vast knowledge of science.

For me, this episode had it all. Dark setting, creepy large monster, good action, and challenging science fiction concepts. I loved it. I was actually really sad to see Nyssa go, especially considering how I felt when I started this show at Castrovalva. She really irritated me, but she quickly grew on me. I hear that you can read more about what took place after the Doctor left her on Terminus in the BBC novel Asylum.

Turlough, I can't stand. He's still playing the Doctor and only worried about himself. This is part two of what is known as the Black Guardian Trilogy. It concludes with the following episode, Enlightenment.

I loved this episode. I give it a 7.5/10