Enlightenment Part One

The one where the White Guardian gets in touch...

As we near the end of Season 20, and its pocket story arc involving Turlough and the Black Guardian, it's worth reflecting on the welcome increase in female involvement behind the scenes at this time. It might be something to do with the fact Doctor Who's producer was a gay man, or it might be simply because there were more women working behind the scenes than there used to be. Whatever the reason, it can only be A Good Thing that this 20-year-old series was finally getting a woman's touch.

Doctor Who's first ever producer was a woman, of course (the legendary Verity Lambert), but Enlightenment is the first time that a story has been written wholly by a woman (Barbara Clegg). OK, so The Ark was co-credited to Paul Erickson's wife Lesley Scott, but the truth is she didn't actually write a word of it. Clegg was the series' first bona fide female scribe, and it's a shame it took 20 years for that to happen. Even Blake's 7 had a female writer before Who (Tanith Lee, in 1980).

What's extra special about Enlightenment is that it's both written and directed by women: Barbara Clegg and Fiona Cumming. Enlightenment also has strong female roles for women (Janet Fielding and Lynda Baron), and behind the scenes, the female contingent was solid too, with women in the roles of assistant floor manager, costume designer, make-up designer, and production assistant, associate and manager.

And the wonderful thing is that I think you can tell. I think when Cumming directs, you can tell because the resulting story has an indefinable female edge. It's hard to describe, but Castrovalva, Snakedance, Enlightenment and Planet of Fire all have a particular feel to them which is different to if they'd been helmed by a man. The same goes for The Mark of the Rani, directed by Sarah Hellings: somehow, I can just tell, I can feel it. Oddly, I don't get that feeling when I watch stories directed by the redoubtable Paddy Russell (Pyramids of Mars and Horror of Fang Rock, for example) or Mary Ridge (the recent Terminus). Maybe that's because both Russell and Ridge were pioneers in their field, starting out in the 1960s when being a female director meant you had to have thicker skin. Both Cumming and Hellings were much newer to the game, so perhaps were able to express themselves more purely through their work?

Who knows? Maybe I'm just waffling (I definitely am waffling) but I just think it's wonderful to have women in charge of Doctor Who at last, even if it's only for four weeks.

We join our heroes in a beautifully amber-lit TARDIS (great work from lighting director Fred Wright), which is inexplicably leaking power. Turlough and Tegan are trying to bond over a game of chess, but Tegan seems more bothered about what's wrong with the TARDIS than making her next move with Turlough. Why is Turlough still dressed as a schoolboy? He stays in his school uniform for the entirety of his run with the Doctor (skimpy bathing trunks aside), but why wouldn't he change into something different, like Tegan has (although Tegan does seem very attached to those shorts of hers).

The reason for the power loss becomes clear when the Doctor sees a vision of his old pal the White Guardian, who's trying to communicate some kind of message to him. The White Guardian is dressed like a dead swan, contrasting with the Black Guardian's dead crow outfit, but it's nice that Cyril Luckham is back to play the part, as is Valentine Dyall. I like the continuity of using the same actors, although you'd expect the Doctor to mention the Key to Time at some point.

The White Guardian would have a much better chance of getting his message across if he stopped repeating the same words over and over. Just think of the amount of time and power he wastes reiterating pointless words such as "here", "more" and "all", which don't do anything to help those trying to understand him. The White Guardian fades away when Turlough, trying to avoid the TARDIS blowing up, reduces the power boost. The Doctor is not a happy bunny, striding up to the lad and glaring at him: "Never, ever disobey my instructions again." That's him told.

Once the TARDIS has reached its destination (galactic north 6° 9077), the Doctor asks Turlough to explore outside with him, insisting that Tegan stay back in case the White Guardian tries to get in touch again. It's not a veiled attempt to 'keep the girl safe', it's because the Doctor freely (and rather cuttingly) doesn't trust Turlough. "I need someone I can rely on, it's important," he says. Maybe he's referring to the fact Turlough disobeyed his instructions a moment ago, but there's enough reason not to fully trust this boy, as the audience well knows. And from the moment the Doctor and Turlough leave the Ship, all the lad wants to do is "get back to the TARDIS". He's a self-confessed coward (and a potential killer to boot), not the sort of companion material we're used to.

I love those moments when the Doctor and co explore outside the TARDIS for the first time. Terry Nation used to write cracking episode 1s where exploration and revelation were the key - The Dead Planet, The Sea of Death, World's End and Destiny of the Daleks episode 1 are all prime examples - but here Clegg paints a spooky, mildly unsettling picture as it's revealed they're in the hold of a sailing ship. Fred Wright's studio lighting is courageously low, and the ever-reliable Dick Mills provides some suitably eerie sounds to make it feel like a real ship. Malcolm Clarke's score is wonderfully sinister too.

The Doctor and Turlough encounter a bunch of Edwardian sailors in their bunk house, a rough and ready crew who, rather intriguingly, don't remember actually coming aboard. They've been beneath deck since they arrived two days ago, and while they know they're crewing the ship in some kind of race, and have been generously paid a month's wages in advance, they've never set eyes on the Captain, only his officers.

Meanwhile, Tegan is having her own nightmarish encounter aboard the TARDIS. After another brief visit from the White Guardian - who tells her that "winner takes all... all... all" - a big face appears on the scanner screen, presumably somebody outside the TARDIS looking in. It makes for a very unsettling image, as first we see the man's hands clawing at the screen, then his face. Can he see in, does he know what's inside? Tegan is understandably creeped out by it all.

Venturing outside, things get creepier. The peeping tom is Marriner, first mate aboard the ship, played with an unnerving "otherness" by Christopher Brown. The officer seems to have an unhealthy fascination with Tegan, which has disturbingly sexual undertones, even if they're not intentional. Brown has a sinister presence, heightened by the phantasmal way he speaks, sort of expressionless but hypnotic. His unblinking regard of Tegan, that slightly amused shape to his mouth, the glazed eyes... Marriner is a real creep.

He also knows about the Doctor and Turlough, without Tegan having mentioned them, and vows to reunite her with her friends. He says he does not wish to harm her, but I think it best that Tegan puts a good few miles between herself and the first mate as soon as she can.

Tegan is reunited with the Doctor in the ship's stateroom (Turlough's hanging out with the sailors - he'd better watch his back), where she tells him that the White Guardian warned that "somebody or something must not win the race". Actually, he didn't say any such thing, he never mentioned a race at all, only that the winner takes all (all, all). We then meet the ship's captain, Striker, played stiffly by Keith Barron, who stepped in late in the day after Peter Sallis had to duck out (which was fortuitous, I think, because I can't imagine Sallis improving on Barron's performance). Barron delivers his lines with an air of detachment, saying the lines as if well rehearsed, delivering them almost cursorily. There's definitely something emotionally absent from the ship's officers.

By the way, the Doctor gives us another "brave heart, Tegan" at the dining table, only the second time he's said this iconic line (but not the last).

The cliffhanger is a corker, one of the best of the era (if not of the entire show). The Doctor, Turlough and Tegan join Captain Striker in the Shadow's wheelhouse, but it's strangely pitch black outside. Turlough can't make any sense of a map he finds, recognising only some kind of marker buoys, but the Doctor says "they're considerably more than that". Straightaway we can tell there's something not quite right, until the moment when Marriner opens a box to reveal an electronic control panel, and the cat's well and truly out of the bag. "We're not on a yacht," says the Doctor as a scanner screen slides open. "We're on a ship. A spaceship." Outside, in what we thought was the night, we see a menagerie of different sailing vessels floating elegantly through space.

Now if that isn't one of the best twists in Doctor Who history, I don't know what is!

First broadcast: March 1st, 1983

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: Fred Wright lights both the TARDIS and the Shadow's hold beautifully well.
The Bad: Collier's dodgy beard!
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★★★★☆

NEXT TIME: Part Two...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Part Two; Part Three; Part Four

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site.

Enlightenment is available as part of the Black Guardian Trilogy BBC DVD box set. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-Guardian-Terminus-Enlightenment/dp/B002ATVDBY