Terminus Part Four

The one where Nyssa leaves so she can put into practice the skills she learnt on Traken...

After another, slightly more convincing tussle, this time between Valgard and Olvir, the Garm makes off with a screaming Nyssa once again, presumably taking her on the next leg of her inexorably depressing journey. "Oh no Nyssa!" says Olvir - Dominic Guard delivering this line particularly poorly - but if he just bothered to glance to his left he'd see the Garm tottering off with her over his shoulder.

There's an exchange between Valgard and Olvir where the Vanir guesses the raider was trained by Colonel Pereira (aka The Chief), and this gives an enticing glimpse into a world beyond Terminus where young men are trained as fighters, endure multiple tours as part of some kind of army, and where troops can be "turned in" by their superiors for the right price. There's an interesting little side-plot here which is not built upon or expanded, but it's nice to have a bit of backstory for each of them. Why was there a bounty on Valgard's head? How did Olvir go from combat-trained soldier to lawless space raider? I guess we'll never know...

On the bridge of Terminus, the Doctor and Kari are trying to push back the Big Red Switch in order to save the universe. It's all very melodramatic, but also pretty corny that the fate of everything and everyone rests on whether Dr Who and his space vixen can flick a switch. They realise they need more muscle, so enlist the help of the Garm - 7ft and built like a brick doghouse - to try and reverse the switch. It then becomes deeply silly as the fate of the universe hangs on whether a giant dog can hold back a lever.

And in fact, he does, and the universe is saved. I find it wonderful that a big talking dog saves the universe, and only right that, as a reward, the Doctor gives the Garm his freedom from the recall device. Now that the Garm is a stray, he can do anything, go anywhere, see anyone, eat anything. His last scene is wonderfully comical as he looks up, as if to the stars, dreaming of what he can do with his newfound freedom. Later, Nyssa says she hopes she can use the Garm's help to synthesise hydromel, but I wouldn't be surprised if he's long gone by then, chasing space cars and biting Kerblam! postmen.

The Garm never returns to Doctor Who, which is both understandable and regrettable. I want to know what happened to him. The actor who played him, the formidably 6ft 6in, 360lb Canadian R J Bell, went on to appear in some big Hollywood films of the 1980s (Octopussy, Superman III, Haunted Honeymoon, Bullseye!), but suffered from ill-health later in life, spending his final two years in hospitals and nursing homes until he died in 2006, aged 66. Rest in peace, puppy.

Elsewhere, Olvir has grown some balls and finally rescues Nyssa, who he finds in a big, empty sterilisation chamber. The opening shot of Nyssa in this place is a fanboy's wet dream, slumped on her back in her frilly undies, leaving so very little to the imagination. It seems Nyssa has been cured by being exposed to a massive dose of radiation, but she says there's no control over the dosage. Sometimes the dosage kills the patient, sometimes it cures. As a compassionate biochemist, Nyssa of Traken has some strong ideas about how the cure can be controlled to help every victim of Lazar's Disease...

As Terminus part 4 moves into its final stages, Sarah Sutton suddenly comes out of the shell she's been hiding in for the last two years. Regular readers of my reviews will know that I'm not the greatest admirer of Sutton's thespian skills. I find her performance to be flat, bland and lifeless, and she rarely makes the most of any meat she might find in the script. I've never warmed to the character of Nyssa either, a somewhat prim and proper goody-two-shoes who likes to make it known how clever she is. Nyssa's been much more palatable in Season 20, but to be honest, I will not be sorry to see her go.

BUT: Sarah Sutton pulls it out of the bag for her swansong, taking control of scenes with a purposeful, impassioned performance where she tries to convince the Vanir to break free of their enslavement and turn Terminus into a hospital for the Lazars. I wouldn't say she morphs into Dame Maggie Smith, but she certainly shines the brightest she's shone in all her time in Doctor Who. She left it a little late to play her hand, but at least she managed it.

Nyssa hopes to control the curative dosage of radiation with help from the Garm (if she can find him), and synthesise hydromel so that the Vanir no longer need the help of Terminus Inc. It's a good job Nyssa was brushing up on her synth skills at the start of the story, isn't it?

Then the bombshell comes: Nyssa is leaving the TARDIS. She rather single-mindedly tells the devastated Doctor that she doesn't care what the dangers are (I mean, it's probably a lot less dangerous than travelling with the Doctor), she wants to put into practice the scientific skills she learnt on Traken. She wants to become a space doctor, perhaps influenced in this by her time with the Doctor? It's obvious she admires and respects the Time Lord, perhaps even loves him, so it's kind of fitting that she'd want to become something which would make her mentor proud.

The leaving scene is touching, if not moving. Tegan predictably doesn't want Nyssa - her bestie and space sister - to leave, and neither does the Doctor, but he quickly recognises that there's no changing her mind. It's what Nyssa wants. When Nyssa kisses him on the cheek, the Doctor visibly goes into a state of shock, perhaps recognising his feelings for the girl properly for the first time. But now it's too late, she's starting a new life rebuilding Terminus to become a life-saving beacon of hope to countless diseased people, and with her own talking dog too. What a legacy!

"She'll die here," says Tegan. "Not easily, Tegan. Like you, I'm indestructible." Nyssa's post-Terminus life has been explored mercilessly in spin-off fiction, from Peter Darvill-Evans's 2001 novel Asylum, to Jonathan Morris's 2010 audio Cobwebs, and so, so much more... Nyssa of Traken may never die, because fans won't let her. There'll always be a way to have Nyssa live on, whether as a young girl or an older woman. And let's not forget, according to Russell T Davies, she shacks up with Tegan and moves to Australia to live as a "couple".

Terminus is a dirge of a story. It's dark, gloomy, grim, gritty, uncompromising and mildly depressing. Every aspect of it (apart from Kari and Olvir's camp appearance) is dispiriting, from the set design to the Lazars to the music score to the sickly Vanir. Even the fact Tegan and Turlough spend an entire episode in a ventilation shaft is disheartening (not least for Janet Fielding and Mark Strickson). But it's a cracking good story, and it feels natural that Nyssa leaves for the reason she does, rather than, say, fall in love with Olvir. I wouldn't want many other stories to be this straight, but there should definitely be more stories featuring 7ft talking dogs who save the universe.

It shouldn't be too long 'til we get The Further Adventures of the Garm from Big Finish.

First broadcast: February 23rd, 1983

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: Nyssa's reason for leaving feels absolutely right.
The Bad: The Garm's voice makes him sound like Arthur Mullard (oh, yus!).
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★☆☆☆☆☆ (story average: 5.5 out of 10)

NEXT TIME: Enlightenment...

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

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.

Terminus 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