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...

Terminus Part Three

The one where the end of the universe is nigh...

I'm supposed to believe that space vixen Kari is a hard-nosed galactic pirate who raids cargo liners, laser gun in hand, and barely thinks twice about engaging in combat or murdering in cold blood. I've had enough trouble believing any of that thanks to the way Dee Robson and Joan Stribling have dressed Liza Goddard, and made her up to look like she's one of Toyah's backing dancers. But now she's being asked to show her mettle and rescue the Doctor, who's being assaulted by Valgard, her credentials as a hardened space raider crumble to dust. Ellen Ripley she is not.

After being half-strangled from behind by Valgard's staff, she quivers on her knees like a terrified schoolgirl, unable to get a clear shot of Valgard with her gun, despite the fact the two men aren't really moving around a lot. Kari honestly looks pathetic at this moment, and her solution to rescuing the Doctor is just silly: she aims her laser at a nearby wall panel, so that the laser bolt will bounce off and hit Valgard squarely on his helmet, causing a massive headache. I'm sorry, but no: that is stupid. If Kari can't get a clear shot at Valgard's entire body from 6ft away, I cannot believe that she's such a sure shot that she can hit him on the back of the head by shooting in the opposite direction. Annie Oakley she is not.

Terminus Part Two

The one where Nyssa takes her skirt off...

At the start of this episode, the Doctor tells Nyssa not to let the Lazars touch her, for fear of contracting the disease that ails them. A bit later, Olvir says the disease is airborne, and they are already breathing it in, so theoretically, they're all infected. This would include Tegan and Turlough too, but nobody except Nyssa seems to show any signs of having the disease. Curious...

Olvir, who is supposed to be trained for combat, ran away when the Lazars broke out, but there's a very human reason for his apparent cowardice: his sister died of the disease. He says that Terminus Inc offers to take sufferers away to cure them, but nobody has ever returned having been healed. So where do they take the Lazars?

Terminus Part One

The one where the TARDIS merges with a passing spaceship...

Turlough is not your average Doctor Who companion. His overriding trait is that he's self-serving, always looking for ways to help himself and further his own cause. He's desperate to return to his home planet (what he was doing masquerading as a public schoolboy on Earth in 1983 remains unexplained) and even made a pact with the devil (aka the Guardian of Darkness and Chaos) to try and achieve his aims. In exchange, the Guardian wants Turlough to kill the Doctor, which is why the lad now finds himself masquerading not as a public schoolboy, but as the Doctor's companion. It's an interesting direction to take for the series, making one of the Doctor's supposedly trusted allies an imposter, a traitor looking out only for himself.

Turlough meddles with TARDIS tech found behind the wall roundels, operating the blue switches before almost being rumbled by a highly suspicious Tegan. It's perfect that Tegan would not trust this boy, and the rather heated conversation between them proves that tensions run high. Tegan regards Turlough as unreliable, dangerous and patronising, while he sees her as rude, argumentative and stubborn. Both of them are right, to be honest!