600 Terminus Part Three

EPISODE: Terminus Part Three
OVERALL EPISODE NUMBER: 600
STORY NUMBER: 128
TRANSMITTED: Tuesday 22 February 1983
WRITER: Stephen Gallagher
DIRECTOR: Mary Ridge
SCRIPT EDITOR: Eric Saward
PRODUCER: John Nathan-Turner
RATINGS: 6.5 million viewers
FORMAT: DVD: Doctor Who - The Black Guardian Trilogy: Mawdryn Undead / Terminus / Enlightenment

Kari frees the Doctor & they escape into the forbidden zone. Tegan & Turlough finally escape from the ducting. The Vanir Eirak discovers that their Hydromel supply has been reduced and interfered with. Valgard reports the intruders and the suspicion falls that they are from the company. Valgard challenges Eirak's leadership and is sent to retrieve them. The Doctor wonders why the Terminus crew put up with such a massive radiation leak. Olvir disguises himself as a Vanir and witnesses Valgard's departure as the other Vanir come for Nyssa. Kari & The Doctor find the injured Bor, who is not himself. He has been attempting to repair one of Terminus' engines which is leaking radiation. Bor tells them that one of the engines had already exploded a long time ago, knowledge he learnt from the ship's computer. Valgard finds them and attacks the Doctor, but is overpowered. Nyssa is chained in the reception chamber. The Garm arrives collecting Bor, who he brings to the reception chamber. Olvir attempts to free Nyssa but fails and she is carried off by the Garm. The Doctor follows the engine's control lines. Bor raves to the Vanir about the pilot of Terminus being dead, and Eirak orders him to be left to die. Turlough seeks help from the Black Guardian who directs him on how to find the Tardis door. The Doctor & Kari discover Terminus' control room with his dead space suited pilot. Olvir is attacked by Valgard. The Doctor discovers that the Terminus could time travel and that the pilot jettisoned his fuel from the damaged engine starting the big bang before time jumping into the future. A second engine explosion would undoubtedly cause the universe to be destroyed. Turlough follows the Black Guardian's instructions but that starts the fuel ejection process on Terminus.

SIX HUNDRED EPISODES ????? Yes, if you include the six episodes of Shada. Which we do.

Ah the big bang: the eighties version of the sinking of Atlantis. We've already seen it in Castrovalva and here we get to hear an explanation of how it was caused. It should be noted that these aren't mutually exclusive accounts.... All fine so far, but then we get Eric Saward's radio drama Slipback thrown into the mix and that messes things up. But not a bad episode by any means and that's pretty horrific make up that Bor's got on to depict his injuries!

Onto the cast Valentine Dyall is back again as the Black Guardian, but he's in all 3 of the stories in the middle of the season. Playing Kari is Liza Goddard, her only Doctor Who appearance. She's the ex-wife of Arc of Infinity actor and future sixth Doctor Colin Baker. Her companion Olvir is played by Dominic Guard He too is making his only Doctor Who appearance, but several members of his family will also appear. His brother is actor Christopher Guard who will play Bellboy in The Greatest Show in the Galaxy. Dominic's wife is Sharon Duce, Contol in Ghost Light. Andrew Burt (Valgard) was in Blake's 7: Harvest of Kairos as Ven Jarvick and regularly appeared with Peter Davison in Campion (two of which also feature Dominic's cousin Pippa Guard). Finally Tim Munro , who plays Sigurd, was Ainu in The Creature from the Pit.