Season 20 is an odd thing, overall. Considering Eric Saward's later leaning towards the action quotient, it's surprisingly cerebral, more in the mould of Bidmead's Season 18. The number of monsters is well down, and there are only three malicious presences all season - the Mara, the Black Guardian and The Master. Most of the scripts aim for high science (though they all miss, by varying degrees), and there's a lack of monsters. An odd bunch, to be sure.

Steve Gallagher's second, and sadly final, script for the series follows this ethic. There is a monster, but he's misunderstood. There are a few things at stake, but basically everyone (aside from the Black Guardian's attempts to persuade Turlough to blow everything up) is alright and just needs to be shown how to get things done. The story is generally pretty intelligent, and definitely covers a few areas Who normally doesn't (treatment of plague and illness in the future, and the origins of the universe. However, it's just that bit unsatisfying.

Lots of potential drama is lost due to the decision to side-track Tegan and Turlough (and thus, the Black Guardian) and it wouldn't surprise me if the Black Guardian strand was a late addition to the script. Considering a problem of Seasons 19-20 is finding enough for the companions to do, it's very odd that this story introduces Kari and Olvir to accompany The Doctor - a bolshy female and a cowardly male. Tegan and Turlough with a bit more knowledge about the Lazar disease... A bit lazy, that.

Sadly, it's niggles that mainly prevent "Terminus" from being truly enjoyable. While the sets aren't bad and the lighting is just about on the right side of Pennant Roberts' Top of the Pops efforts, it's still not as dingy as a space station where diseased people go to die should be. Oddly, the occasional attempt to make the place look cluttered and decaying (a hanging chain here, a pile of crates there) backfires, as it makes other corners look notably sparse. It just highlights that someone realised this should be a gloomy, cluttered place, but couldn't be arsed to do a proper job of it.

Mary Ridge's direction is good enough for JNT to deck her at the wrap party, though, and she does manage to inject a little drama despite the plot being interesting, rather than exciting. That said, the claustrophobia Tegan and Turlough are subjected to, while well-filmed, doesn't come off because the rest of Terminus is all narrow corridors and low ceilings.

The Vanir are one of the biggest successes of the story - the design is good, as are all the touches added to make them look like a grimy, run-down desperate bunch, and the idea of them being criminals kept in line by the Hydromel is an intriguing one. The characters are well-defined too, with the world-weary Valgard well-played by Andrew Burt, Martin Potter effective as the petty Eirak and Tim Munro being likeable as the relatively fresh-faced Sigurd. The real gem is Peter Benson's turn as the likeable, depressed Bor, who nabs many of the best lines. The only problem is that while the armour looks impressive, it's clearly made out of plastic as the noise it makes every time one of the poor actors move shows (there's a dead exciting honest story behind this, but I'll think of your blood pressure and not subject you to the nerve-jangling excitement).

Less successful are the Lazars (a bunch of am-dram losers with rags over their heads, wandering around groaning) and the Garm, a giant comedy dog that sadly doubles as the linchpin of the plot. The latter just looks hilarious - it's a man shuffling around with a dog mask that clearly restricts his vision. Add in the goldfish bowls Kari and Olvir get lumbered with...

Peter Davison does his usual sound job as The Doctor. Actually, that sounds like faint praise... He's very, very good, turning in the best performance of the story, combining knowledge with enthusiasm and curiosity. Mark Strickson and Janet Fielding are hamstrung by their characters' lack of material, though Turlough does get to be callous when taking over Adric's room early on (Strickson's sharp performance showing just how much of it is simply to wind Tegan up). It's a waste of two fine actors. Add onto that Valentine Dyall's sequences verging on the hysterical... Despite getting a bit more to do, Sarah Sutton is anonymous for the last time, and her leaving scene, while well-written, never elicits any more than "Oh" from me. Hell, in my rough draft for this review I forgot she was in the thing.

The basic plot is sound, but the production shoots itself in the foot too many times. The feel isn't quite right, a few good performances are largely lost in the mire, and the story just doesn't transmit enough drama - considering there's a fair chance the second big bang is due, there's a near-total lack of tension.

Review written: 23/10/06
"Terminus" VHS @ Amazon.co.uk