Terminus (Doctor Who)

126 – Terminus
Doctor Who serial
The Doctor is attacked by a Vanir
Cast
Doctor Peter Davison (Fifth Doctor)
Companions Sarah Sutton (Nyssa) Janet Fielding (Tegan Jovanka) Mark Strickson (Vislor Turlough)
Others Valentine Dyall — Black Guardian Liza Goddard — Kari Dominic Guard — Olvir Andrew Burt — Valgard Tim Munro — Sigurd Martin Potter — Eirak Peter Benson — Bor R.J. Bell — The Garm Martin Muncaster — Tannoy Voice Rachel Weaver — Inga
Production
Directed by	Mary Ridge
Written by	Stephen Gallagher
Script editor	Eric Saward
Produced by	John Nathan-Turner
Executive producer(s)	None
Incidental music composer	Roger Limb
Production code	6G
Series	Season 20
Length	4 episodes, 25 minutes each
Originally broadcast	15–23 February 1983
Chronology
← Preceded by Followed by → Mawdryn Undead Enlightenment

Terminus

Author	Stephen Gallagher
Series	Doctor Who book: Target novelisations
Release number	79
Publisher	Target Books
Publication date	15 September 1983
ISBN

Terminus is the fourth serial of the 20th season in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was originally broadcast in four twice-weekly parts from 15 to 23 February 1983. The serial was the second of three loosely connected serials known as the Black Guardian Trilogy, and marks the final regular appearance of Sarah Sutton as companion Nyssa.

Under the Black Guardian's instructions, Turlough sabotages the TARDIS, causing parts of it to dissolve. As the field of instability threatens to engulf Nyssa's room, a door appears behind her and the Fifth Doctor tells her to go through it. The TARDIS, to save itself, has materialized aboard a spaceship heading for an unknown destination. The Doctor and Nyssa, while exploring the ship, encounter two raiders, Kari and Olvir, who are intent on plundering the ship's cargo.

When the raiders' ship abandons Kari and Olvir, it becomes apparent that the spaceship is actually a transport carrying Lazars, sufferers of a leprosy-like disease, to a space station named Terminus. The station is owned by Terminus, Inc., which claims that a cure exists there, but no-one has returned from it. Nyssa, separated from the Doctor, is infected by the disease and ushered away with the rest of the Lazars. Terminus is manned by the Vanir, guards clad in ornate radiation armor. They are slave labour, kept alive only by regular doses of a drug called "hydromel", which is supplied by the corporation.

The Doctor discovers that Terminus is at the centre of the known universe and finds this information unsettling. Nyssa, meanwhile, is given over to the Garm, a giant dog-like biped, who takes her to a chamber and exposes her to radiation. The Doctor and Kari find the control room of Terminus and he realizes that Terminus is also a time ship. In some unspecified past, the fuel that powered Terminus became unstable and the now dead pilot had tried to jettison it while still in the time vortex. The tank exploded, and the outrush of energy started "Event One" - the Big Bang - and hurled Terminus billions of years into the future. There is still one tank of unstable fuel left, and the computer has begun a countdown to jettison that too. However, where the first explosion created the universe, the second will undoubtedly destroy it.