Enlightenment (Doctor Who)

127 – Enlightenment
Doctor Who serial
Docking at the home of the Enlighteners
Cast
Doctor Peter Davison (Fifth Doctor)
Companions Janet Fielding (Tegan Jovanka) Mark Strickson (Vislor Turlough)
Others Cyril Luckham — White Guardian Valentine Dyall — Black Guardian Keith Barron — Striker Christopher Brown — Marriner Lynda Baron — Wrack Leee John — Mansell James McClure — First Officer Tony Caunter — Jackson Clive Kneller — Collier
Production
Writer	Barbara Clegg
Director	Fiona Cumming
Script editor	Eric Saward
Producer	John Nathan-Turner
Executive producer(s)	None
Incidental music composer	Malcolm Clarke
Production code	6H
Series	Season 20
Length	4 episodes, 25 minutes each
Originally broadcast	1 March 1983 – 9 March 1983
Chronology
← Preceded by Followed by → Terminus The King's Demons

Enlightenment is the fifth serial of the 20th season in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which aired on BBC1 in four twice-weekly parts from 1 March 1983 to 9 March 1983. The 127th serial of the series, Enlightenment was the third of three loosely connected serials known as the Black Guardian Trilogy. It was written by Barbara Clegg and directed by Fiona Cumming.

In the serial, alien time traveller the Doctor (Peter Davison) and his companions Tegan Jovanka (Janet Fielding) and Vislor Turlough (Mark Strickson) encounter a group of god-like immortals who are racing historical Earth sailing vessels through space, crewed by humans they had plucked out of time, in an attempt to win the prize of the titular enlightenment. Turlough, whom the Black Guardian (Valentine Dyall) had ordered to kill the Doctor, struggles with this assignment. In addition to Dyall, Englightenment also guest stars Keith Barron and Lynda Baron.

The production of Enlightenment was beset by problems caused by industrial action taken by electricians at the BBC during filming. The serial was eventually finished three months behind schedule, meaning that several characters had to be recast at short notice when the original actors were unavailable for new filming dates. Enlightenment was watched by an average of 6.8 million viewers on its first transmission and received generally positive reviews from critics. Critics have noted that the serial deals with the theme of the nature of eternal life. The story was novelised by its writer, Barbara Clegg, as pat of the ongoing Target Books range in 1984 and was subsequently released on video and DVD in 1993 and 2009 respectively.

Plot

The White Guardian (Cyril Luckham) appears in the TARDIS, warning the Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison) of great danger and giving him a set of co-ordinates. Before the White Guardian can explain further, the Black Guardian (Valentine Dyall) appears and interrupts the communication. The Doctor sets the co-ordinates and the TARDIS materialises in what appears to be a ship's hold. Leaving Tegan (Janet Fielding) in the TARDIS in case the White Guardian tries to contact them again, the Doctor and Turlough (Mark Strickson) leave to explore, barely avoiding one of the officers, dressed in an Edwardian naval uniform and having a mechanical, blank expression.

Speaking with the crew, the Doctor discovers they remember nothing of coming aboard, have been below decks the whole time, and that the ship they are on has been entered in some sort of race. Meanwhile, Tegan leaves the TARDIS and encounters the ship's first mate, Marriner (Christopher Brown), who offers to take her to her friends, whom he knows about even though he's not met them yet. An officer with the same distant look escorts the Doctor to see Captain Striker (Keith Barron), who offers them dinner. However, the dinner is interrupted when the wind picks up and the officers announce that the race has begun. Going to the wheelhouse, the Doctor sees a map of the racecourse, complete with "marker buoys" which he recognises as the planets of Earth's solar system. Marriner then operates anachronistic electronic controls and a viewscreen activates to show the other contestants — a Greek trireme, a 17th Century pirate ship, and other vessels from other times, all floating in deep space and using solar wind propulsion.

The Doctor speaks to Striker and discovers that he and his officers are Eternals, beings who live in the "trackless wastes of eternity," as opposed to the Doctor and his companions, who are "Ephemerals." As the ships round Venus, the trireme captained by Critas the Greek explodes when it tries to overtake the pirate ship. Striker believes that it was the gravitational pull that did it, but the Doctor suspects otherwise. Tegan feels ill, so Marriner escorts her to a room, which she soon realises is a mixture of her room in the TARDIS and her rooms in Brisbane – they have been reading her mind. Marriner seems quite taken by Tegan, finding her mind fascinating and full of life.

In conversation with Striker, the Doctor finds out that Eternals use Ephemerals for their thoughts and ideas. The Eternals have lived for so long that they are unable to think for themselves and need human minds to give them existence, and entertainment – that is why the ships use human crews. The purpose of the race, however, is more than entertainment. The prize is Enlightenment, the wisdom to know everything. The TARDIS is discovered by the Eternals, who make it vanish. Trapped on board the Edwardian ship for the moment, the Doctor and his companions go on board deck in space suits. Turlough hears the voice of the Black Guardian taunting him and unable to take the strain, he leaps overboard into space.

Turlough is rescued by the Buccaneer, the pirate ship commanded by Captain Wrack (Lynda Baron). She toys with Turlough sadistically with a knife, but he manages to convince her that he jumped overboard to throw in his lot with her, to find out the secret of how she will win the race. Wrack sends her first mate to present Captain Davey (one of the other competitors) with a jewelled sword, and to deliver party invitations to the other captains. On board the Edwardian ship, Striker refuses the invitation, but the Doctor accepts, wanting to retrieve Turlough. Marriner offers to escort Tegan and the Doctor to the Buccaneer as an asteroid storm hits the ships. As Davey's ship draws level with the Buccaneer, Wrack takes Turlough down in the hold and shows him the entrance to a locked chamber with a vacuum shield, but leaves him outside when she enters. Through the door, however, Turlough hears the voice of the Black Guardian as Davey's ship explodes, apparently hit by an asteroid. The Doctor, though, again suspects otherwise, especially since like Critas's ship, Davey was also challenging the Buccaneer.

Arriving on board the Buccaneer for the party, the Doctor and Tegan mingle while Turlough sneaks off to examine the locked chamber. He finds an eye-shaped grid open to space, but a pirate locks the door and turns off the vacuum shield. Fortunately, the Doctor finds Turlough before he suffocates. The Doctor then notices the eye-shaped projector above the grid, and theorises that this must be how Wrack transmits the power to destroy the other ships, using some sort of focus. He remembers Critas was wearing an out-of-period clasp with a red crystal, and Turlough tells him of Wrack's gift to Davey and the Doctor realises the red crystals are the focus. Before they can act on it, however, they are captured by Wrack's first mate. Meanwhile, Wrack has managed to lure Tegan away from the party to her wheelhouse and freezes her in time while she plants a red crystal in her tiara.

Brought before Wrack, Turlough accuses the Doctor of being a spy and claims he was trying to capture the Doctor. Wrack sends the Doctor, Tegan and Marriner back to the Edwardian ship. The Doctor believes that Turlough is trying to prove himself trustworthy by stopping Wrack. Unfortunately, Wrack sees into Turlough's mind and is about to sentence him to walk the plank. She pauses, however, when Turlough tells her that he, too, serves the Black Guardian. As the ships near the crystalline space station of the Enlighteners, the Buccaneer pulls level with the Edwardian Ship, and Wrack brings Turlough once again to the chamber, this time letting him witness her summoning the power of the Black Guardian. The Doctor, seeing the Buccaneer pull close, realises that the focus must have been smuggled aboard somehow, and as he describes it, Tegan tells him about the crystal in the tiara. The Doctor smashes the crystal, but only manages to multiply the power by the number of fragments.

The Doctor gathers up the pieces, rushing up to the deck and just in time hurls them overboard as they explode. Suddenly, the wind dies, and Wrack pulls ahead of the Edwardian ship. The Doctor demands that the TARDIS be released to him to stop Wrack from winning, and Marriner reveals that it was concealed within the Doctor's own mind. Travelling in it to the Buccaneer, the Doctor tries to reason with Wrack, but her first mate shows up with Turlough, and she orders that the Doctor be thrown into space. As Tegan watches from the Edwardian ship, two bodies are ejected into space, and the Buccaneer reaches the finish. The human crew of the Buccaneer vanish as Tegan, Striker and Marriner board to give their respects to the victor.

The Enlighteners turn out to be the Black and White Guardians, and the winner is the Doctor, who brought the ship in with Turlough's help when Wrack and her first mate met with an "accident." The Doctor, however, refuses the diamond crystal containing Enlightenment, saying that he's not ready for it, and the White Guardian dismisses Striker and Marriner, who vanish back into eternity. As Turlough helped the Doctor bring the ship in, he is entitled to a portion of the prize. The Black Guardian reminds Turlough of their bargain, and says that he can give up the diamond, or sacrifice the Doctor to gain both Enlightenment and the TARDIS. Turlough struggles with a decision, and hurls the diamond at the Black Guardian, who vanishes in screams and flames. The Doctor points out that Enlightenment was not the diamond, but the choice itself. The White Guardian warns once again that the Black Guardian will return, even angrier now that he has been thwarted twice, and vanishes himself. Turlough asks the Doctor to take him back to his home planet, and the Doctor agrees.

Continuity

To commemorate the shows anniversary, every story during Season 20 included the return of an enemy from his past. During this trilogy (begun in the serial Mawdryn Undead, and concluding with Enlightenment), the enemy was the Black Guardian, who last faced the fourth incarnation of the Doctor at the conclusion of The Key to Time saga in the 1979 serial The Armageddon Factor. The story also saw the return of the White Guardian who had also not been seen since 1979. To date neither character have appeared in the show again but have featured in the Big Finish Fifth Doctor audio plays The Judgement of Isskar, The Destroyer of Delights and The Chaos Pool. The Black Guardian was also featured in a comic strip written by Paul Cornell for Doctor Who Magazine entitled Time & Time Again, and appeared in the Missing Adventures novel The Well-Mannered War.

The Eternals similarly never re-appeared in the TV series, but are briefly mentioned in the Tenth Doctor episodes Army of Ghosts and The Shakespeare Code, where they are said to have been the ones to banish the Carrionites from the universe at the dawn of time. They occasionally featured in the Virgin New Adventures and BBC Past Doctor Adventures novels, which also delve into their origins, particularly in The Quantum Archangel by Craig Hinton. They also appear in the Big Finish Productions Bernice Summerfield audio adventure The Heart's Desire and the Doctor Who Magazine comic strip The Uninvited Guest.

An article by Russell T Davies in the Doctor Who Annual 2006 refers to the Eternals in connection with the Time War mentioned in the 2005 series. The article states that the Eternals were involved in a previous Time War with the Halldons, a powerful race first mentioned in We are the Daleks, an article by Terry Nation from the Radio Times 10th Anniversary Special in 1973. Davies' article also states that the Eternals watched the Great (and final) Time War between the Time Lords and the Daleks, and "despaired of this reality, and fled their hallowed halls, never to be seen again."

Production

Conception and writing

After penning a number of radio and TV scripts, including episodes of Crossroads and Waggoner's Walk, Barbara Clegg submitted a story idea to Doctor Who script editor Eric Saward, an acquaintance from the BBC drama department. Interested in writing for the series, Clegg had been inspired when distant relatives had stayed with her and demanded constant entertainment during their visit, basing the character of the Eternals upon them. Initially titled The Enlighteners, her submission involved ships racing through space and eventually evolved into the story as screened. Saward and series producer John Nathan-Turner liked Clegg's ideas, and they commissioned the script in September 1981, with the first episode being delivered in October and the three following episodes arriving in January 1982. The serial was now scheduled to conclude a three-story trilogy featuring the Black Guardian, and Clegg duly wrote the recurring characters into her scripts. By May 1982 there were problems with a script by Pat Mills, Song of the Space Whale, which had been scheduled to open the Black Guardian trilogy. Mills' script was eventually dropped and the production team considered moving The Enlighteners forward in the season to replace it, necessitating considerable re-wites. Peter Grimwade was eventually commissioned to write Mawdryn Undead to replace The Song of the Space Whale, and The Enlighteners was confirmed as the fifth serial of the season. The first draft of Part One did not contain any of the material concerning the Guardians, and Turlough was a peripheral figure, with the script focussing on the relationship between Marriner and Tegan. With pre-production underway, Saward changed the story title to Enlightenment in September 1982, a title he felt was more enigmatic. Saward also rewrote portions of the script pertaining to the story-arc, particularly the final confrontation scenes at the end of Part Four. Peter Moffatt had been originally scheduled as the serials director, but following the problems with the Space Whale script he was asked to helm its replacement due to his experience, and so Fiona Cumming was asked to take over Enlightenment.

Once production began it became apparent that Part One and Part Two were under-running so more dialogue was written to fill in the time. It was originally intended that the character of Jackson would not reappear after the second episode, but during filming Saward became concerned that it appeared that he had been executed and so he and Clegg rewrote Part Three to include him. Part Three also looked to be under running so scenes from Part Four were brought forward and the final scenes with the Guardians were extended to compensate.

Casting

Director Fiona Cumming came up with the idea that the Eternals would not blink and cast actors who she believed could provide 'detached' performances. Cumming recalled Peter Sallis had played a similarly detached character in the 1974 BBC drama The Pallisers, and cast him in the role of Striker. Sallis was present during the rehearsals for the serial but when production was delayed he was forced to drop out due to other commitments, being replaced by Keith Barron. Lynda Baron was cast as Captain Wrack, having first participated in Doctor Who in the 1966 serial The Gunfighters, as the voice that sings the "Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon" heard throughout that story. She would later appear in the episode Closing Time making her the only performer to appear in the William Hartnell era and the 21st century episodes. Tony Caunter, who had previously played Thatcher in The Crusade and Morgan in Colony in Space was given the role of Jackson, with Christopher Brown and David Rhule being cast as Marriner and Wrack's sidekick Mansell respectively. Similarly to Sallis, David Rhule was unavailable for the revised filming dates in January, so singer Leee John replaced him at short notice.

Valentine Dyall had originally played the Black Guardian in the 1979 serial The Armageddon Factor, the character's first appearance in the series, and reprised the role for season 20, appearing in Mawdryn Undead, Terminus and Enlightenment. This story marked Dyall's final appearance in the TV series, but he did return to the world of Doctor Who playing the character Slarn in the BBC Radio 4 serial Slipback, shortly before his death in 1985. Similarly Cyril Luckham reprised the role of the White Guardian, which he had previously played in the 1979 serial The Ribos Operation.

Design

The interior sets of the boats were not built specifically for the programme, but were pulled together from stock items from various prop warehouses. Cumming had originally hoped to simulate the rocking of the ships by mounting the sets on rollers but the idea was dropped due to costs, with the effect achieved by moving the cameras instead. The photo of Tegan's Aunt Vanessa, one of the items created by Marriner from the contents of her mind, was shot specifically for the filming, requiring Dolore Whiteman (who had played the character in Logopolis) to be contracted for a one-day photoshoot. The models of the boats, used in the racing sequences, were props sourced by visual effects designer Mike Kelt following extensive research at the National Maritime Museum. The ships were mounted on rods for filming, while the oars were battery operated. The model of Davey's ship remained intact, with explosion being a filmed effect that was edited into the sequence. Kelt was shocked by the dilapidated state of the TARDIS console prop, and was worried about damaging it while filming the explosion from Part One, and asked producer John Nathan-Turner if he could replace it but was told there was no money available.

The anachronistic wetsuits on the Edwardian ship were not wetsuits at all, but heavy duty overalls spray painted black. Janet Fielding struggled with the low cut ball-gown she wore during filming as it threatened to expose her breasts on a number of occasions. The newspaper found by the Doctor in Part One was a reprint of The Times from September 1901.

Filming

The serial began principal filming in early November 1982, with filming divided into two main blocks. The first block was shot on film at Ealing Studios between 3–5 November and consisted of the deck scenes and a number of model shots. Actor Mark Strickson was injured while filming the scene of Turlough throwing himself overboard, when the Kirby wire he was suspended from broke, leaving him only able to walk with difficulty for several weeks. The studio work was scheduled to run from 6 November until mid December and consisted of all the interior scenes and those in the TARDIS. By mid-November however the electricians union the EEPTU, had begun strike action which disrupted the filming of a number of BBC productions including Enlightenment and potentially meaning the final three serials of the season would have to be abandoned. The electricians dispute was settled by December, but it had badly affected the series recording schedule. The crew were able to shoot the following serial The King's Demons on schedule, meaning that there was only one recording block left for the part completed Enlightenment and Eric Saward's season finale; The Return. Having been partly completed, and its importance in concluding the Black Guardian story-arc, it was decided that Enlightenment should take precedence and so it had its second production block moved to January 1983, while The Return was abandoned. The delays meant that the serial only finished filming around a month before its transmission date, meaning that composer Malcolm Clarke only received the first episode for scoring a week before broadcast, having to rely on musical cues he had recorded weeks earlier without having seen any footage.

Themes

Writer Barbara Clegg based the Eternals on a wealthy group of her relatives, who upon visiting her had demanded constant entertainment, treating other family members almost as 'lesser beings'. Clegg also drew inspiration from the Bible's Book of Genesis, deriving the prize of enlightenment from The Tree of Knowledge within it, while having read about Solar winds she decided to use them as the basis of propulsion for space vessels. Clegg highlighted the nature of enlightenment, showing it not to be knowledge, as the Eternals believe, but wisdom, as demonstrated by Turlough's rejection of the Black Guardian.

The story echoes a recurring theme from the show; that of bored, god-like beings playing with the lives of mortals for the purpose of amusement. In their book About Time, Lawrence Miles and Tat Wood liken this to a prevalent strand of children's fiction, where magical worlds are held together by the rules of the children who visit them. Miles and Wood also highlight the political elements of the story, likening the portrayal of the Eternals to the view of the upper classes as "effete parasites feeding off the labour (and in this case the imagination) of the proles." The Doctor then, acts as part of the class struggle, helping the workers gain freedom while the gentry get their comeuppance.

In his essay Love is a Stranger, published in the first volume of the Doctor Who Magazine — Special Edition, David Bailey highlights the central theme that "...the lives of little people are precious, special and worth fighting for... ...the Eternals may have unimaginable power at their fingertips but they lack, and are jealous of, one thing: the ability to live, and die." The hollowness of immortality was a thread that ran through Season 20, with the earlier story Mawdryn Undead showing Mawdryn trapped in an endless cycle of painful regeneration, while in The Five Doctors, Borusa's prize of immortality results in little more than a living death. The horror of eternal life is brought home when the Black Guardian threatens Turlough with immortality as a punishment for failure, something that drives him to try and commit suicide rather than face eternity.

Broadcast

Enlightenment was first broadcast in a twice-weekly slot on BBC One during the first two weeks of March 1983. The story episodes averaged 6.8 million viewers, with the highest viewing figures being 7.3 million for the final episode. The episodes averaged 67.5% on BARB's Appreciation Index, with Part Four once again achieving the highest figures.

Enlightenment broadcast details

Episode	Channel	Date	Time	Duration	Viewing figures	Position	AI	Refs
					Reception
1 !"Part One"	BBC One	01983-03-01March 1, 1983	6.55 pm	24' 12"	6.6m	89th	67%
2 !"Part Two"	BBC One	01983-03-02March 2, 1983	6.46 pm	24' 23"	7.2m	76th	65%
3 !"Part Three"	BBC One	01983-03-08March 8, 1983	6.55 pm	24' 38"	6.2m	99th	68%
4 !"Part Four"	BBC One	01983-03-09March 9, 1983	6.46 pm	24' 34"	7.3m	68th	70%

Key

• Episode = The episode title
• Channel = The TV channel on which the episode was first broadcast
• Date = the date of first broadcast
• Time = The time of day of the first broadcast
• Duration = the length of the transmitted episode
• Viewing figures = The number of viewers in millions
• Position = The episodes ranking in the weekly TV viewing chart published by BARB
• AI = Appreciation Index, viewer satisfaction score as measured by BARB

Archive

The BBC holds all four episodes on D-3 tape, recorded from the original two-inch broadcast tapes.

Reception

Reviewing the story for Doctor Who Magazine's 200 Golden Moments special edition, Jeremmy Bentham described it as being epic in scale, suggesting it played to the original strengths of the series; "performance, period set design and claustrophobic mood...". He likens Enlightenment to the work of Stanley Kubrick, saying "...it felt grand, it felt lonely, and yes, it felt epic." On reappraising the story for the same magazine following its release on DVD, Gary Gillatt was equally as effusive, calling it "...one of Doctor Who's finest serials." He highlights the performance of Keith Barron as Captain Striker as being "a master class of under-stated menace" and "pitch perfect", juxtaposing this with the over-the-top pantomime villainy of Lynda Baron as Captain Wrack, with the two captains balancing each other out perfectly.

Writing for the Radio Times, Mark Braxton was less enamoured of some of the performances, suggesting that Baron and Valentine Dyall turn in 'hammy' interpretations of their characters, while Leee John "...makes heavy weather of the simplest activities: helming the ship seems to require the most bizarre posturing." He had mixed views on the story as a whole, saying that "Enlightenment has promising components that come together and briefly create a little magic, then vanish again, like ships that pass in the night." DVD Talk's John Sinnott had similarly mixed views on the serial, although conceding that "...While it doesn't all succeed, they give it a good try and more things work than don't." Sinnott also singled out the performance of Keith Barron for particular praise, along with the relationship between Marriner and Tegan.

In their book About Time, Lawrence Miles and Tat Wood have equally mixed feelings about the serial, praising the setting and the performances of Barron and Brown, and suggesting that it "...carries on the tradition of putting symbols from the world we know into disconcerting environments... ...(it) completes the grand illusion of making the history and the fantasy feel like part of the same continuum." They are less complimentary about other elements however, citing the conclusion as feeling "rushed and tacked on" with too much emphasis on the Guardians and little on the fates of the Eternals. They also dismiss the reveal of enlightenment as being the nature of Turlough's choice, as coming "perilously close to tweeness" and accuse it of being "cod-mythologic moralising".

Enlightenment was placed in 72nd position in Doctor Who Magazine's Mighty 200 reader survey in 2009, which ranked every Doctor Who serial to that point in order of preference.

Commercial releases

In print

Doctor Who book
Enlightenment
Series	Target novelisations
Release number	85
Writer	Barbara Clegg
Publisher	Target Books
Cover artist	Andrew Skilleter
ISBN	0-426-19537-X
Release date	24 May 1984

A novelisation of this serial, written by story author Barbara Clegg, was published by Target Books in May 1984, with a cover by Andrew Skilleter, and was numbered 85 in the ongoing range. It was the first Doctor Who novelisation to be penned by a woman. On its publication Doctor Who Magazine was underwhelmed by the book, claiming in their review that "In many ways, it falls into the familiar Terrance Dicks pitfalls, being a straight forward reworking of the script with "said" following all the speeches. For all its faults, Enlightenment remains a good read, simply because of the strength of the story..." The book was repackaged as part of The Sixth Doctor Who Gift Set later in 1984, along with three other Doctor Who novels; The Dominators, Mawdryn Undead and The Five Doctors.

VHS and DVD releases

Enlightenment was released on VHS in February 1993. It was subsequently released on DVD as part of the Black Guardian Trilogy, along with preceding stories Mawdryn Undead and Terminus on 10 August 2009. The second disc of the DVD includes a "Special Edition" version of the story; a movie-style edit featuring new CGI graphics throughout, with a newly recorded introduction by director Fiona Cumming. Doctor Who Magazine was not enthusiastic about the new edit suggesting, that "...what is special about it is up for debate." The reviewer disparaged the new special effects, stating that "...this is ironic as there are few Doctor Who stories less in need of replacement effects than Enlightenment. The original model work is gorgeous, while this substitute material is crude and unsophisticated in comparison." Alongside the special edition, the DVD contained a number of extra features, including a Making of... documentary and extended interviews with director Fiona Cumming, wrier Barbara Clegg and actor Mark Strickson, a documentary on the Guardians plus an excerpt from the Russell Harty Christmas Party TV special featuring Peter Davison.

Bibliography

• Miles and Wood (2004). About Time – Volume 5: 1980–1984. Mad Norwegian Press. ISBN 0-9759446-4-9. 

External links

• Enlightenment at BBC Online
• Enlightenment at Doctor Who: A Brief History Of Time (Travel)

Enlightenment at the Doctor Who Reference Guide

Reviews

Enlightenment reviews at Outpost Gallifrey

• Enlightenment reviews at The Doctor Who Ratings Guide

Target novelisation

• On Target — Enlightenment