History Recap / DoctorWhoS20E5Enlightenment

'''Production code:''' 6H

Written by Barbara Clegg. This four-episode serial first aired from March 1--9, 1983.

* SpecialGuest: Music/{{Imagination}} frontman Leee Jones plays Mansell.

* SpecialGuest: Film/{{Imagination}} frontman Leee Jones plays Mansell.

* SpecialGuest: Imagination frontman Leee Jones plays Mansell; Music/{{Gorillaz}} fans will recognize him as the guest vocalist on "The Lost Chord".

* MoreThanMindControl as MindRape: The Eternals do this a lot, not always successfully.

* SpaceIsAnOcean: The Eternals have Victorian-like sailing ships that fly along with the TARDIS.

* FriendOrIdolDecision

* PirateGirl: Captain Wrack

* SpaceIsAnOcean

* SwitchingPOV: Switches with the Doctor, Tegan and Turlough

* YouHaveFailedMe: played straight ([[LargeHam with ham]]) by the Black Guardian

Meanwhile, Davey's ship explodes. What a coincidence! Tegan is horrified by Marriner's aloof reaction to all the "Ephemerals" who just died on that ship. She's able to shield her mind from him, anyway, simply by being extra grumpy, but it only serves to intrigue him more and he develops a creepy stalky crush on her in the process. Meanwhile, the Doctor puts two and two together and realizes that any ship that challenges Wrack's goes all explodey. On Wrack's ship, she reveals to Turlough how she does it: she goes to a vacuum-sealed chamber where she uses the Black Guardian's power to make the red jewel explode. Somehow.

Turlough turns on the Doctor ''again'' and Tegan, the Doctor and Marriner are sent back to the ship. The Doctor doesn't mind, for he believes that Turlough is trying to stop Wrack. He's right, and Wrack realizes it: she sentences Turlough to WalkThePlank. She pauses, however, when Turlough tells her that he, too, serves the Black Guardian and decides to let him watch her destroy Striker's ship. Luckily, the Doctor realizes just in time that Tegan's tiara contains the jewel. He thwacks it to pieces with an axe, and when that only makes it stronger, he throws it overboard before Wrack can destroy it. He travels in the TARDIS to the other ship to keep her from winning but is thrown overboard along with Turlough. Wrack wins!

Yes, he refuses Enlightenment and throws the crystal at the Black Guardian, who promptly catches fire because "light defeats darkness". The White Guardian congratulates Turlough, and the Doctor says that Enlightenment was not the diamond, but the ''choice''. Cue credits.

->'''Captain Striker:''' You are not an Ephemeral. You are a... a time dweller. You travel in time.
->'''The Doctor:''' You're reading my thoughts.
->'''Captain Striker:''' You are a Time Lord. A lord of time. Are there lords in such a small domain?

The one where '''GOD HIMSELF''' comes back. Also the one where Tegan looks ''fabulous'' in a dress.

Meanwhile, Tegan is left in the TARDIS in case the White Guardian sends another message. He does: they have to win "the race" and it's "winner takes all". But before she can get to the Doctor with this urgent information, she runs into the ship's handsome but creepy first mate, Marriner, who tells Tegan in an equally creepy voice that he will take her to her friends. The four of them eventually meet in the bridge, where the Doctor looks at the ship's map just in time for the show's first cliffhanger: [[SpaceSailing the ship is actually a]] ''[[SpaceSailing space]]''[[SpaceSailing ship]], and it's racing with other period Earth ships through the solar system. [[RuleOfCool Because it'd be cool, that's why.]] The prize: Enlightenment!

The officers of these ships are Eternals, mind-reading beings who exist above and beyond our universe. They've lived so long that they have no original thoughts of their own, and must read the minds of mortals ("Ephemerals") in order to alleviate their soul-crushing boredom. Having Enlightenment will ensure that they will never be bored again. The Doctor uses a viewscreen to look at another captain and notices he's wearing an out-of-period '''red jewel''' that '''[[MacGuffin is very important to the plot]]''' so '''pay attention.''' The ships round Venus, and Striker's ship edges so close to the planet in an attempt to get ahead that the ship's almost destroyed. Another ship comes so close that it actually ''is'' destroyed. The Doctor, as always, thinks something more sinister is at hand.

* ContinuousDecompression: Turlough is locked in a small chamber when the protective force field is deactivated letting the air escape to space. It takes several minutes for the Doctor to find Turlough, during which time it is still slowly evacuating though the hole is quite large and the room is quite small. Ironically it is also an example of ExplosiveDecompression, since when Turlough is rescued, he says "I would have exploded in the vacuum of space."

* AbsoluteCleavage: Radio/TerryWogan described a scene between Creator/JanetFielding and Lynda Barron as "the battle of the boobs".

This is also the final televised appearance of the Black and White Guardians and their [[NiceHat ducky hats]], though a character intriguingly similar to the Black Guardian -- though minus the hat, and identified as "the Trickster" -- turns up in ''Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures''. The Guardians, of course, return in the Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse, including AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho.

Written by Barbara Clegg. This serial first aired March 1-9, 1983.

* ShapedLikeItself: At the end of the first segment, The Doctor says "We're not on a yacht, we're on a ship", which would sound kind of silly if he hadn't continued [[RecycledInSpace "... a space]] [[WhamLine ship!"]]

* NothingIsScarier: At the beginning of the episode, the TARDIS crew has no idea where they are, and the scanner gives them no help whatsoever. Made even scarier for Tegan, since she stays there longer and is therefore in the dark for a longer time.

This story marked the first script written for the series by a woman. Barbara Clegg would pitch two more stories to Eric Saward - they were rejected, but were ultimately produced by Creator/BigFinish as part of their Lost Stories.

* LargeHam: The Black Guardian obviously takes the cake, but Wrack does her absolute best to match him.

* AbsoluteCleavage: Radio/TerryWogan described a scene between Janet Fielding and Lynda Barron as "the battle of the boobs".

* WardrobeMalfunction: That beautiful, [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tegan_dress_2634.jpg low-cut]] Edwardian dress Tegan wears for the party? Incompatible with the ''Series/DoctorWho'' tradition of running up and down corridors--Janet Fielding popped out of it a couple of times during filming.

This story marked the final televised appearance of the Black and White Guardians and their [[NiceHat ducky hats]], though a character intriguingly similar to the Black Guardian -- though minus the hat, and identified as "the Trickster" -- turns up in ''Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures''. The Guardians, of course, return in the Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse, including AudioPlay/BigFinishDoctorWho.

The one where '''GOD HIMSELF''' comes back.

* AbsolutwCleavage: Radio/TerryWogan described a scene between Janet Fielding and Lynda Barron as "the battle of the boobs".

* ContinousDecompression: Turlough is locked in a small chamber when the protective force field is deactivated letting the air escape to space. It takes several minutes for the Doctor to find Turlough, during which time it is still slowly evacuating though the hole is quite large and the room is quite small. Ironically it is also an example of ExplosiveDecompression, since when Turlough is rescued, he says "I would have exploded in the vacuum of space."