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Serial 6G: Terminus
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| Plot |
| Production |
Finally, on May 12th, 1981, Nathan-Turner wrote to Gallagher to apologise for the delay, explaining that Doctor Who had been in a state of upheaval for quite some time -- both with the various cast changes which came about at the end of Season Eighteen, and then the change-over of script editor from Bidmead to Antony Root and finally to Eric Saward. The producer indicated that he was still interested in Gallagher's concept, so on August 4th, the writer met with Nathan-Turner and Saward to go about salvaging it.
The production team was in the midst of planning a trilogy of stories to form the middle of Season Twenty, introducing new companion Turlough who would actually be acting as an agent of the evil Black Guardian. Nathan-Turner and Saward felt that Gallagher's idea could be modified to suit their needs for the second instalment, in which Turlough unsuccessfully attempts to destroy the Doctor. Revising his original storyline to compensate for the various new characters -- as well as the inclusion of the new Lazar disease subplot -- Gallagher christened his story Terminus.
Then, at another meeting on October 14th, an additional requirement was imposed on Gallagher. Nathan-Turner had always meant Nyssa to be a temporary companion, and his original intent had been to write her, not Adric, out of the series the previous year. It was only through the efforts of Peter Davison, who was quite fond of the character, that Nyssa had survived to this point, but Nathan-Turner had finally decided that her potential had run its course. Therefore, she would be written out at the end of Terminus. With this final amendment agreed to, Gallagher was commissioned to write episode one on November 9th.
In scripting Terminus, Gallagher drew heavily from Norse mythology. The Garm was a dog-headed beast who guarded the gates of Hell, while the Vanir were named after minor fertility gods. Several of the individual character names were inspired by other Scandinavian figure, including Eirak (the Norwegian king Erik Bloodaxe), Bor (the father of Odin, head of the Norse pantheon) and Sigurd (for Siegfried, a descendant of Odin).
The director assigned to Serial 6G was Mary Ridge, a BBC veteran whose lengthy career included assignments on programmes like Z Cars, Dixon Of Dock Green and Blake's 7. Even before Ridge began pre-production on Terminus, however, trouble began to stir. Ridge had originally been told she would have six studio days, standard for serials with no location material. An industrial dispute was brewing with the union representing the BBC's electricians, however, and this was resulting in a major reorganisation of shooting schedules. The result was that Terminus would lose one of its recording days, meaning Ridge would have little time to spare in the studio.
More troubles arose in the area of costuming. A miscommunication with Rod Vass of freelance props firm Imagineering caused Vass to believe that the Vanir armour would be purely decorative. He was therefore shocked to learn, upon delivery, that they would be required for combat. Indeed, the costumes proved to be extremely noisy when involved in vigorous activity, and again costly refurbishing was required. Ridge also claims that costume designer Dee Robson designed the outfits for Kari and Olvir in light blue, despite the fact that Ridge had made it known that that would be the colour employed for CSO material. According to Ridge, the costumes then had to be recast in white. Robson, however, disputes this, and claims that the costumes had always been white. Ridge also suggested that the various costuming problems eventually pushed the budget for that department on Terminus past the breaking point (and some sources indicate that this is the reason Robson would never again work on Doctor Who). Again, Robson disagrees with Ridge, and refutes the assertion that the costumes for Terminus went overbudget. Meanwhile, Saward had concluded that the script for episode one was under-running, and asked Gallagher to provide two new one-minute scenes. Unfortunately, Gallagher misinterpreted Saward and instead extended several existing scenes to fill out two minutes' worth of material. Consequently, Gallagher's new material was discarded.
Studio recording began with a two-day block from Monday, October 11th, 1982. Again, disaster upon disaster struck. First, a power failure entailed a two-hour delay in the starting of recording; when the crew was finally ready to go, Ridge discovered that one set had been erectd off its marks. Then, Nathan-Turner was forced to call a halt to the filming of some TARDIS scenes because the circuitry beneath the console was missing (apparently having been accidentally shipped to the Longleat Doctor Who exhibition). This meant Ridge had to record sequences on other sets which were not yet properly lit. Because of all the difficulties, Ridge ended up requiring a half-hour overrun at the end of the day, the first in her two decades as a BBC director.
A similar overrun was necessary the following day. Minor problems again plagued the production -- most famously when Janet Fielding's cleavage popped out of her shirt while being grapped by an extra playing a Lazar. It was also on this day that visual effects designer Peter Pegrum discovered the globe-like helmets he had built for Kari and Olvir were actually to be worn, contrary to his original impression. This necessitated hasty modifications to prevent the helmets from steaming up. Cast and crew were in a very bad mood as the day's taping wrapped up, with Davison is particular angry because he felt the actors' performances were being given short shrift in the rush to get all the scenes in the can.
With the start of the three-day studio block on October 25th, Ridge tried desperately to make up for all the time already lost. Nathan-Turner told her that she would have an extra hour to record on the final day, and this appeared to give Ridge the breathing room she needed. At the last moment, however, Nathan-Turner informed her that she would not be able to have the additional hour after all, and a remount would be necessary. Sarah Sutton was disappointed because it meant that this day -- the 27th -- would not be her final work on Doctor Who after all. Davison was irritated because he felt that Nathan-Turner's attitude had cast a pall over Sutton's farewell party. A frost had set into Ridge and Nathan-Turner's relationship, one which had not completely thawed even years later. Unsurprisingly, Terminus was Ridge's lone Doctor Who assignment.
It was originally hoped that the Terminus remount would occur in November, but because of the BBC's prioritising of holiday programming during the electricians' industrial action, this finally got pushed back to December 18th, in the midst of The King's Demons's studio session. This marked the end of Sutton's regular involvement in Doctor Who, although she would return for a brief appearance in The Caves Of Androzani a year later. Sutton found her acting career on the wane after leaving Doctor Who, and she largely retired after the birth of her daughter in 1991. Nonetheless, she reprised her role as Nyssa for the 1993 charity special Dimensions In Time and has since contributed to Big Finish Productions' range of Doctor Who audio plays. Terminus was also Gallagher's final Doctor Who story. He submitted one further script idea, which was rejected on budgetary grounds, and has since concentrated on his successful genre novels and associated adaptations, as well as other television work.
| Details |
| Episode | Date | Time | Duration | Viewers | Audience App. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 15th February 1983 | 6.55pm | 24'58" | 6.8m (86th) | 65% |
| 2 | 16th February 1983 | 6.46pm | 24'40" | 7.5m (75th) | 67% |
| 3 | 22nd February 1983 | 6.55pm | 24'39" | 6.5m (97th) | 64% |
| 4 | 23rd February 1983 | 6.46pm | 24'49" | 7.4m (80th) | 67% |
| Producer | John Nathan-Turner |
| Script Editor | Eric Saward |
| Writer | Stephen Gallagher |
| Director | Mary Ridge |
| Designer | Dick Coles |
| Costume | Dee Robson |
| Incidental Music | Roger Limb |
Principal Guest Cast: RJ Bell (The Garm), Peter Benson (Bor), Andrew Burt (Valgard), Valentine Dyall (The Black Guardian), Liza Goddard (Kari), Dominic Guard (Olvir), Tim Munro (Sigurd), Martin Potter (Eirak), Rachel Weaver (Inga).
Novelisation: Terminus by Stephen Gallagher [as John Lydecker] (book 79), June 1983; photomontage cover.
Video Release: Terminus, episodic format, January 1993; PAL (BBC Video cat.# 4890) and NTSC (Warners cat.# E1258); cover by Andrew Skilleter.
Rankings: 99th (62.91%, Doctor Who Dynamic Rankings website, 22nd June 1999); 131st (57.68%, DWM 1997 Annual Survey).
| Sources |
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