Enlightenment

You are a Time Lord. A lord of time. Can one be a lord of such a small domain?

Enlightenment completes the Black Guardian trilogy and is generally held as the best of three by most fans. I was exposed to little snippets of this one before I sat down to watch it wholesale, mostly from the end, but they didn't leave much of impression other than it was a nice looking set and some interesting camera work. Unfortunately, after I started to watch it, I discovered that my available copy was missing Episode Four and I was forced to leave this one unfinished. I finally have been able to get a full copy and get through it for a proper assessment.

Plot Summary

Running on low power, the Doctor is trying to fix the TARDIS when he receives a message from the White Guardian. He is instructed to proceed to a set of coordinates given. The Doctor follows them and lands. He and Turlough step out into the cargo hold of an Edwardian sailing vessel. Tegan remains in the TARDIS should the White Guardian try to contact them again.

The Doctor and Turlough enter the crew quarters where the crew has been waiting for a couple of days. None of them can remember coming aboard, but they know the vessel is to be part of a race. They mistake the Doctor for the ship's cook and give him a hearty welcome while they wait.

Tegan receives a garbled message from the White Guardian about a race and it being winner-take-all. She also sees a projection of the First Mate of the vessel, Mr. Mariner on the TARDIS screen. She leaves the TARDIS to find the Doctor and to see who the observer was but is discovered by Mariner and taken up to the Captain's quarters. After doing so, Mariner goes to the crew quarters and escorts the Doctor to the Captain's quarters as well. Turlough is left behind with the men.

Tegan passes on the message from the White Guardian although neither of them seem to understand it. Captain Striker enters and bids them welcome, already seemingly aware of who they both are. They sit down to dinner but the meal is interrupted by buffeting suggesting that the race is about to start. Mariner escorts Tegan to the wheelhouse while the Doctor lags behind.

The crew is summoned topside with a bonus grog ration before the start of the race. Turlough lingers behind and the Doctor discovers him. Together they head to the wheelhouse to find Tegan. Tegan is already uneasy as they passed a set of modern wetsuits outside the wheelhouse and that the race is preparing to start with it being pitch black outside. As the Doctor and Turlough enter, Mariner activates a viewscreen via a computer terminal and they learn that although it appears they are on an Edwardian sailing vessel, they are actually on a spaceship.

As the race begins, Tegan gets sea sick and Mariner takes her below to a cabin built from images in her mind. He gives her a glass of rum and she falls asleep. Turlough comes down to check on her a little later. He wakes her and she is both feeling better and more at ease with the surroundings. Turlough suspects that the drink helps with compliance as one member of the crew is a teetotaler and is the only one who seems to react to their surroundings like a normal person.

As the ships approach Venus, the first marker, Striker dives the ship in towards the atmosphere and gets a gravity boost to surge ahead of the others. Two other ships follow: a Greek trireme and a pirate frigate. The trireme explodes during the maneuver. Striker and Mariner dismiss it as a failed maneuver but both the Doctor and Turlough suspect sabotage as the ship exploded in an unexpected way. Upset at Striker and Mariner's indifference to the death of the people aboard, Tegan leaves the wheelhouse and heads back to her cabin.

Turlough also leaves but heads down towards the crew quarters where he runs into the tee-totaling sailor. He has stolen the key to the rum cabinet to clear the crew's head and gives it to Turlough to hide. He heads aloft while Turlough contacts the Black Guardian on what to do. The Black Guardian demands to know why he hasn't killed the Doctor. Turlough demurs saying that he can't kill him. The Black Guardian becomes angry and declares their deal void and that Turlough will never leave the ship alive. He strikes Turlough down in a bout of pain.

In the wheelhouse, the Doctor learns that the officers are creatures known as Eternals who use mortal beings (ephemerals) to entertain themselves. The prize for winning the race is "enlightenment" and the ability to realize your greatest desire. The Doctor leaves the wheelhouse but not before discovering weaknesses in the Eternal's ability to read minds. He collects Tegan and discovers Turlough passed out, although Turlough blows it off as a slip down the stairs. They attempt to head back to the TARDIS but the excitement in their minds alerted Striker and Mariner of the TARDIS's existence and they cause it to disappear.

Attempting to alleviate Tegan's depression at being trapped, Mariner, who is entranced with Tegan, takes her on deck to appreciate the beauty of space. The Doctor and Turlough also head aloft to look around. The Black Guardian's words echo in Turlough's mind and unable to deal with the situation any longer, Turlough throws himself overboard. The crew of Striker's ship attempt to throw him a life preserver but he drifts out of reach. He is instead swept up and rescued by the pirate frigate, commanded by Captain Wrack.

Wrack toys with the idea of torturing Turlough as ephemeral pain is a source of amusement to her, but Turlough intrigues her with his deviousness that she frees him. She sends an invitation to Striker's ship to come aboard for a party. Striker initially declines but the Doctor requests to go so he permits him and Tegan to go with Mariner serving as his representative.

Before they leave, the ships are caught in a meteor storm. One ship takes advantage of the situation and surges past Wrack's frigate. She heads below, dragging Turlough along, and enters a secured chamber. Shortly after, the passing ship explodes. Striker and Mariner assume that it was destroyed by the meteors but the Doctor again suspects sabotage.

After the storm passes, the Doctor, Tegan and Mariner board the frigate to a lavish reception. Turlough sneaks away to try and discover the secret of Wrack's power in the sealed room. He finds it mostly empty except for a focus window protected by a vacuum shield. A member of the crew discovers the room left unsecured. He seals the door and deactivates the vacuum shield. Turlough begins to suffocate. He appeals to the Black Guardian but the Black Guardian dismisses him and leaves him to his fate.

The Doctor, looking for Turlough, asks Mariner to search his mind. Mariner notes that it's at the lowest point of the ship and somewhat shielded. The Doctor heads below and hears Turlough screaming for help. He reactivates the shield and opens the door. In there he finds an energy weapon that Turlough missed in his panic. The two realize that Wrack has been either giving or planting focusing crystals to the other ships, disguised as rubies. When she powers the energy weapon, the gem becomes the focus and the energy concentration destroys the vessel. The Doctor and Turlough head back but are caught by Wrack's second-in-command, Mansell.

Wrack takes Tegan to the wheelhouse where she freezes Tegan in a moment in time. She then places a focusing crystal, disguised as a ruby, in the tiara that Tegan is wearing. She unfreezes her and dismisses her to the care of Mariner, who had been concerned for her. He professes desire but when Tegan questions if he is in love, he is confused and only desires existence.

The Doctor and Turlough are brought before Wrack where Turlough accuses the Doctor of being a spy and he was trying to capture him. The Doctor, Tegan and Mariner are dismissed but Turlough is allowed to stay on board. Turlough pretends to be on her side, desiring to win the race for himself.

Wrack demonstrates the pirate plank on two eternals who were arrested when they came aboard for the reception and they disappear as they fall overboard. Wrack prepares to demonstrate it on Turlough as she is aware of his greed for the prize. Turlough tells Wrack that he too serves the Black Guardian, having heard his voice when Wrack entered the sealed room. Impressed, she spares him and brings him below after ordering Mansell to pull even with Striker's ship.

As Wrack's ship pulls even, the Doctor realizes that Wrack is planning to destroy them. When describing the focusing crystal, Tegan recalls seeing it on her tiara when she took it off. They race to Tegan's room as Wrack is absorbed in a column of darkness, allowing her to focus power on that crystal. The Doctor finds it and smashes it, forcing Wrack to split her focus on the fragments. The Doctor then scoops up the fragments and tosses them overboard, just as they explode.

Wrack's anger at Striker's survival is diminished by news that the winds have stopped and Striker is becalmed. With the extra sail of her ship, Wrack pulls ahead and prepares to dock at the city of the enlighteners. Striker is powerless to stop her but the Doctor appeals to him to give him back the TARDIS as he can stop her. Striker agrees and reveals that it was hidden in the Doctor's mind. The Doctor visualizes it and it reappears on the bridge. He tries to take Tegan but Mariner refuses to let her go.

The Doctor materializes outside the chamber and enters. He appeals to Wrack to stop, not knowing what she is tapping in to. She laughs him off and orders Mansell to throw him out the aperture. On Striker's ship, he, Mariner and Tegan observe two bodies emerging from Wrack's ship and disappearing into space. Wrack's ship does not stop and docks at the city, winning the race. Striker, Mariner and Tegan board the longboat to pay homage to the winner.

Wrack's human crew disappear to their own time and place as the Black and White Guardians appear in the wheelhouse. The Black Guardian calls for the captain and the Doctor and Turlough appear, having thrown Wrack and Mansell overboard and taken command of the ship. The Black Guardian angrily rebuffs the Doctor, informing him that he has only won a battle and that he will come again. The White Guardian offers enlightenment but the Doctor politely declines.

Striker, Mariner and Tegan arrive and Tegan is surprised to see them. The White Guardian dismisses the Eternals, though Mariner begs Tegan for help. She admits that she cannot help him and the two disappear. The White Guardian then offers the prize to Turlough and reveals a giant, glowing diamond. The Black Guardian reminds Turlough that they still have a contract which gives anything Turlough has to him. The Black Guardian offers to let him have the diamond in exchange for the Doctor, forcing Turlough to choose between great wealth and the Doctor.

Turlough stares at the diamond before throwing it to the Black Guardian. The Black Guardian shrieks and disappears in a blaze of fire. The White Guardian informs Turlough that their contract is now annulled and they are free to go as he disappears. The Doctor informs them that enlightenment was never about the diamond but the choice. They then leave with Turlough requesting that they aim for his home planet.

Analysis

Having finally have seen the full story, I can say that while it is good, I don't believe it lives up to the hype that many fans have given it. It is well acted, the sets are interesting and the story is somewhat compelling, yet it is also slow and the eternal's lack of emotion can bring a total dearth of feeling through the whole thing that is slightly off-putting. I also felt like there were a couple of strings that were left hanging so that the story was left with a few missing pieces.

I enjoyed the Doctor in this story, although he was quite reserved. My principle hang-up was in the very beginning where the Doctor has seemed to become fully aware of Turlough and his mix-up with the Black Guardian but has gone from being wary and trying to pull him over to being more hostile to him. In either case, it's a passive-aggressive streak that I don't particularly care for in the Doctor. He knows and should confront Turlough.

I was also a little disappointed that there wasn't as much direct conflict with the Eternals as there was potential to be. Granted, Striker and Mariner weren't hostile to them, but I thought more action would be necessary when they took the TARDIS. There was a hostile in the form of Wrack, but the critical moment was deprived, whether for time or the thrill of the deception, and we never actually see the Doctor gain the upper hand over her.

The companions were alright, although Turlough has more to do and was thus more interesting. Tegan was a bit too passive for my taste. Mariner held on to her and that kept her from being anything more than a liability in the form of getting the focusing crystal on to Striker's ship. She wasn't whiney, which was nice, but she also wasn't particularly engaging either.

Turlough was pretty interesting as he was fighting with sides. I did not like how he kept appealing to the Black Guardian in his moment of trial, despite the fact that the Black Guardian had tried to kill him once and driven him to try and take his own life shortly after. It's a bit inconsistent. Even in his cowardice, I would have liked more general pounding on the door and calling for help, going so far as to appeal to the Doctor and Mariner (and maybe even Wrack and Tegan) before trying the crystal. I also would have liked to have seen him properly turn on Wrack in the final fight. I understand the drama of questioning who was killed, but it would have been nice to actually see Turlough make an active move for once.

All of the Eternals have their ups and downs. Striker is probably the one I like best, even though he is the most emotionless. It really isn't that different from a "stiff upper lip" sort and it makes him strangely interesting.

Mariner has the creepy, almost rape-y thing down. I would have liked a bit more build up as to why Tegan strikes him more than say the far more emotionally turmoiled Turlough. I can't even begin to imagine what he would do with someone like Victoria. Probably his best scene is at the beginning of Episode Four where he spouts dialogue that could have come directly from a bad romance movie but in an impassive yet obsessive way. It goes so far as to make Tegan question him about love, a concept he is unfamiliar with. Again it comes back to his desire for the intensity of emotional existence and Tegan's passion and roil of emotion is what draws him. It's an interesting character study.

Wrack is profoundly over the top, occasionally too much so. She makes for a nice contrast with the emotionless Striker and Mariner and an over-the-top pirate queen would make sense. If Striker and Mariner are trying to understand emotions, she is bathing it them full stop. I didn't like the end to Episode Three though when she stares down the camera and laughs. That was too Snidley Whiplash for my taste and a step too far, even for that character. I also have to mention my disappointment in her getting an off-screen dispatch. I would have liked to see her spit some venom at the Doctor before pushing her overboard.

The sets are very nice as well as the direction. You can tell that the ships are models, but that is pretty much a given with what they are trying to do on the budget they have. I also enjoyed the lighting as well as the switchover to film when they go topside. The lighting is so low that the grain of the film really stands out, especially at the end of Episode Two, and it gives it a rather eerie quality, enough to distract you from the thin veil of lights attempting to look like stars in the background. Similar things can be said about the costumes so there is very little to complain about from a production standpoint with this story.

I keep coming back to my central question as to why I didn't care for this story as much as I expected to. I think pacing was some of it. Ultimately, I knew where the story was going with Turlough having to prove himself loyal to the Doctor. But rather than focus on the race or step to unentangle themselves from the Eternals, we focus on scenes with the crew, which are dropped halfway through Episode Two. We get Mariner pining after Tegan who seems bored by the whole thing and yet it still is never quite clear what Mariner is truly pining after. Then after the slow development of the first three episodes, we get the hasty conclusion in Episode Four that doesn't even give Wrack a good send off.

I also couldn't help but be a bit disappointed in the subplot with the jewels of destruction. Wrack's ship is clearly faster and she could win the race without destroying Striker's ship. The first two ships did actually pass her at various points so I understood her blowing them up, or at least luring them in to blowing them up. But Striker is someone she wants to blow up just for the fun of it as she has enough sail to overtake him and pass him. It reminded me of the old cartoon Wacky Races where the bad guy, Dick Dastardly, actually had the fastest car and if he just raced instead of hatching plans to destroy the other racers, he would have actually won. When you can be openly compared to a cheap Hanna-Barbara cartoon, that's not exactly the finest comparison.

I will say one thing about the story. Even if I was a bit bored here and there, it's overall telling was somewhat compelling. Having been foiled the first time I tried to watch it, the second time, I knew what was going to happen in the first three episodes yet still found them entertaining. I also found myself drawn in a little more by the story. I don't think this story is at the level of Kinda where repeated viewings will cause you to find more and more to enjoy, but I think the slow pace and sometimes odd detours hide other aspects which can draw you in on a second viewing.

All in all, I'd say this is good but not great. I think I would still agree that it is the best of the Black Guardian trilogy but more for it's overall balance. Mawdryn Undead was elevated by the Brigadier and only suffered in my eyes because of some laziness in the storytelling. Enlightenment is better balanced with good acting and a decent story all around, but the pacing and other small flaws bring it down from where it could have been. Perhaps the fault is entirely mine with hearing about how good this story is and building it up in my mind to something it wasn't. But it's still worth watching and it will draw you in, even if you find yourself distracted by other things from time to time.

Overall personal score: 3.5 out of 5