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Quotes
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"I'm scared. This place is like a maze. Where am I supposed to be going?" ~ TurloughTurlough: Oh, you're so typical of your planet, reduced to shouting if you can't have your own way.
Tegan Jovanka: I AM NOT!
Turlough: No?
Tegan Jovanka: Where did the other spacecraft come from?
The 5th Doctor: TARDIS found it. There's a fail-safe. On impending breakup it seeks out and locks onto the nearest spacecraft.
Tegan Jovanka: You never mentioned it before.
The 5th Doctor: Well, it never worked before.
"What have I sent you into, Nyssa?" ~ The Fifth Doctor
"Yes, well, some people have the strangest ideas about decor." ~ The Fifth Doctor
"This is Terminus, where all the lazars come to die. We're on a leper ship! We're all going to die!" ~ Olvir
"It was a big liner from a rich sector. It looked like the perfect target, so we thought..." ~ Kari
The 5th Doctor: How do you know about Lazar's disease?
Olvir: My sister died of it.
The 5th Doctor: On Terminus?
Olvir: Yes. They supposedly offer a cure, but I've never met anyone who came back.
"There's something very strange about this. It could be pure coincidence, but Terminus seems to be at the exact centre of the known universe." ~ The Fifth Doctor
"Tell me. The star charts on the liner, do you think they were accurate?" ~ The Fifth Doctor
Inga: You can't even bribe them. The only thing they care about is Hydromel, the drug that keeps them alive.
Nyssa: What are they going to do with us?
Inga: Supposedly cure us, but I rather think they're going to let us die.
"The perfect place to hide. We never go there. As the Company has decided to cut back our supply of Hydromel, it is in our own interest to learn why. If the couple in the Forbidden Zone are from the Company, their knowledge is vital." ~ Eirak
"Hmm. Radiation. Fallout. Now that's a thought." ~ The Fifth Doctor
"Most kind. Yes. A burden shared is a, er, something or other. Most kind. Thanks. This way." ~ Bor
Bor: The whole lot's unstable. Know what would happen if one of those exploded? It'd be more than just a loud bang.
The 5th Doctor: Chain reaction.
Bor: Nothing in the universe would be safe.
"The pilot's dead, you know. But he's still there. He's going to fire up the engines again and they won't take it and the big bang will happen all over again." ~ Bor
Black Guardian: You have not destroyed the Doctor.
Turlough: I haven't found him yet.
Black Guardian: Kill the Doctor.
Turlough: I will! I will! I have a plan.
Black Guardian: You have nothing.
"Think about what we learned. Terminus seems to be at the center of the universe, yes? Now imagine this ship in flight. Suddenly the pilot finds he has an enormous amount of unstable fuel on board...Unfortunately, he ejects his fuel into a void, starting a chain reaction. Enormous. The biggest explosion of all time. Event One." ~ The Fifth Doctor
Kari: If there was a second explosion, would it have the same effect as the jettisoned fuel?
The 5th Doctor: Not quite. Whereas the first explosion created the universe, the second would undoubtedly destroy it.
"Oh, no. It wasn't the pilot's decision. The computer's just started an automatic sequence to jettison the unstable fuel. If we don't do something quickly, the whole universe will be destroyed." ~ The Fifth Doctor
"It's controlled by the computer and the computer is uncontrollable." ~ The Fifth Doctor
"You represent a poor investment of my time and energy, and for such an investment there is only one course to follow." ~ The Black Guardian
Olvir: Why are you doing this? You're torturing people.
Garm: I draw the disease from them. All would die but most survive.
Olvir: And the last one you treated, Nyssa, did she survive?
Garm: She is recovering.
"I was simply exposed to a massive dose of radiation. There's no proper diagnosis, no control, and this is supposed to be someone's idea of decontamination. You don't understand. There must be thousands of people who've passed through here and think they're cured. It's all just hit and miss. No one cares. Listen to me. The cure works, but it needs to be controlled, otherwise you just trade one killer for another. Radiation induced diseases that may take years to show. It could all be changed." ~ Nyssa
The 5th Doctor: [chipper] It'll be good to see the TARDIS again.
Nyssa: And Tegan.
The 5th Doctor: [less chipper] Yes, well... It'll be nice to know she's safe.
"I've enjoyed every moment of my time on the Tardis, and I'll miss you both, but here I have a chance to put into practice the skills I learnt on Traken." ~ Nyssa
Tegan: She'll die here.
Nyssa: Not easily, Tegan. Like you, I'm indestructible.
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Trivia
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"Terminus" is best know for being Sarah Sutton's final episode. Peter Davison was against Sutton leaving, as he felt that Nyssa was the most appropriate companion for his Doctor. John Nathan-Turner felt that the character had run her course.
On the whole, Sutton was disappointed by this story. Sutton would reprise her role as Nyssa in the 1993 special Dimensions in Time and would also reprise her role in many Big Finish stories.
The production of "Terminus" was fraught with technical difficulties from the start, including problems with costumes, delays due to electrical problems, and a mis-built set. The result was that some scenes had to be recorded on improperly-lit sets, production ran seriously late, and several scenes were taped hastily, much to Davison's frustration.
An industrial dispute between the BBC and the electricians' union, resulted in a major reorganisation of shooting schedules. As a result, the crew had to work against the clock to complete the story.
The first day of filming was plagued with problems. A power failure resulted in a two-hour delay. When the crew was finally ready to go, Director Mary Ridge discovered that one set had been erected off its marks, incurring a further stoppage. Then, JNT was forced to call a halt to the recording of scenes involving the interior of the TARDIS console because the correct circuity was missing. This meant that Ridge had to record sequences on other sets which were not yet properly lit. Later, it was learned that neither of the drone robot props had been tested before being brought into the studio, and indeed only one of them was found to work correctly. Despite all of these disruptions, Ridge was able to complete almost all of the scenes set within the TARDIS and the adjoining liner corridor.
Additionally, miscommunication with Rod Vass of freelance props firm Imagineering led him to believe that the Vanir armour he was asked to fabricate would be purely decorative. He was therefore shocked to learn upon delivery that they would be required for combat. The costumes proved to be extremely noisy when involved in vigorous activity, and costly refurbishing was required to address the problem.
Visual effects designer Peter Pegrum was responsible for Kari and Olvir's helmets, but he had believed that these would only be carried, and never worn. When Liza Goddard and Dominic Guard donned the headgear, they quickly found that a lack of air holes meant that the helmets easily fogged up, and had to be modified.
Later, one of the extras playing a Lazar accidentally grabbed at Janet Fielding's top during a scene, causing the actress to expose herself.
Ridge claimed that costume designer Dee Robson crafted the outfits for Kari and Olvir in light blue, despite the fact that Ridge had made it known that this would be the "key" colour employed for special effects involving colour separation overlay. According to Ridge, this meant that the costumes then had to be recast in white, at significant cost. (This account has been disputed by Robson, who has asserted that Kari and Olvir's costumes had always been white.)
This story has one of three descriptions of how the universe started; the others are in Castrovalva and the audio production, Slipback. As the exact fuel used by Terminus is never mentioned, but apparently produces radiation as a side-effect of energy generation, it's not implausible to believe that Terminus is fusion-powered by hydrogen and its release of fuel and the in-rush of hydrogen mentioned in Castrovalva are the same event.
Script writer Stephen Gallagher found inspiration in Norse mythology, naming the Vanir after a lesser group of fertility gods. The individual Vanir also bore monikers redolent of the Norse culture: Bor was the father of Odin, head of the Norse pantheon; Sigurd was a great Norse hero (also known as Siegfried and Sivard Snarensvend); and Eirak was initially called Eirik, after a king of Norway and Northumbria also known as Eric Haraldsson or Eric Bloodaxe. Similarly, the Garm was named for a monstrous hellhound (also known as Garmr) who appears during the time of Ragnarok, the twilight of the Norse gods. Meanwhile, the term "lazar" was an archaic word for "leper", derived from the Biblical figure of Lazarus.
Gallagher originally wanted to call Kari "Yoni" until script editor Eric Saward pointed out that it was the Sanskrit word for the female reproductive organ.
The pilot had originally been dressed with cobwebs. Davison objected, observing that he was not meant to be dead but simply moving very slowly, and Ridge accordingly ordered them removed.
Episode 2 contains an infamous scene in which Nyssa drops her skirt. According to the script she was feeling ill and trying to loosen the pressure on her stomach, but this is not clear on screen. In an interview for the book Doctor Who: 25 Glorious Years, Sutton suggests it was deliberate Fan Service:
'I still smile when I remember how the Production Office kept getting letters of complaint about Nyssa being too covered up. So that's why when I left the series in "Terminus" I decided to drop my skirt as a parting gesture to all those fans who had written in.
'Mind you, it caused such a stir at the time, and as I'm still being asked about it when I am interviewed, I'm not sure it was a wise thing to have done!'
The Doctor kissing Nyssa on the cheek as she departs was devised by Davison and Sutton. Originally, they were just going to shake hands.
Strangely enough, despite the grim tone of the story and its themes of disease and death, it is the only story from season 20 in which no-one dies.
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Links (Watch on DailyMotion.com)
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Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Doctor Who - Terminus Story 127 DVD is available at Amazon.com
or watch via streaming at Hulu Plus
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