Enlightenment is the fifth serial of the 20th season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was originally broadcast in four twice-weekly parts on BBC1 from 1 to 9 March 1983. It was the 127th serial of the series, and was written by Barbara Clegg and directed by Fiona Cumming, making it the first serial to be both written and directed by women.
In the serial, the alien time traveller the Fifth 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 sailing vessels from Earth through space, crewed by humans they had plucked out of time, in an attempt to win the prize of enlightenment. Turlough is under the control of the Black Guardian (Valentine Dyall), but struggles with the Guardian's orders to kill the Doctor. Enlightenment is the third of three loosely connected serials where the Black Guardian attempts to compel Turlough to kill the Doctor.
The serial's production was beset by problems caused by industrial action taken by electricians at the BBC during filming. It was eventually finished three months behind schedule, but the unavailability of several actors for new filming dates forced the production team to recast their parts at short notice. Enlightenment averaged 6.8 million viewers per episode on its first transmission and received generally positive reviews from critics.
Plot
Following interference from both the White and Black Guardians, the Fifth Doctor materialises the TARDIS in what appears to be the hold of an Edwardian yacht, though the Doctor senses something is amiss. The human crew have no idea how they got there nor where they are, but know they are taking part in a race. The Doctor and his companions, Tegan and Turlough, discover that the yacht and several other historical Earth ships are competing in a solar sail race through the Solar System. The ship's officers reveal themselves to be "Eternals", in contrast to the Doctor and the humans, whom they somewhat dismissively call "Ephemerals". The Eternals live in the "trackless wastes of eternity" and rely on Ephemerals for their thoughts and ideas. This race is being held by the Guardians and the prize is Enlightenment, the wisdom to know everything. The Doctor finds that the Eternals have made his TARDIS vanish, forcing him and his companions to stay until the race's conclusion.
As the race continues, several of the vessels are destroyed by explosions. The Doctor suspects that the crew aboard the Buccaneer, which is a 17th-century pirate ship, is responsible, as it was the closest vessel at the time of destruction. Turlough, while attempting to escape control of the Black Guardian, ends up aboard the Buccaneer, and meets the Eternal Captain Wrack, professing his desire to join her crew and learning she too is working for the Black Guardian. He finds equipment aboard her ship that appears to be the source of the device destroying the other ships and hears the Black Guardian's voice nearby. Later, Wrack offers the Edwardian officers a reception aboard her ship. During the reception, Turlough demonstrates the Wrack's advantage-providing equipment to the Doctor, while Wrack hypnotizes Tegan and implants Tegan's tiara (Tegan and Marriner attend Captain Wrack's reception in full Edwardian costume) with a red crystal. After the reception and continuation of the race, the Doctor sees the Buccaneer nearing the Edwardian ship, determines that the red crystal is used as a focal point of the weapon, and gets rid of the tiara before Wrack can destroy the ship.
Nearing the end of the race, the solar winds dissipate and the Buccaneer pulls ahead of the Edwardian ship. Not wishing to see Wrack win, the Eternals return the TARDIS to the Doctor, allowing him to travel to the Buccaneer. However, he is captured, and Wrack's first mate suggests that the Doctor be thrown overboard. From the Edwardian ship, Tegan and the others watch as two bodies are ejected from the Buccaneer just before it crosses the finish line.
The ships and their human crews are returned to Earth and the Guardians dismiss the other Eternals. It is revealed that the Doctor won the race, with Wrack and her first mate having suffered "an unfortunate accident". The Doctor refuses the prize, but as Turlough helped the Doctor, 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 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.
Continuity
To commemorate the show's anniversary, every story during Season 20 included the return of an enemy from the Doctor's past. During this trilogy (begun in the serial Mawdryn Undead, and concluding with Enlightenment), the enemy was the Black Guardian, who was last encountered by 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.
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 that, with the addition of the Black Guardian sub-plot, 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.
The first episode was delivered by Clegg 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 intended 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-writes. 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 serial's 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. 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.
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Archive
The BBC holds all four episodes on D-3 tape, transferred from the original 2" videotapes. 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. 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
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. 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". 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, writer 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.