Can I talk about Enlightenment. I want to talk about Enlightenment. No, I’m not taking a sudden right turn into philosophy and using the tile as clickbait. Enlightenment is a Classic Doctor Who adventure from the Peter Davidson (5th) Doctor’s run and in all honesty is one of my favourites of his time in the TARDIS.
In it the Doctor lands in the middle of the final stage of a vast intergalactic boat race. It’s goal? Enlightenment. Ultimate knowledge. It’s all part of the never ending conflict between two Guardians, the Guardian of Light and the Guardian of Dark. Paired forces of elemental creation so powerful they have developed their own wills and personality.
Whoever wins the race would have the freedom to do what ever they chose. If they did “good” with it they would tilt the scales in favour of the Light Guardian. “Bad” well then the Darkness gains in power. That is how the Guardians work, though proxies. Choosing champions to represent them across time and space, sometimes without them even knowing they have been chosen. Other times…
Enlightenment ties up number of plot threads, including Turlough’s opening storyline. One of the Doctor’s companions, he’s actually an alien stranded on Earth and wants nothing more than to leave. The Black Guardian manipulates him into taking a deal in a previous adventure, kill the Doctor and he will send Turlough back home.
The Doctor, however, offers to take Turlough with him leading to a conflict, Because of the rules the Black Guardian can’t interfere with free will. He can torment and torture the boy, but ultimately Turlough has to do it and now the stakes have never been higher.
The creatures taking part in this Race are known as the Eternals. A spectral species that can live forever and already blessed with vast powers, capable of creating illusions so perfect they can become reality! The problem is they have no imagination. Forced to use their abilities to copy and duplicate others. They also have no physical form, as such, their existence is a hollow one. Living in the echoes of others. This Race will give them the ability to go beyond that nothingness they call home. There is nothing any of them wouldn’t do to escape that fate,
The Doctor must learn all this and decide, should he help the noble captain of one of the surviving ships against the vicious and cruel space pirate killing her rivals? Can he trust his latest Companion? Should anyone win such a powerful and dangerous prize? And what of his enmity with the Black Guardian? Is even the Doctor clever enough to match wits with the literal embodiment of darkness and chaos once again?
Enlightenment is a fantastic Classic story, full of twists, turns, betrayal and trust. The cliffhangers aren’t half bad either…
Alright enough beating around the bush, if you’ve seen The Ghost Monument you know this all sounds a little too familiar, but you know what, Enlightenment really is a Classic Who adventure and it does feel like Chibnall read the wikipedia of that story, thought that it sounded good, and cribbed from it. It’s not a bad story, but it’s been done before and better.
Now, yes, you can point out that Enlightenment came out in 1983 (which was before even I was born!) and that with fifty three years of adventures Doctor Who is bound to repeat itself. And that it has, multiple times in fact, but did it have to be so bland? Oh you can point out the beautiful cinematography, the magnificent shooting locations in South Africa that look gorgeous, the VFX shots that are cinema quality, but that’s window dressing. It all hangs on the story and the Classic story did it better. It set up some real stakes, made the Race interesting and those taking part in it strange and otherworldly. Despite the crap sets, horrendous effects and laughable chicken hats (don’t ask) I can remember Enlightenment as a great story.
Much of Ghost Monument is forgettable. It’s forgettable. We have some character development here and there. Some friction between Ryan and Graham. Whittaker’s Doctor is finding her voice and own personality, albeit slowly. But that’s about it. There’s no real villain here, just antagonists and a hell planet to traverse. It’s biggest crime though is that it’s predictable. The greedy, self centred, competitor that always argues its better to be selfish eventually agrees to share the prize and our heroes make it to the TARDIS unscathed.
The story overall played it incredibly safe, even the pointless fake out near the end when it takes a moment for the TARDIS to appear. Predictable, plodding, unimaginative and creatively empty. It feels like it was written by one of the Eternals. Taken from a crib sheet on how to write the last act of a Great Race story.
It’s not all bad, there are also hints somethings are building in the background. A mystery with the Doctor’s past that maybe she doesn’t even know right now chief among them. And then there’s the Stenza. Our tooth faced friends from the last episode.
Turns out these are our our charming new nemesis for the season. At least they seem to be. The planet The Doctor and her companions find themselves on turned out to be a weapons research outpost. The Stenza have kidnapped scientists from across space and forced them to build new terrifying weapons. One of the Racers is trying to win safety for their family from the Stenza’s all conquering empire (nine systems so far… I can’t help but think that’s a point we should keep in mind)
This would be good, if the Stenza were any kind of credible threat. They really aren’t. There’s nothing mystical, supremely powerful or clever about them. They are alien conquers, these guys are ten-a-penny in Doctor Who alone.
In “The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe” christmas special from a few years ago there was a gag scene at the very beginning where a massive alien ship is threatening Earth. The Doctor blows it up within a handful of seconds. This is the Stenza to me. They aren’t even a blip on the board. They are as threatening as a small mouse with the word boo tattooed on its nose.
They might be somewhat of a threat to the Sarah Jane Adventures, but this is Doctor Who proper. Daleks, Cybermen, Zygons, Weeping Angels, The Master and countless others. Doctor Who has had villains that mean something. Children hiding behind the sofa might be a cliché but it’s true. Terrifying villains is the hallmark of the show. Stenza, nope. Try again Chibnall.
So was it all bad? I want to say no. Like I said above, the location work and the production was top notch The performances were fantastic and there were a couple of nice moments. Just not enough.
Speaking of nice moments, there were two I want to talk about. The title sequence and TARDIS reveal. The titles were something I felt were missing from the first episode and what we got here really proved that. They really hark back to the classic show’s version, same with the theme, only with a modern twist. They were short, visually impressive and I found myself enjoying them for the brief moment. I have never really liked the idea of things like clocks and the Doctor’s face mixed in. This time around we’ve got something much more abstract and mysterious. Very cool.
And the TARDIS interior likewise harkens back to a previous design, this time it’s very reminiscent of 9 and 10’s control room. Only with crystal instead of coral. There’s also a lot of fractal geography involved. Interlocking patterns an the like. I’ve always enjoyed a more organic look to the TARDIS interior and this one does it well. I might have preferred better lighting, but that’s a nitpick. As a whole I like this new TARDIS, a lot better than the previous one. I still prefer Eleventh’s magical Aladdin’s cave version, but this is one of the better interpretations.
All in all we really needed a better story. A stronger presence from the main cast and a villain that actually carried some menace.
6 out of 13
Not awful, just meh. A whole load of forgettable, bland, meh.
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