And so the Black Guardian trilogy ends with this four part adventure - Enlightenment. A story worthy of the new series for it's sheer ambition!
The story starts simply enough. The Doctor believes they have landed in the hold of an old Edwardian sailing yacht after receiving a cryptic message from the White Guardian that "the winner takes all". We soon begin to see that things are not quite as they seem as the Doctor, Turlough and Tegan come across various items that appear to be anachronistic to the time period they believe that they are in. Things soon become clear at the breathtaking cliffhanger to episode one when the view screen is revealed and instead of seeing the ocean we discover that the yacht is sailing through space along with a varying assortment of other ships, all from different periods in Earth's history, including a viking ship and a pirate ship.
This DVD came with two versions. The original as transmitted version and a special edition where new effects were used and the four episodes edited down into a feature length version. As I needed to watch one episode a day, the feature length version was clearly not an option for me. However I enjoyed this story so much that as soon as I'd finished episode four, I sat down and watched the feature length version too!
The ships are being crewed by mainly kidnapped people from Earth but the officers are from a race known as the Eternals who exist outside of time and space. Such is their omnipotence that they are astonished when the Doctor reveals himself as a Time Lord that there "can be Lords of such a small domain". They are racing their ships in order to gain the prize of Enlightenment.
The Eternals are an interesting race, they are not evil, but not necessarily nice either. They treat the crew of their ships well but never really have any regard for human life. When the viking ship is destroyed, Tegan is distraught to have witnessed so many deaths. The Eternal, Mariner, tries to reassure her that they did not die but were transported back to the home world. When Tegan enquires further however it becomes clear that he is only referring to the officers of the ships, who like him are Eternals, the human crew were killed but "they live such short lives anyway". He cannot seem to grasp why Tegan is upset.
After being tormented by the Black Guardian once again, Turlough jumps overboard into the emptiness of space in an apparent suicide attempt. It's not often that a cliffhanger comes from the attempted suicide of a companion! Fortunately he is rescued by the Buccaneer, the pirate ship, headed by the villainous Captain Wrack who is trying to destroy the other ships.
Finally as the Doctor and Turlough fly the now captured pirate ship across the finish line, Turlough is offered a glowing crystal which he is told is enlightenment. The Black Guardian appears to tell Turlough that he can take the crystal only if he completes his mission and kills the Doctor. After some soul searching, Turlough smashes the crystal into the Black Guardian who vanishes in a blaze of fire. The White Guardian then goes on to explain that "the crystal wasn't Enlightenment, Enlightenment was the choice"
Overall the Black Guardian trilogy has a fantastic start and end but with a bloody awful bit in the middle.
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