History Recap / DoctorWhoS20E5Enlightenment

* DistressedDude: Turlough. [[spoiler: This seems to snap him right out of suicidal mode]]. And the Doctor himself.

* UnwittingPawn: averted when [[spoiler: Turlough turns on the Black Guardian - but also implicitly played straight with the Doctor as the gambiter and the Black Guardian as the sucker]]

* SwitchingP.O.V: switches with the doctor, Tegan and Turlough

* SpacePirates

* TheBaroness: Wrack, a {{BBW}} version

This story marked the final appearance of the Black and White Guardians and their [[NiceHat ducky hats]], though a character intriguingly similar to the Black Guardian--though minus the hat, and identified as "the Trickster"--turns up in ''Series/TheSarahJaneAdventures''.

Meanwhile, Tegan is left in the TARDIS in case the White Guardian sends another message. He does: They have to win "the race" and it's "winner takes all." But before she can get to the Doctor with this urgent information, she runs into the ship's creepy first mate, Marriner, who tells Tegan in an equally creepy voice that he will take her to her friends. The four of them eventually meet in the bridge, where the Doctor looks at the ship's map just in time for the show's first cliffhanger: the ship is actually a ''space''ship, and it's racing with other period Earth ships through the solar system. [[RuleOfCool Because it'd be cool, that's why.]] The prize: Enlightenment!

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: So, were the pirates who vanished off the ship the crew or Eternals? And does this mean that the crew of the Edwardian ship were sent home as well?

The Doctor, Tegan and Marriner travel to Wrack's ship, where they mingle at a party while Turlough sneaks off to examine the chamber of explodium. He finds an eye-shaped grid[[hottip:*:that looks amazingly like [[http://media.sae.edu/media_thumbs/Images/News/8943_cbs_logo.png the CBS network's logo]]]] open to space, but a pirate locks the door and turns off the vacuum shield. Fortunately, the Doctor finds Turlough before he suffocates, but both are immediately captured. Wrack lures Tegan away from everyone else and momentarily stops time so that she can sneak a '''red jewel''' onto the tiara Tegan is wearing for the party.

This story marked the final appearance of the Black and White Guardians and their [[NiceHat ducky hats]], though a character intriguingly similar to the Black Guardian--though minus the hat, and identified as "the Trickster"--turns up in ''TheSarahJaneAdventures''.

* AccidentalInnuendo: "Promise me we're going to get off!"

* YouHaveFailedMe: played straight (with ham) by the Black Guardian

This story marked the final appearance of the Black and White Guardians and their ducky hats, though a character intriguingly similar to the Black Guardian--though minus the hat, and identified as "the Trickster"--turns up in ''TheSarahJaneAdventures''.

They turn out to be everyone's favourite omnipotent extradimensional beings who wear birds on their heads: the Black and White Guardians! The Doctor declines the prize, saying that no one should receive complete enlightenment, including him.

Tegan, Turlough and the Doctor go up to the deck and Turlough suddenly goes apeshit. The Black Guardian is not happy that [[Recap/DoctorWhoS20E3MawdrynUndead failed to murder The Doctor]], and his disembodied voice tells him he will remain on the ship forever, in "perpetual torment". Turlough shouts "NO! I WILL NEVER SERVE YOU AGAIN!" and jumps overboard.

The Doctor, Tegan and Marriner travel to Wrack's ship, where they mingle at a party while Turlough sneaks off to examine the chamber of explodium. He finds an eye-shaped grid open to space, but a pirate locks the door and turns off the vacuum shield. Fortunately, the Doctor finds Turlough before he suffocates, but both are immediately captured. Wrack lures Tegan away from everyone else and momentarily stops time so that she can sneak a '''red jewel''' onto the tiara Tegan is wearing for the party.

Or does she? Well, it turns out that ''she'' and her first mate were the ones who were thrown overboard, not the Doctor and Turlough. (Yeah, we're not sure how this works, either.) They, along with Tegan, Striker and Marriner go to the Enlighteners to claim their prize.

...yeah. Barring a couple ''very'' minor subplots, that's pretty much it. While PeterDavison is the only really outstanding actor here and the plot loses steam during its second half, overall it's still pretty decent.

* {{Brainwashed}}: Brainwashing rum is given to the [[strike: viewers]] sailors to prevent them from questioning why they're on the ship and why it's in space.

* OrderVersusChaos: The Guardians. With matching ducks on their heads (white and black, respectively, for extra subtlety).
** Actually the two birds in question are a dove and a raven.

After receiving a garbled message from the White Guardian (and almost blowing up the TARDIS in the process), the Fifth Doctor, Tegan and Turlough are taken by the TARDIS to what appears to be an Edwardian sailing ship. The Doctor and Turlough find out that the sailors have absolutely no idea how they came aboard the ship nor who their captain is. But they got paid in advance, so who cares?

Meanwhile, Tegan is left in the TARDIS in case the White Guardian sends another message. He does: They have to win "the race" and it's "winner takes all." Thanks, dude. But before she can get to the Doctor with this urgent information, she runs into the ship's creepy first mate, Marriner, who tells Tegan in an equally creepy voice that he will take her to her friends. The four of them eventually meet in the bridge, where the Doctor looks at the ship's map just in time for the show's first cliffhanger: the ship is actually a ''space''ship, and it's racing with other period Earth ships through the solar system. [[RuleOfCool Because it'd be cool, that's why.]] The prize: Enlightenment!

The officers of these ships are Eternals, mind-reading beings who exist above and beyond our universe. They've lived so long that they have no original thoughts of their own, and must read the minds of mortals ("Ephemerals") in order to alleviate their soul-crushing boredom. Having Enlightenment will ensure that they will never be bored again. The Doctor uses a viewscreen to look at another captain and notices he's wearing an out-of-period '''red jewel''' that '''[[MacGuffin is very important to the plot]]''' so '''pay attention.''' The ships round Venus, and Striker's ship edges so close to the planet in an attempt to get ahead that the ship's almost destroyed. Another ship comes so close that it actually ''is'' destroyed. Or at least, that's Striker's conclusion. The Doctor, as always, thinks something more sinister is at hand.

Tegan, Turlough and the Doctor go up to the deck; and, while Marriner continues hitting on Tegan in his own special way ("your mind is fascinating", indeed), Turlough suddenly goes apeshit. Turns out, he's TheMole for the Black Guardian and had been ordered to kill the Doctor ever since he [[Recap/DoctorWhoS20E3MawdrynUndead came on board the TARDIS]]. The Black Guardian's disembodied voice tells Turlough in his mind that he has failed him and that he will remain on the ship forever, in "perpetual torment". Turlough shouts "NO! I WILL NEVER SERVE YOU AGAIN!" and jumps overboard.

Luckily, a badly-bluescreen'd net saves him and he's taken aboard another ship, led by the ruthless and hammy Captain Wrack. He manages to convince her that he's on her side and wants to share the prize, and due to his "devious" and "confused" mind Wrack has difficulty reading it. Wrack sends her first mate to present Captain Davey (another competitor) with a '''jewelled''' sword and to deliver party invitations to the other captains. Striker refuses the invitation, but the Doctor accepts, wanting to retrieve Turlough.

* WardrobeMalfunction: That beautiful, [[http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tegan_dress_2634.jpg low-cut]] Edwardian dress Tegan wears for the party? Incompatible with the ''DoctorWho'' tradition of running up and down corridors--Janet Fielding popped out of it a couple of times during filming.

This story marked the final appearance of the Black and White Guardians and their ducky hats, though a character intriguingly similar to the Black Guardian--though minus the hat, and identified as "the Trickster"--turns up in ''TheSarahJaneAdventures''.[[hottip:*:You mean [[http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20091031005457/tardis/images/thumb/4/42/7gxf.jpg/250px-7gxf.jpg this one]] and [[http://images.wikia.com/tardis/images/9/9f/TheBlackGuardian02.jpg this one]]? Yeah... totally saw the similarities...]]

This story marked the final appearance of the Black and White Guardians and their ducky hats, though a character intriguingly similar to the Black Guardian--though minus the hat, and identified as "the Trickster"--turns up in ''TheSarahJaneAdventures''.

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/enlightenment_ship_882.jpg

* CrowningMomentOfAwesome: Tegan, shrugging off Marriner's MindRape attempt without any apparent effort. Serves the immortal, super-powered creep right.
* CrowningMusicOfAwesome: The music that plays whenever the Eternals use their mind-reading powers, and also the tune used when Turlough is floating in space.
** This could have been taken to a whole new level in the feature-length version released on DVD, as the director wanted to shell out for new series composer Murray Gold to rescore the entire story. The budget wouldn't stretch to that however, and we got a rather ungainly mix of the original soundtrack and some public domain music.

* JamesBondage: Turlough. [[spoiler: Perhaps worryingly, perhaps... excitingly (IfYouKnowWhatIMean), this seems to snap him right out of suicidal mode]] And don't forget the Doctor himself--when he's by Wrack's men (and has a sword to his neck), it brings chills to this Troper's spine.

* LesYay: Wrack's interactions with Tegan have more than a tinge of this on both sides, even before Wrack goes for the MindControl (and turns out to be in it mostly for the evil plotting)

* RuinedFOREVER: The 2009 re-edit of the story into a movie-length edition met with some ''very'' strong opinions from the fanbase, and George Lucas comparisons were quickly thrown around, even though the original version was also included with the DVD release.

* SpecialEffectsFailure: Turlough waving his arms around in front of a blue screen after he jumps into "space".
** They didn't use a blue screen for that bit - they did it with wires and a starry backdrop. They ''did'' use blue screen for the bit where Wrack's crew grabs Turlough in a net and hauls him on-board however, and it's the absolute worst special effect in the story.

-->-Captain Striker brings the smackdown

!Tropes

* YouHaveFailedMe: played straight (with ham) by the Black Guardian

[[caption-width:345:SpaceIsAnOcean]]

Tegan, Turlough and the Doctor go up to the deck; and, while Marriner continues hitting on Tegan in his own special way ("your mind is fascinating", indeed), Turlough suddenly goes apeshit. Turns out, he's TheMole for the Black Guardian and had been ordered to kill the Doctor ever since he came on board the TARDIS. The Black Guardian's disembodied voice tells Turlough in his mind that he has failed him and that he will remain on the ship forever, in "perpetual torment". Turlough shouts "NO! I WILL NEVER SERVE YOU AGAIN!" and jumps overboard.

* WardrobeMalfunction: That beautiful, low-cut Edwardian dress Tegan wears for the party? Incompatible with the ''DoctorWho'' tradition of running up and down corridors--Janet Fielding popped out of it a couple of times during filming.

* XanatosSucker: averted when [[spoiler: Turlough turns on the Black Guardian - but also implicitly played straight with the Doctor as the gambiter and the Black Guardian as the sucker]]
* YouHaveFailedMe: played straight (with ham) by the Black Guardian

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