What's Wrong With... Enlightenment

Right from the start of what is known as the Black Guardian Trilogy we've asked the question: why does the Black Guardian feel the need to hide his involvement in these events? He has elected to rely on a useless schoolboy to destroy the powerful Time Lord who already has a record of defeating him, when he might have been far more successful doing the job himself.

(Here, it turns out that he didn't really need Turlough anyway, and his real plan was to unleash the Eternal known as Wrack upon the Universe).

Now, just 8 episodes later, we discover that not only does the White Guardian know what's going on anyway, he even knows exactly where the Black Guardian is headed, and he's going to be there waiting for him.

If the White Guardian is the equal of the Black, why does he have to draw energy from the TARDIS to communicate with the Doctor? He ought to be able to come and go as easily as his opposite number.

The TARDIS crew initially think that they have arrived on an Edwardian sailing ship, but no-one bothers to look out of a porthole to see what's outside. They don't even ask the sailors where they are.

But whilst Tegan and Turlough might think they're off the English coast, the Doctor was given co-ordinates and so should know that they aren't on Earth, yet he doesn't act like it.

Striker claims that the Eternals must follow the customs of the ships they are using, which seems to be part of a general "fair play" policy. If they care so much about playing the game, why have ships from different historical periods, when nautical technology changes over time?

If they want a level playing field, shouldn't they all be using the same design of vessel?

The Doctor states that the red gemstones which Wrack uses as focus points for her powers have to be of a certain size to work - but then claims that when smashed it multiplies their effectiveness.

And when he smashes the one Tegan inadvertently brought back he leaves several sizeable pieces behind, which ought to have at least blown a hole in the ship. 

Why didn't he just bundle up the rug?

There are forcefields surrounding the decks, which presumably protect the sailors who are sent aloft to the rigging - which means that the sails are within the forcefield. How then can they capture solar winds?

What good was a trireme if the ships are powered by solar winds?

If Striker can hide the TARDIS in the Doctor's mind, surely Wrack should have been able to work out Turlough's true motives.

And if they can read minds, how could the Doctor and Turlough have successfully attacked her and her and Mansell? Did they not see it coming?

Disappointingly, the villains are defeated off screen, and we never get to see how the Doctor did it. Did he physically assault them? Doesn't sound at all like the Fifth Doctor.

The alternative is that puny Turlough physically trounced two awesomely powerful Eternals all on his own, which doesn't sound right either...