The dynamic between five and Turlough is the most complicated of Fives era. Turlough is specially sent to kill the Doctor, yet he is unable to kill him in the first episode. He says to the Black Guardian:
‘The Doctor isn’t as you say!’
Mind you, the Black Guardian is probably the most powerful being Turlough has met before the Doctor. Turlough wasn’t even aware of the Doctor being a Time Lord, he just got the sense of safety. And when Turlough’s got that final choice of enlightenment. He chooses the Doctor:
‘He must not weaken. He must think of himself. Look after himself. Nobody else would! This was his moment. And then he looked at the Doctor again. And the truth was unavoidable; he liked the Doctor. He admired him. And he would’ve died rather than go through with it.’
Then the once he’s decided to go home. He doesn’t. Turloughs whole goal to kill the Doctor was for a way home and yet when he’s free from that deal he chooses to stay because he’d ’learn more.’ Turlough gets multiple opportunities but once he learns that the Doctor is so alike himself he wants to understand how to fight for himself even when witnessing death. Turlough isn’t new to death, he’s been through war as a child.
Turloughs relationship with everyone is almost always empty yet he chooses to trust the Doctor in every decision as long as he can because he likes being an enigma to the Doctor. But Turlough doesn’t like sharing his secrets because he knows how much he can risk his image from revealing everything.
Yet with no pressure in the beginning Planet of Fire Turlough tells the Doctor everything he can to either open up or he can be even more dishonest and there’s no point when he’s so close to home. And when he’s threatened with a bad ending for their friendship, Turlough can’t tell the Doctor specifics until later?! But…All of Turloughs descriptions of the Doctor are more than admiration.
What I see in Fivelough is the repressed queerness of that era, whether that’s from the people writing those characters or the actors. The characters altogether seem to want to hide their proximity away from others, even if they’re constantly close. What we don’t see a lot in queer media is the queerness, we only see the ‘gayness’ but the word queer is definition of weirdness. Fivelough are odd, they are so similar yet with tha repression they are unable to communicate but those close moments where they almost do, you can see and feel how tense they are because of how much they secretly don’t trust themselves to let anyone in. They let each other on the edge of what they think is reciprocal, but one of them is hiding more than the other. Turlough is the exception, he is the one who is least trusting because he doesn’t trust himself and he doesn’t believe that the Doctor does either. He’s the one who sees the most change happen to the Doctor.
And when Turlough finally leaves his ‘trouble’ the Doctor has become something he doesn’t recognise anymore. Giving him more reason to depart from someone who never stopped him from leaving. Because in Turloughs mind, the Doctor would’ve stopped him from leaving if he cared. The Doctor did care but thought Turlough would be better off at home than seeing him eventually die. They both knew it was over but they were never able to understand why that communication never happened to leave or tell each other more. Nothing more was ever shared.
The way Turlough also says the Doctors name. They both say each other’s names in a soft way because they know the sensitivity of each other. The way they touch so gently, they never do that with anyone else. It’s the staring between each other. The proximity they dare to share in the company of others. They’re constantly looking for each other.
AND ANOTHER THING. They still are looking for each other. In older age and versions of themselves. They believe that each other will be there to save them. Like the vacuum shield scene in Enlightenment and also Turlough calling out for specifically his Doctor in the trailer. He didn’t even know if his Doctor would be there. But he had that same look in his eyes to his Doctor. The same way of calling to him. They are always connected to each other - which is a good point for Red for Danger.
Red for Danger is a good example of trust that Five had in Turlough. I mean - Turlough had his own TARDIS key. Yes, Six wasn’t the Doctor Turlough expected but he was so desperate to leave that something painful made the Doctor appear.
The era which Turlough was sent to wasn’t exactly open to the terms of being a homosexual. Turlough on Trion, he was a kid who was set up with the idea of ‘just build a relationship and you can get on with life.’ A relationship which the fathers tore apart due to war. He was a child in an early relationship which had to fight for his family then when he was back in that reminder of an old relationship she got killed. He closed himself off completely. But before that he was exiled to Earth to an all boys school, and he’d be travelling with Hippo in the summer. He was sheltered to only being surrounded by men. And Turlough grew wanting the attention of teachers and older male figures since he had been separated from his own father. But his own trust in those figures make him vulnerable to people like the headmaster or the Black Guardian. Nothing has canonically happened in that sense, but the way he reacts to the sailors on the boat. The way the touch makes him anxious. His shame can come from being expected to do worse by older men. The only reason he feels safe with the Doctor is because the Doctor wouldn’t ever do anything of that sense where Turlough has to give himself up. He actually manages to hide more. It can be internalised homophobia in the sense that Turlough has been subjected to so much around him that it feels wrong, as if he’s ‘copying’ what he’s seen or what others have done to or around him. But Turlough doesn’t have to indulge with that, not with the Doctor. Turlough is so vulnerable it’s sickening and he knows that which is why the Doctor tried to inspire turlough to leave by calling him a hero, because Turlough has always wanted to feel in power of himself and his identity and now he truly can in his knowledge that he can return home instead of subjecting himself to the human sexuality or mindset of the time he was sent to.
When Tegan is saying goodbye, she is saying goodbye to the Doctor first. He’s in the light, he’s always been present as ‘the light in the darkness.’ Which is a good hint at enlightenment during this scene where Tegan is firmly deciding to leave them both. During Tegan’s last episode, she unfortunately doesn’t get to do much. The important part is when Turlough reunites with her after he went missing. He even says:
‘She’s a friend.’
He says it right to her. In front of her. And this time she doesn’t protest like in terminus when asked if they were friends she responded with:
‘Not yet.’
But in her last moments they are now officially friends. Although, in the last scene she shares with Turlough, Turlough has regressed to cowardice with being inaccurately educated in how the Dalek virus works. He’s preserving his safety just in case.
That’s Tegan’s last impression of him. Which is why it’s so shocking to him and us as an audience tha she shakes his hand. Turlough is hidden in the dark - yet again contrasting to the Doctor who is in the light. Which is, the guardian comparison. Yet it’s how we view Turlough, in the dark. Yet when she says his name, he scampers towards the light to shake her hand, almost as if that’s his desperate attempt to seem like he’s a good guy after all. He doesn’t expect anything from Tegan, but their friendship was so hidden between themselves that they were surprised to even get to say goodbye like that. Especially since they never got a proper introduction
i think turlough is the horse in a horse girl movie and fivey is the horse girl. turlough is aggressive and bitey but fivey is going to bond with him and turn him into a star. and they're going to win a massive competition together and no one thought they could do it.
i think turlough is the horse in a horse girl movie and fivey is the horse girl. turlough is aggressive and bitey but fivey is going to bond with him and turn him into a star. and they're going to win a massive competition together and no one thought they could do it.
Being a Turlough fan is so disorienting because WHAT DO YOU MEAN that Meanwhile, Turlough came out in 2024. I remember being so excited waiting for its release and it’s been two whole years since.
amandla
