Harry -
The saddest thing about viewing all the Davison era stories in succession has been watching all our friends depart the show, one by one. And now, the Fifth Doctor.
Sarah -
I find this departure particularly painful because Davison goes out on the highest note of the Fifth Doctor's era -- and one of the highest notes in the series' history. "The Caves of Androzani" regularly tops lists of best Doctor Who stories with good reason. It's absolutely brilliant and Peter Davison gives one of his best performances as the Doctor.
Harry -
What a contrast from "Planet of Fire", where the Doctor was practically a tourist as the story played itself out around him. Here, he explores, climbs, gets captured, escapes capture, runs, carries, gets executed, crash lands a spaceship, saves his friend's life at the expense of his own, and finally, he regenerates. WOW.
Sarah -
Imagine if he'd been given this much to do over the previous seasons!
Harry -
It was fitting that Davison's most Pertwee- and Baker-esque performance came in a story that felt so much like a Third or Fourth Doctor adventure. And look who wrote it -- hello Bob Holmes!
Sarah -
I was getting a drink during the opening, so I missed the writing credits. Halfway though episode one, I thought to myself, "This has got to be a Robert Holmes story." You can't miss the mark of the master!
"The Caves of Androzani" is also Graeme Harper's directorial debut in Doctor Who, having previously served as assistant floor manager and production assistant. His direction breathes so much life into the story, which is attributed to his direction from the floor, rather than the production booth.
Harry -
It begins quietly. Having departed the desert planet Sarn, the TARDIS lands in another desert, this time on Androzani Minor. Intrigued by some tracks left in the sand, the Doctor leads Peri towards some caves. These fleeting moments are the only stress-free time they will have together. Before long, Peri slips and tumbles down an opening in the caves. She lands in some webby muck that burns her skin and that of the Doctor when he examines her. Little do they know it, but their clocks have just begun ticking.
Sarah -
The moment when Peri slips is almost played for laughs and it really is quite unexpected when she topples over. We have no idea, of course, that she's stumbled into unrefined Spectrox and spread it to the Doctor.
Harry -
It's the unrefined stuff that will get you. Little do they know it, but they are also about to stumble into the middle of a hostile situation involving a business conglomerate that's mining the planet, some renegade gunrunners, and a mysterious saboteur and his band of android soldiers -- all battling over the life-enhancing drug Spectrox.
Sarah -
I love the political drama in this story. So many factions, so much double-dealing and backstabbing. Such Bob Holmes brilliance!
Harry -
Episode One might be one of the fastest moving episodes in all of Doctor Who. Once the Doctor and Peri plunge into the middle of things, we meet the various antagonists in rapid succession. Trau Morgus is the devious businessman who monitors developments from the safety of his headquarters on Androzani Major. (I love the glowing pastel shades of his office set -- so futuristically 80s.) Stotz is leader of the gunrunners who lurk in the shadows, alternately attacking the soldiers sent to flush them out, and fighting off the monstrous bat creatures that inhabit the caves. Last, and most creepy of them all is Sharaz Jek. He first appears as a Phantom of the Opera kind of character, but he takes a very unpleasant turn before long.
Oh, before we even get there, the Doctor and Peri are executed by General Chellak's soldiers. How very Bob Holmes!
Sarah -
Fortunately, Sharaz Jek managed to swap out the Doctor and Peri with a couple of androids, who take the bullets while the real Doctor and Peri are whisked off to Jek's lair. What seems like a rescue soon turns creepy. Jek becomes the first in a long series of characters to become obsessed with Peri. His scenes with Peri are some of the most uncomfortable endured by a companion since the attempted rape of Barbara in "The Keys of Marinus". Poor Peri.
The Doctor and Peri discover that Salateen, Chellak's right-hand man, is also being held captive by Jek, which means Chellak has an andoid double agent on his team. The plot thickens!
Harry -
I can't think of another Doctor Who story where we meet so many different villains all at once.
Sarah -
I'm not sure I would classify them all as villains. They're each serving their own interests, none of which line up with those of the Doctor and Peri.
Harry -
True. Interestingly, it will be the "military" characters Salateen and Chellak who turn out to be the most sympathetic to the plight of the Doctor and Peri. I can't say much for the acting of Robert Glenister or Michael Cochrane, who deliver some terribly panto laughs and screams as the story plays out.
Sarah -
Gleister's performance is confusing. His android Salateen is perfect. Even before he knows it's an android, Chellak seems unsettled by Salateen's too-perfect anticipation of his needs. The "real" Salateen starts out panto and morphs into a hero by the end of the story.
Harry -
However, John Normington and Christopher Gable were casting masterstrokes as Morgus and Jek. Normington's smooth, unblemished face is perfect for a Spectrax fiend. His opposite, Jek, is hidden under a mask, but the disgustingness of his character comes out in Gable's voice and the spidery movements of his hand as he strokes Peri. Total creep out.
Sarah -
Brilliant casting on both counts.
Harry -
And those asides by Morgus. I love them! He's so rich and powerful he can break the fourth wall if he damn well pleases.
Sarah -
Those are some of my favorite moments in the story. Morgus is just so reprehensible! We know, like all robber-baron villains, he will eventually get his comeuppance, but he gets so many opportunities to be the baddest baddie in the story!
Harry -
Jek is obsessed with Morgus. He and his androids collect and control access to the Spectrox. In exchange for it, he demands the head of Morgus. They were once partners in the conglomerate, but Jek was betrayed, disfigured in a mudburst and abandoned to die. Deep inside the caves is where he established his lair, plotting revenge. The arrival of Peri set him off. When she and Salateen escape back to Chellak's headquarters, he goes mad with rage, then kidnaps her back like a total psycho.
Sarah -
A lesser writer would just make Jek a ranting psycho. Holmes gives him a backstory that makes the character so much more interesting, and almost sympathetic.
Harry -
Almost, but not quite.
I have to mention here that Nicola Bryant delivered an amazing performance in this story. Her discomfort and distress as she was menaced by both Jek and the Spectrox toxemia were very realistic.
Sarah -
She really is so good. A few days ago Peri was on the beach and now she's facing death on another planet while trying to negotiate her way between a series of extremely disturbing situations and characters. Bryant captures the chaos of the situation while maintaining a strength of character. It feels like a long time since we've seen a companion given such strong material to work with.
Harry -
I'm getting angry thinking about it!
Meanwhile, the Doctor has slipped away ahead of everyone, crawled through a gun battle between the gunrunners and the cave bats, and gotten himself recaptured by Jek. He is handed over to Stotz, the leader of the gunrunners and they depart for Androzani Major.
Sarah -
We haven't talked about Stotz yet. How good is Maurice Roëves? He feels so dangerous -- threatening his crew to keep them in line, playing all sides, and not hesitating to kill anyone who gets in his way.
Harry -
He played the gunrunner role perfectly, throwing in a dash of rogueish charm, but not too much.
This is where we find out that Morgus is playing all sides -- funding the gunrunners, betraying (and murdering) the president, and assigning emergency negotiating powers to none other than... Trau Morgus. He announces that he is going on a mission to Androzani Minor to personally negotiate a settlement with Jek. It's all coming to a head fast and furious -- especially when the Doctor hijacks Stotz's ship and sends it hurtling back the other way.
Sarah -
Now THAT"S a cliffhanger!
Harry -
I have a bit of a quandry about this. A conundrum if you will. I don't want to derail us on a long analysis, so maybe I'll save it for our Davison era recap post. Please remind me to remember!
Sarah -
Oooo, a conundrum. I can hardly wait!
Harry -
Back to the crash scene. Actually, we never see the crash scene, or the crash itself. Clearly a massive hole in the production budget there, but we do get a good chase scene over the hills and dunes of Androzani Minor.
Sarah -
Chases are much easier on the budget than crashes, no?
Harry -
It was a lovely set of sand dunes. I wonder where that was filmed.
There's a final gun battle in the caves as all sides converge once again. Under the obvious sham of a peace negotiation, Morgus arrives with Stotz's troops to steal Jek's Spectrox store -- but not before finding out he has been deposed as head of the conglomerate by Krau Timmin (haha Morgus!).
Sarah -
Krau Timmin is awesome. She appears to be Morgus' faithful assistant, but she's just biding her time until he's exposed. Brilliant!
Harry -
I loved her feet-on-the-desk punctuation mark.
As well, Morgus has just been indicted by the presidium and faces a lifetime on the run from justice. What a turnaround. In the mayhem that follows, Jek and Morgus have their final showdown, which proves fatal for both of them. They didn't really explain the device that (presumably) killed Morgus, but after being shot, Jek draped himself over the arms of the android Salateen for a poetic visual.
Sarah -
Jek's final words -- "Salateen, hold me" -- are almost heartbreaking, as he collapses into the android's arms.
Harry -
Jek had been tending to a dying Peri when the Doctor arrived. With everyone dead or dying, our hero races down to the lowest levels of the caves in search of the milk of the queen bat -- the only known antidote to Spectrox toxemia. Carrying Peri back to the TARDIS, the Doctor looks like he's been through hell. The blood on his forehead, the mud and filth on his clothes, and his weakening state as he just manages to give the antidote to Peri. It was a thrilling race against time and I loved it.
Sarah -
Did you realize that the two women in the story -- Peri and Timmin -- are the only ones who survive?
Harry -
I didn't realize that Holmes knocked off everybody but the ladies.
Sarah -
Not a good day for the blokes. Everyone else is dead as the Doctor stumbles into the TARDIS with Peri in his arms. Unfortunately, there is not enough antidote for both of them and this Doctor's time is up.
Harry -
And then, regeneration.
Sarah -
Our first mid-season regeneration since 1966!
Harry -
"It feels different this time." It looks different too. The Davison changeover gives us a hint of the loud, fiery regenerations that will be standard in the current era. The Doctor's memories come flooding back -- Adric's death haunting him to the end, and a flurry of voices ring through his mind as his body regenerates. Everything builds up to a cacophonous climax that was inspired by the finale of The Beatles' "Day in the Life." BOOM! It's the end of an era. Farewell to the gentle, smiling, ever-so-affable Edwardian cricketer. At least we finally found out what the celery was about.
Sarah -
It's heartbreaking that his final word is "Adric."
Harry -
And then, Colin Baker sits up... and within seconds, he makes me miss Peter Davison already.
Sarah -
It's hard to erase all the Sixth Doctor baggage and try to remember how we felt when we first saw Colin Baker sit up as the regenerated Doctor. I have to admit that this time I found myself thinking Colin was quite handsome...until he opened his mouth to chastise Peri.
Harry -
The greatest of Fifth Doctor stories ends on such a sour note, with a new, arrogant Doctor snarking at Peri from the get-go. Ugh. It's a shame that Peter and Nicola couldn't have more adventures together. But that's where Big Finish comes in!
Sarah -
Thank you Big Finish! Now please take all my money!
Harry -
We'll have plenty to gripe about in the coming weeks, so let us raise a glass to Bob Holmes, Peter Davison, Nicola Bryant, all of the guest cast, Graeme Harper and all of the crew -- you produced one of the all time classics of Doctor Who. This might be the closest I'll ever get to a 10 rating. If every adventure was as brilliant as this one, the show would never have gone off the air.
Sarah -
I raise my pint to them all!
Harry -
It's hard to let go, knowing what's ahead. Perhaps we could have one more toast for Peter.
Sarah -
If we keep toasting, can we stop it from happening?
Harry -
Wouldn't hurt to try.
Best Line:
STOTZ: You'd better turn this ship around Doctor!
DOCTOR: Why?
STOTZ: Because I'll kill you if you don't!
DOCTOR: Not a very convincing argument actually, Stotz, because I'm going to die soon anyway...
Favourite Moment: the action packed chase scene after the offscreen spaceship crash.
Lasting Image: Sharaz Jek being utterly creepy.
9/10
Sarah -
Best Line:
SHARAZ JEK : "Don't mock me, Doctor. Beauty I must have, but you are dispensible.
DOCTOR: "Thank you."
SHARAZ JEK: "You have the mouth of a prattling jackanapes... But your eyes... they tell a different story."
Favorite Moment: Morgus breaking the fourth wall
Lasting Image: The Doctor carrying Peri back to the TARDIS
10/10
Our marathon continues with Story #136: The Twin Dilemma...
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