October 9: Castrovalva Parts Three & Four

So, starting with season 19, Doctor Who moved from its traditional Saturday time slot to a twice-weekly affair, on Mondays and Tuesdays.  What this means is that (although I admit I might be imagining things) there's a tendency for stories of this period to feel like a game of two-part halves, and Castrovalva is no different.  The first two episodes were almost chamber pieces in a way -- you essentially had a cast of the Doctor, Nyssa, and Tegan, with occasional appearances from Adric and the Master, and after part one's exploration of the TARDIS we got part two's exploration of the forest around Castrovalva.  But parts three and four are about Castrovalva itself, and the supporting cast increases appropriately.

Full marks to new Doctor Who director Fiona Cumming, by the way, for that marvelous tease of a wounded Doctor early in part three.  To recap: Tegan and Nyssa have discovered that the Doctor is missing, and that there's a trail of blood leading away from his last location.  Then Cumming gives us a shot of a long trail of blood which leads to a prostrate Doctor -- except it turns out that the Doctor is just listening to the ground to determine how many people there are ahead, and the blood is in fact irrelevant to his current condition.  It's a really nice touch in a story full of imaginative moments.

The new Doctor is surrounded by natives. (Castrovalva Part
Three) ©BBC

Part three has those moments, for instance, as it continually thwarts our expectations about what's going on; the Doctor is seemingly captured by unfriendly natives, but they're actually very civilized and have just gone hunting for the purpose of exercise.  The town's physician, Mergrave, offers the Doctor a suspicious-looking drink, but it seems to help exactly as it's said to do. There's the charming scene where a little girl teaches the Doctor that three comes after two (a result of him being unable to remember about Adric).  Castrovalva itself seems to be an idyllic, peaceful place, but the cliffhanger reveals that space itself appears to be folding in on itself, and there doesn't seem to be any way out.

Part four has some fine moments as well; the scene where the Castrovalvans try to draw a map for the Doctor is wonderful, and the effect of space-time collapsing is well realized.  Castrovalva, in case you don't know, is the name of an M.C. Escher print of a castle on a hill -- it's not one of his optical illusion prints, but that's clearly the inspiration for a lot of what we get here, with our heroes continually heading down and yet always ending up back at the square.  It turns out that's for a reason: Castrovalva is a trap deliberately constructed by the Master to trap the Doctor (with some help from Adric), with a fake village and fake inhabitants all designed to defeat the Doctor once and for all.  Boy, the Master plans ahead, doesn't he?

Davison does an outstanding job, playing the Doctor like someone waking up in a brand new body and taking nothing for granted.  There's a subtle nuance to how he behaves that really sells it, but there's also a brand new energy at play here -- witness how he bursts into his quarters to confront Tegan and Nyssa about Adric.  Janet Fielding and Sarah Sutton, as Tegan and Nyssa respectively, have a much more thankless task of trying to remain rocks in a sea of chaos, and while occasionally you get the impression that they're not quite sure how to play things (Fielding, for instance, often seems to default to outrage), in general they do a decent job with what they're given.  And Anthony Ainley's portrayal of the Portreeve gives lie to the complaint (from later in the series) that he all too frequently plays the Master as a two-dimensional cackling villain -- his Portreeve is wonderful and suggests that the problem with the Master lies in the scripting, not in the acting.  It is a bit of a shame when he reveals himself to be the Master, though, as he's just not as interesting -- particularly as it's the end of the episode, which means that after Shardovan, one of the Castrovalvans, sacrifices himself to end everything (with a great line: "You made us, man of evil, but we are free"), everyone hurries to escape the collapsing Castrovalva -- with the Master dragged back inside by his angry creations.

Castrovalva, in general, has a more relaxed feel than many of its predecessors -- even when people are frantically running around, there's still a sense of peace lurking just beyond the edges.  In large part this is because of Peter Davison's performance; he seems to be making an effort not just to explore what it means to be in a new body, but also to be as distinct from Tom Baker as possible.  So to that end he's considerably more accessible and less in control, and in this case it works.  And he's bolstered by a story which provides a puzzle for the Doctor to work through, rather than for a concrete threat to fight against.  In this respect, it's different from any regeneration story we've had yet -- the stakes are much lower and the story is focused firmly on the Doctor.  It's this approach, matched with the sheer charm of the piece and the talent in front of and behind the camera, that makes Castrovalva a success.