November 12: The Caves of Androzani Parts Three & Four

The Doctor is determined to save Peri. (The Caves of
Androzani Part Three) ©BBC

These final two episodes deliver just as much as the first two did, but this time you start to really see the wheels turning: Morgus spots the Doctor in Stotz's ship via video screen and makes a series of wrong assumptions that help lead to everyone's downfall.  The Doctor is the catalyst, even though he's barely done anything.  All he wants to do is save Peri.  And to do so he goes to great lengths -- even, as we see, the cost of his own life.

Yet because of the Doctor's presence, the entire balance of power on Androzani Minor is upset.  He helps rescue Salateen, which leads to him returning to Chellak with information about Jek's base.  He ends up captured by Stotz, which leads to Morgus's precipitous actions (murdering the President and heading to Androzani Minor), which themselves lead to both his death and the death of Sharaz Jek, as Jek wants nothing more than to take his revenge on Morgus.  "Do you think bullets could stop me now?" Jek cries, tearing off his mask.  "You stinking offal, Morgus, look at me!"  And it's the Doctor and Peri's presence that leads to Jek capturing them in the first place, as he wants someone of great beauty and someone intelligent to talk to.  Just by being there, the Doctor changes everything.

These last two episodes also continue the brutality on display; these are not nice people, but they almost all are dead by the end (as has been noted elsewhere, Krau Timmin and Peri (and possibly that guy in episode one who's taking care of the copper mine) are the only ones to escape the bloodbath).  But here it never feels like Robert Holmes is just getting rid of characters (the way Resurrection of the Daleks felt at times) because they've outlived their usefulness; Holmes is instead deft at maneuvering them into positions that not only lead to their deaths but feel proper and fitting -- Salateen is killed by hubris (assuming the robot beltplate "passes" still work), Krelper and the other mercenary are killed to reinforce a character point about Stotz (that he's completely ruthless), and Chellak dies in a mudburst because he couldn't handle Jek's true appearance.  It's violent, but there's a purpose behind it.

Peter Davison regenerates into Colin Baker. (The Caves of
Androzani Part Four) ©BBC

However, while this story is really well-plotted and gorgeously directed (and I forgot to mention the lighting last time, with lots of dark shadows and unusual colored lights for the characters to move around in), it's ultimately building to the final moment of the Doctor's death.  Holmes's script (the only regeneration story he ever wrote, curiously enough) is also structured so things feel more and more desperate, with increasing tension and pressure as events continue.  Things are building to a fever pitch -- even the music gets in on the action.  The desperation and determination that the Doctor displays (starting with his capture of Stotz's ship), even as his body is increasingly wracked by spectrox toxaemia, also contribute to this build-up -- and I like the way the Doctor starts to see the regeneration effect near the end of part three before shaking it off.  But he's able to beat almost impossible odds to save Peri -- though he dies in the process.¹³²  The regeneration itself continues to build, with a strange light effect as the Doctor sees his old companions -- even Kamelion -- as he dies (and, touchingly, his final word is "Adric?" as he sees the companion he couldn't save).  It all builds to a crescendo (Graeme Harper likened it to the end of the Beatles' "A Day in the Life", which is an apt comparison) of noise and light, and then with a climactic boom (the same sound that ends the credits), the newly-regenerated sixth Doctor snaps to a sitting position -- and he even gets a couple lines (unusual at the time, although now it's standard practice).  "Doctor?" Peri asks tentatively.  "You were expecting someone else?" the new Doctor responds, somewhat imperiously.  "I- I- I-" Peri stutters.  "That's three I's in one breath," the Doctor interrupts.  "Makes you sound a rather egotistical young lady."  "What's happened?" Peri wonders.  "Change, my dear," the Doctor says, now looking into the camera.  "And it seems not a moment too soon."  The fifth Doctor has regenerated into the sixth.

It's a violent story -- an old-fashioned revenge drama in many ways -- though there's a narrative purpose to the violence, and everyone willing to use violence ends up paying the price by the end.  But at its heart, The Caves of Androzani is about the Doctor trying to save the life of a girl he barely knows, and he's willing to move heaven and earth to do so.  Season 21 has shown us a Doctor increasingly steeped in violence (the events of Warriors of the Deep and Resurrection of the Daleks, the willingness to personally kill Kamelion (even if it is a mercy killing), and the inaction while the Master burned to death), but saving Peri redeems him.  The Doctor sacrifices himself for the life of one person, and that is what this story is all about.  The fact that everything around this helps create one of the finest stories in the entire history of the series is a bonus.

So farewell to Peter Davison, who had some incredibly large shoes to fill, following after Tom Baker.  But Peter Davison didn't make the role his own, the way Baker did, so much as he inhabited the character of the Doctor.  We were treated to a Doctor full of energy and charm who, while occasionally looking like he was out of depth and not in control, nevertheless was able to navigate the situations he was presented with intelligence and a sense of delight.  But it felt like these were the fifth Doctor's traits, rather than Peter Davison's, so well did Davison inhabit the character -- a lot like Patrick Troughton in this respect.  It's debatable whether Davison succeeded in completely escaping Tom Baker's long shadow in the public's eyes (but then, it's also not a feat that any subsequent actor would manage until David Tennant -- and arguably not even then), but the fact that he succeeded as well as he did is a tribute to him.

However, we're not quite done yet -- in a very unusual move, John Nathan-Turner has elected to use the last story of season 21 as Colin Baker's debut (a decision that to date has never been replicated).  The Twin Dilemma awaits...







¹³² Although this is the one real flaw in the entire story -- why doesn't the Doctor take some of the queen bat's milk (aka the antidote) right away while he's still there and able to get more if needed?  If nothing else it would make rescuing Peri a hell of a lot easier if he wasn't having to fight off increasing paralysis and "thermal death point" at the same time.   Maybe he was just under so much stress that he didn't think about it that way.