The Caves of Androzani

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

136 - The Caves of Androzani
Doctor	Peter Davison (Fifth Doctor) Colin Baker (Sixth Doctor)
Writer	Robert Holmes
Director	Graeme Harper
Script Editor	Eric Saward
Producer	John Nathan-Turner
Executive producer(s)	None
Production code	6R
Series	Season 21
Length	4 episodes, 25 mins each
Transmission date	March 8–March 16, 1984
Preceded by	Planet of Fire
Followed by	The Twin Dilemma

The Caves of Androzani is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four twice-weekly parts from March 8 to March 16, 1984. It was Peter Davison's last story as the Doctor, and marks the first appearance of Colin Baker in the role.

1 Synopsis
2 Plot
3 Cast
4 In print
5 Trivia
6 External links
- 6.1 Reviews
- 6.2 Target novelisation

[edit] Synopsis

On the planet of Androzani Minor, the Fifth Doctor and Peri get caught in the politics and dangers of mining spectrox, the most valuable substance in the universe. Things get complicated and deadly when Peri contracts spectrox toxaemia, and in the caves of Androzani Minor, the shadowy Sharaz Jek plots a terrible revenge.

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The Doctor undergoes a traumatic fifth regeneration

The TARDIS lands on the desert planet Androzani Minor. The Doctor explains to Peri that he has been there before in the past or future. Peri then says that the Doctor is a very confusing person to travel with and then calls him a pain. Examining the ground, the Doctor finds traces of fused silica and surmises that visiting spacecraft must have arrived. He then points out to Peri a set of tracks leading to some nearby caves. Addressing a remark that Peri made ten minutes ago, the Doctor says "And I'm not a pain," before he leads her to investigate further.

While in the cave, Peri slips and falls into a strange sticky substance which makes her legs sting. The Doctor then helps her brush it off with his hands and tells her not to get caught in any more of the stuff. Moving deeper into the caves, they find piles of weaponry belonging to a gang of gun runners led by Stotz and his henchman, Krelper. As the Doctor and Peri begin to inspect the weapons, they are captured by Captain Roones who has them brought before General Chellak.

The General, holographically, communicates with Trau Morgus, the head of several conglomerate companies back on Androzani Major. Unknown to Chellak, Morgus, whose company is publicly funding the war against the gun runners, is also a patron of Stotz's gang. When Chellak informs him that Captain Roones had captured two gun runners he becomes concerned. However, when he sees the Doctor and Peri he changes his attitude and then orders that they be shot immediately. Chellak initaily protests on the grounds that he believes that they could be a source of useful information, but he gives in to Morgus' demands and orders the execution of the Doctor and Peri. Chellak has Major Salateen place the Doctor and Peri in detention and organize their execution.

Unknown to them, Chellak's conversation with Morgus has been monitored by a black-garbed and masked figure who notices Peri's beauty. He starts to assemble components in his laboratory and orders androids four and nine to join him. Meanwhile, Peri is restless in the detention. Her legs and the Doctor’s hands are coming out in blisters. The Doctor is suspicious of Salateen, and then he ponders as to why Morgus was so concerned that the Chellack caught two gun runners, and then once he saw them, he lost all interest. As the Doctor laments on Morgus' "insult", someone enters their cell via a secret door.

Some of Chellak's men escort the confiscated weapons back to base, but Stotz and Krelper gun them down. The weapons are disposed of before Chellak can recapture them and the two leave before any reinforcements can arrive.

Morgus receives the President of Androzani Major in his office and gives him some spectrox. Spectrox, a drug that at least doubles the life span of humans, is the purpose for the Android Rebel War. However, the war is holding up spectrox supplies and the public demand for the drug is turning "ugly". The President is considering offering an armistice to Sharaz Jek, the man responsible for the war. For some unexplained reason, Morgus becomes horrified. On Androzani Minor, the Doctor and Peri are placed before a firing squad, and are executed.

However, it is revealed that they were not the real Doctor and Peri, but androids. The Doctor and Peri have been rescued by the figure in black, Sharaz Jek. Although attentive to Peri, he is unstable and apparently insane with loathing for Morgus, whom he blames for all his problems. He declares he will stop the war only when he has Morgus’s head delivered to him. He boasts to the Doctor that he knows everything that Chellak is planning and is confident that he can hold out for long enough against the army. The Doctor and Peri meet the real Salateen, who has been held captive for some time while one of Jek’s androids takes his place at Chellak’s side.

Outside the cave, Stotz and Krelper argue. Krelper thinks they should cut their losses and leave, and the other gunrunners agree with him. Stotz manages to avert mutiny by promising his men they will be compensated for the lost shipment.

The Doctor complains about a cramp, like the one Peri had before. Salateen asked if they had stepped into any spectrox nests. When the Doctor describes a large sticky ball, Salateen laughs and tells the Doctor and Peri that they have contracted spectrox toxemia from touching raw spectrox. The Time Lord grabs Salateen and demands an explanation. Salateen stops laughing and explains that spectrox nests are deposits left from colonies of bats which live deep in the caves under Androzani Minor. He also says that cramps are the second stage of spextrox toxemia. Salateen initially tells them that there is no cure, but then admits that there is an anti-toxin, discovered by Professor Jackij - the milk from a queen bat. The problem is that all of the bats have gone to the deep caves, where there is no oxygen. Furthermore, to get to that level they must face the magma creature.

Jek is contacted by Stotz who demands payment in full for the lost consignment of weapons. He tells Stotz that he will meet him in person to discuss the dispute. As he begins to leaves his base, he overheard Peri ask the Doctor why does he wear a mask. Jek become irritated and explains that he wears a mask because he was hideously burned when Morgus trapped him in a mud-burst. He survived by getting to a baking chamber to escape the full force of the mud-burst. He was scalded near to death, but he lived to "one day avenge himself on that inhuman monster" Morgus.

Jek goes to meet Stotz to argue over the amount of payment for the recent shipment of lost weapons, ultimately agreeing to pay half price. In his absence, the Doctor is able to disarm the guarding android as it is programmed to recognize humans and his anatomy is different. As he makes his way to get the queen bat milk himself, the Doctor is wounded when he, Salateen and Peri are attacked by another android while moving through the caves. Salateen hurries Peri off to General Chellak, and the Doctor then has a close encounter with the magma beast as it attacks Stotz’s gun runners who foolishly attempt to find Jek’s private store of spectrox.

The Doctor is recaptured by Jek who uses his androids to torture him until he discloses the whereabouts of Peri. Stotz wants to take the Doctor back with him to Androzani Major and Jek agrees. Meanwhile Chellak and Salateen are planing to feed Jek disinformation through the android Salateen and through broadcasts to Morgus regarding an attack on a fake location for Jek’s base. In this way they hope to catch Jek unawares when they mount an attack on him in his true location. On Stotz's spacecraft, the gun runner reports to his boss, Morgus. Morgus sees the Doctor on the ship and regards this as proof that the President must suspect him. He therefore kills the President by pushing him down a lift shaft and makes plans to travel to Androzani Minor to negotiate with Jek in person.

Stotz’s ship takes off, but the Doctor manages to free himself and pilot it back to Androzani Minor. As the Doctor takes control of ship, he begins to feel a sensation and his eyesight become temporarily blurred. The spectrox is damaging the Doctor's body and his body is warning him of the need to regenerate. The Doctor holds the regeneration back and fights it off so he can focus on saving Peri. As the Doctor approaches Androzani Minor, an irate Stotz, who is locked out of the control room, demands that the Doctor open the door. The Doctor simply ignores his demands and reminds Stotz to "find something firm to hang on to", as the Time Lord is "out of practice with manual landings". Stotz manages to cut his way into the control room and he points a weapon at the Doctor, demanding that he step away from the controls. The Time Lord says that Stotz's argument is not persuasive as he is already dying.

The Doctor crashes the ship and, while all of the gun runners are disoriented, he escapes on to the surface of Androzani Minor. As the Doctor races to find Peri, he is chased by Krelper and another gun runner. He eventually collapses and falls, but just as they're about to finish him off, a mud burst begins and they retreat. The Doctor hauls himself to his feet and staggers towards the caves.

Meanwhile, Jek recaptures Peri who is by now very weak indeed. He raves about everything being Morgus's fault. Chellak and Salateen make their way towards Jek's base. However, the troops are ambushed by his androids. Salateen is killed along with some of the troopers, but Chellak pushes on. Eruptions on the surface herald the start of a mud-burst and Krelper returns to the spaceship to find Stotz and Morgus in conversation. Krelper is sent away and Morgus offers Stotz a share of the spectrox. He intends to take Jek’s private store of the drug and live on another planet in the Sirius system.

Jek’s androids are being overrun by Chellak's men. Jek goes to see if any of them can be repaired, but he too runs into the troops. Chellak chases Jek back to his lab where the two men struggle. Jek’s mask is pulled off and Chellak recoils in terror. The distraction allows Jek to push him outside into the path of a mud-burst, where he is killed.

Morgus calls his office and discovers to his surprise that his secretary, Trau Timmin, has taken control of his business. She has "deposed" him as the Chairman and Chief Director of Sirius Conglomerates and has given evidence against him. All of Morgus' power is gone and all his funds have been sequestered. Upon the news of Morgus' fall from greatness, Krelper and the other gun runner rebel. Krelper wants to return to Androzani Major with the spectrox they already have. Stotz guns him down, along with the remaining gunrunner. He and Morgus then go to the cave system to try to find Jek's spectrox store.

Jek is mourning Peri, who is almost unconscious when the Doctor arrives. The Doctor tells him that he is going to get the bat's milk and Jek gives him a half empty oxygen cylinder and directions to the lower levels of the caves. The Doctor negotiates the caves and crevasses — stumbling across the mysteriously dead body of the magma beast as he goes — until he reaches a dormant queen bat, and manages to fill a vial with enough milk to save himself and Peri.

Jek, trying to keep Peri's temperature down, activates a set of extractor fans, but Stotz and Morgus hear the sound and follow it to its source. Jek throws himself at Morgus and forces his head into the extractor fans, killing him and causing the fans to short circuit. Stotz shoots Jek but the android Salateen arrives and kills Stotz. As fire breaks out in the lab, Jek dies in the arms of the android Salateen. The Doctor returns with the milk in time to carry Peri out.

As the planet erupts around him, the Doctor manages to carry Peri back to the TARDIS. However, he accidentally spills the precious antidote while his blister filled hands were searching for the TARDIS key. The Doctor manages to save only half of the milk, meaning that only one of them could be cured. Without hesitation, he gives Peri the milk. She recovers quickly and sees the Doctor lying on the TARDIS's floor. The Doctor sees that Peri is well and says "Peri, well I see that Professor Jackij knew his stuff." Peri then asks the Doctor if he got the bat's milk and he confirms that he did. Peri then presses the Doctor into telling her where the antidote was. He simply tells her "Finished...Only enough for you." Peri looks on in horror and urges the Doctor not to give up and that there must be something they can do to save him. The Time Lord becomes doubtful and says "I might regenerate, I don't know... It feels different this time."

As the Doctor slowly rests his head, he enters a hallucinatory state. He first sees a small image of Tegan who says "What was that you always told me, Doctor? Brave heart? You'll survive." Then an image of Turlough appears and says "Too many of your enemies would rejoice in your death." Then Kamelion appears and simply says "Turlough speaks the truth." Then an image of Nyssa of Traken appears and says "You're needed Doctor, you must not die." The final friendly image to appear was Adric who adds to Nyssa's statement by saying "You know that, Doctor." The Doctor, who has long been haunted by the tragic loss of his Alzarian companion cries out his name. However, the Doctor hears a cold and sinister laugh which drives all of the images of his companions away. It is the image of the Master. The Master begins to goad and taunt the Doctor saying; "No my dear Doctor, you must die. Die Doctor. Die Doctor!" As the Master continues to laugh, his image becomes larger and the Doctor's face begins to glow. In a flash, the Doctor regenerates and awakens in the TARDIS to a new face and a shocked Peri. Peri attempts to ask the Sixth Doctor what happened. The Doctor turns towards the camera and says "Change my dear, and it seems not a moment too soon..."

[edit] Cast

The Doctor — Colin Baker
The Doctor — Peter Davison
Peri Brown — Nicola Bryant
Sharaz Jek — Christopher Gable
Morgus — John Normington
Timmin — Barbara Kinghorn
The President — David Neal
Stotz — Maurice Roëves
Krelper — Roy Holder
General Chellak — Martin Cochrane
Major Salateen — Robert Glenister
Soldier — Ian Staples
The Master — Anthony Ainley
Adric — Matthew Waterhouse
Nyssa — Sarah Sutton
Tegan Jovanka — Janet Fielding
Turlough — Mark Strickson
Voice of Kamelion — Gerald Flood

[edit] In print

A novelisation of this serial, written by Terrance Dicks, was published by Target Books in November 1984.

[edit] Trivia

The working title of this story was Chain Reaction. Producer John Nathan-Turner changed the title to The Doctor's Wife on his planning board, as he suspected that information was leaking from his office to the fans. The fan press began to report the fake title, confirming his suspicions.
This story was the first time former script editor Robert Holmes had written for the series since The Power of Kroll (1978).
This story was the last to feature Peter Davison as the current Doctor. Davison would reprise the role of the Fifth Doctor for the charity special Dimensions in Time (1993). The Caves of Androzani remains Davison's favourite story from his era; and he has said in interviews that if there had been more scripts like Caves during his era, he might have been persuaded to stay for a fourth season.
The Fifth Doctor's last word is "Adric?" as he hallucinates at the point of death (see also below).
Davison has jokingly discussed on several occasions how he was "upstaged" by Nicola Bryant (Peri) in his last major scene as the Doctor. Before the regeneration hallucination occurs, Davison is lying on the floor and his head is resting by Bryant, who is kneeling beside him. As he is delivering his last few lines, Bryant's loose fitting outfit prominently displays her cleavage.
An explanation was finally given to the question as to why the Fifth Doctor wore a stick of celery on his lapel since Castrovalva (1982). Allegedly, he was allergic to certain gases in the "Praxis" range, which would turn the celery purple if it came into contact with them. The Doctor would then eat the celery. This allergy did not appear to be one shared by any incarnation prior to or since Davison. In reality, Davison requested that an explanation be given in his final story and Eric Saward worked an explanation into the final script.
Christopher Gable, who played Sharaz Jek, was a well known former dancer. Gable was not the first choice to play Jek; John Nathan-Turner had offered the role to Tim Curry, Mick Jagger and then to David Bowie, but when none of them were available, he cast Gable.
Robert Glenister and Peter Davison had previously played two of the three leads in the sitcom Sink or Swim.
John Normington guest stars as Morgus; he returned to the series as Trevor Sigma in the Seventh Doctor story The Happiness Patrol (1988). He also appeared in Ghost Machine (2006), an episode of the Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood.
Morgus' asides to the camera are in the style of Restoration theatre, as is Colin Baker's line at the very end of Episode 4.
Recording was interrupted by industrial action which caused a serious delay in the filming of the serial. As a result, two sequences had to be cut. The first scene would have featured the Doctor and Peri at the opening of the story in the TARDIS. The Doctor was to explain to Peri the reason for their visit to Androzani Minor. Apparently, as a boy, the Doctor had started a "blow glass bottle collection," which was made from the sand of different planets. He had lost his Androzani bottle and decided to return there to retrieve some more sand. It was in this scene Peri was to say "You're such a pain, Doctor." However, when the final cut of the serial was made, it had been discovered that certain lines of dialogue (like the Doctor professing that "I am not a pain." and Peri's comments about needing sand to "make some glass") alluded to the cut sequence. To rectify this, Davison and Bryant voiced over part of their conversation while the TARDIS materializes from outerspace on to the planet. The second scene to be cut would have featured the Doctor battling with the magma beast in episode four.
Other Doctor Who stories adversely affected by the industrial actions of the late 1970s and the 1980s were Resurrection of the Daleks (1984), which was delayed by a year, and Shada (1980), which was not completed.
The Fifth Doctor's regeneration, like the Fourth Doctor's, features a flashback of that incarnation's companions. However, for this regeneration, it was decided that special recordings of the Davison-era companions would be used instead of stock footage. This required Matthew Waterhouse, Sarah Sutton, Janet Fielding, Mark Strickson, Gerald Flood and Anthony Ainley to return in cameos for the regeneration sequence. Fielding, Strickson, Flood and Ainley were already under contract to appear in the stories of Season 21. However, special contracts had to be made for Waterhouse, who left the series in Season 19, and Sutton, who left in Season 20. Johnny Byrne, who created the character of Nyssa (in his 1981 story The Keeper of Traken), had to be paid royalties for the use of the character in the regeneration scene.
It is implied that the Doctor is for the first time in danger of actually dying rather than regenerating. He hallucinates his companions urging him to live, before the Master appears urging him to die and laughing at the prospect.
All of the named male characters in this story die, including the Fifth Doctor. The only survivors are Peri and Timmin (both female).
In 2003's 40th Anniversary Doctor Who Magazine poll, The Caves of Androzani was voted the best serial of all time.
The closing title sequence for episode four featured the face of Sixth Doctor Colin Baker instead of Peter Davison, and credits Baker as the Doctor before Davison's own credit. This was the first (and, to date, only) time that the new lead received top billing in the final story of an outgoing Doctor.
This story was released on DVD in the United Kingdom on June 18, 2001.