The Caves of Androzani

Updated on Nov 02, 2023

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Directed by Graeme Harper Script editor Eric Saward Incidental music composer Roger Limb		Written by Robert Holmes Produced by John Nathan-Turner Production code 6R

The Caves of Androzani is the sixth serial of the 21st season in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four twice-weekly parts from 8–16 March 1984. It was Peter Davison's last regular appearance as the Fifth Doctor, and marks the first appearance of Colin Baker as the Sixth Doctor. In 2009 The Caves of Androzani was voted by fans as the best Doctor Who story in history.

Plot

Androzani Minor is the only source of the spectrox drug, produced by bats within the desert planet's cave systems. The citizens of neighboring Androzani Major rely on spectrox for its life-extending capabilities. Spectrox mining is controlled by Trau Morgus's business conglomerate, but is threatened by Sharaz Jek, a masked figure that hides within the cave systems and controls an army of androids that disrupt mining efforts. Morgus has publicly funded the military operation led by General Chellak to defeat Jek, but secretly employs gunrunners Stotz and Krepler to supply Jek with weapons to profit from the war.

The TARDIS lands on Androzani Minor, and the Doctor and Peri start to explore the caves. They both get caught briefly in a sticky substance but move on. The two are captured by Chellak, who believes them to be aiding the gunrunners. Chellak communicates their image to Morgus who does not recognize them and orders their execution. At their execution, Chellak discovers that Jek had been able to replace them with androids.

In Jek's lair, the Doctor and Peri complain about illness, and the android Salateen diagnoses that they had stepped in raw spectrox, which is lethal; the anti-toxin is the milk of the queen bat, but due to the recent war, the bats have descended to the deepest levels of the mine that are devoid of oxygen. Jek explains that he is at war with Morgus as his actions led to his dis-figuration. Jek leaves the two under guard of his androids while he meets Stotz and Krepler. The Doctor reprograms the androids to allow them to escape. They are caught in the middle of one of the battles, and Peri is captured by Chellak, while the Doctor is forced to leave with Stotz and Krepler.

Stotz decides to take the Doctor to see Morgus directly, and communicates with him holographically en-route. Morgus sees the Doctor alive, and believing the military is deceiving him, kills the President of Androzani and makes his own arrangements to travel to Androzani Minor to set things right. The Doctor commandeers Stotz's ship and crashes it back to the surface of Androzani Minor and sets off to rescue Peri before Stotz and Krepler recover.

Chellak initiates a major attack against Jek's androids, which ends up costing him his life as well as most of the soldiers and androids. During this, Jek rescues Peri as she starts to succumb to the spectrox poisoning. At his base, Jek activates the cooling system to help soothe Peri's aches. The Doctor, starting to also feel the effects, arrives at the base. Jek takes pity on the two, and directs the Doctor to where he can find the Queen bat and providing him with an oxygen tank.

Morgus lands by Stotz' crashed ship, and learns that his shrewd secretary has disposed him from power. Morgus quickly deals with Stotz to get Jek's supply of spectrox and leave together to profit, and Stotz kills Krepler. They follow the heat signature from Jek's cooling system to find his base. Morgus, Stotz, and Jek get into a fight, and end up killing each other.

The Doctor finds the queen bat and collects two vials of her milk. Returning to the base, he collects Peri and wearily carries her out of the caves, dropping one of the two vials before he can get to the TARDIS. He sets the TARDIS in motion and feeds Peri the remaining vial. Peri quickly recovers but finds the Doctor lying in pain on the floor. The Doctor explains that there was only enough bat's milk left to cure her, but his body will shortly regenerate, though it feels different from his previous regenerations. The Doctor begins to hallucinate images of his past companions urging him to continue to fight for his life, followed by The Master laughing at his state and yelling that he must die. The Doctor says 'Adric?' before the regeneration completes, with the Doctor suddenly alert and active though with a new face. When Peri asks what is happening, the Doctor replies, "Change, my dear, and it seems not a moment too soon..."

Continuity

This story was the last to feature Peter Davison as the current Doctor. Davison would reprise the role of the Fifth Doctor for two charity specials: Dimensions in Time (1993), and "Time Crash" (2007). 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.

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). His incarnation of the Doctor 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.

A much more intimate version of the events at the end of this story is revealed at the end of the Big Finish audio story Circular Time (2007).

Androzani Major would be mentioned again in the 2011 Christmas special "The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe" as the homeworld of the expedition members who had come to the winter world to harvest the Androzani trees.

Production

The working title of this story was Chain Reaction. This story was the first time former script editor Robert Holmes had written for the series since The Power of Kroll (1978), as Nathan-Turner had been keen to use writers new to the show instead.

Recording was interrupted by a strike, 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 "blown 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 materialises from outer space 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.

While he is in his office, the character of Morgus frequently breaks the fourth wall by talking directly to camera. This arose through actor John Normington misunderstanding a stage direction. But Harper felt the asides effectively ramped up the dramatic tension, and decided to keep them. 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.

Davison has joked on several occasions of 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. 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. The trousers Colin Baker wore in the regeneration scene were modified to fit his larger frame. Davison would later wear the same trousers when he reprised the role of the Fifth Doctor in the mini-episode "Time Crash".

Cast notes

Peter Davison has stated that this is his favourite serial from his three years on the series. He has said that he particularly enjoyed the script by veteran Doctor Who writer Robert Holmes and working with the director Graeme Harper, who he claimed brought "pace" and "energy" to the programme, as well as directing it "far more filmically than it had ever been done before."

Christopher Gable, who played Sharaz Jek, was a well-known actor and formerly a leading ballet dancer. Gable was not the only contender to play Jek; John Nathan-Turner, who always favoured attracting big stars to the series in guest roles, had offered the role to the actor Tim Curry, as well as the rock stars Mick Jagger and David Bowie. Bowie's management declined on his behalf as the dates clashed with his Serious Moonlight Tour according to Bowie biographer Nicholas Pegg. Ultimately, Christopher Gable was cast, the preferred choice of director Graeme Harper (Harper claimed on the DVD commentary that Bowie was the only other contender he thought of but he believed Gable ended up being right for it). Robert Glenister and Peter Davison had previously played brothers Brian and Steve Webber in the BBC sitcom Sink or Swim (1980–82). Glenister later played Aboresh in the audio play Absolution. 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.

Broadcast and reception

The Caves of Androzani has received highly positive reviews. The serial was repeated on BBC 2 in February/March 1993 on consecutive Fridays (19/2/1993 to 12/3/1993) at 7.15pm, achieving viewing figures of 2.12, 1.9, 1.86 and 1.4 million respectively. This story was released on VHS in January 1992. The cliffhanger to episode 3 is considered one of the greatest cliffhangers in the history of Doctor Who, being called "the greatest Doctor Who cliffhanger of them all". In 2003's 40th Anniversary Doctor Who Magazine poll, The Caves of Androzani was voted the best serial of all time. In Outpost Gallifrey's 40th Anniversary Poll, The Caves of Androzani was voted the second best serial of all time. In a 2009 Doctor Who Magazine poll, The Caves of Androzani was voted the greatest Doctor Who story by readers, ahead of "Blink" and Genesis of the Daleks. It was the only Peter Davison story to feature in the top ten (Tom Baker had 5 entries while Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant had 2 each). In a recent 2014 poll, Doctor Who Magazine's readers ranked the episode as the fourth best of all time.

In print

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

Home media

The Caves of Androzani was released on DVD in the United Kingdom on 18 June 2001. The DVD contains commentary by director Graeme Harper and actors Peter Davison and Nicola Bryant. This story was released as the accompanying DVD with issue 36 of The Doctor Who DVD Files on 19 May 2010. The story was re-released on DVD on 4 October 2010 in a boxset titled Revisitations 1 along with re-releases of The Movie and The Talons of Weng-Chiang.

Soundtrack release

The original music soundtrack to this serial by Roger Limb and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop was released by Silva Screen Records on 25 March 2013. Reissued in a 2-LP set on translucent purple vinyl on 25 November 2013.