Castrovalva: Part Four

Oh boy, the characters in this four-parter was really great. The plot was interesting and the humor. Yeah.. Short review. :Harold:

It is the Doctor who notices that Castrovalva is not real.

Only the citizens of Castrovalva do not realise that they are a fake construct of the Master.

The pharmacy that is in four locations, or a place that can be entered in four places. Worse Castrovalva is collapsing on itself.

Shardovan the librarian realised that the history of Castrovalva has inconsistencies.

The Portreeve, a man wearing two hats on top of each other reveals his true colours. Only most people would have guessed already who this person really is.

The good news is that the Doctor seems more his new self. He is alert and means the episode has more dynamism.

Unfortunately it sets a pattern with Davison's debut series. They only seem to get going in the latter episode. Until then it feels inert. I wonder if this was the reason why Doctor Who was now being broadcast twice weekly.

"That's the trouble with regeneration. You never quite know what you're going to get."

It seems that post-regeneration stories never really hit the mark in the Classic Series, which is strange for me seeing that I've come from the New Series which has pretty much perfected the 'Doctor's First Story'. Unlike "Robot", which introduced Tom Baker by putting him in a situation perfect for his previous incarnation, this story introduces Peter Davison by having him sleep and act out of his mind. While the plot and mystery surrounding the location of Castrovalva is engaging to a point, its answer is almost too easy to guess from Anthony Ainley's theatrical disguise and the first half of the episodes's only location being the TARDIS corridors makes it seem padded for time. Sadly, while it definitely leaves me interested in seeing more, what it doesn't do is give me any sort of idea of The Fifth Doctor's character, leaving it to be some sort of failure.

Part One/Two - January 6th Part Three - January 8th Part Four - January 17th

After a poor regeneration the Doctor needs to take extreme R&R and uses his Zero Room. Unfortunately, his companions trigger a trap left by the Master and his rest is very short lived indeed.

Avoiding this trap, but losing the precious Zero Room in the process, the Doctor needs to find another way of getting his Zs.

The TARDIS computer suggests Castrovalva, a peaceful planet to Tegan and Nyssa. Alas, they haven't learnt from the first trap and, yep, this is exactly what the Master ordered!

Lots of time for the companions to strut their stuff in this story but they don't half make a hash of things! Two of them spring two separate traps and the other, Adric, is held hostage, no actually used to power one of the traps!

There are some lovely concepts in this story but the budget and the effects let these powerful elements down a little. The planet Castrovalva's recursive, implosive destruction is represented by an odd split screen effect. I can't remember what I ought of it at the time but it's a fair bit ineffective now.

Watching Peter Davison imitating some of his predecessors is impressive.

Nice to see the celery again though.

Things to look out for: celery, impressions, the Master, Zero coffin Cabinet, imbecile companions,

This is a companions piece really, also allowing more time for the viewer to get to see what Peter Davison is about, recommended but weaker than it's two predecessors.

Not quite sure of the media hype and fuss made back in this era when the Doctor changed hands, but certainly it seems to be far from the 'announcement show' and big 'special' episodes that we get in the modern shows. By contrast this serial feels almost apologetically introducing the new Doctor with soft touches and a generally open approach to who he is. He spends a lot of time pitched just below the previous Doctor in terms of manic running around, but still able to command a situation and resolve it; his cricket whites suggest a more 'controlled' character too - but we'll see. I don't remember how it goes, even though my earliest Who memories are of Davidson in the role as I started watching around this time.

As a serial itself, it seems to spend too long getting the Doctor on his feet (literally) and the plot is left too long to really flesh out. Some decent ideas in there, and a 'classic' villain too, but it didn't really engage or excite me as I would have liked the opening of a new Doctor to have done. Davidson is fine though, and ironically seems the most comfortable despite having all the pressure on him. Of the companions I don't really care for any - characters or performances; it also feels really cluttered having 3 of them kicking around. The supporting cast are so-so, and although it isn't really his fault Ainley is the Master in the same way as I have Rolex and Bell & Ross watches that I got in China - they look very much the same and they do tell the time, but they're really not the same quality as the original.

We'll see how the season settles into the new Doctor, but this first serial doesn't offer a great deal to get overly excited about, even if it does have some nice ideas and elements.