“The Caves of Androzani” | EDWE 14

I’ll admit this wasn’t planned, and indeed I wanted to do something different for 14. But this is a request so I shall happily review it. (Also, I’d like to add that I’m going to class EDWE in Series’, and each series is 14 reviews long. Yes, that quite appropriately makes this my EDWE Series One finale!)

The Caves of Androzani has an unwillingly Doctor, unwillingly companion, and perhaps the most over the top music in the world. When I first watched it, when I was very young, I hated it. It was drugs, gun running and shoving people down lifts. Politics, spaceships, killing people, explosions, poison. It wasn’t Doctor Who. Now I love it. But the point still stands, this episode, voted the best DW episode of all time, is probably one of the least like Doctor Who.

But, and I say this a lot, this isn’t a Doctor Who story. This is a drama, an epic adventure full of action, lies and deceit. It’s totally true to life (or as true to life as you’d expect a fictional and futuristic story to be.) You can imagine it happening in the future, there’s nothing that makes it seem fictional and made up, and it’s such an adventure and such a drama – in which the Doctor and Peri are two normal space travellers. Human space travellers. With the Doctor showing off his finest qualities, and perhaps being more human, but also showing what Peter Davison can do, something which is perfect for his final adventure.

The Doctor is THE Doctor in this. He isn’t the typical 80s kind of Doctor, he isn’t fighting Daleks and saving the universe. He’s saving the life of his best friend, the best quality of the Doctor. And we’ve clearly got a Doctor who isn’t happy with his new American companion, so for him to be saving her is so brilliant and so clever, it just shows what the Doctor can do. Love drama and character? Not pleased with the tackiness of classic Doctor Who? Caves is the best possible story for this kind of person to watch. It allows the characters, all the characters, as well as the setting and storyline and scenario to breath and expand in its own little 4 part space. The Doctor is one of these expanding characters.

Peri isn’t a very good companion, she spends the whole thing lying down, she wears very little and… actually maybe I should rephrase all of that last sentence. But she is the only character who doesn’t breathe and doesn’t expand, and without Sharaz Jek flirting with her (if you can call it something as mild as flirting), she wouldn’t expand at all. But she gives the story and the regeneration a purpose.

The darkness of the story stretches 80s Doctor Who, and shows how good it can be. This is a highlight in Doctor Who, especially when Doctor Who was about to head through its most controversial moments in history. But the story is dark, it is challenging, and it’s this that adds to the realism, the grittiness of the story. It’s this that makes the story so dramatic and therefore so good. Because without the drama, and without Peri getting poisoned it has to be said, there would be no story.

Though of course like any Robert Holmes script, it is fantastic. It’s scattered with comedy, with love, with loneliness, with action, and with realism. The comedy makes the episode also seem more real, and adds to this new side of the 5th Doctor, which is his best side and most dramatic side yet, allowing Androzani to give him his best performance.

Sharaz Jek is over the top. But he’s good, he’s the right kind of villain for there to be. He helps the drama, and the story moves along brilliantly thanks to him. Couple of dull monents, but Jek truly is a moment of genius…

The only bad thing is the creature, that horrible thing that stalks the cave. And in this drama-packed and realism adventure, why do we have it? Maybe the episode isn’t Doctor Who, but at least it’s good! It doesn’t need the creature, Magma creature, whatever it is. It’s a shame, but it’s such a good episode the monster doesn’t dent it too much.

Overall, this story is amazing. It maybe isn’t my favourite Doctor Who story, but if I had to pick my favourite drama packed and realism Doctor Who, in which the Doctor and his companion were simply fantastic characters and not everything revolved around them (a drama, basically), then The Caves of Androzani would win. Making it, what, my joint favourite Who adventure? The regeneration is only a minor to this fantastic episode, as all of this episode is art. It’s fantastic art, by a fantastic writer.

So… that’s series one of Every Doctor Who Episode. 14 episodes (well, one was only part one of it) reviewed. Next Series – ANOTHER 14 EPISODES OF DOCTOR WHO: REVIEWED!

Any requests? Let me know

James