It seems strange to say that the second Peter Davidson
episode that we watched was in fact his last but the fact is ‘The Caves of
Androzani’ is widely hailed as one of the Fifth Doctor’s best episodes and the
temptation was too much. Despite some slightly peculiar scenes in which Peri is
kidnapped with Chloroform by a man names Jek in a PVC gimp suit.
In this episode the Doctor and his companion Peri land on
the Androzani Minor and stumble across a ball of some kind of sticky substance,
their then taken prisoner by the forces of General Chellak. It is whilst
imprisoned that the Doctor and Peri learn that they have entered the early
stages of Spectrox toxemia due to their exposure to a Spectrox. Queue the
Doctors mission to the deepest part of the caves where there is no oxygen in
search of the milk from a queen bat so that he can cure himself and Peri before
the toxemia takes hold and they die.
The real defining thing about this episode that I suspect is
one of the things that makes it so popular is the interesting feel of the
cinematography. There are some really well done wide shots in this episode and
the crew have experimented with interesting dissolves and changes which make
the episode quite appealing and give it a very different feel from the rest of
the season.
The Doctor’s sense of heroism and responsibility for his
charges is emphasised in this episode when his pushes back his regeneration so
that he can find the anti-toxin for Peri and then sacrifices himself by giving
her the entire dose. The Fifth Doctor is very different from his predecessors
and faced a lot of scrutiny at the start but there is no denying that he had a very
noble goodbye.
This episode was also
the first glimpse of Colin Baker as the Doctor and Peri doesn’t look at all
impressed when he mutters those immortal lines :
‘Change my dear… and
it seems not a moment too soon’
A solid 4/5 and a must see for any Doctor Who Fan.
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