Refers To All Four Episodes . Spoilers
Arriving on the Planet Androzani Minor The Doctor and Peri find a conflict taking place . Forces from Androzani Major try to defeat the android army of Shrez Jak who controls the raw material of spectrox which can be distilled in to an elixir of life . It is not long before the two time travellers are captured and accused of being gun runners and face execution
After a long absence of several years the highly regarded writer Robert Holmes returns to the show . I've always thought Holmes was over rated and derivative . Androzani confirms this because we've got is yet another story where the Doctor and his companion spend the entire running time getting captured , being accused of something , getting locked up , escaping getting caught etc etc in a subplot borrowed ie ripped off from THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA . On the written page it's very average action packed stuff and yet it nearly always wins the superlative accolade of the greatest story from the classic era of the show . It's definitely style over substance but what style
Director Grame Harper deserves the lions share of credit for this . Sometimes actors come in to the show and treat DOCTOR WHO as if its some childish pantomime which ironically is was it became in the latter years . Harper comes in with the attitude that he's Sam Peckinpah at his most extreme and gives bleak , nihilistic action adventure . Everything about the visual style of this story sticks out and lifts it in to the stratosphere of great television . Notice the occasional use of hand held cameras which while never giving the story a cinema verite feel does add an air of gritty realism . The editing is quickly cut to which adds an impact to a number of scenes such as the Doctor being shot towards the end of episode two . Harper also brings some striking flourishes such as the scene where Jek faces camera in episode three where the audience are fooled in to thinking they're watching The Doctor's POV only to have the rug pulled out from under their feet as he swings his head to his right . Perhaps best of all troopers still use projectile weapons that are loud and convincing . Imagine how silly things would be with ray guns shooting lazar beams
Harper also casts very well . JNT did like to cast well known faces and there's a handful of them here but anyone thinking they're going to be enjoying themselves in a camp children's' series is in for a rude surprise . Here everyone gives the impression they're appearing in a tough drama and this is communicated to the audience . Christopher Gable shines as one of the most memorable one off villains as Sharez Jek made more remarkable because the performance is confined to voice and body language . John Normington resists any temptation to make Morgus a political parody but for me best performance goes to Maurice Roeves as Stotz who might be written as a one dimensional thug but does manage to convincingly portray an amoral violent psychopath almost too convincingly
Despite the criticism that the story is mainly a superior type of runaround Holmes does bring a cerebral subtext to the script . Let's be honest if this was produced in 2014 we'd instantly jump to the conclusion this is about contemporary narco-terrorism whether it be in the jungles of South America or the mountains of Afghanistan . This is because that's what the story is about . The inhabitants of Androzani Major are inadvertently supporting an insurrection on Androzani Minor by buying a drug . You think this is children's television ? Think again . . It also contains some bitter ironies such as Salateen's famous last words
Greatest story ever from the era 1963-1989 ? How does one compare this story with the first Dalek story ? How does one compare The Dalek Invasion Of earth with Kinda , or the original Silurian drama with The Seeds of Doom , or Inferno with Genesis Of The Daleks . The honest answer is you can't and perhaps it's best not to compare stories from different eras . What is certain is The Caves Of Androzani is the last undisputed masterpiece the classic era gave us and from here the show went rapidly downhill
Arriving on the Planet Androzani Minor The Doctor and Peri find a conflict taking place . Forces from Androzani Major try to defeat the android army of Shrez Jak who controls the raw material of spectrox which can be distilled in to an elixir of life . It is not long before the two time travellers are captured and accused of being gun runners and face execution
After a long absence of several years the highly regarded writer Robert Holmes returns to the show . I've always thought Holmes was over rated and derivative . Androzani confirms this because we've got is yet another story where the Doctor and his companion spend the entire running time getting captured , being accused of something , getting locked up , escaping getting caught etc etc in a subplot borrowed ie ripped off from THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA . On the written page it's very average action packed stuff and yet it nearly always wins the superlative accolade of the greatest story from the classic era of the show . It's definitely style over substance but what style
Director Grame Harper deserves the lions share of credit for this . Sometimes actors come in to the show and treat DOCTOR WHO as if its some childish pantomime which ironically is was it became in the latter years . Harper comes in with the attitude that he's Sam Peckinpah at his most extreme and gives bleak , nihilistic action adventure . Everything about the visual style of this story sticks out and lifts it in to the stratosphere of great television . Notice the occasional use of hand held cameras which while never giving the story a cinema verite feel does add an air of gritty realism . The editing is quickly cut to which adds an impact to a number of scenes such as the Doctor being shot towards the end of episode two . Harper also brings some striking flourishes such as the scene where Jek faces camera in episode three where the audience are fooled in to thinking they're watching The Doctor's POV only to have the rug pulled out from under their feet as he swings his head to his right . Perhaps best of all troopers still use projectile weapons that are loud and convincing . Imagine how silly things would be with ray guns shooting lazar beams
Harper also casts very well . JNT did like to cast well known faces and there's a handful of them here but anyone thinking they're going to be enjoying themselves in a camp children's' series is in for a rude surprise . Here everyone gives the impression they're appearing in a tough drama and this is communicated to the audience . Christopher Gable shines as one of the most memorable one off villains as Sharez Jek made more remarkable because the performance is confined to voice and body language . John Normington resists any temptation to make Morgus a political parody but for me best performance goes to Maurice Roeves as Stotz who might be written as a one dimensional thug but does manage to convincingly portray an amoral violent psychopath almost too convincingly
Despite the criticism that the story is mainly a superior type of runaround Holmes does bring a cerebral subtext to the script . Let's be honest if this was produced in 2014 we'd instantly jump to the conclusion this is about contemporary narco-terrorism whether it be in the jungles of South America or the mountains of Afghanistan . This is because that's what the story is about . The inhabitants of Androzani Major are inadvertently supporting an insurrection on Androzani Minor by buying a drug . You think this is children's television ? Think again . . It also contains some bitter ironies such as Salateen's famous last words
Greatest story ever from the era 1963-1989 ? How does one compare this story with the first Dalek story ? How does one compare The Dalek Invasion Of earth with Kinda , or the original Silurian drama with The Seeds of Doom , or Inferno with Genesis Of The Daleks . The honest answer is you can't and perhaps it's best not to compare stories from different eras . What is certain is The Caves Of Androzani is the last undisputed masterpiece the classic era gave us and from here the show went rapidly downhill