Review of Doctor Who: The Caves of Androzani

Introduction

The Doctor (Peter Davidson) and Peri (Nicola Bryant) find themselves embroiled in a long-running underground war after arriving on the barren world of Androzani Minor.
Whilst gunrunners bring in weapons for the sinister masked renegade, Sharaz Jek, military troops mount an armed blockade in the under ground caves guarded by lethal androids and a deadly creature that lurks in the shadows killing all in its path.
At the heart of the conflict is a substance called Spectrox - the most valuable item in the universe... and also the deadliest.
A chain of events are set in motion by the very presence of the Doctor and Peri on Androzani that will have dramatic consequences for everyone involved. The situation is desperate and the Doctor realises time is running out - both for Peri and himself.
The ultimate sacrifice must be made to save his young friends life, but can the Doctor make it?


Hailed as being one of the best stories to come from the Doctor Who stable and certainly one of the finest featuring Peter Davidson, ‘The Caves of Androzani’ was blessed with a strong script penned by Robert Holmes and an added dynamic vitality from Graeme Harper’s direction. Using a strong guest cast to inject a sense of life and reality to the story and a gritty realism, Graeme Harper produced one of the series’ all time classics.

This story was also the last featuring Peter Davidson as the Doctor who then regenerated, some say for the worst, into the controversial new Doctor played by Colin Baker.
To be honest I’ve never been a big fan of the Dr Who series and so I wasn’t holding out much hope in enjoying this DVD. However despite the real low budget and fake effects, the absolutely embarrassing men in rubber suit creatures and the occasional overacting, the story began to creep up on me and I actually to my surprise began to enjoy it. Returning to Dr Who after many years it was really surprising how complex the script was and how well the sub-plot lines were interwoven throughout the episodes.
You really have to listen to the dialogue to know what’s going on, especially in the first episode where it can be a bit confusing as to who is in cahoots with who. Its nice to see they didn’t dumb it down, especially when considering it was initially made for a young audience.
If the rest of the episode are like this I can see why Doctor Who has garnered so much support and such a wide fan base.

As for the acting, well it does seem a bit amateurish at times especially if your not used to the style in which it was made. Saying that Christopher Gable who played the character Sharaz Jek is fantastic in his Scorpius (Farscape) like role and really is the highlight of the show.
If your just discovering the whole Dr Who world then you can do far worse than begin with this DVD. Just a word of warning though. You may want to watch or at least read about some of the Doctors past escapades just because of the terminology used throughout can sound like gibberish if your not familiar with the series.

Video

The video is presented in the original 4:3 ratio and of course is restricted by the source material.
Filmed with an infamous low budget I was expecting a less than perfect picture from this old series but was pleasantly surprised by the care the BBC and the Dr Who restoration team has taken with this DVD. Most shocking was that there was no dirt or dust evident anywhere on the print which by anyone’s standards is excellent work.

The picture quality does vary according to whether it was shot on location or in the studio. Location shots have quite a bit of grain and suffer more probably because a lot of scenes are process shots featuring matte paintings or effects that have been put on afterwards. Grain levels are better on in studio shots although a certain amount is always evident.
Fans of the series will notice that the opening matte shots have been re-matted so that they no longer jump around everywhere like they did in the original. But for the purists out there an option to put the original footage back as it was (wobbly camera and all) has been included so don’t panic.
Colour although quite muted are accurate and natural with no bleed problems, but detail levels can be lacking due to the picture being a little too soft.

During a couple of the shots where the guns are firing near camera the picture contains interference like lines across the screen, but only when stock footage or highly processed shots are there any real problems with the picture. Now and again a bright source such as a fire or explosion can flare on screen but this is due to the camera and the way it was originally filmed rather than any compression problems Also a vertical line was spotted in a couple of shots but thankfully doesn’t last long.

Altogether it’s a good solid picture with faults that are inherent with the original material rather than any encoding problems. This is probably the best your going to see this episode thanks to the hard work that the restoration team has put into this DVD and apart from a few problems due to the techniques used at the time, it has aged remarkably well.

Audio

Audio is presented in a mono mix and is suprisingly clear. Dialogue sounds natural with no distortion or harshness and there was very little discernable hiss or noise present. Music is handled well with a fairly good range considering the material and even a few occasions where the bass made itself known. The original recording betrays the set locations sometimes with the cave passages sounding rather like polystyrene and card being trampled on, but that’s the name of the game with Dr Who and arguably adds to the charm of the series. The audio commentary is just as good, although a certain level of hiss can sometimes be heard. The isolated music track again is done justice by this disk.
I was expecting a fairly rough mix but I was pleasantly surprised by how well it has aged.

Features

Well the BBC has pulled out all the stops with this disk which features a wealth of special features I’m sure fans will be begging for. The BBC could of so easily released a feature less disk with the knowledge that it would still sale. First of we have an audio commentary featuring Peter Davidson (The Doctor), Nicola Bryant (Peri) and Graeme Harper (Director). The commentary is full of anecdotes and screen specific information and all participants seem to have had a lot of fun making this episode. Sometimes there are small gaps of silence but altogether it remains lively, amusing and well worth a listen especially in conjunction with the on screen production notes. These notes are a running commentary in the form of text subtitles giving the viewer extra information about the locations, cast details, plot points and other background information. Again there are a few quiet gaps where no text appears but watch it alongside the audio commentary and it provides a valuable insight into the workings of the series.

If that wasn’t enough we also have the chance to listen to the isolated music score, an extended scene which was cut from the final programme featuring Stotz and the gun runners complete with commentary by Graeme Harper. A behind the scenes look at the regeneration which features unseen footage from the final recording session. A behind the scenes –creating Sharaz Jek with a previously recorded commentary by Christopher Gable who died in 1998 is included along with two news reports about the departure of Peter Davidson from Doctor Who in 1983. An interview with Peter Davidson and producer John Nathan-Turner on the ‘South East at Six’ regional news programme is also available.

To finish off we also have the original TV trailer and a photo gallery with a selection of photographs some of which have previously been unpublished.
All behind the scenes footage and news programmes are of decent quality with no compression problems, (it really shows its age through the dodgy colour schemes and fashions of the time) and although the camera work is of course a bit shaky during the behind the scenes pieces, it gives some good background knowledge and feel to how Doctor Who was seen by the general public at the time.

Conclusion

An excellent disk from the BBC that really shows how good DVD can be when used properly.
Sure it hasn’t got the demo disk audio/visual quality of the big blockbuster but it sure makes up for that with the amount of work gone into the restoration and production of a DVD of this quality. It’s obviously aimed at the huge fan base Doctor Who has and to be honest I cant see them complaining. The picture quality is certainly a lot better than the previous broadcasts and videos available and I highly recommend this DVD to anyone who has an interest in the Doctor Who series or anyone just discovering it for the first time. Lets just hope the BBC treat another well known sci-fi series just as well, that’s if they ever get around to releasing it that is.
Ahem……. Red Dwarf anyone?