Welcome aboard, I'm the Doctor, or will be if this regeneration works out...
Castrovalva was the first story of Season 19 of Doctor Who, and the first full television serial to feature Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor. Beginning with this story, Doctor Who was moved from its traditional Saturday evening slot on BBC 1 to air twice weekly.
Synopsis
The Doctor's latest regeneration has proven more unstable than his previous ones. Adric has been captured by the Master, who is taking advantage of the Doctor's weakened state to ensnare him in an elaborate trap whose recursive nature threatens to destroy his mind.
Plot
Part 1
Following his regeneration, the Doctor and his companions return to the TARDIS avoiding the radio telescope's security guards. Just before they can depart, Adric is seemingly attacked by the Master's TARDIS, currently disguised as a Corinthian column. Adric is brought into the TARDIS which then dematerialises. The Doctor acts oddly due to the after effects of his regeneration and asks to be taken to the Zero Room, Time Lord healing technology. In his delirium, the Doctor makes various comments about previous companions such as the recently departed Romana.
Meanwhile, without the Doctor to pilot the ship, Tegan investigates the TARDIS's controls and finds a computer system which gives her instructions on how to fly it. She notices that their preset destination is listed as hydrogen inrush — Event One.
Having found a new attire - a cricketer's outfit, the Doctor enters the Zero Room. After giving instructions to Nyssa and Tegan, they see an image of Adric who has been trapped in some sort of web by the Master. As the TARDIS travellers find themselves being drawn into the event marking the creation of the galaxy, the Master appears to them on the TARDIS scanner to gloat at their imminent demise...
Part 2
The Doctor emerges from the Zero Room and by jettisoning 25% of the TARDIS's rooms manages to save them from destruction, however one of the ejected rooms was the Zero Room. Meanwhile, the Master reveals to the trapped Adric that he has a further trap set for the Doctor. Tegan searches the TARDIS computer systems and finds a place named the Dwellings of Simplicity on Castrovalva which will be a suitable place for the Doctor to recover from his regeneration.
The companions make a cabinet from the remains of the Zero Room. Upon arriving at Castrovalva carry the coffin-like cabinet containing the Doctor out of the TARDIS and start to search for the Dwellings. Soon they spy a figure wearing brightly coloured armour, so they hide the box. On returning to the box however, they find the Doctor has vanished…
Part 3
Nyssa and Tegan follow a trail of blood and find a citadel. They see the Doctor ahead but he is surrounded by warriors who take him into the city, leaving the girls to ascend the high rocky walls.
In the city, the Doctor is questioned by Shardovan the librarian. Unable to answer their questions he is given a room, where he is then visited by the elderly Portreeve. Nyssa and Tegan arrive in the city and meet Shardovan. During the night, Adric is seen lurking in the Doctor's room. The next day, an image of Adric appears in a mirror to Nyssa, who warns her about the Master being in Castrovalva. He is actually still trapped in the Master's TARDIS.
The Doctor wakes up and is shown a magnificent tapestry by the Portreeve. The tapestry depicts scenes as they happen in the outside world. The Doctor soon realises that Adric is missing and sets out off to find him, but as they search the city of Castrovalva they keep finding themselves in the same courtyard.
Nyssa says it is as if space was folded in on itself, and the Doctor agrees. The Doctor looks out of the window he says that they are caught in a recursive occlusion. Someone is manipulating Castrovalva — they are caught in a space-time trap…
Part 4
The Doctor questions two of Castrovalva's inhabitants, Mergrave and Ruther, whether they are able to see the folding. When asked to show the position of his shop on a map, Mergrave indicates its position in four different places. Ruther does the same when asked to show where the Portreeve's house is. But, because they are part of Castrovalva, they cannot see that there is something wrong. The Doctor also realises that the history books of Castrovalva are all fakes — they appear to be 500 years old but chronicle events up to the present day.
The Doctor creates a ruse by filling the Zero Room cabinet with the history books and has the cabinet taken to the Portreeve. As the Doctor breaks into the Portreeve's house, the Portreeve reveals himself to be the Master, and that it is he who has created the town of Castrovalva. Even its presence in the TARDIS computers was a trap created by the Master. Ruther and Mergrave confront the Master and the tapestry reveals its true power, that of Adric trapped in the web. The power to create comes from block-transfer computations, using Adric's mathematical genius.
Realising the true nature of Castrovalva's reality, Shardovan swings from a chandelier into the web, destroying it. The Master, seeing all is lost, flees to his TARDIS which was disguised as a fireplace. The Doctor and his companions flee from the city, but the Master appears to be trapped, unable to escape as the city collapses in on itself.
The Doctor and his companions return to the TARDIS, where he pins his famous stick of celery on his left lapel. There, Nyssa asks the Doctor whether he feels up to flying the TARDIS. He thinks he is and actually thinks that he is beginning to feel his old self again. "Well whoever I feel like...it's absolutely splendid!"
Cast
- The Doctor - Peter Davison
- The Doctor - Tom Baker (reprise)
- Adric - Matthew Waterhouse
- Nyssa - Sarah Sutton
- Tegan - Janet Fielding
- The Master - Anthony Ainley
- Shardovan - Derek Waring
- Mergrave - Michael Sheard
- Ruther - Frank Wylie
- Portreeve - Neil Toynay (pseudonym for Anthony Ainley)
- Head of Security - Dallas Cavell
- Child - Souska John
- Security Guard - Harry Fielder
Production Crew
- Assistant Floor Manager - Renny Tasker
- Costumes - Odile Dicks-Mireaux
- Designer - Janet Budden
- Film Cameraman - John Baker
- Film Editor - Mike Houghton, Robin Jackman
- Incidental Music - Paddy Kingsland
- Make-Up - Marion Richards
- Production Assistant - Olivia Cripps
- Production Associate - Angela Smith
- Script Editor - Eric Saward
- Special Sounds - Dick Mills
- Studio Lighting - Ron Bristow
- Studio Sound - Laurie Taylor
- Theme Arrangement - Peter Howell
- Title Music - Ron Grainer
- Visual Effects - Simon McDonald
- Writer - Christopher H. Bidmead
- Producer - John Nathan-Turner
- Director - Fiona Cumming
References
- While he is still disoriented, the Doctor grasps his lapels, adopting the persona of his first incarnation, and addresses Adric as "Brigadier" and "Jamie", and Tegan as "Vicki" and "Jo". He mentions the Ice Warriors and K-9 as if they were present. He also urges Tegan and Nyssa not to "reverse the polarity of the neutron flow" — a catchphrase traditionally associated with the Third Doctor — and toys with a recorder, a trademark of the Second Doctor, whose persona he also briefly adopts. He also mentions visting Alzarius and Logopolis.
Technology
Theories and Concepts
Power Sources
Races and species
TARDIS Components
Story Notes
- The working title for this story was The Visitor.
- This is the first story to have the Doctor credited as "The Doctor" (rather than previously as "Doctor Who" or simply "Dr. Who").
- For this story, the series was shifted from its traditional Saturday early evening transmission to a twice-weekly (Monday and Tuesday) slot. However, the format change was not well promoted, with the result that many regular viewers missed the second part. According to production notes on the DVD release, some parts of the UK saw the first part at a different time than the scheduled BBC broadcast, in some cases as early as mid-afternoon.
- The Portreeve is listed in the credits as being played by "Neil Toynay", an anagram of "Tony Ainley". This was a play on the Master's habit of using either anagrams or synonyms for "Master" as aliases, used here to make the reveal of the Porteeve's identity a surprise.
- The shot used in this story of the town of Castrovalva sitting on a cliffside was inspired by a print by M.C. Escher.
- For the final scene, the script called for Adric to look "pallid" as he was still recovering from the effects of imprisonment by The Master. According to the commentary on the DVD, this was accidentally achieved by Matthew Waterhouse, who had a hangover from the night before from drinking too much Campari. Whilst the cameras were filming The Doctor and Tegan in conversation about who landed the TARDIS, Matthew was being sick behind a tree.
- Part 1 was the first-ever Doctor Who episode to include a pre-credits sequence.
- During part 2, Nyssa's costume gradually transforms into the standard outfit she would wear for the rest of the 1982 season: first, she exchanges her "fairy skirt" for a pair of trousers before she and Tegan begin carrying the portable Zero Room to Castrovalva; along the way, she abandons her velvet jacket, and finally she loses her ornamental hair-comb when it gets caught by a tree branch. By the time she and Tegan reach the base of the cliff, she is more-or-less outfitted as she would be for the remainder of the season.
- The decision to have Peter Davison impersonate past Doctors was made during rehearsal when Davison presented impersonations as part of his preparation for taking on the role; his interpretation was intended to combine elements of the past Doctors.
Ratings
- Part 1 - 10.1 million viewers
- Part 2 - 8.7 million viewers
- Part 3 - 10.4 million viewers
- Part 4 - 10.5 million viewers
Filming Locations
- Crowborough Wireless Telegraph Station (now known as Sussex Police Training Centre (Crowborough)), Duddleswell, East Sussex
- Harrison's Rocks, Groombridge, East Sussex
- Estate of Lord De La Warr, Buckhurst Park at Withyam, East Sussex
- BBC Television Centre (TC1 & TC6), Shepherd's Bush, London
Production errors
As between Logopolis and Castrovalva
The first episode of this story is narratively continuous with the last scene of Logopolis. Yet the continuity supervision between the two productions was decidedly lax.
- Peter Davison's Fourth Doctor costume has obviously different shoes than Tom Baker's. Baker was wearing high leather boots when he regenerated; Davison was wearing ankle-high shoes thereafter.
- The TARDIS is in a different field from its last-seen position in Logopolis, and this movement is afforded no reasonable explanation by either script. Director Fiona Cumming simply failed to match Peter Grimwade's earlier shot. In fact, the two halves of the chase scene weren't even filmed at the same location.
- Director Fiona Cumming cast different actors for the security guards chasing the companions at the start of episode one than Peter Grimwade had used at the end of Logopolis. When the chase is viewed as a continuous event, the scenes obviously don't match.
- Nyssa and Tegan's handbags appear on the TARDIS console, not having been there in their final interior TARDIS scenes in Logopolis. In fact, Nyssa and Tegan were never present together in the TARDIS in the whole of Logopolis.
Problems unique to Castrovalva
- In the Zero Room sequence, the image is horizontally flipped. This has the effect of making The Doctor's collar question marks appear reversed. The error was gleefully pointed out by Peter Davison in the DVD commentary.
- Fiona Cumming's line-of-sight blocking is wrong in one sequence at the top of the first episode. Because of where Cumming has Janet Fielding and Sarah Sutton stand, Nyssa and Tegan are clearly able to see that Adric's physical position relative to the Master's TARDIS has changed. Where once he was standing several yards to the right of the ionic column, suddenly he's kneeling directly behind it. Oddly, they seem not to find this at all suspicious, despite the fact that they witnessed every other person affected by the energy emanating from the Master's TARDIS simply fall prone to the ground where they once stood. Ultimately, the scene is not credible because of Cumming's direction.
- Later, on Castrovlva itself, the camera wobbles when Mergrave and Ruther go to see what causes a noise.
Continuity
- This is the first Fifth Doctor story aired, although it was not the first to be filmed - Four to Doomsday, the following story, was first. Castrovalva was in fact filmed fourth.
- Tom Baker appears in the opening sequence, a replay of the regeneration scene which ended Logopolis, but he is not listed in the credits.
- New opening and closing title sequences are used, similar to the previous season's and again designed by Sid Sutton but this time incorporating Peter Davison's face in place of Tom Baker's.
- The Fifth Doctor first dons his cricket uniform and his habit of pinning a stalk of celery to his lapel in this story, although he doesn't explain why until The Caves of Androzani, his final story.
- Near the beginning of this story, the Doctor literally unravels the Fourth Doctor's famous scarf (and rips the waistcoat the Fourth Doctor wore in half). The Doctor is seen to take off a shoe and leave it as a landmark as he made his way through the TARDIS. These are not the same shoes worn by the Fourth Doctor in Logopolis, who wore knee-length buccaneer-style boots in that serial – the Doctor previously regenerated items of his clothes along with his body at the conclusion of The Tenth Planet, likewise has different shoes when he arrives newly regenerated in Spearhead from Space, the frills on his coat, when the Third Doctor regenerates into the Fourth in Planet of the Spiders, disappear as well and the Fourth Doctor, in Robot, wearing something like pyjamas with a different colour.
- The story was the first of only four Doctor Who serials in the 1963-89 series to feature a pre-credits sequence (the others were The Five Doctors, Time and the Rani and Remembrance of the Daleks). In the 2005 series, pre-title sequences became a regular feature. The reprise from the final moments of the preceding story, Logopolis, had the incidental music changed from its original sombre melody to a more upbeat sound.
Timeline
DVD and Video Releases
DVD Releases
Released on DVD together with The Keeper of Traken and Logopolis as part of the New Beginnings DVD box set. Released:
Contents:
- Commentary by Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Christopher H. Bidmead and Fiona Cumming
- Being Doctor Who - Peter Davison discusses how he approached this iconic role.
- Directing Castrovalva - Fiona Cumming talks about her work directing Peter Davison's debut story.
- The Crowded TARDIS - A look at the increase in the TARDIS crew, with Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton, director John Black and Christopher H. Bidmead.
- Swap Shop & Blue Peter - Peter Davison is interviewed on thesr two long-running magazine programmes.
- Deleted Scenes - Two deleted sequences from the location filming.
- Theme Music Video - A brand new remix is Peter Howell's Doctor Who theme music in stereo or Dolby 5.1 surround.
- Trailers & Continuity Announcements
- Radio Times Billings - Articles and listings from Radio Times (PDF DVD-ROM)
- Doctor Who Annual 1982 (PDF DVD-ROM)
- BBC Enterprises literature (PDF DVD-ROM)
- Photo Gallery
- Production subtitles
Notes:
- Editing for DVD release completed by Doctor Who Restoration Team.
Video Releases
Released on video in 1992.
Novelisation
- Main article: Castrovalva (novelisation)
- Novelised as Castrovalva by Christopher H. Bidmead in 1983.
See also
to be added