The Caves of Androzani (TV story)

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The Caves of Androzani was the sixth story in Season 21 of Doctor Who. It marked Peter Davison's final appearance as the Doctor and Colin Baker's first appearance at the end of the story.

Synopsis

After landing on the planet Androzani Minor, the Doctor and Peri develop lethal spectrox toxaemia poisoning. As the two search for a cure before it is too late, they become enmeshed in a decades-old feud between the disfigured roboticist Sharaz Jek and businessman Morgus.

Jek falls in love with Peri, but the situation only degenerates when the girl ignores his affections. Between threats from magma beasts and gun runners, it quickly becomes apparent that the Doctor will never find a cure in time to save both himself and his companion...

Plot

Part one

The Doctor and Peri before they get shot

The TARDIS lands on Androzani Minor, one of a pair of twin planets in the Sirius star system. The Doctor and Peri step out and decide to explore a set of tracks that lead into some nearby caves. The core of Androzani Minor is heated mud. The Doctor discovers a spaceship has arrived, containing a strange shipment. Further into the caves, a soldier is killed by a fierce monster. Meanwhile, the Doctor is investigating a part of the caves, when Peri slips and catches her foot in a ball of an unknown sticky substance, but the Doctor easily pulls her free. The Doctor gets some on himself, but despite it stings, there is nothing to worry about. Peri asks why the Doctor wears a stick of celery; it is a safety recaution. He is allergic to certain gases in the praxis range of the spectrum; in their presence, celery will turn purple. They both discover a hoard of weapons, but they hear footsteps and hide. A band of soldiers find them, capture them and take to their leader, General Chellak. As the two explain they are innocent to Chellak and Major Salateen, there is a call from Trau Morgus, a business conglomerate leader on Androzani Major and CEO of the Sirius Conglomerate. Believing the two to be working for gunrunners Stotz and Krepler, he loses all interest in them and orders their assassination after seeing that Chellak's "gunrunners" are not his own men over holographic communication.

Deep in the caves, the masked madman Sharaz Jek has monitored the broadcast between Morgus and Chellak, and is delighted at the sight of Peri's beauty. Inside their cell the Doctor and Peri await their execution. The Doctor realises that the dangerous, desert planet of Androzani Minor is the only source for a powerful drug called Spectrox created by bats that inhabits the planet's caves. Spectrox is highly-valued by the population of nearby Androzani Major due to its capacity to extend one's life. The spectrox mining interests are controlled by Morgus, but the operation has been threatened by the masked Sharaz Jek and his army of androids, causing public tension on Androzani Major due to limited supplies. Morgus has publicly funded a military operation by Androzani Major's government against Jek's androids, but at the same time has secretly backed a gunrunning group to deliver weapons to Jek to profit from the war. He also tries to work out what strange things are happening here. The Doctor and Peri are brought to the execution squad, dressed in a red cloth. General Chellak asks them if they have any last words, and the Doctor tells him the whole thing is a mockery of justice. Chellak steps back and the soldiers step foward and take aim. He gives the order, and they pump bullets into the Doctor and Peri...

Part two

Chellak asks the soldiers to check their weapons and as the bodies are cut free of the execution posts, Morgus switches off. He explains to the President that all the people without valid work permits have been sent to Eastern labour camps to be cut down on crime. The President suddenly realises that Morgus has been closing plants in the West and opening them again in the East. If he accepted Morgus' suggestion, the same people would be working for him again, only this time without pay. The Doctor and Peri are rescued by Sharaz Jek, who had been watching them enter the caves and was able to prepare duplicate androids with help of his personal android Salateen. They are taken to his base to become his companions in exile. Chellak and Salateen go over to look at the bodies, but they are found to be two androids. Chellak realises his career will be finished if the word spreads. He decides to cover the incident and not let anyone know about it. Jek asks the Doctor and Peri to stay with him so he can look after them. Meanwhile, Stotz is having trouble. Krepler wants his loss cut and go. He nearly kills Krepler but lets him live, for the moment...

At Jek's base, the Doctor and Peri complain about rashes and cramps in their bodies where they touched the sticky substances in the caves. Jek will not be seriously threatened for years, the people of Androzani Major will rise up. They can have all the Spectrox they want, when Jek has the head of Morgus at his feet. Meanwhile at Morgus' headquarters, Morgus is surprised to hear from Timmin that the Northcawl copper mine has exploded. This solves the problem of overproduction and causing the market price of copper to increase. Morgus wants every solder to leave his place and stand in silence. Back at Jek's base, the Doctor meets Salateen. He has been a prisoner here, too. Jek captured him months ago and replaced him with an android that looked like him. The real Salateen realises that Jek will kill him now he has them for company. He laughs at the fact that the two are dying. He discovers that they had been subjected to the first stages of spectrox toxemia from exposure to unrefined spectrox, and that while there is an anti-toxin, it requires the milk of the queen bat. Unfortunately, due to the mining activity, all the bats have migrated to deeper levels of the caves where there is no oxygen.

File:Magmabeast.png
The Doctor hides from the Magma Beast

Meanwhile, Stotz contacts Jek and tells him his ship is in good faith and it wasn't his fault that the androids didn't show up. Before Jek is leaving to meet with Stotz and the gunrunners, Peri accidently asks why he wears a mask. Jek flies into rage and explains that when one of Minor's mud bursts erupted, he had no warning and Morgus left him to die in the mudburst. Jek survived, but he was horribly scalded. He leaves the two under his androids' guard and meets Stotz in the lower levels of the caves. Jek eventually agrees to pay half the price for the shipment of Spectrox. In Jek's HQ, the Doctor goes outside, and reprograms the android outside the door, allowing him, Peri and Salateen to escape. Meanwhile, Stotz realises that since he and the gun runners have protective belt buckles, they can walk past Jek's androids, kill Jek himself and steal his Spectrox. The Doctor and the two head off into the lower levels of the caves to find the queen bat. Suddenly, an android fires at them, one of the shots hitting the Doctor. With the help of the signal from Peri's belt buckle, Salateen fires back at the android and destroys it. The Doctor wakes up, and discovers Peri has vanished, so he goes off to find her. Jek returns to his base, but flies into rage, only to find that Peri has gone. The Doctor enters the lower levels of the caves, but takes cover behind a rock as Stotz and the gun runners enter. Suddenly, one of the gun runners is attacked by a fierce magma beast. As they open fire on the beast, it ignores them, and approaches the rock where the Doctor is crouching...

Part three

The beast is distracted by the gun runners, so it turns on them again. The Doctor escapes as the gun runners retreat. Meanwhile, Peri is taken with Salateen to General Chellak. She tells Chellak the truth. Stotz and the gun runners meet Jek. They have now reached the price of betrayal. The Doctor meets Jek again. He tortures the Doctor and the Doctor finally tells him that Peri has been taken to General Chelllak. Stotz arrives, and Jek tells him to take the Doctor to Androzani Major for questioning. Stotz thinks the Doctor is a goverment spy. The Doctor is now entering the third stage of Spectrox, but Stotz doesn't care, the Doctor will live long to be questioned. In the army base, Peri isn't feeling well, but General Chellak doesn't care, she and the Doctor have been working with Jek. Chellak orders the first assault on Jek's base and for more belt buckles. Salateen agrees to tell Morgus about the assault and to throw Jek off guard when he broadcasts a message.

Jek discovers the real Salateen is free to walk around the planet, leaving Peri unguarded. Meanwhile, Stotz chains the Doctor in the bridge inside his spaceship and calls Morgus. As Stotz discusses the situation with Morgus via holographic communication en route, Morgus sees the Doctor still alive, and tells Stotz that Chellak faked the attack on Jek's base. Morgus is worried that the President will see his double dealings. He tells Stotz to remain in orbit and Stotz, furious, leaves the Doctor on his own. When Stotz is gone, the Doctor tries to escape. He eventually manages to pull himself free from the wall and uses the power core in the centre of the ship's bridge to sear the chains from his hands. He is still very weary from the Spectrox but manages to programe the spaceship to land or "crash" on Androzani Minor.

File:Traupresidentdies.jpg
The President dies

Meanwhile, Morgus, fearing deception, invites the President into his office, and opens his private lift so the President can leave. The President doesn't realise it's just an empty shaft. Morgus pushes the President into the lift and the President falls down the shaft to his death. He then informs Timmin to have the lift maintenance engineer shot and makes his own plans to travel to Androzani Minor to put the situation right himself. Meanwhile, Jek has kidnapped Peri and taken her back to his HQ. He discovers the Doctor has gone. He is now very insane and needs Peri's beauty to forget all about the trouble that Morgus has put him in. Peri tells him the army will attack soon, but Jek already knows that - he has changed the recongnation code for the belt buckle. General Chellak and his men are in for a shock...

The Doctor is in the centre of the ship's bridge. The furious Stotz returns and hears a loud rumbling noise. He demands the Doctor to open the door and regains access to the bridge by burning through the door, but he can't reach the door controls. Instead, he points his gun at the Doctor and orders him to return the ship to orbit. The Doctor refuses to give up until he rescues Peri, so Stotz gives him until the count of three. The planet looms large on the ship's view screen and the Doctor tells Stotz: "I'M NOT GOING TO LET YOU STOP ME NOW!" Stotz gets ready to fire and the Doctor closes his eyes as the ship prepares for a crash landing...

Part four

The ship's retro rockets fire at the last moment, throwing Stotz's aim off, and causing the Doctor to land the ship back on the surface of Androzani Minor. Still very weary from the Spectrox poisoning, the Doctor escapes from the spaceship. Krepler and another gun runner chase after him. Meanwhile, General Chellak plans the real assault on Jek's base, luring him to believe an attack lies elsewhere. As the gun runners prepare for battle, they discover their belt buckles are not working. An android guns down Salateen, and the battle kills nearly all of the gunrunners. Meanwhile, Krepler and his friend are still chasing the Doctor. He eventually approaches a cliff and falls. But as they are about to kill him, a mudburst begins and they run back to the ship. The Doctor gets to his feet and makes his way into the caves to save Peri.

Chellak and the gun runners have no choice but to push against the mudburst. Jek is able to rescue the unconscious Peri from the military base and return her to his base amid the chaos. Chellak, however, sees Jek and chases him to his base. Once there, he struggles with Jek until he pulls his mask off. He is so horrified at the sight of Jek's scalded face, that Jek is able to push him outside into the path of the mudburst. Jek then goes over to Peri. She screams at the sight of Jek's face, and Jek himself lets out a cry of agony. The Doctor arrives, struggling to hold off his body's attempt to regenerate to rid itself of the spectrox. Jek provides him with an supply of oxygen and directions to the lower parts of the caves, so he can find and milk the queen bat. As the Doctor departs to get the milk, Morgus arrives on the planet, finding that Timmin has betrayed him and taken his dirty dealings to the goverment, which means he is now deposed from power.

Morgus quickly deals with Stotz to kill Krepler and his friend and then plot to secure Jek's private stash of spectrox so they may disappear quietly to another planet. The two make their way to Jek's base, lured by extractor fans that Jek is using to try to keep the base temperature cool for Peri. Morgus orders Jek to give him the Spectrox. Jek sees Morgus and forgets all about Peri and everything else. He pulls the front of his mask off, showing Morgus his scalded face. As Morgus looks at Jek in shock, Jek throttles him. Stotz opens fire on Jek, but the Salateen android returns and kills him. With his last ounce of life, Jek pushes Morgus' head into his extractor fans, causing Morgus to die in seconds and the extractor fans to short circuit and burst into flames. Jek dies in the arms of the Salateen android, giving it his last orders to hold him. The Doctor arrives just after the battle, and escapes. But the Salateen android stays where it is as the fire destroys Jek's base. The Doctor takes the recovering Peri back to the surface and to the TARDIS, but a main mud burst is on it's way. While he unlocks the TARDIS, the Doctor spills half of the bat's milk in the sand. He manages to open the door, get inside the TARDIS and dematerialize as the planet's surface explodes and is covered in boiling mud.

The Doctor regenerates into his sixth incarnation.

Inside the TARDIS, the Doctor feeds Peri all of the remaining bat's milk. She recovers to find the Doctor lying in pain on the floor. The Doctor quickly explains he only got enough bat's milk to cure Peri, but his body will shortly regenerate, though it feels different from his previous regenerations. The Doctor thinks "'Is this death?" He then begins to hallucinate images of his past companions urging him to continue to fight for his life, followed by the Master laughing at his state. The regeneration completes, with the Doctor suddenly alert and active though with a new face. Peri replies: "Doctor?" He says: "You were expecting someone else?" Peri asks him what has happened and the Doctor replies, "Change, my dear, and it seems not a moment too soon."

Cast

Crew

References

  • Peri asks why the Doctor wears a stick of celery; it is a safety precaution. He is allergic to certain gases in the praxis range of the spectrum. "If the gas is present, the celery turns purple."
  • Spectrox toxaemia causes rash, cramp, spasms, slow paralysis of the thoracic spinal nerve and finally thermal death.
  • Morgus is (or was, before being deposed by Timmin) "the richest man in the Five Planets", chairman of the Sirius Conglomerate and a descendant of the first colonists.
  • During the regeneration sequence; Adric, Tegan Jovanka, Nyssa, Turlough, Kamelion and The Master are seen and heard. This is similar to the regeneration of the Fourth Doctor, who also saw images (in that case, flashbacks) of the previous companions and several enemies of that incarnation.

Story notes

  • Despite the title, the Doctor notes that the caves are in fact blowholes.
  • The maps of the caves shown on screen bear an uncanny resemblance to the video game Dig Dug.
  • This story had the working title of Chain Reaction.
  • This is Peter Davison's final TV story, however he reprised the role on screen in Dimensions in Time and Time Crash.
  • The regeneration sequence features specially recorded cameos by Matthew Waterhouse, Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton, Mark Strickson, Gerald Flood and Anthony Ainley.
  • The closing credits to Part Four feature the face of new Doctor Colin Baker, and list him before Peter Davison.
  • Christopher Gable was not the first choice to play Sharaz Jek; among the actors offered the role were Tim Curry and David Bowie.
  • Colin Baker previously appeared (as Commander Maxil) in Arc of Infinity.
  • The Doctor has been "this way before" and says that Androzani Minor "hasn't changed".
  • If the pre-companion appearance of Nyssa in The Keeper of Traken is discounted, this story marks the first occasion since 1977's Horror of Fang Rock that the Doctor has spent a complete adventure with only a single companion.
  • In DWM , The Caves of Androzani was voted the readers favourite episode.
  • The only characters who do not die during this story are Peri and Timmin, both female. Every male character dies apart from the Sixth Doctor (the Fifth Doctor, however, does). The Salateen android is not seen to be destroyed on-screen, but it is not definitely shown as surviving the story's events (and it's debatable whether an android would count as being "alive" in the first place).

Influences

  • Frank Herbert's Dune (people being killed over a drug that extends life; the unstable "tripod of power" between the rulers of Androzani; the "mud blows" and Androzani Minor's generally arid climate)
  • The Phantom of the Opera (mentally unbalanced but brilliant recluse wears a mask to conceal facial disfigurement; develops obsessive fascination with an attractive young woman and eventually abducts her)

Ratings

  • Part 1 - 6.9 million viewers
  • Part 2 - 6.6 million viewers
  • Part 3 - 7.8 million viewers
  • Part 4 - 7.8 million viewers

Myths

to be added

Filming locations

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.
  • Nicola Bryant, or her stunt double, bounces after slipping down the cliff-face in episode one, obviously hitting a safety cushion of some kind.
  • When the Fifth Doctor said his last word his mouth did not seem to move.

Continuity

  • This leads straight into DW: The Twin Dilemma.
  • The Doctors last word is: "Adric?"
  • Part of BFA: Circular Time takes place during/in the lead up to the Doctor's regeneration.
  • Following this story, the Sixth Doctor goes through a brief period where he subconsciously blames Peri for his previous self's death, and tries to distance himself from her while telling himself he's working towards a greater good, until he finally realizes this in MA: Burning Heart.
  • In NA: Timewyrm: Revelation it is revealed that after the Fifth Doctor dies he becomes the Doctor's conscience, but is buried by the Seventh Doctor following his regeneration.

Timeline


DVD, VHS and audio releases

DVD releases

6r-dvd.jpg
File:6r-dvd2.jpg

Released as Doctor Who: The Caves of Androzani, this release was the third of 2001.

Released:

PAL - BBC DVD BBCDVD1042
NTSC - Warner Video E1606

Contents:

Rear Credits:

Notes:

File:Caves art 2.png
The Special Edition, released in October 2010

The Special Edition was released in October 2010. It was a 2 Disc version. It included the original features and included the new features such as:

  • Chain Reaction - The making of The Caves of Androzani
  • Directing Who, Now and Then - Graeme Harper
  • Russell Harty - chat show excerpt with Peter Davison and Colin Baker
  • New Photo Gallery

VHS releases

6r-video.jpg

Released as Doctor Who: The Caves of Androzani.

Released:

PAL - BBC Video BBCV4713
NTSC - Warner Video E1183

Novelisation and its audiobook

Caves of Androzani novel.jpg
Main article: The Caves of Androzani (novelisation)

External links

Footnotes

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For the purposes of this list, a "regeneration story" is one in which a regeneration is actually and initially depicted. For this reason The War Games is not included below, even though it is commonly thought of as a "regeneration story". It doesn't actually include a clear scene of regeneration, and the preponderance of stories in other media confirms that the Second Doctor did not regenerate at the end of it.
Additionally, immediate post-regeneration stories, like the 2005 Children in Need Special Born Again — and ones like Castrovalva, where the regeneration sequence was replayed — are not included.
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