In many ways, Castrovalva and Peter Davison were the classic series’ answer to Matt Smith and ‘The Eleventh Hour’. Peter Davison came straight after the phenomenally popular Tom Baker and Matt Smith came after the equally (if not more so) popular David Tennant. This story is the third part in the unofficial but blatant trilogy starting with ‘The Keeper of Traken’ and ‘Logopolis’. This was also the first time that Doctor Who had moved away from its traditional Saturday night slot. There would also be two episodes a week as opposed to 1 so it the whole series would be half of what it is normally.
Most of the first two episodes are set in the TARDIS which is always something that I approve of. The reasons behind are two fold. Firstly we get to find different rooms that we’ve never been made aware of. Secondly it provides a claustrophobic atmosphere. The TARDIS is usually a place of safety and the vehicle where the Doctor and his companions are travelling to get to a new world. Not this time. We get to see a new room (The Zero Room) for the first and last time. We are also treated to learning that’s their a information databank. It’s quite hard to fully describe Peter Davison’s Doctor. His impressions were very good. I thought his William Hartnell was an unexpected comedy moment. It was interesting that this wasn’t the first story that Davison recorded but actually the fourth. This shows as a fresh Davison probably would have gone overboard and the time to film other stories enabled Davison to find his Doctor. Anthony Ainley is very good in this story, even playing Portreeve he managed to give an entertaining performance.
The story is about the Doctor being taken to Castrovalva where he can relax and get over his regeneration. However the Master is trying to kill the Doctor and the TARDIS crew can plunging the TARDIS to the beginning of the universe where the Big Bang took place. The Master is using Adric (I shake my fist at him) to see what is going on and programme the TARDIS. As the Doctor gets Nyssa and Tegan to jettison rooms of the TARDIS, the TARDIS lands on Castrovalva I found myself being totally engrossed with the surroundings. The story seemed to stop for a short time and that meant that we could marvel at some of the shots Fiona Cumming did. Then the story starts to break apart. We meet the inhabitants and to be harsh they look stupid and as the story progresses we discover they really are stupid. Once the action moves away from the TARDIS and more into Castrovalva I started to get a little tired of it. There was an awful lot of walking around and watching Mergrave being a nice but ultimately lukewarm character which is a shame because I like Michael Sheard partly based on his performance in ‘Remembrance of the Daleks’. The character of Portreeve was so blatantly the Master that it was embarrassing that no one else could tell that it was him, I even noticed the first time I saw it and I’m not normally one to notice that thing first time around. Of the three companions its Adric that has the best story. It’s the first time that I didn’t find him totally annoying even though the bits with the Master came quite close. Matthew Waterhouse is helped with the stupid pyjama outfit but this was his best performance before ‘Earthshock’. Nyssa and Tegan’s relationship seems to blossom despite this being only their second story together. They work together in the TARDIS and dragging the Doctor’s zero cabinet. It’s a credit to Janet Fielding and Sarah Sutton who aren’t annoying and manage to fight for their performances to stand out in a sea of different characters.
Castrovalva isn’t quite a great story but neither is it a terrible one. Christopher H Bidmead isn’t my favourite writer partly because he seems determined to through sci-fi down our throats as quickly as possible. The first half of the story set in the TARDIS is very tense and dramatic but then the stuff on Castrovalva is just a little bit dull. Its when the story gets on Castrovalva that all the techno-babble gets thrust on screen.
Most of the first two episodes are set in the TARDIS which is always something that I approve of. The reasons behind are two fold. Firstly we get to find different rooms that we’ve never been made aware of. Secondly it provides a claustrophobic atmosphere. The TARDIS is usually a place of safety and the vehicle where the Doctor and his companions are travelling to get to a new world. Not this time. We get to see a new room (The Zero Room) for the first and last time. We are also treated to learning that’s their a information databank. It’s quite hard to fully describe Peter Davison’s Doctor. His impressions were very good. I thought his William Hartnell was an unexpected comedy moment. It was interesting that this wasn’t the first story that Davison recorded but actually the fourth. This shows as a fresh Davison probably would have gone overboard and the time to film other stories enabled Davison to find his Doctor. Anthony Ainley is very good in this story, even playing Portreeve he managed to give an entertaining performance.
The story is about the Doctor being taken to Castrovalva where he can relax and get over his regeneration. However the Master is trying to kill the Doctor and the TARDIS crew can plunging the TARDIS to the beginning of the universe where the Big Bang took place. The Master is using Adric (I shake my fist at him) to see what is going on and programme the TARDIS. As the Doctor gets Nyssa and Tegan to jettison rooms of the TARDIS, the TARDIS lands on Castrovalva I found myself being totally engrossed with the surroundings. The story seemed to stop for a short time and that meant that we could marvel at some of the shots Fiona Cumming did. Then the story starts to break apart. We meet the inhabitants and to be harsh they look stupid and as the story progresses we discover they really are stupid. Once the action moves away from the TARDIS and more into Castrovalva I started to get a little tired of it. There was an awful lot of walking around and watching Mergrave being a nice but ultimately lukewarm character which is a shame because I like Michael Sheard partly based on his performance in ‘Remembrance of the Daleks’. The character of Portreeve was so blatantly the Master that it was embarrassing that no one else could tell that it was him, I even noticed the first time I saw it and I’m not normally one to notice that thing first time around. Of the three companions its Adric that has the best story. It’s the first time that I didn’t find him totally annoying even though the bits with the Master came quite close. Matthew Waterhouse is helped with the stupid pyjama outfit but this was his best performance before ‘Earthshock’. Nyssa and Tegan’s relationship seems to blossom despite this being only their second story together. They work together in the TARDIS and dragging the Doctor’s zero cabinet. It’s a credit to Janet Fielding and Sarah Sutton who aren’t annoying and manage to fight for their performances to stand out in a sea of different characters.
Castrovalva isn’t quite a great story but neither is it a terrible one. Christopher H Bidmead isn’t my favourite writer partly because he seems determined to through sci-fi down our throats as quickly as possible. The first half of the story set in the TARDIS is very tense and dramatic but then the stuff on Castrovalva is just a little bit dull. Its when the story gets on Castrovalva that all the techno-babble gets thrust on screen.
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