Four episodes
aired between 4th January 1982 and 12th January 1982
Written by Christopher H Bidmead
Produced by John Nathan-Turner
Directed by Fiona Cumming
Synopsis
Trying to rescue a newly regenerated Doctor, the TARDIS crew leg it across the field, pursued by the Pharos Project security.
They are arrested, but the feisty Tegan hijacks an ambulance and loading the Doctor inside, they scoot off to the TARDIS.
Unfortunately, Adric is captured again by one of the guards and left behind.
As he is being restrained, the Master's TARDIS returns, killing / stunning the guards but leaves Adric alone. Tegan and Nyssa go back for the boy and usher Adric into the TARDIS.
Whilst Nyssa and Tegan try their best to figure out the controls, the Doctor wanders off into the bowels of the TARDIS and Adric follows, suspiciously silent.
Adric whilst he follows the Doctor for a bit, eventually goes off and messes with the TARDIS mechanics, sending it back in time to "event one" (the big bang?). Nyssa and Tegan think they've found ways to get the TARDIS moving but soon (with the Doctor's help) find out that the TARDIS has been locked onto this devastating course and they will be burned to death.
Adric meanwhile is revealed to have been in the Master's TARDIS all along, trapped in some kind of web structure.
Through the use of block transfer computation (see Logopolis), the Master has been able to create a doppelganger to go and mess the systems up. Once the Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan have found a way out of their predicament (by jettisoning 25% of the TARDIS interior including the zero room), the Master takes control of the Doctor's TARDIS and makes them believe they are flying it to a place called Castrovalva. The girls believe they are going there because it's incredibly primitive and simple, just the place to get the Doctor's head together.
They arrive in a great forest on the planet and construct a portable zero cabinet out of the doors to the zero room.
They hike it around the area, looking for Castrovalva, and eventually find it - it's a castle on top of a cliff. They go back to the cabinet that they had to temporarily hide but the Doctor is gone. He's wandered off again and comes into contact with the residents of Castrovalva.
In the city, he meets Shardovan - a shady librarian, Mergrave - a master of physic, and the Portreve - the city's elder.
Tegan and Nyssa eventually catch up with the Doctor and find him terribly confused. They set him straight on who he is and what he's doing but in the course of their stay, they begin to suspect that all's not right with Castrovalva, especially when they try to leave. It turns out that Castrovalva is an illusion and is really a "space-time trap" that looks like an impossible painting with those staircases that go in all directions (well, that's what it was supposed to look like, not like the reflections of multiple mirrors).
There's a lot of running around up and down corridors and stairs, with the doctor getting more confused because it's the opposite of the zero environment he needs. Eventually, the Portreve is revealed to be the Master in disguise. He stands over the zero cabinet, expecting to kill the exhausted Doctor, but realises too late that the Doctor has figured out what's going on.
Shardovan, one of the Master's own creations, ends up destroying everything by sacrificing himself, flinging himself into the web structure holding Adric. It frees the young boy, and now the illusion is closing in on itself, the TARDIS crew manage to just get the Doctor out to safety, trapping the master within his own shrinking pocket universe.
The group make it back to the TARDIS and the Doctor pins a stick of celery to his collar, but insists he feels "splendid".
Trivia
- This is the first showing of the fifth Doctor, but was actually the fourth story to be filmed, in order to give Peter Davison a chance to ease into the role and get used to it
- Davison was called up by John Nathan-Turner specifically to be offered the part. He was stunned and couldn't answer until he was called again the next day.
- Davison who was well known on TV was a controversial choice because he was so young, but he said he accepted the role because he would never be believed if he started telling people "I was once offered the role you know". Patrick Troughton saw him in the BBC car park not long after the news broke and told him to "do three years, then get out".
- This story was written also by Christopher Bidmead as it formed part of a Master trilogy.
- As noted in the Synopsis, this story is inspired by the confusing impossible paintings by M.C. Escher - one of which was called Castrovalva
- This story is one of a very small amount in classic Doctor Who that has a pre-credits scene. It follows on from Logopolis, but was shown on TV months after, so the Production team felt the need for a recap
- This story had the landmark event of seeing Doctor Who move from the Saturday teatime slot it had enjoyed since 1963, and had been moved over to Monday and Tuesday nights. Was this a death knell? Probably not, because the show would run on for another six or so years, but many would accuse it of greatly accelerating the decline in audience.
- Peter Davison actually hates celery
Trying to unpick my own opinions to write this review, is as complicated as Castrovalva itself. The story isn't as scientifically heavy handed as Logopolis or the rest of Bidmead's stuff, but it is full of twists and turns in its own right, ups and downs. Let me see if I can explain what I mean.
First off, it's got continuity - annoying to some, but I think in the case of the classic series, it's novel to see and very welcome. Peter Davison's impressions are (with the exception of Jon Pertwee) spot on and give a nice warm feeling that the show cares what's gone before. Indeed, the characters of Shardovan and Mergrave are performed pretty well and Castrovalva itself feels like a society in its own right that has been there for a good long time (even though it hasn't). Contrast all of that with the questionable logic of Tegan and Nyssa's approach to TARDIS piloting and the Master's "Nyah, ha ha" - evil pontificating.
The show is sort of split into two halves, possibly as an experiment for the new format of Monday and Tuesday nights - the first half is messing around in the Labyrinth of corridors within the TARDIS and getting away from the big bang, the second half is messing around in an old castle. Both are alright - the first is good in terms of set design and it makes the TARDIS far more believable than the stuff we say in The Invasion of Time - it draws us in with curiosity to see just what is beyond that door in the console room. The second half hits all the adventurous feelings we got in The Android Invasion, messing around in English countryside gives us a feeling that's familiar - that we can replicate in the school ground or in the local wood on a weekend.
So why isn't Castrovalva one of the best stories there is? Well, that's what I mean by it being complicated - it should be, but when I watch it, it leaves with me a feeling of tediousness. I think the reason is that all of this set design and rich character history is all there, but it leads to...what? What's the heart of the story? Nothing. It's a premise built on a quirky idea that "wouldn't it be good if we were in a castle with upside down stairs". This denegrates the Master to being one of the worst bond villains of all time in Doctor Who (yes, he's been like it before, but his overly elaborate plans here just compound it). It feels like the master's in it for the sake of it, and he want's to kill the Doctor but when he escapes he's just like - oh well, that's alright because it's not my main plan at all - when sending the TARDIS back to the big bang clearly WAS an intent to kill him.
I think Castrovalva has promise, but it had a lot of squandered ideas and the budget wasn't even there to get the effects right anyway. My advice, skip this story and watch the end of Labyrinth for a good idea for how it should have looked.
5 out of 10
4 out of 10
Watch this if you liked...
- The Doctor's Wife (Doctor Who, Series 6)
- Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS (Doctor Who, Series 7)
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