136: The Caves of Androzani

8/15/08

This is it, the final story featuring Peter Davison as the 5th Doctor. There's something about this story, even from the very beginning that just makes you feel uneasy. It feels different. There's a seriousness to it that can't be missed. The stakes really feel raised in this episode.

The TARDIS lands on Adrozani Minor and the Doctor discovers that there are mines for a substance called spectrox, which if taken by a human can double a lifespan. An evil head of a conglomerate named Morgus is manipulating things behind the scenes and is double crossing people left and right to position himself into power and to make a fortune on this spectrox. On Androzani Minor we find some gun runners who are trading arms for spectrox, and there, deep in the caves of Androzani, we meet Sharaz Jek, a man dressed all in black with a black and white mask over his face.

The final shoe drops when Peri and the Doctor are infected with spectrox poisoning, the only cure being the milk of an underground bat which is deep in the impossible reaches of the caves, and time is running out.

SPOILERS FOLLOW.

What a story. This is perhaps the best episode of the entire 5th Doctor tenure, and I've never felt more attached to Davison's Doctor. Long time Who writer Robert Holmes penned this story and Eric Saward, who is the script editor during this era, contributed as well. We get an explanation for the celery that the Doctor wears on his lapel, and we get some of the best acting of the entire 3 seasons. Sharaz Jek was amazing, giving a performance that was both menacing and sad at the same time. Bu the thing that endears me the most to this story is the way the Doctor regenerates and the circumstances that surround it.

In previous regenerations, the Doctor has "died" saving the world (Logopolis) or from doing the right thing (War Games and Planet of the Spiders) but never has the death been so personal or moving for me. And I've seen all the regenerations after this one as well, so I have to say that this is by far my favorite regeneration.

What happens is that Peri and the Doctor are dying from Spectrox poisoning, and the only way to survive is by extracting the milk of the cave bat deep below. At this exact time, internal natural explosions start destroy the caves. The Doctor, realizing that he is the only one who can (and will) risk it all to save Peri, takes it upon himself to trek deep into the caves, into certain death, to get this extract. He can barely breathe. He's bloody and clearly injured, and his immune system is gone. He is very obviously dying. He makes it back to Peri, grabs her, and
makes it out of the caves, all the while being blasted on all sides by explosions. he's on his last leg. The acting and intensity of Peter Davison is tremendous during this. He makes it through the TARDIS door and manages to dematerialize it just as an explosion destroys the very spot that the TARDIS stood on.

He falls to Peri's side, opens her mouth, and pours every last drop of the extract into her mouth. She wakes up and as she does, she realizes that he is not well. He is dying. She asks him to take some of the extract himself, but he confesses that he gave it all to her. Then he says "Is this final death?" She doesn't know what he's talking about, so he continues, "I might regenerate, but I can't be certain. It's never felt like this before." And then, faces from his past, faces from the last three years, Adric, Nyssa, Tegan, Turlough, and the Master, dance around his head, both compelling him to regenerate and the Master telling him to die. The screen goes wonky as waves shoot toward us, and when the dust clears, there is Colin Baker, sitting up with his cocky know it all expression.

"What happened, Doctor?" Peri asks him.

"Change, dear Peri...and it appears not a moment too soon."

Then new credits appear with Colin Baker's face in place of Peter's.

Now, I've seen this story before. But there's something about watching all of the 5th Doctor stories in the short amount of time that I have, all in a row, that really made this hit home for me. Seeing how he played the Doctor, seeing the choices he made, I really, really have come to love Peter Davison.

Here's what gets me more than anything. Regeneration is a way to avoid death, so when a situation forces this to happen, I consider this to be the Doctor facing death. So that's how I'm going to reference it. Past Doctors have died for various different reasons, all of them noble, but none as personal as this.

Here we have the Doctor knowingly sacrificing his life for a human that he's only known for a few days. This was the second story that Peri was in. In this story, he isn't even sure of her full name. They've literally just met. But yet he is willing to (and he does) die for her. Not for the human race, not for the greater good of justice, but for the life of one human girl who would never be missed if she didn't return to earth. To me, that's the ultimate sacrifice. What's more, he wasn't sure that he was going to regenerate. He says "it's never felt like this before." He had no idea if he was or wasn't. For all he knew, he had just given his life for someone he just met. For me, that's incredible, and extremely memorable. Tom Baker is my favorite Doctor because of the fun and quirkiness he brought to the role, but this story gives Tom Baker a run for his money and may be one of the best Doctor Who stories ever.

I give Caves of Androzani a 9/10. It was Peter Davison's finest hour, and I am really, really going to miss him.