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Quotes
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"Sarcasm is not your strong point, Peri." ~ The Fifth Doctor"So you got a merit badge in tracking when you were a boy scout. I'm suitably impressed. Can we go now?" ~ Peri
"Is this wise, I ask myself? Oh well." ~ Peri
"I tried keeping a diary once. Not chronological, of course, but the trouble with time travel is one never seems to find the time." ~ The Fifth Doctor
The 5th Doctor: We're quite innocent, you know. This is all a mistake.
Chellak: Yes, I think I'm beginning to believe you, Doctor, but in times of war the innocent die too.
Salateen: You have heard of death under the red cloth?
The 5th Doctor: Afraid not.
Salateen: It is a military procedure. After death, your bodies are taken to the Field Cremation Unit. Your ashes are wrapped in the red cloth of execution and will be disposed of according to your directions.
The 5th Doctor: Doesn't sound any more enticing than any other form of death.
"Curiosity's always been my downfall." ~ The Fifth Doctor
"Of course, the irony is while you've been closing plants here in the west, you've been building them in the east. So if the unemployed were sent to the eastern labour camps, a great many of them would be working for you again, only this time without payment." ~ Trau President
Jek: I've missed so much of life these last lonely years, but your arrival has changed all that. We shall become the best of companions.
The 5th Doctor: What do you say, Peri? We can go on nature walks, have picnics and jolly evenings round the camp fire.
Jek: Don't mock me, Doctor. Beauty I must have, but you are dispensable.
"You have the mouth of a prattling jackanapes but your eyes, they tell a different story." ~ Sharaz Jek
Peri: He's mad, Doctor. Utterly mad.
The 5th Doctor: And a raving egoist. Said my mind was nearly the equal of his. Incredible conceit.
"Hmm. The androids are programmed to kill humans. Well, my physiology is quite different. The question is, will it know that?" ~ The Fifth Doctor
"What does he mean, he's not human?" ~ Salateen
Sharaz Jek: Doctor! I hadn't expected to see you again so soon.
The 5th Doctor: Life often springs these little surprises.
"I'm not acting for anyone. I was just passing through. I happened to get mixed up in this pathetic little local war." ~ The Fifth Doctor
The 5th Doctor [on screen]: I'm not acting for anyone. I was just passing through. I happened to get mixed up in this pathetic little local war.
Morgus: I am the richest man in the whole of the five planets. You tell me the truth and I will reward you beyond your wildest dreams.
The 5th Doctor [on screen]: I am telling the truth. I keep telling the truth. Why is it no one believes me?
"We'll be touching down in a couple of minutes, or more likely crashing down. You see, I'm a bit out of practice with manual landings, so if I were you, I'd find something firm to hang onto!" ~ The Fifth Doctor
The 5th Doctor: No, no, Peri, don't give up. You mustn't give up!
Jek: What was that?
The 5th Doctor: Celery. It's a powerful restorative where I come from. Unfortunately, the human olfactory system is comparatively feeble.
Peri: What's happened?
The 6th Doctor: Change, my dear. And it seems not a moment too soon.
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Trivia
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"The Caves of Androzani" was the first Doctor Who script written by Robert Holmes since the Fourth Doctor episode "The Power of Kroll" in season 16. Holmes felt that The Fifth Doctor's adventures had been too easy, and decided to "put him through hell" for his final story.
Holmes was also not popular with show runner John Nathan-Turner, who was quoted as saying that Holmes return to the show was "bringing in the old."
According to script editor Eric Saward, JNT wasn't keen on commissioning a story from the veteran Doctor Who writer. However, Nathan-Turner would later name this as one of his favourite stories from his tenure as producer.
The serial also marked the last appearance of Peter Davison as the Doctor until his appearance in the new series mini-sode "Time Crash". Davison and made the decision to leave at the ned of the previous season, but did say that if he were given more stories like "The Caves of Androzani", then he would have reconsidered leaving.
Aside from the script, Davison particularly liked working with director Graeme Harper, who he claimed brought "pace" and "energy" to the programme, as well as directing it "far more filmically than it had ever been done before."
The working title of this story was Chain Reaction. However, it was rumoured by the fan press that the story would be called "The Doctor's Wife". This was how John Nathan-Turner had listed the adventure on his planning board, in order to substantiate his long-held suspicion that somebody in the production office was leaking information about upcoming stories.
Recording was interrupted by industrial action, which caused a serious delay in the filming of the serial. As a result, a major scene had to be cut. The Doctor was to explain to Peri the reason for their visit to Androzani Minor. Apparently, as a boy, the Doctor had started a "blown glass bottle collection," which was made from the sand of different planets. He had lost his Androzani bottle and decided to return there to retrieve some more sand. It was in this scene Peri was to say "You're such a pain, Doctor." However, when the final cut of the serial was made, it had been discovered that certain lines of dialogue (like the Doctor professing that "I am not a pain." and Peri's comments about needing sand to "make some glass") alluded to the cut sequence. To rectify this, Davison and Bryant voiced over part of their conversation while the TARDIS materialises from outer space to the planet.
Holmes was inspired by The Phantom of the Opera in creating Sharaz Jek, much as he had with Magnus Greel in The Talons of Weng-Chiang. Christopher Gable was fourth choice for Sharez Jek, after David Bowie, Tim Curry and Oliver Tobias had been asked. Mick Jagger and Roger Daltrey were also considered. Gable was originally cast as Major Salateen.
Eric Saward added the scene where The Doctor explains to Peri why he wears a celery stick. It is due to an allergic condition - with the "Praxsis spectrum" gases which the celery detects actually named after the Praxis typewriter Saward used. The ending scene with the newly-regenerated Sixth Doctor was also written by Saward.
While he is in his office, Morgus frequently talks directly to camera. This arose through John Normington misunderstanding a stage direction. But Graeme Harper felt the asides effectively ramped up the dramatic tension, and decided to keep them.
"The Caves of Androzoni" is the first regeneration episode to feature the post-regeneration Doctor actually talking.
The Fifth Doctor's regeneration, like the Fourth Doctor's, features a flashback of that incarnation's companions. However, for this regeneration, it was decided that special recordings of the Fifth Doctor's companions would be used instead of stock footage. This required Matthew Waterhouse, Sarah Sutton, Janet Fielding, Mark Strickson, Gerald Flood and Anthony Ainley to return in cameos for the regeneration sequence. Fielding, Strickson, Flood and Ainley were already under contract to appear in the stories of Season 21. However, special contracts had to be made for Waterhouse, who left the series in Season 19, and Sutton, who left in Season 20. Johnny Byrne, who created the character of Nyssa in The Keeper of Traken had to be paid royalties for the use of the character in the regeneration scene.
The Master originally didn't appear in the regeneration scene, as Anthony Ainley's contract had expired.
Peter Davison has joked on several occasions of how he was "upstaged" by Nicola Bryant in his last major scene as the Doctor. Before the regeneration hallucination occurs, Davison is lying on the floor and his head is resting by Bryant, who is kneeling beside him. As he is delivering his last few lines, Bryant's loose fitting outfit prominently displays her cleavage.
In the original script, the Doctor did not regenerate after succumbing to spectrox toxaemia, but simply because of the damage his body sustained in combating Stotz and his gunrunners.
Colin Baker's girth was too great to properly fit into Peter Davison's costume, and so he was forced to give his performance with the trousers undone - permitting him the opportunity to moon Davison's wife, actress Sandra Dickinson.
Much like The Myrka in "Warriors of the Deep", The Magma Beast costume was barely finished before it was needed in the studio, meaning that the performer inside the suit was given virtually no time to become accustomed to it. John Nathan-Turner as very disappointed by the finished product, although he had no choice but to allow taping to proceed.
A major action segment, in which the Doctor kills the Magma Beast by tricking it into jumping over the edge of a chasm was cut for time.
Apart from The Doctor and Peri, the only character to survive this story is Timmin.
"The Caves of Androzoni" was voted by fans as the second greatest Doctor Who serial in Outpost Gallifrey's poll in 2003 to celebrate 40 years of the series.
Winner of Best Story in the Doctor Who Magazine Season Poll.
In 2009, The Caves of Androzani was voted the greatest Doctor Who story ever in a poll by Doctor Who Magazine out of 200 episodes.
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Links (Watch on DailyMotion.com)
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Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Doctor Who: The Caves of Androzani (Special Edition) (Story 136) DVD is available from Amazon.com,
or download from iTunes, or watch via streaming at Netflix or Hulu Plus.
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