Review: Doctor Who Classic: Castrovalva

Five levitates in the Zero Room.

Doctor Who, Season 19, Story One - Castrovalva. Written by Christopher H. Bidmead.

The Doctor that I knew the most as a child, due to repeats on UKTV Gold, was Peter Davison's Fifth Doctor. He was mild-mannered and more agile than his predecessors, as well as being more satirical than pragmatic. Under the watchful eye of head writer Eric Saward, Five was often more likely to walk through a series of events than do anything about it. Five's post-regeneration story is notable for being the true beginning of JNT's style, and also for having to deal with seven years' worth of familiarity with the previous actor. It's also written by Christopher Hamilton Bidmead. We've been over this once already.
      Though certainly not as mind-numbingly tedious as Logopolis, Castrovalva shares many of its problems. Nothing really happens until the second act, and with the new broadcasting schedule of two episodes a week, this means the entire first half appears worse off. There's also some terrible, terrible science, this time on a level understandable by primary school students. I wouldn't really mind; Doctor Who has never really been, "hard sci-fi", but our writer is someone from a scientific background, and he doesn't even have the excuse of the "advancement of science" - these ideas are wrong even by 1981 standards.
     The first episode recaps from Logopolis and then has the quartet escape back the Tardis, being chased by the Pharos security (played by different extras) all the way. Once inside Adric, who's been blasted by The Master's pursuing Tardis, sets the co-ordinates while a confused Doctor goes wandering through the corridors of his time machine. There's a really nice touch where to mark his path through the corridors he unravels Tom's trademark scarf and deposits parts of Tom's costume until he's forced to wear the new costume he conveniently finds - that of a cricketeer. All the while he goes through the personalities of his past incarnations.

Adric: Whine! Master: Cackle!

     Meanwhile in the Console Room, the two girls ramble and try to learn how to pilot the Tardis. They think they're drifting in space and Nyssa says that they might collide with something, because "the star density is very high." Really? Yes, Nyssa was brought up on the very introverted Traken, but their technology couldn't have advanced to the stage it had without them realising that a small object the size of a police-box is not big enough to find the light-year distances between stars "dense."
      The girls wander back as Adric seems to have disappeared. They follow the Doctor's path and help him into the Zero Room, a room isolated from the rest of the universe that will help him to heal after his regeneration. Apparently outside his neurological structure "gets conflicting outside signals", something that Nyssa agrees with. Then again, this is "high star density" Nyssa, so I'm not surprised. Tegan is, as usual, adapting incredibly well to the situation. After a really emo message from Adric, who's been trapped in a kinky-looking web by The Master, they realise that the ship is getting hotter and eventually discover that the ship is heading towards Event One at the beginning of the universe.
     Oh, I'm sorry. I surely meant, "galaxy", because that's what the science-expert's script says. Apparently the Big Bang wasn't any sort of expansion - rather, says our expert, it was a "Hydrogen in-rush" and "the biggest explosion in history." Let's get something straight here. The theory behind there being a universe of other galaxies originated in 1919. The Big Bang theory with all the appropriate evidence for this example originated in 1927. This isn't a scientific opinion on the part of Mr. Christopher "Scientific Journalist" Bidmead. It's lazy writing.

1980s Wikipedia

      The Doctor, now temporarily made magically better by the heat of the ship making "the adrenaline bridge the synapses," manages to work out a solution - they turn down the heat by turning a bloody valve and then jettison a quarter of the Tardis' mass to launch them away from Event One. It all goes well and, despite The Master's camp speeches, they survive. In the Tardis database, Nyssa discovers that certain planets act similar to Zero Rooms - one such as Castrovalva. Nyssa and The Doctor head back to the Zero Room, which it turns out has been jettisoned to help them escape. Since the doors remain, and they're made of the same material as the room, Nyssa follows The Doctors instructions to create a "Zero Cabinet." Tegan is very easily able to fly the Tardis to Castrovalva (don't worry, it's an actual plot point instead of lazy writing) and they carry the cabinet to the main city.
     Spending the next ten minutes or so wandering aimlessly through what looks like the British Countryside, the two set down the Zero Cabinet with The Doctor inside. While they're climbing up rocks, they're being stalked by tribesmen in ridiculous-looking masks and The Doctor goes wandering off, for some reason suffering from a bleeding wound. The two girls are chased by the tribesmen and find The Doctor wandering about. He's suffering from some pretty bad amneisa, and has absolutely no idea who he is. The tribesmen have take The Cabinet and find The Doctor, who they nicely introduce into Castrovalva. It turns out they're just the hunting parties of a much more civilised Catrovalva, run by a shifty looking bloke in black called Shardovan. He's the Librarian of Castrovalva. The place is looked after by the mystical Portreeve (played by Neil Toyney, who loves anagrams very much.) The people of Castrovalva are very well-characterised and much more like Doctor Who than I'd been used to with Logopolis.
     The Portreeve is of course The Master in disguise. At first it's difficult to see, but after the first viewing it's incredibly obvious. Nyssa and Tegan end up climbing to Logopolis and make their way into the city by natural means. A night goes by. Nyssa has the Zero Cabinet brought to The Doctor's chamber, but while there she sees a projection of Adric in a mirror, who tells her that the Master can find him anywhere and that The Doctor should wait in Castrovalva until better. The Master cackles.

He's wearing black, he must be evil.

     While Nyssa and Tegan go to the Library, the Portreeve shows The Doctor a "magic" tapestry that shows past events. The two girls decide to read the planet's history. There's a charming scene where a young girl teaches The Doctor that three follows two and this helps him remember Adric. He remembers everything and they try to escape, noticing that every path they take leads them back to the same square. The Shardovan acts all sinister as The Doctor realises that Castrovalva is subject to "recursive occulsion" - a "space-time trap."
     The two girls go off to find the Zero Cabinet to help The Doctor while he reads the history of Castrovalva, and discovers that the 500 year old books are hand-written by The Shardovan. He asks the hunting leader, Mergrave, to draw a map. It appears that Shardovan is the only person in Castrovalva to notice the recursion. Mergrave's map of the city includes four of every place. The trio basically paint the darkly-dressed Shardovan as the villain of the piece.
     As the citizens of Castrovalva take the Zero Cabinet to the Portreeve, The Doctor takes the Shardovan off to the side and realises that he's ok. The Master reveals himself and The Doctor breaks into the room by a back way. Shardovan, now persuaded of The Master's evil, swings along a lampshade into the Tapestry, which is Adric's kinky cage. This frees Adric and starts the collapse of Castrovalva. The quartet escape, as does The Master, but Castrovalva disappears into a haze of pixels. They head off for their next exciting adventure.

Turns out Cabinets have an NHS...

     Tegan and Nyssa carry this story in its first half, which is dreadfully important because while The Doctor is suffering from Spearhead Syndrome (where a Doctor is incapacitated for the majority of his post-regeneration story) they act as the main protagonists. And aside from some really dodgy science, I can't help admit that these scenes generally are interesting and well-written. Despite their major characterisation isses (Tegan adjusting supernaturally well to preceedings and Nyssa rarely batting an eyelid to the extinction of her race) they are genuinely likeable characters in most respects. They're human, and that's all they need to be. Adric meanwhile is an irritating twit in this story, spending 99% of his running time as The Master's b***h and generally being the whiney, smug caricature that people stereotype him as.
      Davison's introductory scenes in the first episode, and his actions throughout the serial, are some of the best in at least the JNT's period. They introduce a character that's immediately likeable that not only has all of his predeccessor's good traits but also a much more refreshing personality when compared to the later Tom Baker. They also use it as a tribute to the past while looking very confidently to the future of the program.
      Anthony Ainley's incarnation of The Master in this story, at least, is a bit of a loser. He seems to be trying very hard to channel the original traits of the original, Roger Delgado, but is forced to filter it through early Eighties culture. Ainley would be The Master for the remainder of the classic run, and he only really gets to shine in the final broadcast story of the original run, Survival. Here he only seems to have absurd numbers of backup plans - he has a backup plan when The Doctor survives the fall from the telescope, a plan for when he survives Event One etc. . It's all very disconcerting.

To the future... three years.

      The script for the second half of the story is much more well-written than the first and I really do enjoy the ideas put across. It really is a delight to behold, and in the culture of Castrovalva is demonstrated so well in such a short space of time. For all of the story's faults, with horrifically bad mistakes in scientific accuracy, its characterisations and later concepts make it a fundamentally good story that sets off Davison's era with the right amount of oomph.
      So when it comes down to it, I can't bring myself to truly hate Castrovalva as much as I want to. It's JNT's best intro story and certainly arrives as a breath of fresh air from the heavyness of Logopolis. I still think that it's concepts are either blatantly wrong or too difficult for the casusal viewer to invest in, but in the second half at least the central concept is really interesting and our new young lead is introduced in the best way possible. Hurrah for three years of Peter Davison.

Thanks.

P.S. The music is lovely in this story, as in the last two. Also, this is the end of the New Beginnings trilogy, but I will be reviewing the following story, Four To Doomsday.