The latest batch of BBC DVDs include the justly famous swansong from Peter Davison's Doctor, THE CAVES OF ANDROZANI. CAVES has many fans, myself among them, who would place the story in their personal top ten lists. The question is, does the DVD add to the story's reputation?
For those new to the story, The Doctor and Peri (Peter Davison and Nicola Bryant) arrive on Androzani Minor and accidently become involved in a battle between gunrunners, the military and a chinese new year's dragon. The reason for all this conflict is spectrox, a substance that will slow the ageing process. The gun batles are nothing compared to the personal war between industrialist Morgus (an icy John Normington), impotent General Chellak (Martin Cochran, in a thankless role), evil gunrunner Stotz (played to the hilt by Maurice Roeves) and the theatrically insane Sharez Jek, who controls the spectrox. Jek is one of the most famous WHO baddies of all time and actor/dancer Christopher Gamble all but steals the show using all his talents to create a full-bodied performance. Early on, the Doctor and Peri are infected by raw spectrox and will die unless a cure can be found amid the chaos. This time, the Doctor might not be able to save them both......
There is a ton of great extras to this DVD (more than a lot of Hollywood films), but the stand out for me is commentary from Davison, Bryant and the story's director Graeme Harper. The comments are funny and breezy and enhanced my veiwing no end. Be it pointing out gaffes or remembering on set antics, these three are having a great time in each other's company and you will too. Comments on part four are worth the price of the disc, from Davison's comments on carrying Bryant around to being upstaged at the story's end by her breasts to his " fate worse than death". You'll wish the story was longer just to hear more.
CAVES OF ANDROZANI sets the standard for DOCTOR WHO DVDs. A fantastic story enhanced by fantastic extras. Classic.
On a side note about one of the extras, could John Nathan-Turner look more uncomfortable? Just wondering... The old adage "you can't judge a book by its cover" couldn't apply more to the recent north american DVD release of The Caves of Androzani, Peter Davison's final appearance as the Doctor.
Cursed with the most unfortunate cover graphics of the US DVD releases to date (including an appallingly low-quality image of Davison carrying Nicola Bryant that is 1. obviously a low-resolution screen capture blown up to print size and 2. backwards--check the question mark on Davison's shirt collar), the contents of the Caves DVD more than make up for the cover gaffe.
Presented with the same attention to detail and standards of quality as all the previous Doctor Who DVDs, this disc is simply a must-buy for any fan of the story. It never ceases to amaze me how much better Doctor Who looks on DVD compared to the old videos, and the Caves DVD is no exception. The picture is superb (including one of the few improvements to an old episode I can appreciate without feeling it is needless revisionism: the elimination of the shaky matte shots at the start of episode one does wonders, allowing the viewer to pay more attention to what's happening storywise than to look at the background and shake one's head in disgust). The sound is also excellent; however, one small gripe about the music-only option: I wish it would have followed the same format as the music presentation on the Five Doctors Special Edition DVD. Sitting through long portions of the episodes in silence while waiting for ten seconds of music and then back to silence again can get a little tedious.
The extras, as usual, fail to disappoint. The two behind-the-scenes featurettes (the Regeneration and Making Sharaz Jek) are quite interesting (altho the Jek featurette could have used a little breathing space--possibly more stills without dialogue and sound effects to accompany Christopher Gable's monologue). The BBC news announcements and interviews with Davison and John Nathan-Turner are welcome additions as well, giving the disc a truly archival feel. Something that might be pursued in future releases, especially of episodes which feature major milestones in the series' history, might be to include news clippings from contemporary UK newspapers as well when the show made the headlines. Tedious, definitely, but nevertheless a nice touch from a collecting standpoint. The information captions, still images and Who's Who are thorough as always.
While the commentary by Davison, Bryant and director Graeme Harper is always entertaining, I got an awkward feeling from it...it almost seems as if Bryant is superfluous to the discussion, as her comments are often ignored by Harper and Davison, or at most responded to with a "Hmmph" and a quick change in subject, or dead silence. As the commentary progresses this ceases to be as much of an issue, but definitely in the early episodes you get the feeling that Davison would prefer to speak about the episode himself.
Little needs be said about the quality of the story itself, as most fans agree The Caves of Androzani represented a pinnacle in Doctor Who history. Superb writing, acting and directing have made the episode a classic. Harper's commentary points out all the things he believes were failures; however, it is filled with so many successes as to make one wonder how much better the story would be if Harper's nitpicks would have made it onscreen. Sequences such as the hilltop confrontation between Stotz and Krelper (with its amazing symmetry, almost treated as a self-contained short film within the larger story itself) and Morgus' Shakespearian asides to the camera were executed better than some entire episodes of the series' past.
As with every other north american Who DVD released thus far, The Caves of Androzani is an unabashed success. Here's hoping we'll see many more releases in the years to come. |
