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Dom Robinson reviews
- Cert:
- Cat.no: BBCDVD 1042
- Running time: 99 minutes
- Year: 1984
- Pressing: 2000
- Region(s): 2, 4 (UK PAL)
- Chapters: 24 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 (Mono)
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: English
- Fullscreen: 4:3
- 16:9-enhanced: No
- Macrovision: No
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: £19.99
- Extras: Exclusive Footage and Behind the scenes Documentaries,Photo Gallery, Music-only track, Trailer, News Features, On-screen ProductionNotes, Audio Commentary track
Director:
- Graeme Harper
Producer:
- John Nathan-Turner
Music:
- Roger Limb
Cast:
- The Doctor: Peter Davison
Peri: Nicola Bryant
Sharaz Jek: Christopher Gable
Morgus: John Normington
Salateen: Robert Glenister
Stotz: Maurice Roeves
Chellak: Martin Cochrane
Krelper: Roy Holder
Timmin: Barbara Kinghorn
President: David Neal
The Caves of Androzani was Peter Davison‘slast feature as the Doctor before he regenerated into Colin Baker, butno sooner has he and his assistant Peri (Nicola Bryant) arrived thanthey’re being scheduled for execution by General Challek (Martin Cochrane)almost exactly at the end of episode one. Well, it’s either that or sufferbeing eaten by the caves’ own monster.
They’re assumed to be gunrunners for Sharaz Jek (the late Christopher Gablewho died in 1998). Then again, he’s got his own problems being dolled up in ablack-and-white gimp mask…
Of course, you know The Doctor and Peri won’t die because there’s three moreepisodes to come and just what is it about Spectrox that makes it the mostvaluable item in the universe AND the deadliest? Is it because it makes uslive twice as long so we could splash out for a 50-year mortgage instead ofthe usual 25-year one?
The back cover states that The Caves of Androzani was first transmittedfrom March 8th-16th, 1984, but these things tend to last for four whole weeks.
Morgus found world domination impossiblewith an early 80s TV remote control.
The picture quality is rather good considering the age of the programe, withlittle in the way of artifacts and a few scratches on the print. Presented inthe original fullscreen ratio, I was unable to determine the average bitratesince some of the standard DVD features have been disabled such as this and the bookmarkfunction.
The sound is the original mono. The theme tune is as recognisable as ever andthere’s nothing special about the special sound FX. A shame we couldn’t have aremastered Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack here as we did withThe Five Doctors
This disc contains a great wealth of interesting extras starting with an8-minute Behind the scenes documentary about the regeneration in whichDavison is replaced by Baker and the Original Opening Scene, which doesexactly what it says on the tin complete with the now-removed jerky movementbetween the background mountain matte and the foreground film sequence. Thisutilises the multi-angle feature but the DVD doesn’t make it selectable atwill other than from the extras menu.
There’s an Extended Scene in episode two between soldiers Stotz (MauriceRoeves) and Krelper (Roy Holder), a five-minute piece about thegimp in Creating Sharaz Jek and a Photo Gallery containing amassive 56 on-set stills.
Don’t want to listen to the Doctor and Peri rambling on? Chose the AudioCommentary track instead with the actors discussing their parts alongsidedirector Graeme Harper, complete with its own set of subtitles, orthe Music-only track.
Information Text is a third set of subtitles that provides extra infoabout the programme as it runs and, in addition to the Original BBC1 trailerthat preceeded the first episode are three News Features from lateJuly 1983 when it was revealed that Davison was quitting the series. This sortof info is what I find most fascinating so please let’s have more BBC!
There are 24 chapters spread throughout the 99-minute feature covering allthe major scenes and breaks down to six per episode. The language andsubtitles are in English, while the menus contain suitable animation andmusic from the theme tune.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALL
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.