Day 619: The Caves of Androzani Part 1

In 2009, Doctor Who Magazine published a poll ranking all Doctor Who stories. In the number one spot was The Caves of Androzani, Peter Davison's final Doctor Who story. I looked on it with a bit of interest. I'd never really seen Androzani before, and so I wondered how it could possibly be good enough to be considered the best Doctor Who episode ever. Wary of my expectations being too high, I watched it a couple of years later, and I realised why it can be considered so good.

You see, almost every single aspect of this episode works perfectly, and stands out amongst everything around it as something worth watching. Take, for instance, the direction by Graeme Harper. Harper, unlike almost every other director working for the program, goes for an approach that's more realistic than one would normally expect on the series. The camera feels far freer under Harper's direction, as can be seen, for instance, in a scene where we observe the Doctor and Peri from the point of view of some gun-runners, with the camera almost resting on one of their shoulders, putting us in the position of the gun-runners for this portion of the scene. Another great example is where Morgus has a conversation with General Chellak over a futuristic monitor. At first, we see both Morgus and Chellak in shot, but then Morgus gets up and wanders around the room. The camera then switches angles, and we only see the back of Chellak's head, with Morgus in full view. This exerts his dominance over the story and the plot, showing him to be a powerful man, with only the camera telling this.

But the main point of why the direction is so good, as I mentioned earlier, is that it stands out. Whilst the direction so far on this series has been rather good (Warriors of the Deep notwithstanding) Harper goes that extra step to make his story more memorable, and better all around. Matthew Robinson went for realistic action in Resurrection of the Daleks, but Harper has more of this, providing his team with machine guns, giving a stronger sense of power and realism than what a simple laser pistol can give. Fiona Cumming has a rocky wasteland in the form of Lanzarote, and yet it never feels quite as strong as the conventional quarry that is found here, feeling just that bit more barren and lifeless. And whilst Pennant Roberts may have made the best he could out of the rather poor Myrka costume, Harper shows that there could certainly have been more that he could have done, taking the unimpressive Magma Beast and shooting it in a darkened studio, making it feel far more dangerous than the costume would have you believe.

These are all just some of the reasons why this story is so fantastic, and why I am really quite looking forward to the next four days as we watch The Caves of Androzani.