Wednesday 5 August 2015

Day 621: The Caves of Androzani Part 3


The Caves of Androzani is the last story to feature the Fifth Doctor. The exact moment when this becomes the inevitable conclusion of this story occurs five or so minutes into the story, when he and Peri fall into a nest of unrefined spectrox, giving them an illness that will end in death, unless a very specific cure can be found. So the story becomes about a man trying to fight for a good, simple thing, by finding a cure to help someone because he feels guilty about putting her into a life or death situation.

But the Doctor's dying, and we get glimpses of this at the start of the clip above. The screen distorts, as strange patterns appear and then dissipate. At first, it's unclear what they are, but by story's end, it will become clear that this is the oncoming regeneration. The Doctor realises this, and now knows that he will die, one way or another. Suddenly, he becomes a full-on action hero, and moves into a mental position somewhat akin to an action hero, making jokes in the face of adversity and doing more rash actions like crashing into a planet with a spaceship.

But Davison plays this slightly afraid. He's legitimately worried that this plan won't work, and that he will die without saving Peri. We hear his voice crack slightly at one point, and he's a little bit more breathless than usual. Even the ending close-up is of his face wearing a fearful expression. But the expression is also determined. It's this determination that will drive the rest of the story, and keep the Doctor alive. Indeed, lest we forget one of the few good moments from Planet of the Daleks, where the Doctor says that courage is "being afraid but doing what you have to do anyway". Here, Davison's Doctor embodies this perfectly, and acts as an excellent lead-in to the final and throughly intense part of the story.

"So you see, I'm not going to let you stop me now!"

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