Doctor Who: "Castrovalva"

[Henry R. Kujawa]

From the blog:

WGPJosh:
"Those who want to complain about The Doctor being a cosmic arch-gamesmaster under McCoy would be remiss not to note the seeds were sewn here, and by no less than David Whitaker-The show’s first script editor and one of its most influential writers ever."

I always got the impression, so it was a delight when I had it recently confirmed for me, that after the Apolcalypse following Season 23, that JNT, forced to remain at the helm of a show he desperately wanted to be gone from, decided to search for "a Patrick Troughton type". And by God, HE FOUND ONE!!

People tend to say their first Doctor is their favorite. Well, after Cushing, Pertwee, Baker, Davison, Troughton, Colin and Hartnell (in that order for me, yes), I was totally shocked when McCoy became my favorite Doctor. And slowly, I realized Troughton was my 2nd-favorite. Although, Tom Baker's era simply had the BEST stories with the BEST structure.

Although, when it comes to Daleks, nothing tops that 2nd Cushing film. (I can still hear the music in my head when I think about it.)



"see that’s not Doctor Who for me personally"

Exactly how I see it. The other 6 of the 7 Doctors (sticking to the original 26 seasons) ALL seemed to be "The Doctor" to me. Davison-- DIDN'T. And I'll say it again. Albert Campion seems more like "The Doctor" to me than whatever the hell it was Davison was doing on this show for 3 years. (With Brian Glover as his sidekick, he'd have to be.)


My favorite bits here-- "One, two..." "Three, sir!" (Ooh, someone's been watching HOLY GRAIL again!) "You may know chemistry, but one of us is deluded about geography." (That line actually made me LAUGH tonight!) And of course, "The books are five hundred years old... but they chronicle the history of Castrovalva up to the present day."

My intro to Escher was a wall poster of "Relativity"-- the 3 intersecting staircases existing impossibly in 3 different directions (it could work in a zero-G environment). I got books of his stuff. In my 10th grade math class, we spent half a year on Geometry. Our end-of year project was to construct a 3-dimensional object. Most people did Dodecahedrons and the like. ("MEGLOS", anyone?) I built a model of "Relativity". NO KIDDING. (about 14" x 14" x 14") Half my class said it was impossible, it's just an optical illustion. Some of Escher's drawings are, but not this one. I wish I still had it. My DAD crushed it under some boxes. IDIOT.

Anthony Ainley completely falls apart by the end of this one. Might have beena good way to go out, f they'd actually shown more at the end. I also wish there'd actually be a shot of the city disappearing, as they had at the end of THE OUTER LIMITS episode "The Guests". Oh well. The sad thing is, I've written stories with a character based on Ainley (which has nothing to do with DOCTOR WHO), and I feel I've given him better writing than he ever got on this show.

[The Baron]

1)Watching this agian, the problem I find is with the pacing of the story - eesentially an episode-and-a-half of "the regeneration isn't working"/"saving the TARDIS from Event One", following by half an episode of "Getting to Castrovalva" scenes just seems too long to me.

 

2)I did like Davison's attempts at imitating earlier Doctors, they were amusing. He did Troughton best, I thought.

 

3)I gather the cricketing outfit was Davison's idea, but the final result was one of a "costume" than he would have liked.

 

4)I'd forgotten Michael Sheard was in this.

 

5)I confess that when I first watched this, I did not pick up on the fact that "Neil Toynay" was actually "Tony Ainley", which only goes to show you what a lousy detective I would've made.

 

6)The little girl who talks to the Doctor in Part Three ("Three, sir") is Souska John, Caroline John's niece.

 

7)Wow, the Master shoves Nyssa pretty  brutally in Part Four - he's not often so directly viiolent.

 

8)Apparently, Waterhouse discovered Campari the night before they filmed the last scenes of this, and was brutally hung over.

 

9)Note that the celery the Doctor pins to his lapel comes from Castrovalva.  But nothing in Castrovalva was real, so how did the celery survive its destruction?

 

)Some fun quotes:

• "'The Solution' - oh, my little friend, if only you were."
• "Go softly on." He's quoting Fortinbras!
• "You made us, man of evil, but we are free!"

 

)Cliffhangers:

• Part One: The TARDIS is rushing towards Event One!
• Part Two: The Zero Cabinet is empty!
• Part Three: Castrovalva is all folded in on itself!
• Part Four: The Doctor is all smug about himself!

 

Overall:

Wow, that really wasn't very good, was it?  "Doctor's first episodes" are often hit-or-miss, but that one seemed to take forever going absolutely nowhere.

[Henry R. Kujawa]

"He did Troughton best, I thought."

What I somehow never noticed until this year was, he wound up "doing" Troughton again-- in the 2nd HALF of "FRONTIOS". He was so good in there, it makes me wish he'd been "doing" Troughton all along.

"I got this one CHEAP because the walk's not quite right, and then of course, there's the ACCENT..."

(as Tegan glares at him murderously)

"I'd forgotten Michael Sheard was in this."

He did some decent roles on this show over the years.

"nothing in Castrovalva was real, so how did the celery survive its destruction?"

A very interesting question...

"Wow, that really wasn't very good, was it?  "Doctor's first episodes" are often hit-or-miss, but that one seemed to take forever going absolutely nowhere."

Sadly, when Colin Baker arrived, they made the ill-advised decision to try doing it AGAIN. Only more so.

I so much preferred it when McCoy woke up and INSTANTLY was right in the head. (Until he was given a case of temporary amnesia...)