Doctor Who-The Caves of Androzani (1984)

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General		Extras
Category	Science Fiction	Main Menu Introduction Main Menu Audio & Animation Featurette-Behind The Scenes-The Regeneration Deleted Scenes-Original Opening Scene; Extended Scene Featurette-Creating Sharaz Jek Theatrical Trailer Audio Commentary Featurette-BBC One O'Clock News 28/07/1983 Featurette-BBC Nine O'Clock News 28/07/1983 Featurette-South East At Six 29/07/1983 Informational Subtitles Gallery-Photo
Rating
Year Of Production	1984
Running Time	99:58
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Graeme Harper
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Peter Davison Nicola Bryant
Case	Soft Brackley-Transp
RPI	$34.95	Music	Roger Limb Ron Grainer

    After Tom Baker's record-setting stint as the Doctor, the series went into something of a slow decline, with the ratings even taking a slight dive during the first season to feature his successor - Peter Davison. The problem wasn't so much the acting or the production, but seemed to lie mostly in the quality of the scripts that were being put into production, with the writing somewhat uneven between serials. However, The Caves Of Androzani was a fitting send-off to the Fifth Doctor, with one of the most explosive and amazing regeneration sequences the series has ever produced.

    The story begins with the Doctor (Peter Davison) and his companion, Peri (Nicola Bryant) landing on the planet Androzani Minor, a desert planet whose major purpose is the exporting of minerals to its companion planet, Androzani Major. While the Major planet is a habitable and well-industrialised place, the Minor planet is a deserted world with a core of heated mud which boils towards the planet's surface whenever its orbital pattern takes it close to Major. At present, both planets are engaged in a guerrilla-style war with a fellow who goes by the name of Sharaz Jek (Christopher Gable), all over a liquid mineral called Spectrox which has the desirable property of prolonging life. Unfortunately, when the Doctor and Peri meet with some of the locals, they are taken to be weapons smugglers helping the rebels controlled by Sharaz Jek, a crime that could possibly carry the death sentence.

    Of course, no Doctor Who serial is complete without the usual cliffhanger at the end of each episode, and this one has some pretty tense cliffhangers. There is also some rather imaginative set design, some hilarious-looking monsters, and the usual gloating from the lead bad guy as he reveals the niggly details about his plan to a seemingly-subdued Doctor, only this time it is spread throughout the serial. Naturally, the whole thing reeks of having been shot on a budget of about five quid, if that, but it wouldn't be Doctor Who any other way. If you're already a fan of Doctor Who, then I doubt you would need any further persuasion to indulge in this effort, but those who aren't may find starting with an earlier serial such as Spearhead From Space to be a more prudent idea. Either way, it is good to see this well-loved relic of a better time in the life of television making its way to our beloved format.

    Technical Note: Timing information was not displayed on this DVD, so all the times quoted in this review are taken from a stopwatch and should be considered approximate.

Video

    Everyone who is familiar with Doctor Who will know the old song and dance about how the BBC have failed to shoot and keep this series in a manner that will keep it presentable for generations to come, so we'll skip that part. What is amazing about these DVD releases is the standard that the restoration team has managed to bring them back to. You can read my interview with Steve Roberts, one of the men behind this team, here.

    The serial is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 and is not 16x9 Enhanced.

    The sharpness of this transfer varies according to the location and conditions of the shot. The sharpness is quite good for indoor shots, although not nearly up to the standards of a DVD mastered from thirty-five millimeter film. Outdoor shots, which were captured using sixteen millimeter film, tend to be somewhat more diffuse and grainy. Scenes with lots of fog or smoke in them also do not help in this regard. The shadow detail of this transfer is acceptable, although there is not a lot to be found in the blacks, and there was no apparent low-level noise.

    The colours of this transfer are mostly well-represented, with no obvious composite artefacting. Smearing was occasionally noticed in some shots, but this appears to be more the fault of the minimal effects used on the raw footage than anything else. The regeneration sequence in particular contains some examples of deliberately smeared colours.

    MPEG artefacts were not especially noted in the transfer, although it is easy to mistake the grain that is abundant in the backgrounds of outdoor scenes for MPEG artefacting. Film-to-video artefacts consisted of some minor aliasing on a desk in the first episode at 15:50 and a grille in the third episode at 14:50. The most obvious and annoying film-to-video artefact was a banding effect during the smoky cave sequences, where grey horizontal bands would appear on the picture, such as at 4:08 in the fourth episode. This appears to be inherent in the source material, however. Film artefacts consisted of some very minor white marks on the picture during outdoor sequences.

Addendum January 15, 2002: A little while after this review was published, Steve Roberts from the Dr. Who restoration team again emailed me about some of the artefacts in this transfer. This is what he hand to say about the banding: "What you're actually seeing in this shot is an effect called 'microphony', which is caused by the sensitive mechanical elements inside the old camera pickup tubes vibrating in response to the loud gunfire. The vibrations of the grids inside the tubes are causing fluctuations in the video level coming out of them - in effect, they are acting like microphones, hence the name. There's not a great deal we can do about it, unfortunately - it's just one of those things!" One can translate this to mean that the banding effect, much like almost every other flaw in this transfer, can be attributed to the source materials.

    The English for the Hearing Impaired subtitles contain some rather odd variances from the spoken dialogue, such as confusing Androzani Minor with Major, but they are otherwise accurate enough to follow the story.

    This disc is dual-layered, but I detected no layer change during any of the episodes.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are three soundtracks on this DVD, all of which are in Dolby Digital 2.0 with a bitrate of 192 kilobits per second. In order, we have the original English dialogue, an English audio commentary, and an Isolated Score. I listened to all three of these soundtracks.

    The dialogue is clear and easy to make out most of the time, with the exceptions being when the actors are speaking with their heads turned away from the camera or anywhere else where ADR might have helped. Overall, however, I'd say that ninety-five percent of the dialogue is easy to understand, which is better than what I have seen from some productions that have had many times Doctor Who's budget allocated to them. There did not appear to be any problems with audio sync.

    The music in this serial is credited to Ron Grainer, with the incidental music by Roger Limb. It is much the same as the music in every other Doctor Who serial, with synthesisers and almost computerised sounds being the order of the day.

    The surround channels were not used by this soundtrack, and neither was the subwoofer.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    Again, we are getting quite a large load of archival material included with this disc, so let's dive right in. All of the video extras are presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound.

Menu

    The menu is rendered in a similar style to the previous two Doctor Who DVDs, with samples of video from the serial playing in the background. It also features a mood-setting introduction and a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack. It is not 16x9 Enhanced.

Audio Commentary - Peter Davison (Actor), Nicola Bryant (Actor), and Graeme Harper (Director)

    A couple of the featurettes also contain optional commentary by these three, with Peter Davison and Graeme Harper coming out of the left channel and Nicola Bryant coming out of the right. This Dolby Digital 2.0 commentary is actually quite informative and interesting, although it does take some knowledge of how things worked in Doctor Who production in order to get the maximum benefit. Still, it is well worth the time.

Isolated Score

    This is basically a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack with only the music which, while sounding much like the rest of the scores from Doctor Who serials, is well worth a listen.

Informational Subtitles

    These subtitles provide a wealth of production information about how this serial was shot and what conditions it was shot under, among other things such as the screenwriters' ideas. They are so fascinating, in fact, that one cannot help but read them in preference to watching the onscreen action.

Original Opening Scene

    This is actually a seamless branching feature that, when selected, plays back Episode One with the original matte paintings in the opening scene where the Doctor and Peri exit the TARDIS. The background mattes were later replaced, but the reason for this becomes absolutely clear when this feature is used.

Extended Scene

    This is an extension of the scene depicting an argument between the mercenaries, which adds about thirty-odd more seconds of footage. I definitely agree with the decision to cut the final thirty seconds, and this scene is also presented with commentary.

Featurette - Behind The Scenes - The Regeneration

    Clocking in at seven minutes and thirty-eight seconds, this featurette shows how most of the footage in the regeneration sequence was shot. It also has optional commentary by Peter Davison, Nicola Bryant, and Graeme Harper.

Featurette - Creating Sharaz Jek

    Featuring commentary by the late Christopher Gable, this five minute and five second featurette describes the makeup process that went into creating the bad guy in this serial.

Theatrical Trailer

    Actually more of a television trailer, this is a thirty-four second advertisement for the serial that was broadcast on what would appear to be the day before the actual serial was broadcast. Visually and aurally, it is of similar quality to the main feature.

Featurette - BBC One O'Clock News 28/07/1983

   This twenty-four second featurette is a brief report about Peter Davison's decision to leave the role.

Featurette - BBC Nine O'Clock News 28/07/1983

   This one minute and twenty-four second featurette is also a brief report about Peter Davison's decision to leave the role.

Featurette - South East At Six 29/07/1983

   This three minute and thirty-eight second featurette is much more substantial in that it is an interview with Peter Davison and producer John Nathan-Turner about the reasons behind the former's decision to leave and what they both felt the future held. Doctor Who fans will be well-pleased with this inclusion.

Photo Gallery

    A collection of unannotated stills.

    It does not appear that this disc is available yet in Region 1. We appear to be getting the same special features as on the UK Region 2 disc, to boot.

    Doctor Who is a television series that deserves to be preserved in a time capsule as a display of what humanity could achieve when it dared to think and be creative. The Caves Of Androzani, while not the greatest example thereof, is still a riveting serial that deserves watching at least once.

    The video transfer is quite good considering what the restoration team had to work with.

    The audio transfer is very good.

    The extras are quite entertaining and informative. Top marks for this collection.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall