(554) Castrovalva - Part 1

This is quite an important episode of Doctor Who which might sound like a stupid statement but bare with me on this because there are multiple reasons for this. Firstly there is the matter of a new Doctor in the form of Peter Davison. Another is that it’s the first time in the shows history that its not airing on a Saturday. Instead Doctor Who is airing on a Monday and Wednesday. This might seem like a sign that the BBC were showing a lack of faith in the show and that might be true but the most alarming fact is that whereas Season 18 would take about seven months to run through, Season 19 would be on screen for just three months. The gap between the final part of ‘Logopolis’ and the first episode of this was 289 days which is a record and beat the previous season’s record of 231 Days.

The episode starts with a pre-title scene which is basically the reprise from the previous and the thing that is different is that the music is more upbeat which I like cause its basically saying that there is a no sheriff in town. The episode was never going to have Davison’s Doctor running around as he would normally do but instead he’s a bit all over place and doing a bit of running. I think that Davison’s Doctor is underrated and this episode shows this because he does a great deal whilst appearing to not be his self. There are little nods to previous Doctors and I like the impressions but I don’t know what to make about his untangling the Doctor’s scarf. I don’t think they should have done that.

With this being the final story in the Master trilogy this means that it will involve a rather convoluted plan. At the moment it doesn’t look like this is going to be the case. The Master is using Adric to plunge the TARDIS into ‘Event One’ also known as the Big Bang. I like how Adric is being used because its an interesting way of using a character. The Adric that’s on board the TARDIS isn’t the real Adric and it gives Matthew Waterhouse the opportunity of playing two different aspects of the same character.

Apart from a few minutes at the beginning set on Earth, the vast majority of the episode takes place inside the TARDIS and I love the idea that this happens. With a lot of things up in the air there is a sense of not being as they were and after seven years worth of episodes with the same Doctor it’s a weird feeling with the scenes in the TARDIS of a familiar setting but with unfamiliar people. The Zero Room only appears in this story but its such a good idea I wish they had kept it and used it in future stories.

The cliffhanger is a good one and it’s the ending that the episode should be. As an episode I thought that it was a good if slight understated episode. It’s hard to judge how Peter Davison’s era is going to be after one episode but I think the signs are promising. It’s not going to be as good as the Tom Baker era or even Jon Pertwee’s but I think that there will be things in future stories that I will like and then there are smiling Silurians and the Murka. For now I am just enjoying this opening story of the Davison era and liking it.