An unknown dying world, a resident populace of space and time hopping alien cheetahs in violent, carnivorous symbiosis with it, and the mystery of the possessed the Master stranded there amongst them, desperate to escape before he too is engulfed in his own primal instincts. All great elements making for a highly satisfying finale adventure to the classic series, and the then adventures of the more mysterious than ever Seventh Doctor and a maturing Ace, in Rona Munro's effective debut for the series - Survival.
Davison, Fielding and Strickson pose for a memorable Radio Times photo shoot taken Summer, 1983, promoting the upcoming Season Twenty-One.
A time of action, adventure, of sadness and parting, as well as the beginning of change for our resident Time Lord. The at-first seemingly insignificant Androzani Minor would await the arrival of the Doctor and recently joined TARDIS-travelling companion Peri, starting an unforgettable, breathless adventure closing the Davison era and seeing-in the colourful, boisterous era of the enthused Colin Baker as Doctor Who Number Six...
Goodbye, Peter Davison's Fifth incarnation...
We hope you've enjoyed the major coverage and personal nostalgia linked to this site's overview of not just a hugely successful season of eighties Doctor Who, but also a great finale to Peter Davison's all too brief tenure on the show.
The new Doctor faces the monstrous Mestor in The Twin Dilemma. VHS release cover art (later used for a 1990's Target reissue) by Andrew Skilleter.
Is the Doctor really losing his mind? After his fifth regeneration his behaviour certainly seems to point that way. Having tried to strangle Peri, he's landed the Tardis on the asteroid Titan 3, determined to pursue the quiet life of a hermit. But the giant dome on the horizon seem set to shatter his peace. Just who are its mysterious inhabitants? What is their connection to the kidnaping of the twins Romulus and emus, famed for their mathematical genius? And where are the giant Gastropods?
Original VHS release sleeve synopsis - 1992
Whilst the Peter Davison era closing The Caves of Androzani has a status worthily and indelibly regarded as an All-Time Classic, the reverse is the case for the proceeding adventure launching Colin Baker's ultimately turbulent period on the show, the infamous The Twin Dilemma. Which is a genuine shame really, for the then eager, amiable and enthusiastic new star of the series taking the mantle from Davison, and whose debut would prove to be a bomb with both fans and the general audiences - each episode registering viewer losses on a large scale, with a million having deserted the Season Twenty-One closer by its four-part conclusion in March, 1984.
The Sixth Doctor revealed!
I remember watching the opening episode at the time and thinking it was okay, primarily due to the exciting opportunity to see a fresh new Doctor in the TARDIS, and to see how Colin Baker (a truly unexpected casting choice to me) would likely play the role for what he thought was going to be at least a seven-year run. Alas, such dreams were not to be. When not throttling Peri (Nicola Bryant, in one of her weakest performances, saddled with a weak script for her character - the sign of things to come...) due to his unstable regeneration awakening (an interesting idea stretched too long over the story, and which, in hindsight, would ultimately prove a major mistake and turn-off for regular audiences), the Sixth Doctor, though energetic and resourceful, often comes across as a blustery egotist in this premiere outing. Baker, playing on the script, would here remind me of a character from another more earthbound series, the pompous and often foolish comedic character of Doctor Frasier Crane, as played by Kelsey Grammar, only his role was specifically played for often alienating laughs. Also hindering our star badly would be the now infamous 'yuk' costume gimmick. Again, I was okay with it with its publicity debut for the first story (and it is a lovely design from Pat Godfrey), again due to the thrill of something new as part of the process, but it soon became an eyesore and diminished the work of the actor in credibly realizing his role through the following seasons. Whoever was the head of drama by then, really should have reined in producer John Nathan-Turner's key ideas for this specific incarnation, of which Colin really deserved better. All opening regeneration story's deserve such creative input from the upper echelons so as to critically make any new era work.
The new TARDIS team enjoys a special publicity photo session.
After the whirlwind ride of Caves, the entirety of Twin ultimately reeks of competency rather than anything exciting or memorable, with a script from Anthony Steven (heavily rewritten by script editor Eric Saward) that had potential (one idea from of it, that the Doctor becomes a hermit of sorts, having been prior considered for a story by an intrigued Douglas Adams during Season Seventeen) but fails to make an impact, brought to TV reality with little to no atmosphere, nor blessed with any kind of satisfying sense of pace to its telling. In fact, it's slower than the Gastropod monsters residing on Jaconda! Chosen primarily because he worked well with the other Doctors and was considered 'a safe pair of hands' for JN-T, popular director Peter Moffat proves out of place within the purely science fiction trappings he has to bring to life here, and it shows. After all the greatness of Caves, it feels so staid.
And it's the opening episodes that showcase the biggest problems, with the most disagreeable batch of cobbled together, overly lit sets ever seen in the series, featuring no pleasing design aesthetic tones at all, whilst the supporting costume designs look equally poor and tatty for the premiere story of the new Doctor (I recall JN-T stating in a TV interview a few months earlier that, after the gorgeous The Keeper of Traken, that Twin was going to be one of his other favourite stories. I'm still flabbergasted by that statement even today!). In an attempt at counter-balance though, the filmed model effects work is excellent, alongside a reasonably effective Malcolm Clarke score that tries to create some menace and atmosphere, even if some of it sounds a little too familiar to his earlier work in the season with Resurrection of the Daleks.
A memorable publicity image of Colin baker during chilly location filming.
There's a fine group of guest actors in this story working hard to keep interest and bring conviction, but it's like professional seaman braving a perfect storm. Maurice Denham is notably good here as Edgeworth (establishing some fine moments with Baker). The key factor of the story, the two mathematical genius twins (played by Gavin and Andrew Conrad) are not quite the disaster that legend has them to be, ultimately proving adequate rather than excruciating as the reasons for the unique space kidnapping are later revealed and their roles are substantially, mercifully, reduced in the storytelling. Female twins would surely have been a better acting choice by far, but it was not to be.
The Sixth Doctor's first onscreen nemesis: Mestor, the slimy leader of the Gastropods.
Things pick up reasonably better with the final two episodes, thankfully, as our heroes arrival on the mostly underground realms belonging to the ravaged former paradise of Jaconda. This is where the big villain of the piece, the slimy Mestor of the Gastropods, gets more to do, too. Comparisons (on a smaller, cheaper scale of course) of Mestor to Jabba the Hutt are inevitable, what with Return of the Jedi's cinematic release only a year before, though it lacks the ability to make any proper movements or facial articulation in the way that make-up genius Stuart Freeborn's incredible filmic creation would. Popular character actor Edwin Richfield tries hard to bring menace and gravitas to the role, but it's a near thankless task, with similar monsters like the tractators having been done better in the early season story Frontios.
Definitely the 'craggy nob' jutting out from a hugely successful season, The Twin Dilemma is not the gem we all wanted it to be sadly, but at least regular viewers would get the chance to ignore it as best they could as the season's ender. Despite such a poor launch, I certainly wanted to see Baker succeed in the role, and at least he got a second chance of sorts a year later via the action-packed and far more appealing Attack of the Cybermen, a Season 22 launcher that would prove far more effective and successful for Doctor Six's era, and garnering superior ratings.
The clothes maketh the Time Lord in his new sixth incarnation.
The Doctor shockingly strangles Peri with the beginning of his post regeneration problems.
On Earth, the genius twins Romulus and Remus (Gavin and Andrew Conrad) are captured by Edgeworth, the former Time Lord known as Azmael (Maurice Denham).
Trying to control his at first volatile personality, the Doctor decides to become a hermit on the barren world of Titan III.
The Doctor and a reluctant Peri soon find mystery and danger on Titan III.
Earth police officer Hugo Lang (Kevin McNally) is after the captured children, and soon reluctantly joins forces with the TARDIS duo.
The evil Mestor (Edwin Richfield) and his Jacondan acolytes.
Now arrived on Jaconda, the Sixth Doctor is soon in trouble!
Time Lord friends reunited in a time of great danger.
The Doctor meets the now freed twins.
Mestor's true plan to infect the galaxy with his Gastropod seed eggs is revealed, and must be stopped!
The Doctor, Peri and Hugo ultimately free Jaconda, helping the dying Azmael defeat Mestor and its ambitions.
Publicity image used for on-air publicity of the Doctor and Peri within the court of Mestor.
The Doctor in one of his confrontations with Mestor, watched by the cowardly Chamberlain (Seymour Green).
Original Radio Times episode listings.
Heralding Colin Baker on the cover of Doctor Who Magazine issue 88 May, 1984.
The Sixth Doctor and Peri in their first cover for Doctor Who Magazine issue 89, June 1984.
The original Target Books cover art by Andrew Skilleter that was sadly not used due to licensing complications with Baker's agent.
The excellent replacement cover, also by Skilleter, instead focusing on the story's key aliens.
The Sixth Doctor's coverage begins within In-Vision magazine. Art by Richard Farrell.
UK DVD release image composition by Clayton Hickman.
UK DVD release circa 2007.
Target cover fan art by Philip James Allison.
Get the BBC Audiobooks adaptation of the Target novel here:
Tragedy and danger lurk within The Caves of Androzani, the series' finest adventure. Art by Phil Bevan exclusively for DWB magazine.
"Curiosity's always been my downfall."
Captured for arms-running on the mining planet of Androzani Minor, the Doctor and Perry (SIC) are under sentence of death. Then, a mysterious masked intruder comes to their aid. But is Sharaz Jek, master android creator, really their saviour? The rulers of the planet are certainly desperate for his head. But then, he does control Andozani's supply of spectrox and it's a substance men are prepared to die for...
Original VHS release sleeve synopsis - 1992
The darkest, dangerous, most thrilling story conceived not just for Peter Davison's satisfying era of Doctor Who but all its eras, and featuring the greatest regeneration sequence ever created for the series, much has been said about Robert Holmes' genuinely stunning and breath-taking The Caves of Androzani over forty years by fandom worldwide, and it has become rightly regarded, literally from its original transmission in March 1984, as one of the finest, if not THE finest, Classic Who series adventure ever made. Such an accolade doesn't come lightly within the show's original twenty-six year duration and its many all-time greats, but I firmly believe it is thoroughly deserved and well earned.
Caves is damned near perfect in my opinion, even overcoming its sometimes obvious low budget and the infamous 'Magma monster'. The great script of world-building, tragedy and greed, the superb cast, the evocative music score and dynamite direction from Graeme Harper (it's like he was destined to do this particular story) transcend everything to make it a true masterpiece of TV production, and one that really blew my near fourteen-year old self away on original transmission. With the totally intriguing first episode, it was clear that the direction was outstanding from the start, but when the macabre face mask of Christopher Gable's tragic and frightening Sharaz Jek was fully revealed with its near cliffhanger, I knew that something special was really beginning to take shape here. And as the story developed, the quality of the scripting (so strikingly depthful) and its intense characters (the majority of them totally unlikeable but compelling to watch nonetheless) made this a joy, if a sad one. As with all departing Doctor stories, but even more so with Davison, now at the peak of his powers in the role (even more so through the talents of Holmes, giving the Fifth Doctor more attitude and wit), I was genuinely not wanting to let go of seeing the Fifth incarnation after a run which I felt had been far too short, especially with his episodes all having been transmitted twice weekly. And time was running out now with the never-to-be-forgotten third episode cliffhanger, followed by the finale's pure edge-of-your-seat race against time qualities, as the wounded, near-death Doctor saves Peri (Nicola Bryant, shining brightly in that all too rare great second script for a companion back in the day) and ultimately sacrifices the last remnants of his life, and the small amount of vital bat's milk acquired, to save her. And as his previous companions urge him to survive, and the spiteful Master demands that he perished, I genuinely wept for Davison's departing incarnation, and was further gob-smacked watching the spectacular video effects regeneration that exploded around him.
Peter Davison and Nicola Bryant proved a well-matched onscreen team.
A story that gets better and better with every viewing, the return of Robert Holmes prolific name to the series with Caves was a genuine crowd pleaser to me (at a point in my Who-dom when I was starting to fully discover or re-discover much of his work for the series at that point), whilst the late, great director Douglas Camfield was surely looking down from heaven with pride at his former protege of sorts in newcomer director Graham Harper and his stellar accomplishments, whose creative instincts on Who proved acutely sharp and never less than perfect. Despite disappointment that he wouldn't have an entire season run - imagine if we'd had Philip Martin's original version of Vengeance of Varos (originally titled Domain), or the ultimately much-troubled Song of the Space Whale added to the impressive twenty-first year story mix - all-in-all, Peter Davison couldn't have had a better adventure to depart on, but everything after this was never going to be quite the same again for me as both a fan and regular viewer, despite my curiosity on Colin Baker's upcoming Doctor. Looking back, if Doctor Who as a series had ended there with Caves, though with a potential resurrection for more someday in the future, I actually would have been content.
Newly arrived on the barren world of Androzani Minor, the Doctor and Peri soon go off to explore some blow hole caves.
They encounter a lethal Spectrox Nest in the cave, unaware of its doom laden properties. Writer Robert Holmes was pleased with the idea of literally killing the Doctor off in the opening minutes of the story.
Gun runner Stotz (Maurice Roeves) is supplying arms for refined age sustaining Spectrox through the Android rebel Sharaz Jek.
General Chellak (Martin Cochrane) and his trusty second-in-command Salateen (Robert Glenister) assess the situation in their seemingly fruitless ongoing cave war with the Android scientist Sharaz Jek.
Arrested as gunrunners, our now ill heroes are brought before Chellak, pending declared execution.
The cunning businessman leader of the Sirius Conglomerate, Trau Morgus (John Normington).
Morgus with his trusty assistant Krau Timmin (Barbara Kinghorn) .
The Doctor and Peri, seemingly ready for the firing squad.
But their slain bodies are soon revealed to be android replicas.
Sharaz Jek (the impressive Christopher Gable) reveals his visage to the Doctor and Peri.
Jek reveals his tragic past to the pair.
Jek and the Doctor face off.
The best of companions to Jek!
The darkness within Jek is a constant factor in his thirst for revenge on the duplicitous Morgus.
The Doctor confused Jek's android with his non-human biological diffrencies, which allows him, Peri and the captured Salateen time to escape.
Peri must help the army capture Jek's base, but the real Salateen is later killed in a violent and unexpected way.
Once again captured, the dying Doctor is in the hands of Stotz and his men, but soon manages to escape and get control of the ship to fly back to Androzani Minor.
"I'm not gonna let you stop me now!"
Stotz has comrade Krelper (Roy Holder) and his colleague pursue the weakening Doctor across the desert regions.
The Doctor comes under fire!
As the terrifying mud bursts begin on the planet, the Doctor will return to the cave to save Peri.
Before killing Krelper, Stotz enters into a new business arrangement with the now exiled Morgus.
The Doctor and Jek work to save Peri's life.
The Doctor gets the information needed to save Peri...
... and soon travels to the lowest cave levels to retrieve the vitally needed Queen Bat's milk. The ominous use of a death bell in this sequence adds to the race against time sequence.
Morgus and Stotz confront Jek...
... who reveals his disfigured face before going to attack them.
Make-up reference photo for Gable as the disfigured Jek.
With Stotz killed by the android Salateen, Jek murders Morgus with a laser drill.
"Salateen, hold me..." Jek dies in the android's arms in the fiery lair, as the Doctor returns to retrieves Peri.
The Doctor and Peri escape the planet's violent mud burst discharge. But only just...
The dying Doctor, with no bats milk cure for himself, is cradled by Peri.
"Feels different this time." Surrounded by his companions and the Master, the Doctor's regeneration is thankfully assured.
Enter the Sixth Doctor, Colin Baker!
The memorable cover to Doctor Who Magazine issue 90, July 1984.
The magnificent cover for the DWB magazine's winter special 1985-86. Art by Phil Bevan.
The classic In-Vision magazine cover art by Steve Caldwell.
Original VHS release sleeve - art by Andrew Skilleter.
Unused 1991 art by Alister Pearson, presumably for the first VHS release.
First UK DVD release cover photo composition.
First US DVD release photo montage cover.
Back cover for the first US release.
Sharaz Jek makes cover status to Doctor Who Magazine's issue 304 in May 2001.
As part of a memorable special cover series for Doctor Who Magazine, issue 413, from October, 2009.
DVD Special edition art composition by Clayton Hickman, also used for the official soundtrack release LP.
The UK DVD files cover.
Artwork by Rafe Wallbank celebrating the Riverside Studios DWAS event for the story's 40th Anniversary event.
Get the BBC Audiobook of the original Target novel here:
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