Going out with a bang helps Davison’s legacy
Imagine if Davison had regenerated into Colin Baker at the end of ‘Planet of Fire’ following a confrontation with the Master on the planet Sarn. How would his era be looked at then? A bit dull and slow, with ‘Earthshock’ and ‘Resurrection of the Daleks’ providing the odd glimmers of spice? The Fifth Doctor’s final outing, ‘The Caves of Androzani’ is a masterpiece. Watching it back recently, I spent much of the time with the hairs on my neck standing on end. We haven’t seen direction in the show this good since Douglas Camfield’s time, and Graeme Harper introduces some effective new techniques like hand-held camera work. Robert Holmes’ script is full of grit, and it harks back to the Hinchcliffe era. The Doctor is at his noble and heroic best, concerned only to save the life of his dying companion, Peri. It’s a tragedy in that the Doctor’s curiosity about tyre tracks leads inexorably to his death. Like a Shakespearean psychodrama, it ends in a bloodbath. The dark, dangerous world the Doctor wanders into provides him with no allies, and he has to use all of his guile just to live long enough to save Peri. We’ve quite simply never seen ‘Doctor Who’ like this before. Arguably, we’d never see it again. The company of players, led by Christopher Gable as Sharaz Jek and John Normington as Morgus, are first rate, giving it their all. It’s quite simply brilliant ‘Doctor Who’, and Davison rises to the occasion. His performance is masterful and superb. Noble, and oh-so-very English, the Fifth Doctor defines himself in the best way imaginable, literally at the death. Better late than never!
Join us again when we reach the end of the Sixth Doctor’s era, played by Colin Baker.
