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Serial: 6R Episode Nos. 627, 628, 629, and 630. Title: The Caves of Androzani
The Doctor and Peri become caught in the crossfire between warring factions on the planet Androzani Minor who are battling for control of a substance called spectrox that can vastly prolong life. Mistaken by each faction as an agent for the other, or as an android working for mad scientist Sharaz Jek, and poisoned by the fatal spectrox toxaemia, it will take acts of supreme self-sacrifice for the Doctor to save Peri...
This story sees the departure of Peter Davison as the Doctor.
starring Peter Davison as the Doctor, and Nicola Bryant as Peri. Written by Robert Holmes, Produced by John Nathan-Turner, and Directed by Graeme Harper.
Originally transmitted from
DVD
Features:
-
commentary track by Peter Davison (the Doctor), Nicola Bryant (Peri), and
Director Graeme Harper;
- featurette on the creation of the
Sheraz Jek character compiled from wild studio footage and an audio interview
with Christopher Gable (Jek);
- featurette about the recording of the
regeneration scene (with an optional commentary track);
- a fixed matte shot of the surface of
Androzani Minor at the start of the story - the original version can still be
accessed and watched via a
seamless branching option in the
Special Features menu
- three different BBC news items/interviews
from around the time of broadcast about Peter Davison's departure from the
series;
- a trailer;
- a synchronous isolated music
soundtrack (selecting this will play the episodes with only the music track
running);
- a deleted scene (with optional commentary)
- the scene is an extension of the scene where Stotz tries to force Krelper to
take the poisoned pill;
- photo gallery;
- optional text production commentary
via the subtitles.
- There is a very minor fault in the
authoring process that has led some to believe there is a problem with the
sound on some of the featurettes when there isn't really. Some of the
featurettes have optional commentary tracks and some do not. The
featurettes that do not have them should not allow the user to choose a second audio track, but this option was
mistakenly left open. The practical upshot of this is that if someone has
been watching the main program
or some featurettes with the commentary switched on and they then switch over
to a featurette that hasn't got commentary,
the DVD plays silently. This is easily fixable, however. Hit your
"info" button on your remote and switch the audio back to the 1st
channel, or go back to the playable
menu and turn off the commentary from there and then restart the featurette
you're trying to watch.
*** The box cover and the graphical
menus do not mention the fact that the regeneration featurette and the deleted
scene both have optional audio
commentary tracks, so one might call these Easter Eggs of a sort (they weren't
meant to be). To access them, either activate
the main program commentary from
the menus and then select either featurette, or begin playing a featurette as
normal and then select audio channel
2 with the "info" button selections on your remote.
