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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
This DVD originally came out in 2001 as a single-disc release. This special edition
contains most of the content from the original DVD plus many new features. The
features listed in italics below are new to the Special Edition.
2 Disc Set. On Disc 1:
- All 4 episodes of the story
digitally remastered and restored. The
restoration has been
redone from scratch.
- Graphical menus, episode and scene
selection features, and subtitles for the
hearing
impaired.
- Information Text subtitles option. Displays pop-up production trivia throughout the story.
- Optional commentary track by actors Peter Davison and Nicola Bryant, and Director
Graeme Harper. (Recorded for the original release in 2001.)
- Behind the Scenes: The Regeneration. An 8-minute featurette showing behind-the-scenes
footage shot while the regeneration scene was recorded. It's playable either with the raw
sound from the time or with this disc's commentary crew talking over it.
- Behind the Scenes: Creating Sharaz Jek. A 5-minute featurette showing behind-the-scenes
footage shot during some of Sharaz Jek's key scenes while the late actor Christopher
Gable speaks about the role from an audio interview he gave.
- Deleted Scenes. Three scenes cut from the finished show. The first was present on the
original DVD release and has an optional commentary track from the cast and Graeme
Harper. The remaining two are new to this release and have no commentary track.
- Trailer. An original 30-second trailer from the 1984 broadcast.
- News. Three different news segments covering Peter Davison's departure from 1984,
totaling 5 minutes.
- Isolated Music Soundtrack. Plays the entire show with only the music soundtrack playing.
-
Coming Soon Trailer. A 1-minute trailer
for the already released DVD of The Seeds of
Doom.
- PDF Materials. The Radio Times listings are available as a .pdf file if you put the disc
into a computer.
-
1 Easter Egg.
Highlight the area of blank text below to see what it is and how to find
it:
Go to the Episode Selection screen and
highlight Part One, then press the left arrow.
The Doctor Who logo in the top left will become
highlighted. Click on this and you
will see the first
four minutes of the episode playing with the original, unrestored
opening shots of Androzani Minor
where the matted-in background mountains were
stable while the foreground location footage wobbled as the
film weaved.
On Disc 2:
- "Chain Reaction" A new 36-minute making-of documentary
presented by Matthew Sweet.
Features interviews with actors Peter
Davison, Nicola Bryant, Martin Cochrane (Chellak),
Robert Glenister (Salateen), and Maurice Roëves (Stotz), script editor Eric Saward,
director Graeme
Harper, production designer John Hurst, and incidental musician
Roger Limb.
- Directing Who: Then and Now A 12-minute interview
with director Graeme Harper
who compares
directing Doctor Who in the 1980s with directing it in the late 2000s
on the new
series. Includes
behind-the-scenes footage from both eras.
-
Russell Harty A 9-minute segment
from Russell Harty's talk show in 1984 where he
simultaneously
interviewed Peter Davison and Colin Baker.
- Photo Gallery. A
new 5-minute featurette displaying production stills
from the story.
- Other Notes. In the original release, the restoration involved the replacement of a smoke
effect over some of the location film scenes with a new one that didn't quite match the
original, and a seamless branch point to allow the viewer to switch between the two.
This time the original effect has been preserved and the branch point has been removed.
Also, unfortunately, a mistake happened in the new restoration where a transition between
two scenes originally accomplished with a dissolve effect was replaced with a simple jump cut
instead.
The original North American release (but not the
Who list of cast biographies that has been left out of the new one.
