Production Code: 6R
First Transmitted
1 - 08/03/1984 18:40
2 - 09/03/1984 18:40
3 - 15/03/1984 18:40
4 - 16/03/1984 18:40
Plot
The TARDIS arrives on Androzani Minor, the source of a life-prolonging drug refined from a substance called spectrox. Production of the drug is controlled by Sharaz Jek, a facially deformed madman in self imposed exile, who blames Morgus, a powerful industrialist on Androzani Major, for all his misfortunes.
Jek is fighting government troops sent to liberate the drug. His weaponry is being supplied by gun-runners secretly employed by Morgus, who receives payment from Jek in refined spectrox. This gives Morgus a monopoly of the drug on Major.
Jek becomes infatuated with Peri, and saves her and the Doctor from being executed on Morgus's orders by government troops led by General Chellak. The two travellers escape after learning that they have contracted spectrox toxaemia, a fatal condition to which there is only one antidote - the milk from a queen bat, which the Doctor must obtain from the deep caves on Minor. Morgus, seeing his power base slipping away, travels to Minor.
In a climactic battle, Morgus, Jek and all the soldiers are killed. With moments to spare, the Doctor carries Peri back to the TARDIS, where he gives her all the milk that he has managed to collect. She recovers, but the Doctor has to regenerate to save his own life.
Episode Endings
The Doctor and Peri are brought before a military firing squad. General Chellak gives the order to fire, and the soldiers pump bullets into them.
The Doctor takes cover as Stotz and his band of gun runners are attacked by a ferocious magma beast. The creature then turns and approaches the rock behind which he is crouching...
The Doctor has been confined on the gun runners' ship but manages to break free and take over the controls, piloting it back toward Androzani Minor. Stotz and his men try to regain access to the bridge by cutting through the door. The planet looms large on the ship's view screen and the Doctor tells Stotz: 'I'm not going to let you stop me now!'
The Doctor collapses to the floor of the TARDIS control room and regenerates. The bewildered Peri wants to know what has happened. 'Change, my dear,' explains the new Doctor. 'And it seems not a moment too soon.'
Roots
Beauty and the Beast.
The Phantom of the Opera.
House of Wax and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Jek's obsession for Peri and his disfigured features).
Japanese revenge sagas (Jek's obsessional desire to kill Morgus).
Jacobean tragedy (Morgus' soliloquies to camera) and citizen comedy, especially Volpone.
Philip K. Dicks' The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch.
Blake's 7 (Traitor).
The Shape of Things to Come (1978).
The Projected Man.
Dallas.
D.O.A.
Dune.
The Dispossessed.
Never Say Never Again (laser chain cutting).
Dialogue Triumphs
Peri : "Doctor, why do you wear a stick of celery in your lapel?"
The Doctor : "Does it offend you?"
Peri : "No, just curious."
The Doctor : "Safety precaution. I'm allergic to certain gases in the praxis range of the spectrum."
Peri : "Well how does the celery help?"
The Doctor : "If the gas is present, the celery turns purple."
Peri : "And then what do you do?"
The Doctor : "I eat the celery. If nothing else I'm sure it's good for my teeth."
Sharaz Jek : "We shall become the best of companions"
The Doctor : "What do you say, Peri. We can go on nature walks, have picnics and jolly evenings round the camp fire."
Sharaz Jek : "Don't mock me, Doctor. Beauty I must have, but you are dispensible."
The Doctor : "Thank you."
Sharaz Jek : "You have the mouth of a prattling jackanapes... But your eyes... they tell a different story."
Sharaz Jek : "Do you think bullets could stop me now? You stinking offal Morgus, look at me!"
Continuity
The Doctor's celery is finally explained: 'I'm allergic to certain gases in the Praxis range... if the gas is present the celery turns purple.'
Morgus is (or was, before being deposed by Timmin) 'the richest man in the Five Planets', chairman of the Sirius Conglomerate and a descendant of the first colonists [something which seems to be, as in The Robots of Death , a symbol of quasi-nobility]. Spectrox is the 'most valuable substance in the universe'. The raw substance contains a toxic chemical similar to mustard nitrogen. Once refined, it halts the ageing process and offers 'at least twice the normal life span'.
Spectrox toxaemia causes cramp, spasms, slow paralysis of the thoracic spinal nerve and finally thermal death. The cure (which contains an anti-vesicant) is the milk of the queen bat discovered by one Professor Jackij.
Location
Androzani Major and Minor.
Links
Flashbacks to past companions.
Untelevised
Untelevised Adventures: The Doctor has been 'this way before' and says that Androzani Minor 'hasn't changed'.
Trivia
There are brief, specially recorded cameos for all the fifth Doctor's companions and the Master seen during the regeneration sequence in Part Four.
The closing credits to Part Four feature the face of new Doctor Colin Baker, and list him before Peter Davison.
One of the soldier extras was played by Steve Wickham, later to head the Doctor Who Appreciation Society.
Goofs
Krau Timmin's handheld computer is clearly a TV remote control.
In the android's view of the Doctor, his hearts are clearly outside his coat.
In episode three, when the Doctor rips one of the handles off the ship's wall, and it flies across the room, if you slow the sequnce down you can still see the handle attached to the chain, dangling from the Doctor's wrist.
The sound of the machine guns firing interferes with the image on screen.
Peri falls into a spectrox nest and bounces.
Cast & Crew
Cast
The Doctor - Peter Davison
The Doctor - Colin Baker
Adric - Matthew Waterhouse
Nyssa - Sarah Sutton
Peri - Nicola Bryant
Tegan - Janet Fielding
Turlough - Mark Strickson
Chellak - Martin Cochrane
Krelper - Roy Holder
Morgus - John Normington
President - David Neal
Salateen - Robert Glenister
Sharaz Jek - Christopher Gable
Soldier - Ian Staples
Stotz - Maurice Roeves
The Master - Anthony Ainley
Timmin - Barbara Kinghorn
Voice of Kamelion - Gerald Flood
Crew
Director - Graeme Harper
The Caves of Androzani