Monday 4 January 1982

Castrovalva

Premise: The newly regenerated Doctor falls into the Master's trap while trying to avoid destruction within Event One. To escape, the TARDIS heads to the world of Castrovalava.

Notes: After the script originally intended to begin the Fifth Doctor's era, Project Zeta Sigma, proved unworkable and was dropped, outgoing script editor Christopher H Bidmead was commissioned to write a new story. For inspiration, Bidmead looked at paintings by MC Escher, most notably 'Castrovalva' and 'Up and Down'. Due to the previous seasons poor ratings, transmission for this season moved to a bi-weekly slot as opposed to the traditional once-weekly Saturday transmission. While there were some criticisms of the new time, the ratings did significantly increase. In a rather poorly researched article, The Daily Express accidentally called the story 'It's Castrovlava'.

Verdict: While not as visually stunning as the script may have intended, the story runs along at a great pace with Peter Davison giving an excellent performance. However, the resolution is quite poor and the plot itself doesn't have the best of foundations 8/10

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