Trivia / Doctor Who S21 E6 "The Caves of Androzani"

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• Author's Saving Throw: Eric Saward finally gave us an explanation for the Fifth Doctor's celery.
• Billing Displacement: Colin Baker receives top billing, above Peter Davison, for the final episode, despite only appearing for twenty seconds at the end of the episode.
• Creator's Favourite Episode: Peter Davison named this as his favourite serial (claiming that if he'd gotten more stories of this quality earlier in his run he would have wanted to stay on longer), Nicola Bryant named it as her favourite from her first series and John Nathan-Turner named it as one of the highlights of his tenure.
• Creator's Oddball: The only regeneration story written by Robert Holmes.
• Deleted Scene: Recording was interrupted by a strike, which caused a serious delay in the filming of the serial. As a result, two sequences had to be cut:
  • The first scene would have featured the Doctor and Peri at the opening of the story in the TARDIS. The Doctor was to explain to Peri the reason for their visit to Androzani Minor. Apparently, as a boy, the Doctor had started a "blown glass bottle collection", which was made from the sand of different planets. He had lost his Androzani bottle and decided to return there to retrieve some more sand. It was in this scene Peri was to say "You're such a pain, Doctor."
    However, when the final cut of the serial was made, it had been discovered that certain lines of dialogue (like the Doctor professing that "I am not a pain" and Peri's comments about needing sand to "make some glass") alluded to the cut sequence. To rectify this, Peter Davison and Nicola Bryant voiced over part of their conversation while the TARDIS materialises from outer space to the planet.
  • The second scene to be cut would have featured the Doctor battling with the magma beast in Episode Four which, under the circumstances, the serial is probably better off without. Instead, the magma beast is simply killed offscreen by a mud burst.
• On-Set Injury: This story was rife with on-screen mishaps that ended up causing minor injuries to Peter Davison, who would later jokingly claim that the staff were actually attempting to kill him.
  • During a scene in which Sharaz Jek backhands the Doctor, the mask Christopher Gable was wearing impaired his vision enough to make him legitimately strike Davison by mistake.
  • As the Doctor carries Peri back into the TARDIS at the end of the story, he flinches at a nearby mud burst. This is because the explosion was prematurely triggered by the technicians, shooting sand into Davison's eyes and forcing him to recoil in pain.
• Throw It In!: The scenes where Morgus faces the camera directly and speaks out his inner thoughts came about from John Normington misunderstanding the stage directions he was given. However, everyone liked the theatrical feel of the technique and kept it in the episode.
• Troubled Production: This was one of several eighties stories affected by strike action at the BBC (in this case, by the scenery shifters). It lost one of its studio sessions, and one of the sessions for the following serial, "The Twin Dilemma", had to be reassigned to it (which might have resulted in the cancellation of "Dilemma", although in the event John Nathan-Turner was able to secure an extra slot for that story on the grounds that it was important as the new Doctor's first full story; however, it also contributed to the poor working climate that resulted in "Dilemma" being recklessly rushed out the door).
• What Could Have Been:
  • According to David Bowie biographer and Revival Series Dalek operator Nicholas Pegg, Bowie was originally lined up to play Sharaz Jek, only for his manager to turn down the BBC's request due to the scheduled taping dates overlapping with the supporting tour for Let's Dance. Other actors considered for the part included Tim Curry, Mick Jagger, Derek Jacobi, and John Hurt (the latter two would go on to appear in the Revival Series decades later as the Master and the War Doctor, respectively); Graeme Harper stated that while he always had Christopher Gable in mind for Jek and was pleased with his performance, he felt that Bowie was the only other celebrity who would've fit in the part.
  • Ian Holm was offered a role (most likely Morgus).
  • Michael Gambon was considered for Sharaz Jek and General Chellak.
  • Brian Cox was considered for Sharaz Jek and Salateen. He would later play Sydney Newman in An Adventure in Space and Time.
  • Julian Glover was in the running for Sharez Jek, Morgus, and Chellak.
  • Warren Clarke was considered for Stotz.
  • Steven Berkoff was considered for Sharaz Jek, Stotz and Chellak.
  • Martin Jarvis and Michael Jayston were considered for Sharaz Jek and Morgus. The latter would later appear as The Valeyard in Season 23.
  • Donald Sumpter was considered for Salateen.
  • Graeme Harper hoped to bring Michael Craze back to play Krelper, only to be vetoed by John Nathan-Turner, who had felt that casting Jacqueline Hill in "Meglos" three years previously had been a mistake and decided not to cast former regulars in unrelated guest parts again.
  • In the original script, the Doctor did not regenerate after succumbing to spectrox toxaemia, but simply because of the damage his body sustained in combatting Stotz and his gunrunners.
• Writer Revolt: This serial is often interpreted as Robert Holmes criticising the nihilism and violence of the Eric Saward era by saying "You want grim violence? I'll give you grim violence!". Holmes dumps the Doctor in a brutal world of Evil vs. Evil where all he and Peri can do is try to survive, but in contrast to many stories of Saward's era, which made the Doctor a passive and ineffectual figure, "...Androzani" emphasises the Doctor's bravery, determination and self-sacrifice, as well as his wit.
• Working Title: Chain Reaction.

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