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Castrovalva (Doctor Who)

116 – Castrovalva
Doctor Who serial
Castrovalva (Doctor Who).jpg
Castrovalva begins to fold in on itself
Cast
Others
Production
Directed by Fiona Cumming
Written by Christopher H. Bidmead
Script editor Eric Saward
Produced by John Nathan-Turner
Incidental music composer Paddy Kingsland
Production code 5Z
Series Season 19
Length 4 episodes, 25 minutes each
Originally broadcast 4 January–12 January 1982
Chronology
← Preceded by Followed by →
Logopolis Four to Doomsday
List of Doctor Who serials
Castrovalva
Doctor Who Castrovalva.jpg
Author Christopher H. Bidmead
Series Doctor Who book:
Target novelisations
Release number
76
Publisher Target Books
Publication date
16 June 1983
ISBN

Castrovalva is the first serial of the 19th season in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four twice-weekly parts from 4 January to 12 January 1982. It was the first full serial to feature Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor.

After his regeneration at the end of Logopolis, the Doctor is still weak, and his companions, Adric, Nyssa, and Tegan take him to his TARDIS. Inside, the Doctor is delirious but asks to be taken to the "Zero Room" that contains Time Lord healing technology to allow him to recover.

Left to wait for the Doctor to recover, Tegan and Nyssa discover a terminal on the TARDIS that describes how to use the machine. They attempt to pilot the TARDIS but find they are travelling rapidly to a preset time and destination, "Event One", the Big Bang, a trap set by the Master. After they are unable to find Adric, the women manage to bring the Doctor out of the Zero Room to the console room in time for him to jettison a quarter of the TARDIS' mass to propel them back to conventional time. They soon discover that the Zero Room was part of the jettisoned mass, so the Doctor with the help of Nyssa builds a temporary coffin-shaped zero cabinet from the zero room's doors. Tegan discovers information on the Dwellings of Simplicity on Castrovalva, an ideal place for the Doctor to recover, and directs the TARDIS there.

Nyssa and Tegan have difficulties in transporting the Doctor on Castrovalva, and become separated from him; the Doctor is captured by warriors protecting the Dwellings, while the women are forced to climb a rocky cliff to reach its entrance. The Doctor is cared for by Shardovan, a librarian, and the elderly Portreeve, before Nyssa and Tegan arrive. After a night's sleep, they discover strange aspects of the Dwellings; if they go out of the city through any of its exits, they find themselves in a particular plaza in the city, and a tapestry in the Doctor's rooms changes and reflects events of the outside world. The Doctor understands that they are trapped in a "recursive occlusion", and the Dwellings are fake. The Portreeve reveals himself as the Master, and shows them Adric, caught in a web-like structure. The Master has been able to use Adric's mathematical genius along with the block-transfer computations of the Logopolians to create the Dwellings as well as alter the TARDIS, creating the terminal on the console that led them here. Realising the true nature of Castrovalva's reality, Shardovan swings from a chandelier into the web and destroys it, freeing Adric and causing the reality of the Dwellings to fall apart. Seeing all is lost, the Master flees to his TARDIS, which was disguised as a fireplace. The Doctor and his companions flee from the city. The Master appears to be trapped and is unable to escape as the city collapses in on itself. As the time travellers return to the TARDIS, the Doctor indicates that he has fully recovered from his regeneration ordeal.


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