Product: Doctor Who [VHS] (1975)
Rating: 5.0
The Bidmead Vision of Dr.Who!
Apparently Christopher H Bidmead and John Nathan Turner publicly declared their aims to make Dr.Who into serious, mature, intelligent SF viewing for the 1980s and from all accounts had trouble getting any scripts at first, settling for a revamped story by David Fisher (intended for Graham Williams) and an updated Vampire tale which was meant to have opened season 15!But with Warrior's Gate, I feel Bidmead's ambition was fulfilled, as SF writer Steve Gallagher wrote a surreal, intellectual masterpiece that was arty, cool, sophisticated and challenging.Bidmead himself followed up with Logopolis and then this story, Castrovalva, which have the same bizarre, concept-driven, reality bending SF qualities. Here, the new Doctor, Peter Davsion is almost plunged back into the big bang before arriving in the phantom city of Castrovalva whose inhabitants have no inkling that they are only a few hours old and have been created soley as part of a nightmarish trap. The whole place is a giant pocket in time and space which begins to close in on itself!Stunning! Soon, Chris Bailey, whom Bidmead had impressed with his vision of multi-layered SF writing, would deliver the equally bizarre and challenging Kinda, before season 20 would fully realize the Bidmead vision with four in a row, Baily's Snakedance, Mawdryn Undead (by Peter Grimwade)Terminus (by Gallagher again) and finally Barbara Clegg's awe-inspiring Enlightenment! But nowhere is Christopher H. Bidmead's unique and startling vision for Dr.Who seen than in his own scripts for the series, and this, Davison's debut is probably the most polished and accomplished. The city looks superb and Davison's Doctor is magnificent. Despite the initial impression that he is too vulnerable to be the Doctor, it becomes clear on repeated viewings that with his body so physically weak and afflicted, it takes enormous inner strength, guts and determination from the new Doctor to rise to the occasion and defeat the Master, who has created this trap. The Master is only a minor consideration here, serving as the progenitor of the situation, but this story, like all those in the Bidmead vien, are far more about the stunningly imaginative and intriguing situation than any typical Who villains. The Master, like the Black Guardian, are really only there to generate the trouble and to remind viewers after seven seasons of Tom Baker that this is still Dr.Who, despite the new face in the Tardis. All in all, this story rocks like a cradle in a strong wind, and kicks off my favorite era of Dr.Who, the era of the brilliant Peter Davison!