This morning I've gone back to the mid-80's and watched The Caves Of Androzani. Peter Davison's final hour as the Doctor and surely his finest, although the script cheats somewhat to get the absolute best out of him; it's clear from the Doctor's snappier dialogue and more assured behaviour that it was written with Tom Baker in mind. The Fourth Doctor was always a more pro-active and self-confident figure than the slightly breathless charmer of his fifth incarnation, and that clearly does wonders for Davison's own confidence.
In any event, it's a brilliant story, the best of the 80's by a significant leap. It's brutal, subtextual, insightful, and has a cynical edge that the modern series in all its self-aware quip-heavy zaniness would never dare to imitate. The characters are a cast of opportunistic, morally-bankrupt achilles-heels, everyone on both sides of the Spectrox conflict clearly out only for themselves. Even Sharaz Jek, the scarred idealist, is more consumed in angry self-pity and his dangerous lust for Peri than he is in altruistic aims. Morgus and Stotz are two of the most ruthless, greedy and animalistic villains the series ever gave us, and even a less hideous figure like Salateen finds time to laugh at his impending survival when he realises that the Doctor and Peri are likely to die in his place. Morgus' soliloquy style of expressing his innermost thoughts to the camera takes some getting used to, but it works a lot better than many other instances of it happening in series history. In fact, apart from House Of Cards and The Mrs Bradley Myteries, this is the only instance I can think of off the top of my head when actors talking to the camera really works. (Well, Knightmare as well of course, but then that's not quite the same thing; breaking the fourth wall works on KM because KM's a gameshow and so it needs a host.)
The plot has enormous amounts to say about society's hunger for resources, and the avarice and political corruption this leads to. Whether it makes it altogether realistic is questionable - if political life were truly this cutthroat, we'd have a full state funeral every fortnight - but beyond doubt it makes for one of the most gripping, hard-edged stories in Dr Who's history, almost trying to emulate the darkness of its sister show Blake's 7, and a story rounded off with one of its more poignant regeneration scenes (only slightly distracted from by the very blatant position of the camera to look down the inside of Nicola Bryant's shirt as she cradles the Fifth Doctor's head - John Nathan-Turner, you really knew how to make a good story seem tacky...).
Not only Davison's finest hour, but also probably Nicola Bryant's, and the series' finest hour of the 80's. Most significant of all, it was also Bob Holmes' best-ever script, even beating The Talons Of Weng Chiang. When he returned to the series two years later, the dismal quality of The Trial Of A Time-Lord showed just how much his growing illness had robbed him of his former talent in between times. A shame then that Caves wasn't left to be his swansong.
Definite all-time classic, 10/10.
