Doctor Who: Castrovalva
The final story in John Nathan-Turner’s ambitious trilogy designed to revive the character of the Master, and the third and final story included in the New Beginnings DVD box set, Castrovalva also brings the Doctor a new face for the first time in seven years - Peter Davison. It’s not much of a surprise to see that Castrovalva’s DVD bonus features revolve around the newcomers to the show, which, at this point in its history, meant…everybody.
The four-part story itself receives a running commentary from Davison, Janet “Tegan” Fielding, and director Fiona Cumming. Fielding almost seems to be trying to dominate the proceedings here, occasionally getting a bit ribald compared to the commentary I’ve seen on other Doctor Who DVDs. As much effort as I know it’s taken to get Janet Fielding to come out of her self-imposed “exile” from all things Doctor Who in order to get her to participate in things like DVD commentaries and Big Finish audio plays, I almost wish this particular chat had been between Davison and his director.
The bonus features make up for it, however, by focusing almost exclusively on those two. There’s also an interesting cross-section of Davison’s appearances on other shows such as Blue Peter and Multi-Coloured Swap Shop, interesting because it’s a taste of how laid-back and yet omnipresent Davison was in the early days of promoting his new starring role. Not everyone’s got the patience to watch a lot of this material back-to-back, but I find it interesting in a time capsule sort of way.
Davison discusses his approach to the Doctor in the interview feature “Being Doctor Who”, culled from the same interview sessions conducted for the other features in this box set. Fiona Cumming takes center stage in “Directing Castrovalva”, which continues the laid-back theme of this DVD’s bonuses, but after re-watching the episodes themselves and noting how unusually atmospheric some of the location work is, I say give the lady her due - and her own interview feature.
Another feature, “The Crowded TARDIS” (great name if you happen to have a time-traveling rock band that happens to spend a lot of time on Earth), briefly examines why the Doctor suddenly seemed to have a glut of company before and after this particular regeneration. Though it’s not a very long piece, this one breaks things down quite frankly in terms of the real motivations for what was, at this point in the show’s history, an unusually large regular cast, as well as whether this strategy really worked as intended or not. Some deleted scenes also appear, courtesy of the large private archive of material that the Doctor Who Restoration Team obtained from the estate of John Nathan-Turner.
Considering the huge upheaval that Castrovalva represented for fans of Doctor Who after seven years of Tom Baker plus one companion plus K-9, the easy-going nature of the bonus features for this story is a bit surprising. But numerous times in the commentary, both actors and director comment on how much pacing has changed in British drama (and indeed, the same can be said on this side of the Atlantic too), a difference that stands out starkly now that there’s a new Doctor Who on the air that tells its stories in galloping 45-minute installments rather than 90+ minutes with three (and sometimes four) cliffhangers. In a way, the pacing of the extras is fitting - and, like the story itself, still quite enjoyable.