Castrovalva is the first serial of the 19th season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four twice-weekly parts on BBC1 from 4 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 Fifth 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.
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 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 with the help of Nyssa the Doctor builds a temporary coffin-shaped zero cabinet from the zero room’s doors. Tegan discovers information on the town of Castrovalva, an ideal place for the Doctor to recover, and directs the TARDIS there.
In the forest, Nyssa and Tegan have difficulties in transporting the Doctor, and become separated from him; the Doctor is captured by warriors protecting Castrovalva, 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 Castrovalva; if they go out of the town through any of its exits, they find themselves in a particular plaza in the town, 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 Castrovalva is fake. The Portreeve reveals himself as the Master, and shows them the trapped Adric.
The Master has been able to use Adric’s mathematical genius to create Castrovalva 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 Castrovalva to fall apart.
Seeing all is lost, the Master flees to his TARDIS. The Doctor and his companions flee from the town. The Master appears to be trapped and is unable to escape as the town 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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