Doctor Who: The Caves of Androzani

The Caves of Androzani is the sixth serial of the 21st season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four twice-weekly parts on BBC1 from 8 to 16 March 1984.

The TARDIS lands on Androzani Minor, and the Doctor and Peri explore the caves where they are captured by General Chellak, who believes them to be aiding gunrunners. Androzani Minor is the only source of the spectrox drug, produced by bats within the desert planet’s cave systems. The citizens of neighbouring Androzani Major rely on spectrox for its life-extending capabilities.

Spectrox mining is controlled by Morgus’s business conglomerate, but is threatened by Sharaz Jek, a masked figure who hides within the cave systems and controls an army of androids that disrupt mining efforts. Morgus has publicly funded the military operation led by Chellak to defeat Jek, but secretly employs gunrunners Stotz and Krelper to supply Jek with weapons to profit from the war.

Chellak communicates the image of the Doctor and Peri to Morgus who does not recognise them and orders their execution. At their execution, Chellak finds that Jek replaced them with androids. Unbeknownst to Chellak, his own adjutant, Maj. Salateen, has also been replaced by one of Jek’s androids.

In Jek’s lair, the Doctor and Peri complain about illness, and the real Salateen tells them that they had stepped in raw spectrox, which is lethal; the anti-toxin is the milk of the queen bat, but due to the recent war, the bats have descended to the deepest levels of the mine that are devoid of oxygen. Jek explains that he is at war with Morgus as his actions led to his disfiguration.

Jek leaves the two under guard of his androids while he meets Stotz and Krelper. The Doctor reprograms the androids to allow them to escape. They are caught in the middle of one of the battles, and Peri is captured by Chellak, while the Doctor is forced to leave with Stotz and Krelper.

Stotz decides to take the Doctor to see Morgus directly, and communicates with him holographically en route. Morgus sees the Doctor alive, and believing the military is deceiving him, kills the President of Androzani and makes his own arrangements to travel to Androzani Minor to set things right. The Doctor commandeers Stotz’s ship and redirects it back to the surface of Androzani Minor, setting off to rescue Peri.

Chellak initiates a major attack against Jek’s androids, which ends up costing him his life as well as most of the soldiers and androids. During this, Jek rescues Peri as she starts to succumb to the spectrox poisoning. At his base, Jek activates the cooling system to help soothe Peri’s aches. The Doctor, starting to also feel the effects, arrives at the base. Jek takes pity on the two, and directs the Doctor to where he can find the queen bat and provides him with an oxygen tank.

Morgus lands by Stotz’s ship, and learns that his shrewd secretary has replaced him as head of the conglomerate. Morgus quickly enlists Stotz to get Jek’s supply of spectrox. Stotz kills Krelper and the remaining gunrunner before leaving. They follow the heat signature from Jek’s cooling system to find his base. Morgus, Stotz, and Jek get into a fight, and end up killing each other.

The Doctor finds the queen bat and collects two phials of her milk. Returning to the base, he collects Peri and wearily carries her out of the caves, dropping one of the two phials as he gets to the TARDIS. He sets the TARDIS in motion and feeds Peri the remaining phial, before collapsing on the floor.

Peri recovers as the Doctor explains that there was only enough bat’s milk left to cure her; though he is dying, he says his body might regenerate, though he notes it feels different from his previous regenerations. The Doctor begins to hallucinate images of his past companions urging him to continue to fight for his life.

They include the dead Adric, which the Doctor queries before the Master yells that he must die and the regeneration completes, with the Sixth Doctor suddenly alert and active though with a new face. When Peri asks what has happened, the Doctor replies, “Change, my dear, and it seems not a moment too soon…”

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