Production
| Episode | Title | Run time | Original release date | UK viewers (millions) [4] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Part One" | 24:14 | 4 January 1982 | 9.1 |
| 2 | "Part Two" | 24:13 | 5 January 1982 | 8.6 |
| 3 | "Part Three" | 23:35 | 11 January 1982 | 10.2 |
| 4 | "Part Four" | 24:12 | 12 January 1982 | 10.4 |
The working title for this story was The Visitor. This story was the first story aired which featured Peter Davison as the Fifth Doctor. However, it was the fourth story to be recorded as the original planned debut story, Project Zeta Sigma by John Flanagan and Andrew McCulloch, proved unworkable and a replacement had to be commissioned. John Nathan-Turner took advantage of this to give Davison the chance to have a firm idea of how he wanted to play the role before recording the regeneration story.
Part 1 of this story is notable for being the first episode in Doctor Who history to credit the title character as "The Doctor", rather than "Doctor Who". [5] The credit remained "The Doctor" until the series' cancellation in 1989, at the end of Season 26. In the 1996 TV film, no credit was actually given for the Eighth Doctor (although the Seventh Doctor was called the "Old Doctor" in the onscreen credits). For the first season of the 2005 revival, the credit reverted to "Doctor Who". The title became "The Doctor" again in "The Christmas Invasion" at the request of new star David Tennant.
Location filming for the forest outside the Castrovalva citadel took place in East Sussex at Buckhurst Park and Harrison's Rocks near Groombridge. [6]
For the final scene, the script called for Adric to look "pallid" as he was still recovering from the effects of imprisonment by the Master. According to the commentary on the DVD, this was accidentally achieved by Matthew Waterhouse, who had a hangover from the night before from drinking too much Campari. Whilst the cameras were filming the Doctor and Tegan in conversation about who landed the TARDIS, Waterhouse was vomiting behind a tree. The other actors continued acting despite it so the take could be used.
For this story, the series was shifted from its traditional Saturday early evening transmission to a twice-weekly (Monday and Tuesday) slot.
Cast notes
In order to keep the Master's disguise hidden, in part 3 the role of the Portreeve was credited to "Neil Toynay", an anagram of "Tony Ainley". Director Fiona Cumming's husband Ian Fraser, later a production manager on Doctor Who, came up with the idea. [7] Michael Sheard had previously appeared in The Ark (1966), [8] The Mind of Evil (1971), [9] Pyramids of Mars (1975) [10] and The Invisible Enemy (1977), [11] and subsequently appeared in Remembrance of the Daleks (1988). [12]
Outside references
Castrovalva is the name of an early lithograph by the Dutch graphic artist M. C. Escher, and the design of the town in this serial reflects the impossible nature of many of Escher's later works. The story centres on the mathematical principle of recursion, a concept portrayed in much of Escher's artwork. Escher's lithograph depicts a town in Italy atop a steep slope, a setting similar to that of The Curse of Peladon (1972), but there is nothing in the print itself to suggest the paradoxes of this story.
"Event One" appears to be a reference to the Big Bang – the creation of the universe. However, it is repeatedly described in this story as "the creation of the galaxy", which is believed to be a gradual coalescing of hydrogen predating the first stars rather than a dramatic cosmic event.
