Doctor Who (TV Series) Castrovalva: Part Three (1982) User Reviews

A dismal start, a great end.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 6/10 · 25 July 2019]

This is very much an episode of two halves, the first half is horrendous, Nyssa and Tegan walk around pointing out the blindingly obvious, it's almost at the point where you expect them to say look the grass is green, it is shocking.

The episode then takes a turn for the better, and Castrovalva finally comes to live. The costumes are great, and The Doctor finds himself in a very strange and curious situation. The cliffhanger is excellent, it ends so well, and has some tension and urgency, two things it lacked badly.

I'm reminded by Allo Allo, and keep waiting for Aynley to hoist up his glasses and say, it is I the Master, man of a thousand faces, every one the same. A trick they overdid during his time.

"I know so little about telebiogenesis." I'm still not liking this story.

[poolandrews · 4/10 · 5 March 2007]

Doctor Who: Castrovalva: Part 3 starts as Nyssa (Sarah Sutton) & Tegan (Janet Fielding) manage to find the Doctor (Peter Davison) after having lost him, he's on his way to Castrovalva & meets up with a hunting party from the city who take him there. Meanwhile Nyssa & Tegan have to climb a cliff to reach Castrovalva & therefore take a little longer, at first Castrovalva seems a nice quaint little place free from modern technology & full of friendly people where the Doctor can relax & recover from his latest somewhat problematic regeneration. However things are never that simple & it soon becomes apparent that the Doctor along with Nyssa & Tegan have walked right into a trap set by the Doctors evil nemesis the Master (Antony Ainsley)...

This Doctor Who adventure was episode 3 from season 19 that aired here in the UK during early 1982 & was Peter Davison's first story, directed by Fiona Cumming I'm not impressed with Castrovalva so far. The script by Christopher H. Bidmead is a total bore, it feels like virtually nothing has happened so far & I'm already up to Part 4. On the plus side the Doctor himself comes into this episode more but at this point maybe it's a bit too little a bit too late. There's really not much else to say about Castovalva as it's dull, rather slow, bland, has three lame cliffhanger endings, is almost totally forgettable as far as Doctor Who stories go & am I the only one to notice that the Master hasn't moved from the same spot in his TARDIS throughout the entire story so far (obvious twist withstanding)? It lacks the light hearted fun, the monsters & childish entertainment that I usually really like Doctor Who for, Castrovalva is a real disappointment so far.

With it's tight BBC budget the city of Castrovalva was never going to look brilliant but the medieval style castle, production design & costumes are fairly well realised & for that I'll give it some credit but when it's utilised in a story such as Castrovalva it all seems rather pointless.

Castrovalva isn't exactly my favourite Doctor Who story, at best I'd say it's average & it's definitely not a story I'll consider a classic anytime soon.