63. Caerdroia

This is one of the best story of the Divergent universe arc. There's only four characters (five if you count Rassilon at the end) but together they make te story move forward. Lloyd Rose build a brilliant plot with a great final twist.

This is one of these stories that show us how great is Mc Gann. Here he play three differents moods of the Doctor. He play each role perfectly with his personal touch. His confrontation with the Kro'Ka is great but it take the whole episode one and I think it's a bit to much.

I think someone need to give C'rizz a personnality because he didn't seen to be very develloped after 5 stories. Here he just talk with his monotonous voice while the 'Happy Doctor' make the plot work.
Charley is Charley. She's the good old Charley of the first episodes. Her relation with the 'Angry Doctor' is quite fun to hear.

The Kro'Ka is perhaps a bit to evil. He began to be a bit cliché but we discover who he really is here. He play all the supporting cast and Stephen Perring is really a good actor.

This is one of theses stories that can show us how good was the arc. The final plot twist is unexpected (except the 'we're on Caerdroia' part, everybody had guessed it, it's the title) This is a must have in the Mc Gann range !

I am not a fan of the Divergent Universe Arc as an arc. It just fundamentally doesn't work, and it's riddled with inconsistencies. The first three stories played up the fact that an entirely new universe would contain nothing that was familiar. In "The Creed of the Kromon", the Doctor remarked that Eutermesans were the closest thing they'd seen to human so far, and "The Natural History of Fear" got a dynamite plot twist out of revealing the non-human nature of the denizens of Light City. Since then, there have been humanoid characters in every single story, and this has been totally unremarked upon. This story also has humanoid characters in it, and this is not considered strange, but the appearance of cows, rabbits, and a Minotaur is deemed highly suspicious indeed. The Divergent Universe does not operate according to any consistent set of rules.

And yet, although the arc doesn't work at all, this is the third story out of eight that ranks as legitimately great. That's a very impressive hit rate. While "Caerdroia" doesn't quite reach the same dizzying heights of genius as "Scherzo" and "The Natural History of Fear", it's still pretty damn great.

Part One starts things off well with a long, well-written confrontation with the Kro'Ka. Some of the Kro'Ka scenes have been getting a little tired, since he usually just shows up to act vaguely nasty for a few minutes and then disappears. This is different. Part One is a signpost that things are now moving distinctly in the direction of resolution.

Part Two could be considered somewhat pointless if it wasn't so much fun. The Doctor has been split into three different facets of himself. Each goes exploring a different area of their surroundings, but pretty much none of them accomplish anything. The rational Doctor has a maddening time dealing with an impenetrable bureaucracy. The enthusiastic Doctor explores a kind of zoo with C'rizz. The irritable Doctor explores the inside of a giant cuckoo clock with Charley. None of them achieves anything, and they all wind up together at the end of the episode. Plot-wise, you could say that the episode is entirely pointless. But it does a great job of exploring the three facets of the Doctor's character, which I imagine was the point. And it's fun.

Things do start to feel a bit stretched out in Part Three, but the writing remains so sharp and so crisp that it isn't really a terrible problem. And then Part brings everything together in a very satisfying way, making full use of the three-Doctors concept, and totally justifying the seemingly point second episode. It also provides a nice dramatic reveal which foreshadows the next story.

The story is also quite funny and full of wit. It's just wonderful.

ADDENDUM: I forgot to mention that Stephen Perring is wonderful. His performance as the Kro'Ka is one of the highlights of the Divergent Universe arc, and he's especially wonderful here.

Caerdroia continues the ever increasing in quality run of stories leading up to the end of the Divergent Universe Arc and as the penultimate story ramps up the excitement for the finale through an excellent plot in the Divergence's main base of Caerdroia, pretty much Castrovalva on steroids. Everyone here is on top form with a rather small cast consisting of the three regulars and Stephen Perring's Kro'ka who are all having a ball. McGann really gets to flex his acting chops while getting to play three different versions of the Doctor highlighting three of the Doctor's characteristics. The story also is a really funny one, having the most laughs since Doctor Who and the Pirates. Lloyd Rose's script is also full of great ideas to explore and the last ten minutes or so are worth the release alone.

As I've listened through the Divergent Universe Arc, I've never thought that as (as a whole) it was bad. There were some weak parts to be sure (Creed of the Kromon was wretched) but some pretty solid concepts dominate stories from Scherzo to The Last. The big problem is that of the six preceding stories, I'd be loathe to describe any of them as fun. THey're all dark and serious stuff: exploring loneliness, sorrow, loss, dystopias,people dying pointlessly in war, religious domination, and then the prior story was a cheery tale about nuclear winter. Most of them very well-done

That's what makes Caerdroia so different. It's by no means a comedy episode (although there are some funny moments) but it's a fun story because it plays with a well-worn idea and does something different. After the Doctor turns the tables on the Kro'Ka in Episode One, he believes he's reached Caerdroia where the Divergents live and where the TARDIS is hidden, but the Doctor finds he's been split into three aspects of his personality: his rational side, his quirky breathless romantic side, and his "nasty side."

Splitting a character into multiple selves with different personalities is a pretty old plot device for imaginative fiction but Caerdroia goes beyond the typical trope of, "Their good side v. their evil side." Rather, each of the three Doctors is a distinct part of the Doctor that shares the same ends though their personalities clash. In one way or another, McGann has been in each of these modes during his run as the Doctor, and it's fun here to see the romantic curious doctor as well as the nasty one allowed to really run for the better part of three whole episodes. Paul McGann really shows versatility and makes each of them feel a little different. It was interesting to get an idea of what the nasty side could do unchecked.

I also liked the friendship between Charley and C'Rizz. After a weak start of the character in the prior season, the production, in each of the first three stories, C'Rizz has been becoming more interesting and the portrayal of genuine warmth and caring between Charley and C'Rizz is well done with Charley's adventurous side on full display.

The plot is fun with a lot of twists and mystery as to what's going, and who's behind it. It's a thoroughly engaging episode and there are even hints of what this was originally intended to be-before the return of the TV series demanded the arc be brought to a close. It not the penultimate episode of the Divergent saga, but rather a turning point in it. As it is, this is a great episode that leaves us with quite a few questions to set up the final chapter in the arc.