Review of The Five Doctors (#129)
DVD Release Date: 05 Aug 08
Original Air Date: 25 Nov 1983
Doctors/Companions: Five, One, Two, Three, Four (cameo), Tegan, Turlough, Susan, the Brigadier, Sarah Jane, Romana II (cameo)
Stars: Peter Davison, Richard Hurndall, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, (Tom Baker), Janet Fielding, Mark Strickson, Carole Ann Ford, Nicholas Courtney, Elisabeth Sladen, (Lalla Ward)
Preceding Story: The King’s Demons (Five, Tegan, Turlough, Kamelion)
Succeeding Story: Warriors of the Deep (Five, Tegan, Turlough)

With tomorrow’s anniversary of the show’s beginnings, I felt now would be an appropriate time to look back at a different celebration of its history. Though this year we mark fifty-four years since the show’s inception, 1983 was merely twenty, and the Powers That Beeb decided they couldn’t let such a large, round number go unnoticed.

Here in the post-fiftieth-anniversary era, we think of that celebration as having pulled out all the stops, but really, it was The Five Doctors that set the standard. And while, like Moffat, JNT didn’t get everyone he wanted to participate, he nonetheless pulled together a remarkable cast, including—in a way—all five incarnations of the Doctor who had appeared up to that point.

While First Doctor William Hartnell had (just barely) managed perform a part in the tenth anniversary story The Three Doctors, he was already eight years dead by the time this next milestone rolled around. Rather than exclude his Doctor entirely, though, JNT simply recast Richard Hurndall in the role, much like David Bradley has taken over the same in the modern era. But much like Eccleston for the fiftieth, Tom Baker could not be convinced to reprise his own Fourth Doctor (reportedly because he thought it was too soon).

Undeterred, JNT simply used footage from the unaired story Shada (new release pending in January ’18—watch this space for a review), and trapped Four and Companion Romana II in the time vortex, preventing them from joining the others in the adventure proper, without excluding them outright.

The remainder of the cast is also impressive. Not only did all three other original Doctors (Troughton, Pertwee, and then-current incarnation Davison) participate, but there were also four Doctors’ worth of Companions (and then some!). One is joined by granddaughter Susan, Two by Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (who is himself a veteran of a multi-Doctor scenario), Three by Sarah Jane Smith (who simply would go out, despite K-9’s warning of danger), and Five by Companions-of-the-day Tegan Jovanka and Vislor Turlough.

Further, at points later in the narrative, Terrance Dicks managed to write in brief cameos for Capt. Mike Yates, Dr. Liz Shaw, Jamie McCrimmon, and Zoë Heriot. It’s an all-star gathering akin to an 80s version of Journey’s End, except without the teeth-grindingly awful plotting that had the TARDIS pulling the Earth across the universe with no ill effects.

Which brings us to the plot of this story. For such a complex concatenation of characters, it stands up remarkably well. Beginning with a time scoop slurping Doctors and Companions up from all over the timeline, the story sees a mysterious antagonist bringing our many heroes into the notorious Death Zone on Gallifrey. There, one or more groups come across a Dalek, Cybermen, a Yeti, a new threat known as a Raston Warrior Robot, and even—with the help of the Time Lord Inner Council itself—the Master.

There is intrigue at the Capitol as all the Doctors’ parties converge on the Dark Tower, the tomb of Rassilon himself. Eventually everything comes to a head there by the sarcophagus of the legendary Time Lord, and the Doctors have to work together to save the day.

While there is one element that seems like a big plot hole to me (it’s suddenly very easy to transmat right into that final room in the Tower), everything else works well enough to make that easy to overlook, especially as the character interactions are so delightful. The highlights for me all revolve around Troughton’s Two, starting with the way he bounces off the Brigadier in typical, unintentionally snarky fashion.

He also continues his traditional antagonistic relationship with Three, Pertwee giving as good as he gets, and establishes a new rivalry with Five. (Two: So, you’re the latest model, hmm? / Five: Yes, and the most agreeable. / Two: Certainly the most impudent.)

All in all, The Five Doctors holds up remarkably well more than thirty years on, and remains an episode I’m happy to recommend to anyone, though it’s especially delightful for those who know the Doctors and Companions who appear. It both revels in what has come before and turns a hopeful eye to the future—about as close to perfection as it gets.

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