written by Terrance Dicks
directed by Peter Moffatt
“A universe without the Doctor? Scarcely bears thinking about.”
- The Master
directed by Peter Moffatt
“A universe without the Doctor? Scarcely bears thinking about.”
- The Master
Story Review
This story is nothing more or less than a big birthday blowout, the continuity equivalent of a drunken bender. You've got five Doctors (sort.. of...), numerous companions, monster cameos and Anthony Ainley camping it up like the world's most goth birthday clown. That could have been enough, the story itself could have slipped into “leave your brain at the door” territory and been none the worse for it. Gladly, though, it doesn't.
Terrance Dicks is one of the Doctor Who greats and he has commendable fun playing with the most toys any Who writer has ever been handed. This story is brimming with fan pleasing character moments, the greatest concentration of them being reserved for Patrick Troughton and Nicholas Courtney as they revisit a double act that had nowhere near enough time to shine in the Sixties. Despite a crowded cast just about everyone gets a chance to shine even if Peter Davison gets a bit sidelined in the opening scenes, lying unconscious in his TARDIS whilst all the returning acts gets introduced.
The story itself has the Doctor(s) and numerous old friends dumped in a Time Lord version of Big Brother except with murderous monsters instead of silly challenges and wilderness instead of a house. The objective is to get to the big tomb in the centre of the Death Zone (direct bunch, the Time Lords) and win the game. Dicks lets the presence of old faces celebrate the past of Doctor Who and spends his story exploring the past of the Doctor's mysterious people. In this story Dicks constructs a mythology almost from whole cloth and makes it nicely dark as he does it. I'm not generally a fan of Time Lord stories but this one hits the spot by making their history dark and sinister and mystical.
One thing this story really benefits from is not being split into episodes. Written as a one hundred minute feature there are no recaps, no cliffhangers and no bloody Episode Three to hold up proceedings. The net effect of this is to improve the story's pacing immeasurably.
As to the Special Edition improvements, for the most part they work. Though I will always prefer the ending with ghostly TARDISes splitting from the original the gains to the production are evident elsewhere. Some moody scenes of empty corridors in the Tomb of Rassilon slipped in just after the titles adds a note of tension to a previously low key opening. Even the Master tiptoeing down a seemingly musical staircase has comedy going for it.
What cannot be helped by clever re-editing is that none of the returning acts feel quite right. Patrick Troughton suffers the most, his humour dial jammed on cranky sarcasm, lacking the breezy charm and wit he had in the Sixties. Sarah Jane similarly finds herself more of a damsel than she ever was in her travelling days and K9 has mysteriously gained psychic powers. What this all boils down to is that the home video system hadn't been invented yet and the characters as presented in the script are how Terrance Dicks remembers them rather than how they actually were.
After that short bitch about historical accuracy you might be surprised that I have nothing but praise for Richard Hurndall's ersatz First Doctor. Whilst it's far from a perfect tribute act it has its moments: blustering at the Fifth Doctor; snapping at Tegan; some spot-in lapel clutching. Hartnell himself gets a nice little pre-credits cameo, the goodbye scene from The Dalek Invasion Of Earth, so as not to be totally left out. Between all this and Tom Baker's contribution being sourced from an incomplete Douglas Adams serial The Five Doctors is a Trades Descriptions nightmare featuring six Doctors, only four of whom contribute to the plot. Nevertheless this is a very good birthday party.
Moments of Charm
I love the scenes of the Fifth Doctor, Tegan and Turlough relaxing on the Eye of Orion. It's a rare glimpse at the TARDIS crew having a quiet day: Turlough sketching on a hillside, the Doctor doing some DIY in the TARDIS, Tegan taking a walk. For a change the Season Twenty cast even seem to like one another, perhaps the influence of a writer from better days coming back.
DVD Presentation
You get one UND ONLY VUN special feature on this DVD. Not surprising, really, this was one of the first brace of BBC DVDs ever released and there wasn't a small cottage industry in producing extras back then. The story's score is presented as a series of isolated tracks. Scant but not an idea without merit, there are stories where I'd love to hear the soundtrack, The Five Doctors just doesn't happen to be one of them.
This story is nothing more or less than a big birthday blowout, the continuity equivalent of a drunken bender. You've got five Doctors (sort.. of...), numerous companions, monster cameos and Anthony Ainley camping it up like the world's most goth birthday clown. That could have been enough, the story itself could have slipped into “leave your brain at the door” territory and been none the worse for it. Gladly, though, it doesn't.
Terrance Dicks is one of the Doctor Who greats and he has commendable fun playing with the most toys any Who writer has ever been handed. This story is brimming with fan pleasing character moments, the greatest concentration of them being reserved for Patrick Troughton and Nicholas Courtney as they revisit a double act that had nowhere near enough time to shine in the Sixties. Despite a crowded cast just about everyone gets a chance to shine even if Peter Davison gets a bit sidelined in the opening scenes, lying unconscious in his TARDIS whilst all the returning acts gets introduced.
The story itself has the Doctor(s) and numerous old friends dumped in a Time Lord version of Big Brother except with murderous monsters instead of silly challenges and wilderness instead of a house. The objective is to get to the big tomb in the centre of the Death Zone (direct bunch, the Time Lords) and win the game. Dicks lets the presence of old faces celebrate the past of Doctor Who and spends his story exploring the past of the Doctor's mysterious people. In this story Dicks constructs a mythology almost from whole cloth and makes it nicely dark as he does it. I'm not generally a fan of Time Lord stories but this one hits the spot by making their history dark and sinister and mystical.
One thing this story really benefits from is not being split into episodes. Written as a one hundred minute feature there are no recaps, no cliffhangers and no bloody Episode Three to hold up proceedings. The net effect of this is to improve the story's pacing immeasurably.
As to the Special Edition improvements, for the most part they work. Though I will always prefer the ending with ghostly TARDISes splitting from the original the gains to the production are evident elsewhere. Some moody scenes of empty corridors in the Tomb of Rassilon slipped in just after the titles adds a note of tension to a previously low key opening. Even the Master tiptoeing down a seemingly musical staircase has comedy going for it.
What cannot be helped by clever re-editing is that none of the returning acts feel quite right. Patrick Troughton suffers the most, his humour dial jammed on cranky sarcasm, lacking the breezy charm and wit he had in the Sixties. Sarah Jane similarly finds herself more of a damsel than she ever was in her travelling days and K9 has mysteriously gained psychic powers. What this all boils down to is that the home video system hadn't been invented yet and the characters as presented in the script are how Terrance Dicks remembers them rather than how they actually were.
After that short bitch about historical accuracy you might be surprised that I have nothing but praise for Richard Hurndall's ersatz First Doctor. Whilst it's far from a perfect tribute act it has its moments: blustering at the Fifth Doctor; snapping at Tegan; some spot-in lapel clutching. Hartnell himself gets a nice little pre-credits cameo, the goodbye scene from The Dalek Invasion Of Earth, so as not to be totally left out. Between all this and Tom Baker's contribution being sourced from an incomplete Douglas Adams serial The Five Doctors is a Trades Descriptions nightmare featuring six Doctors, only four of whom contribute to the plot. Nevertheless this is a very good birthday party.
Moments of Charm
I love the scenes of the Fifth Doctor, Tegan and Turlough relaxing on the Eye of Orion. It's a rare glimpse at the TARDIS crew having a quiet day: Turlough sketching on a hillside, the Doctor doing some DIY in the TARDIS, Tegan taking a walk. For a change the Season Twenty cast even seem to like one another, perhaps the influence of a writer from better days coming back.
DVD Presentation
You get one UND ONLY VUN special feature on this DVD. Not surprising, really, this was one of the first brace of BBC DVDs ever released and there wasn't a small cottage industry in producing extras back then. The story's score is presented as a series of isolated tracks. Scant but not an idea without merit, there are stories where I'd love to hear the soundtrack, The Five Doctors just doesn't happen to be one of them.
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