As 1983 drew to a close, 'Dr.Who' celebrated its twentieth anniversary in fine style with this hugely enjoyable one-off episode, directed by the late Peter Moffatt. 'The Five Doctors' brought together all incarnations of the Doctor, along with various companions and enemies. It must have been a tall order to write, and indeed was - the legendary Robert Holmes backed out, leaving ex-script editor Terrance Dicks to take his place. He found an ingenious opening hook - someone is lifting the first five Doctors out of time and space. In desperation, the Time Lords promise the Master ( Anthony Ainley ) a full pardon for past crimes if he visit a forbidden place on Gallifrey known as the Death Zone. The first Doctor ( Richard Hurndall ) finds himself in a pseudo-Skaro setting with grand-daughter 'Susan' ( Carole Ann Ford ), and a particularly angry Dalek. The second Doctor ( Patrick Troughton ) is spirited away from U.N.I.T, H.Q. along with 'Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart' ( Nicholas Courtney ) and they find themselves in caves along with a Yeti. Doctor number three ( Jon Pertwee ) is reunited with 'Sarah-Jane Smith' ( Elisabeth Sladen ). As if an army of Cybermen wasn't bad enough, they have to face the Raston Warrior Robot ( Keith Hodiak ). Where's the fourth Doctor ( Tom Baker ), I hear you ask? He isn't in it. Baker declined to appear, so to justify the title a clip of the incomplete 'Shada' was used. His successor, Peter Davison, inherits his main role in the narrative, which is to return to the Citadel and discover who is responsible for using the Time Scoop. Dicks originally specified the main villain as the Master, until script-editor Eric Saward pointed out ( rightly ) it was too obvious, and so a different baddie - 'Lord President Borusa' ( Philip Latham - substituted.
One of the lovely things about 'Five Doctors' is how it skillfully interfaces the 'old' Who with the then-current. Hartnell might not be around anymore, but Hurndall does an admirable job of recapturing the grumpiness of the first Time Lord. Having the old boy accompanying the bossy 'Tegan' ( Janet Fielding ) into the Tomb of Rassilon was an inspired idea, showing just how stronger the companions had become in the past twenty years. Also nice were the brief appearances of 'Captain Mike Yates' ( Richard Franklin ), 'Liz Shaw' ( Caroline John ), 'Jamie' ( Fraser Hines', and 'Zoe' ( Wendy Padbury ) as phantoms in the Tomb. With all the scene-stealing Doctors around, it would have been easy for Davison to be overshadowed, but to his credit he is not. In fact, he gets all the best lines. The very best line, though, goes to Courtney: "splendid chap...all of them!".
Of the old enemies, only the Cybermen are allowed a decent role, the Dalek and Yeti's appearances amount to little more than cameos. The Cyber massacre at the hands of the Raston robot is impressively shot by John Nathan-Turner.
The show was included in that year's 'Children In Need' which meant the viewer was distracted at key moments by the sight of phone numbers sliding across the screen, but overall it was well received, and was later repeated in episodic form. It is still great fun. The only real let down being the materialisation of 'Rassilon' ( Richard Matthews ); his resemblance to the pantomime character 'Old King Cole' renders the scene unintentionally comic. And how nice it would have been for 'Ian Chesterton' ( William Russell ) and 'Barbara Wright' ( Jacqueline Hill ) to have appeared in the Tomb of Rasillon also.
One of the lovely things about 'Five Doctors' is how it skillfully interfaces the 'old' Who with the then-current. Hartnell might not be around anymore, but Hurndall does an admirable job of recapturing the grumpiness of the first Time Lord. Having the old boy accompanying the bossy 'Tegan' ( Janet Fielding ) into the Tomb of Rassilon was an inspired idea, showing just how stronger the companions had become in the past twenty years. Also nice were the brief appearances of 'Captain Mike Yates' ( Richard Franklin ), 'Liz Shaw' ( Caroline John ), 'Jamie' ( Fraser Hines', and 'Zoe' ( Wendy Padbury ) as phantoms in the Tomb. With all the scene-stealing Doctors around, it would have been easy for Davison to be overshadowed, but to his credit he is not. In fact, he gets all the best lines. The very best line, though, goes to Courtney: "splendid chap...all of them!".
Of the old enemies, only the Cybermen are allowed a decent role, the Dalek and Yeti's appearances amount to little more than cameos. The Cyber massacre at the hands of the Raston robot is impressively shot by John Nathan-Turner.
The show was included in that year's 'Children In Need' which meant the viewer was distracted at key moments by the sight of phone numbers sliding across the screen, but overall it was well received, and was later repeated in episodic form. It is still great fun. The only real let down being the materialisation of 'Rassilon' ( Richard Matthews ); his resemblance to the pantomime character 'Old King Cole' renders the scene unintentionally comic. And how nice it would have been for 'Ian Chesterton' ( William Russell ) and 'Barbara Wright' ( Jacqueline Hill ) to have appeared in the Tomb of Rasillon also.