Doctor Who (1963): The Five Doctors - Part 1

Episode:

602

|

Serial:

129

|

Writer:

Terrance Dicks

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Director:

Peter Moffatt

|

Air Date:

25-Nov-1983

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Today on Sci-Fi Adventures, I'm watching Doctor Who's 20th anniversary special, The Five Doctors!

The 10th anniversary story, The Three Doctors, was the first serial of a season that aired months before the actual anniversary date, but this time around they wanted to get it right. In fact, efforts were made to get the whole of season 20 rescheduled to air later in the year to make it line up properly. They failed, but they did win a consolation prize: Doctor Who was getting its first-ever feature-length special! There have been plenty of Christmas specials and New Year's specials since then, but The Five Doctors is still the longest episode to this day.

Though in 1995 it got George Lucasified into an even longer and even more special Special Edition, padded out with extra scenes that the director had originally cut for a good reason. Plus there's the 2023 Blu-ray edition as well, along with the version that was split into four separate episodes. I bet that has some interesting cliffhangers.

You know what, I'm going to split this article up to match the four-part edit and find out what all those cliffhangers are. I'm not sure what version I'll be getting on iPlayer, but I do know that it's going to be long, so it'll be more practical for me to tackle it in pieces.

SPOILER WARNING: I might spoil things that came before it, I won't spoil things that came after, and the episode itself is getting extremely spoiled. I'm going scene by scene to maximise spoiler coverage.

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The episode begins with a 20-second clip from season 2's The Dalek Invasion of Earth, showing one of the most famous moments of the First Doctor's era: his final goodbye to his granddaughter Susan. That makes The Five Doctors the second of just four classic episodes to feature a teaser before the opening titles. That's four out of almost 700 episodes!

VHS players were a thing in 1983, so by this point people could actually record Doctor Who episodes off the TV and watch them again. (In fact, there's a video of this scene on YouTube from The Five Doctors' first airing during Children in Need.) But Dalek Invasion of Earth wasn't released on tape until 1990 and as far as I can tell it was never repeated on the BBC, so anyone in the UK who recognised this scene had either seen it as a clip during something else, or had caught it on its first airing 19 years earlier.

Man, there are so many things I saw once 19 years ago that I need to rewatch...

Anyway, this is the first Fifth Doctor story that I've properly covered, so I get to talk about the opening titles... and this terrifying face that appears at the start of them

It was tradition for the current Doctor to make an appearance in their opening titles and the imagery traditionally got scarier with every new opening they made. Not that Peter Davison has a horrifying face, it just appears that way when he's staring at you from the void of space while firing bits of his ear, cheek and hair out of the television.

I've heard that this logo actually has its fans, even among people who read my site. But I think those people are all lying just to trick me. I mean, it's made of glass! Logos should be made of materials like metal - something solid and resilient that you don't have to clean fingerprints off. Also, why make the logo look like a neon tube sign and then not have it turned on and lit up? I was so confused when I first saw this and that confusion will be with me all my life.

This version of the theme music isn't bad though. It's very synthy and, you know, '80s, but that's not a problem. The classic theme was overdue for a reimagining and they weren't about to hire an orchestra with the budgets they were working with back then.

It's becoming a tradition for anniversary episodes to redecorate the TARDIS console room a bit. It happened in The Three Doctors and now it's happened again for The Five Doctors. This time though they've also replaced the console with a brand new design, and the Doctor's drawing attention to it by giving it a bit of a polish with his cloth

I'm not really a fan of the empty sterile room and inset buttons, but I'm sure this is someone's favourite console room so I won't start complaining abou it. The Doctor assures Tegan that it won't be any more reliable than the previous one though. The TARDIS is like a person you see, it needs coaxing and encouragement!

The Doctor's currently travelling with three two companions, Tegan Jovanka, Vislor Turlough and shapeshifting robot Kamelion. The episode's determined not to give me a screencap with both of them in it at once, but I'm going to show them both anyway.

Their last story, The King's Demons, ended with the Doctor promising to take them to the Eye of Orion, and he's actually gone and done it. There's absolutely no crisis here, in fact it's actually one of the most tranquil places in the universe, so right now we're watching the crew take some time off. Unfortunately, there's something going wrong elsewhere, long ago, and it's giving the Doctor a bit of 'cosmic angst'.

We see someone else watching the First Doctor, played by Richard Hurndall, who was notable for not being William Hartnell. Sadly, Hartnell had died in 1975, so he was unavailable.

I've read that one original idea for the story made use of his change of appearance, with the twist being that he was a robot duplicate there to betray the others. No robot shapeshifters are allowed in this story, however.

You know, there's something weirdly familiar about seeing the First Doctor walking around a garden like this.

10x01 - The Three Doctors, Episode One

Oh right, the Time Lords were watching him roaming through a garden in The Three Doctors as well, just before they abducted him.

I guess this was meant to be a homage? Or maybe the writer had only seen him in the Three Doctors and had no idea what else he did with his time. One thing's certain at least: if you're going to abduct the First Doctor, you should get him when he's in a garden, that's when he's at his most vulnerable.

Look, it's happening again! Someone's sent a black pyramid after him. He's going to be stuck in a pyramid all story again. Once it captures him his face is stuck inside the triangle as it flips around and flies off, like he's been banished to the Phantom Zone by Kryptonians.

The different versions of the episode have different visual effects, with the original having a black shape superimposed on the scene, the 1995 Special Edition having a CGI whirlwind, and the new Blu-ray release having a shiny spinning obelisk. That means that I must be watching the original! Mystery solved.

His unseen kidnapper takes a little First Doctor figurine and places it on a table. Don't worry, he hasn't been turned into a toy... or has he?

Either way, the poor little figurine looks horrified about all of this.

Next, it's the Second Doctor's turn, who actually is played by the proper actor, Patrick Troughton. Plus as a bonus, he's come to visit the Brig, still played by Nicholas Courtney. The man's unrecognisable however, as he's finally grown a proper moustache instead of gluing one on! This was his second appearance this year, as he'd had a major role in Mawdryn Undead, where he had no moustache at all.

The Brig has been retired for a long time at this point, but I'm still going to call him a Brigadier, as everyone else does. Two reveals here that he still remembers his adventure with the Brig in The Three Doctors, which again raises the question of why Three didn't. He also points out that they've redecorated UNIT HQ and he doesn't like it.

Hey, that's what he said about the TARDIS in The Three Doctors! The Brig also repeats a line from the serial, saying "Wonderful chap. All of them," when talking about the Doctor.

Anyway, they both get captured by the black triangle and their figures get placed on the table in a separate segment.

Next is the Third Doctor, who's driving around in Bessie! It's got the extended bonnet, so that means this is happening at some point between The Three Doctors and Planet of the Spiders. He couldn't have brought the Brig with out for a drive, because Nicholas Courtney is clearly 10 years older, but Jon Pertwee doesn't look that different. Not compared to my mental image of him at least. Neither does Patrick Troughton, actually.

The Doctor tries to give the black pyramid the slip by doing a u-turn, but it doesn't work. It grabs him and the car, and then flips off to wherever it's been taking them all.

Now it's... hang on, Sarah Jane Smith isn't a Doctor and neither's K-9!

The Second Doctor and Tegan both have giant fur coats on (because they were filming up on hills in North Wales and it was bloody cold), but Sarah Jane has to put up with a purple raincoat.

Sarah Jane left the series a year before K-9 was introduced, so it's a bit weird that she has a robot dog now. But it all makes perfect sense if you've seen the first (and only) episode of her spin-off series, K-9 and Company... which lots of people did, it actually had pretty good ratings. Basically the Doctor just keeps getting identical robot dogs called K-9 and giving them out to companions as gifts. Leela got the original, Romana got the Mark II, and Sarah Jane got the Mark III

K-9 Mark III warns Sarah Jane not to go out as he senses something bad. In fact, he's adamant that she's in danger. But she just ignores him, goes off down the road, and gets grabbed by the triangle. You know who didn't get captured? Leela. Because she probably listened to her dog.

Romana, on the other hand, is relaxing on a river with the Fourth Doctor, far away from dogs and drama. This is where guest writer Douglas Adams takes over for a bit, as they made some clever use of unseen footage filmed for his doomed serial Shada.

The original plan was for the Fourth Doctor to play a major role in the episode, as Tom Baker seemed interested in taking part. But then he changed his mind and dropped out, leaving them with a whole lot of script to rewrite in a hurry and a title that didn't make sense anymore.

In the final episode, the two of them get grabbed by the black triangle but are stuck in a time eddy, like the First Doctor was in The Three Doctors when the Time Lords tried to recruit him. So he is in the episode, but he's also not.

Hey, it's the Time Lords!

That's the Castellan on the left, he was in the Fifth Doctor story Arc of Infinity, the woman in the middle is Chancellor Flavia, and that's Lord President Borusa on the right. Borusa must be the most death-prone Time Lord on Gallifrey, as he's appeared in four stories with a different actor each time.

The Castellan and Flavia have used a clause in the constitution to overrule Borusa and recruit someone to help them with their current crisis (whatever that is). In The Three Doctors they asked for the Doctor's help and released him from his exile in return.

This time they've brought in the Master! It's the Anthony Ainley edition and for once he's not in disguise!

Borusa starts off by absolutely roasting him, just tearing into the guy and listing all the reasons why he's an abysmal disaster of a person, before offering him a pardon. Plus a new cycle of regenerations! Well actually what he says is "Regeneration. A complete new life cycle," so it could just be the one life he's getting. Either way, a longer life is relevant to the Master's interests and he's on board.

All he has to do is rescue the Doctor.

Oh damn, there's the character you want for an anniversary special. This might not be the original First Doctor but that's definitely Carole Ann Ford returning as Susan after 19 years! That's the Doctor's actual granddaughter, the one he left behind in a post-apocalyptic future Earth so that she could have a normal life with the man she loves.

2-09 - The Dalek Invasion of Earth Part 6 - Flashpoint

Now we can finally find out how that decision worked out for her and if she's mad at her grandfather for stranding her there. Though now that I think about it, we don't know when this Doctor is from. He could be travelling with Ben and Polly, or Steven and Vicki, or maybe it's still just him and Susan at this point and he hasn't even made the choice to strand her yet.

Anyway, the episode doesn't care about any of this. In fact, Carole Ann Ford had to threaten to quit to get the script changed so that Susan calls him Grandfather instead of Doctor. The Dalek chasing them around this maze still calls him Doctor though.

Alright now that the most evil criminal in Time Lord history has been invited to sit down with the High Council they can begin the exposition.

It turns out that the Death Zone has been reactivated and it's somehow draining the Eye of Harmony, which is all very bad. Their table is missing a couple of chairs because they already sent two of the High Council in there to sort the problem out and they never came back. But they can't send the Doctor because he just doesn't exist anymore. He got lifted out of time. That leaves their next best choice: the Master.

The Master has a strange line here, "The cosmos without the Doctor scarcely bears thinking about." It's strange because it sounds like he means it. If he's that worried about how the universe will go on without the Doctor then maybe he should stop trying to kill him!

Meanwhile, the First Doctor is already demonstrating his resourcefulness by making use of this hall of mirrors they've found themselves in. He and Susan basically just shove the Dalek into the right place and then duck, so that his beam bounces around the room until it finally hits something non-reflective: itself.

We get a rare shot of the mutant inside the broken shell flailing about, and then that's it for the Daleks in this story.

The exploding Dalek took out part of the wall, revealing where the two of them are. They're back home on Gallifrey... and this is the Death Zone.

The Second Doctor and the Brig have also found themselves in the Death Zone. Though it seemed like the 'Fairly Pleasant Walk Across Rural Wales' zone at first, until this Cyberman arm reached through a wall and grabbed the Brig. Fortunately the Doctor's able to hit it with a stick until it lets go.

That means that this is the first-ever episode to feature a Cyberman and a Dalek, though they never meet. The Brig has definitely met the Cybermen before though, in his second serial with Two. He helped Two fight the Yeti in his first serial and Two is dressed like a Yeti right now, so that's another connection.

Meanwhile, the Third Doctor is driving around a very foggy part of the Death Zone when he spots his third companion, Sarah Jane! She's not doing a great job of walking in a straight line however and she stumbles off the road.

Oh no, she's rolling very slowly down a gentle slope! The production crew apparently had trouble finding a steep drop next to a road, so this is the best they could do. She doesn't even tumble forwards to make it look good, she's just on her side.

Unfortunately, when they split the episodes up into four parts this was the cliffhanger they went with for episode one. Not her rolling down the hill, but her lying at the bottom, completely uninjured. Find out how she gets back up this hill next time, in part two!

Or maybe she doesn't even want to get back up the hill. Maybe this is actually the right path she's on. Find out if it's the right path next time, in part two!

TO BE CONTINUED IN PART TWO!

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COMING SOON

Next on Super Adventures, it's the second part of The Five Doctors, where the heroes sit down and have some ice cream.

You don't have to wait until I'm done before you leave a comment however. Share your own opinions and observations (and corrections).