In this feature-length twentieth anniversary special in the classic science fiction-fantasy series, someone uses a time scoop to lift all five incarnations of the heroic Time Lord known as the Doctor out of their respective time streams. The elderly, first Doctor is taken out of Wimbledon Garden. The Beatle-haired, Chaplainesque, second Doctor is removed from the grounds of UNIT H.Q.. The dashing, dandy, white-haired, James Bond-like third Doctor is scooped off of Earth in his Edwardian speedster car, Bessie. The curly-haired, tall, long-scarfed fourth Doctor is lifted out of a punt on the river Cambridge and trapped in a time vortex. And the youthful, striped-panted fifth Doctor must find all of his former selves and return them to their proper time streams, or face disintegration into the time vortex in which his fourth incarnation is trapped. Having abducted each of the Doctors, the mysterious agent responsible for this transgression of the First Law of Time, positions four of the Doctors, along with some of their companions and foes, inside the Death Zone on Gallifrey, home world of the Time Lords.
Such a great episode of the classic
Doctor Who series should not have been left out of my review section. The episode is 100 minutes long and it is from 1983 during the Peter Davison years, celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the show.
The episode already starts with a classic scene from the first Doctor, William Hartnel, from the same episode in which Susan Foreman left. By the words: "One day I shall come back. Yes, I shall come back. Until then, there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. Just go forward in all your beliefs and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine". From there the special episode goes on and the story starts to show us each of the already know Doctors been taken from their own time lines. As by the time when the episode was made, the amazing William Hartnel had already deceased, so Richard Hurndall comes aboard to replace him. Hurndall tries to bring the characteristics of the Hartnel Doctor on his interpretation of the character, but fails at it. The actor brings a forced version and at the same time unconvincing and with it, the viewer can't get convinced.
We also get to see Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Elisabeth Sladen, Carole Ann Ford, Nicholas Courtney and Peter Davison on the episode. Pertwee and Troughton brings their great performances back as the second and third Doctors respectively, it is really great to see them back and acting with former companions such as Sarah Jane and the Brigadier, bringing us back to their classic times.
The disappointment on the episode has to be the lack of Tom Baker, who only appears on archive footage. It is explained that the fourth Doctor has been trapped in the Time Vortex. Baker in the time has not accepted to return to the show in such a short time after his departure. Unfortunately we don't get to see the most happy and rapturous Doctor interacting with his other versions. A scene between him and Troughton would be simply unforgettable and epic.
Another highlight on the episode is the presence of the Doctor's greatest enemies like the Cybermen, one Dalek and the Master, with the Dalek appearing in only one scene, but still giving chills for any
Doctor Who fan who watched the episode, not to forget the resemblance of the scene with the first Daleks story on the show, "The Daleks". The Master and the Cyberman join forces later on the episode, with the former one tricking them in a very clever scene that occurs inside the Rassilon's Tomb, in which a floor in the form of a chess game kills the Cybermen and makes the Master victorious. In the story the Master is sent to the Death Zone by the Lord President to rescue the Doctor back to the Gallifrey headquarters, but then when the Master encounters the third and the fifth Doctor we see the big tension of our title character(s) to trust on the villain. Lets not forget the amazing acting habilities of Anthony Ainley when he brings the Master to life, the actor may make the Master younger physically, but when it comes to the mind of the character, you can see a sinister, cold and experienced version of the character, that just makes you love each of his scenes.
"The Five Doctors" has a well developed story to explain the facts of such a big encounter, it doesn't get too much boring with all the versions of the character meeting themselves, but does the opposite, builds the ground so at the end we see all of them together in a scene that is simply a one time thing in life, not to forget that it brings back good memories as we see former companions and the best villains of the Doctor appearing on it. It is definitely worth a watch for any Doctor Who fan. But of course the only disappointments on the episode are the lack of Tom Baker and the choice of having Richard Hurndall as the replacement for William Hartnell.