The Three Doctors - Episode 4

The final episode of this anniversary story comes at the end of what feels like a rather short story. Bob Baker and Dave Martin have written the best story of their careers in Doctor Who so far and I think that Lennie Mayne has directed the story very well and managed to maintain the egos very well. The story has to deliver in this final episode and never has a final episode of a story mattered more than here.

William Hartnell makes his last appearance in a Doctor Who episode and he’s saved the best until last. I know that I have been rather harsh about the point of Hartnell’s involvement given that he’s very unwell but when you think about the early days of the show and how he dominated the screen at times, it’s a shame to see how he has been reduced to effectively a bit part. His final scene was short but sweet and he would pass away just over two years later. Jon Pertwee and Patrick Troughton are both on fine form during this episode and deserve to take equal billing. I had forgotten about how funny Patrick Troughton could be and that is one of things that I have enjoyed about this story. Jon Pertwee has also been good in this story showing how different his version of the Timelord has been from his predecessors.

Considering she fell down the pecking order slightly, Katy Manning still gives a very strong performance and does stand in the background and is very much involved in the story. Even John Levene is getting more of the story than he would normally have done. He seems to have fallen into the role of what Jamie would have done had he not been stuck on Emmerdale Farm. Levene doesn’t do the action stuff like what Frazer Hines use to do but still gets stuck in.

Omega continues to be quite impress and there is a good special effect that occurs during this episode when his mask/helmet is removed, it shows nothing and there is a nice use of CSO to show Omega raising his helmet with both Doctors still in shot. Omega becomes even more unbalanced and I always think that an effective unbalanced individual is always worth watching.

The scene where they all walk through the singularity point is a good scene because it feels like the end. The way that the Brigadier leaves them is perhaps the nicest end because they all think that the Doctors will stay with Omega forever. It might have been obvious to people that the Doctors weren’t going to be stuck with Omega for long and so it was going to be interesting to see how they would get free and it was perhaps rather a simple way but it was still good to watch and was effective enough to be done quickly and tie up that particular loose end just before the story ended.

This episode sees the Doctor given his freedom and for the first time since ‘The War Games’ he is allowed to travel in his TARDIS and go wherever he wants. This fact would have meant a bit more had the Doctor not done a few stories on other worlds. Ok they were at the beck and call of the Timelords but the fact that the Doctor has the freedom now isn’t the thing that comes to mind when this moment occurs. The episode ends the serial rather well and it feels like this episode has a lot packed into just twenty-five minutes. I never got bored and never found anyone annoying and I think that this episode was the best of the four. With the show now going to feature more other world adventures, it means that this is the beginning of the end for UNIT and the Brigadier, Benton and Yates aren’t going to feature in it as much as they use to and that’s a shame but the success of the show is made on continuous change. I think that ‘The Three Doctor’s is a wonderful celebration to the show and as the show enters its second decade, there is a lot to be proud of and a lot to look forward to. The show has never been in better shape.