When the Three Doctors
aired to celebrate the shows 10th anniversary, it was done quite
well and it had one simple premise with the three Doctors and a few of the
regular companions. Fast forward 10 years and the show has progressed a lot
since then. This episode got its world premiere on American TV and formed part
of the BBC’s Children in Need night. There are a couple of problems before the
story even starts and that Tom Baker isn’t in it because I imagine that as he
only left two years before that enough time hadn’t passed by. Also William
Hartnell had died eight years before so they decided to recast him with someone
who looked like him.
The ‘episode’ starts off with a brief clip from The Dalek Invasion of Earth with the
William Hartnell speech that he gives to Susan. It is almost as if they are
highlighting the fact that the person that is playing the First Doctor isn’t the
real one. In fact Richard Hurndall is the first of the Doctor to be picked up.
Richard Hurndall does a fairly good job in what must have been an impossible
postion to be put in. He was never going to convince us that he was trying to
do William Hartnell but he does enough to make me appreciate that they tried to
get around a problem in the best intended way possible.
The scoop effect is rather poor and looks a bit lazy really.
Hurdnall’s happens when he is walking in a garden. The one with the second Doctor
and the Brigadier is better. I think the one used for the special edition is
much better but that’s with the advancement of about 25 years’ worth of
technology.
The return of the Brigadier seems a lot better than in Mawdryn Undead. I like how he gets to
spend most of his time with Patrick Troughton’s Doctor. The Brigadier is
perhaps more associated with the third Doctor, I like how they work together on
screen and I am reminded of such stories as The Invasion and The Web of
Fear. The brief appearance of Jamie and Zoe is quite nice even if Zoe is
wearing a bubble dress. Their appearance is rumbled when the Doctor reminds us
that Jamie and Zoe had their minds erased which is true.
This episode sees the return David Saville to Doctor Who
after playing Carstairs in The War Games.
It was more of a cameo and I do wonder whether they realised this when they put
him in but it was fun for the fans to watch. The “You’ve had this place
redecorated….Dont like it!” seems to have become a bit of a running joke
because it pops up in the 50th Anniversary special.
Jon Pertwee is doing his action bit from the moment that he
appears on screen. He has missed a beat since he left the show 221 episodes
ago. The opening scene between the third Doctor and the Master is quite good
because the Doctor is still very distrusting and even though Pertwee had some
great chemistry with Roger Delgado’s Master. It seems that things don’t change
even if the actor does.The Third Doctor gets to slide along a rope to get to
the tower. There is no way that the other Doctors would do. Pertwee is just
brilliant in this story and he gives it the same enthusiasm as he did when he
was the main man. The brief reunion of the Third Doctor, Mike Yates and Liz
Shaw is a good one that is used to keep the Doctor from progressing in the
chamber. Sadly its ended with Liz doing a rather odd deliver of ‘stop him’.
Elisabeth Sladen returns to the show with K9. This is where
people get confused because they assume that they were both together during
Sarah Jane’s time on the show but it was only in the 1981 K9 special and this
story that this happened. The reunion of the Third Doctor and Sarah Jane is
slightly undermined by the Doctor trying to pull Sarah Jane up small incline.
My back garden is steeper than the one in this scene.
There are clips from the transmitted story Shada used to at least have Tom Baker
appear in the 20th Anniversary. A plausible point is used to explain
why the Fourth Doctor isn’t used in the story.
The Master’s first scene is quite good as the idea of the Doctor
being requested by the Timelords is something that would have been expected and
then the Master is left perplexed when he is asked to help the Doctor. After a
while he does look like he wish he hadn’t bothered when he gets knocked by two
Doctors. His plan to work with the Cybermen is quite clever and its clear that
things aren’t going well in this partnership. He is going to use the Cybermen
to his own ends but its clear that whilst he’s smarter than the Cybermen he
still hasn’t got the nack of thinking his long term plans through. Sadly after
a punch from the Brigadier, he is left to have a bit of a kip of the floor.
It doesn’t seem like Susan has really grown up in the 19
years since she left the Doctor. She manages to twist her ankle running along
and it seems like we are back in 1964. She is then reduced to being stuck in
the TARDIS with Turlough and this is a problem with this story and that there
are too many companions and not enough for them to do.
The brief appearance of the Dalek is a bit of a shame really
when you consider that the show wouldn’t have got to the 20th year
without the Daleks so they deserve a better role in this story. The first
appearance of the Cybermen is very atmospheric. They get a better deal in this
story. There is one shot when they are approaching the Fifth Doctor and the
Master and Peter Moffatt did a great job with this. The Raston Robot is a
brilliant creation and one that is used to superb effect. It’s a simple
creature and one that doesn’t do a lot yet manages to create a lot of carnage.
It’s attack on the Cybermen is one of the best scenes in this story. This sequence
only last about a minute but is incredibly violent for a Doctor Who story.
I like the idea that the story takes place on Gallifrey as
it seems right to use this setting for the 20th Anniversary of the
show. The Timelords are an interesting if yet flawed race and it seems quite
obvious that they would do a treachery style story for Gallifrey. There is a
scene which is funny to me. “No not the mind probe” is a line that Paul Jericho
delivers quite well and yet everytime I hear it I find it amusing.
I like how the Doctors seem to be on their own individual
storylines that over the course of the story start merging into one. The Fifth
Doctor (you thought I had forgotten about him didn’t you!) seems to have been given
the role of trying to figure out who the traitor to Gallifrey is. The traitor
turns out to be the President. He has done this to get immortality. He has
clearly gone mad because he’s gone from wearing white to black. This is the
most important plot strand so its not surprising really that he gets to do this
but it’s a shame that he stuck for an awfully long time waiting before he
figures out that there is a spare room.
The three Doctors don’t meet until 20 minutes before the end
which is perhaps the right way of doing things. Whilst the Doctors are working
together, its nice to see the Brigadier, Sarah Jane Smith and Tegan. The big
scene takes place in the tomb of Rassilon and whoever removes a ring gets
immortality. If I have learnt one thing from TV, its that immortality isn’t a
great as it sounds. The President gets his chance at immortality thanks to the
first Doctor speaking up him even though the others said the opposite. He ends
up being part of the tomb which must be a horrible way to live.
The final line about running away in an run down TARDIS away
from his own people being “How it started” is a nice way to end this adventure.
I am a little confused as to how I feel about this because on the one hand it
was a nice story but on the other hand there are way too many characters in the
piece and as a result it slightly makes the end result a little bit odd. I
think that there are some good things in it and the running time is one of
them. They could have done four 25 minute episodes but the feature length
running time allows the story to progress at a nice pace and Terrance Dicks did
a great job of writing a story and Peter Moffatt did an equally great job in
directing.
To end this review I would just like to point out that there
is just one season of Peter Davison’s era left. That has gone quick although
there is one or two stories that I must endure before I get to arguably one of
the finest stories in Doctor Who history, The
Caves of Androzani.
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