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The Three Doctors Format Reviewed: DVD Review The Three Doctors was commissioned to mark the 10 year anniversary of Doctor Who. The story also kicks off the third season of Jon Pertwee's reign as the lead character, with that being the season 10 overall. It is a testament to the shows appeal that after 10 years, and three actors in the lead role that the popularity of the show was increasing. The Three Doctors also marks a trend that continued throughout the classic series, introducing 'multiple Doctor adventures'. The Five Doctors and The Two Doctors were followed up by the Terrence Dicks BBC novel The Eight Doctors, showing that The Three Doctors started a celebratory trend for multiple Doctor adventures. When a downed weather ballon is found by Mr Ollis, the owner, Doctor Tyler, investigates but Ollis vanishes in the mean time. Tyler takes the device to UNIT due to unexpected phenomenon shown about cosmic lightning directed at Earth where images are developed showing Ollis in the lighning. Tyler then vanishes, zapped by an organism that escapes the weather device and goins into the drainage system. The organism is hunting the Doctor and it catches Bessie. Globular creatures then appear all over the UNIT base, which is evacuated before The Doctor sends an SOS to Gallifrey where the decision is taken to send The Doctors previous incarnations to help due to an energy drain caused by anti-matter. The Second Doctor then joins the party in person, with The First Doctor appearing only every now and again as he is trapped in a time eddy. The TARDIS is then zapped by the organism, and is transported containing The Doctors, Jo and the Brigadeer to a remote world. They are captured and taken to the lair of renegade, and first, Time Lord - Omega. Omega wants to return from his world of anti-matter to the real universe, wanting The Doctor to take his place so he can escape. After it is revealed that during the time of his exile, Omega doesn't have a physical presence and only his will remains, he is tricked into causing the black hole they are in to become supernova, returning everything 'zapped' into the anti-matter world to return, and ceasing the power drain in the real universe. Omega was given the only freedom he could have, death. In gratitude, the Time Lords return The Doctors knowledge of time travel, and give him a new dematerialisation circuit, giving him back his freedom. In the context of there being no other multiple Doctor adventures when this story was produced, the concept was quite radical. Also, delving into the history of the Time Lords and showing them as vulnerable and slightly ponderous also reveals more about the history of the race, and indeed The Doctor himself. We also retain the familiar UNIT setting for this adventure, and the characters thereof. One of the best decisions was to retain this story as a 4 part adventure. When commissioning celebratory stories it must have been tempting to do something on the scale of The War Games, or The Dalek Masterplan, but having it just as a four part story does suit quite well and means there isn't a massive amount of padding. The guest cast have the opportunity to show themselves well, without getting too much in the way of the main aggressor and The Doctors. All in all, a brave production choice and one that paid off overall. In the cast, we obviously have Katy Manning and Jon Pertwee playing Jo Grant and The Third Doctor. Both give good performances, although Manning is somewhat in the background due to the Second and Forst Doctors played by Patrick Troughton and William Hartnell respectively appearing. It is unfortunately obvious that poor old Hartnell was unwell during the filming of this story, but his brief appearances did show some of the old bluster he made famous during his time on the show. Having Troughton there though really does brighten the story up. There appeared to be some tension between Pertwee and Troughton, and that made the dialogue and intereaction slightly more edgy and real than it would have been otherwise. Some of the scenes between them though are a real delight. The UNIT personnel are lead by Benton and Lethbridge Stewart, played as always by John Levene and Nicholas COurtney, and give the performances you would expect. One or two of the UNIT foot soldiers with lines are less than convincing though, and Laurie Webb as Mr Ollis is a little wooden whilst having the best line in the show. The time lords look nervous and ponderous, and add to the story well, while Rex Robinson as Dr Tyler gives a good performance as a typically gung-ho academic scientist. A jewell though is Stephen Thorne as Omega. He has eben criticised as just being a big shouty character, but I think the blend of maniacal tyrant that comes from millenia of exile and power combined with massive intellect is played very well by Thorne, and he should be commended. One of the big drawbacks of this story is typical of this era, the effects. It is long held that the costumes were laughable and the sets wobbly, but this isn't neccessarily the case. I think the globular nature of the costumes is sufficiently alien for the purposes of the show, they just don't look practical enough for the job and the shuffling about that the creatures do looks strange. Then there is the organism that was sent to transport The Doctor into the black hole. The shimmering ink blot really is not a good effect, and these problems do detract from the overall quality of the show. The last criticism is that the end appeared a little strange. Why aldo would all the people, buildings and equipment in the black hole be transported back to their original locations? it doesn't really add up. If you can get past these flaws however, The Three Doctors is still an enjoyable story. Overall, commissioning the first multiple Doctor was a brave choice. It didn't really pay off having William Hartnell in it as he was quite clearly very ill when his involvement was filmed. Having Patrick Troughton there with Jon Pertwee though made for some magical scenes. There are some problems with the effects in this story that are quite indicative of the era. These though should largely be ignored where possible and the viewer should be able to enjoy this story again and again. Rating:  |