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The Five Doctors Format Reviewed: DVD Review The Five Doctors was commissioned as a twentieth anniversary special story. It existed outside the normal season structure, sitting as it does between seasons twenty and twenty-one. The Five Doctors is also one of the stories that has been released the most by BBC worlwide. I believe that I have owned at least 3 copies of it on various formats, the most recent of which is the DVD release that was done as a special edition, before the main DVD releases of Doctor Who stories started. Therefore, the DVD presentation is makedly different than others in the range, principally in the menu systems being as they are based on the TARDIS console. The story starts with a pre-title reprise of William Hartnell after Susan's original departure in the 60's. We then focus on the Doctor's various regenerations as they are captured by an unknown person and placed into the death zone on Gallifrey. The fourth Doctor is trapped in a time eddy, and the fifth Doctor is being whittled away. Eventually, four of the five Doctors end up in the death zone, complete with companions and enemies and try to make their way to the tower of Rassilon. The fifth Doctor steals a transmat device from the Master and ends up back in the Capitol, but the other three Doctors make it to the tower. The Master meanwhile joins forces with Cybermen and leads them to the tower, only to kill them all on arrival. The tomb of Rassilon is inside the tower, and bears a riddle. Soon, the Time Lord who has arranged this 'Game of Rassilon' brings the fifth Doctor to the tomb, and falls prey to Rassilons last game. The Doctors then depart back to their own time streams. The DVD release of The Five Doctors contains a very different edit of the story to the one that appeared in the first VHS copy I own. There are differences in the scene editing, the music score, sound effects and special effects. It is strange watching back a story that you have seen so many times in one format to suddenly watch the same story back with some quite different music and some different cuts of certain scenes. It really is like watching a different story in a way, but I think on balance I much prefer the DVD version, even if it is just for the Dolby 5.1 edit of the sound. The additions are also interesting, and really do add some mood in a couple of places. The only things I really prefered of the original, were the original scene used to return Tom Baker to his time stream, the original harp music for the lock in the Capitol and the end TARDIS effect that saw shadow TARDISes leave one after another. Apart from those, the changes are welcome. Well, apart from the Time Lords and enemies, all of the cast is part of the 'regular cast' in a way. As for the Doctors, Peter Davison plays the central role as the current Doctor, and does well. Richard Hurndall plays William Hartnells Doctor, and to be honest doesn't really pull off the quirkiness that Hartnell gave in every performance. Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee both give very typical energetic performances, and apart from being obviously much older than when they were regulars, they come accross well. As for the companions, the real star for me is Elizabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith, as it is as though the best companion has not been away from our screens since her departure years earlier. The current companions, Turlough and Tegan, are largely upstaged by the presence of the previous Doctors and companions. They are solid enough, but don't excel. The other companions are Susan, the Brigadier, and in a short cameo, Liz Shaw, Jamie, Zoe and Mike Yates. Carole-Ann Ford as Susan does manage to pull off an older version of her character, Nicholas COurtney is typically full of bluster and the cameos, whilst short and sweet, show the actors still have the enthusiasm for the show. In terms of the other characters, the main performances are given by Anthony Ainley as the Master, and he gives, as always, a chilling rendition of the Master. The best performances of the Gallifreyan characters are given by Paul Jerricho as The Castellan and Phillip Latham as Lord President Borusa. The story to me was one that I really enjoyed at the time, and to be honest, my enjoyment of this story hasn't really diminished over time. There are several plot points that are problematic though, and upon Sarah Janes return to the series in the Tennant era makes for a continuity error, but as this is such a decent romp through the Doctor Who universe, and is a one off story done really as a film for television, I think we should largely skip over the slight deficiencies and concentrate on the good story being told. As a concept, bringing the Doctors together in this way was about the only way it would have ever really worked, and it is quite a shame that Tom Baker didn't want to be involved thus meaning scenes from the abortive story Shada were used as his involvement here. Richard Hurndall doesn't really work instead of William Hartnell, but the others work very well together. The Gallifrey connections to me are also fascinating. I always see Gallifrey based stories as very interesting as I feel they are basically telling the lore of Doctor Who, which pervades every other story in the shows history. The Time Lords of the High Council generally come accross as hesitant buffoons who could not be decisive if their lives depended on it. In The Five Doctors however, President Borusa and The Castellan come accross as quite ambitious and dynamic, thus meaning they are being moved on in the show. Without trying to give away the ending though, I think that it really was a great finale to the story. SO much more could be done without having to find cliff-hangers throughout the story, and being just able to tell the story throughout the time of a TV movie was of benefit here. Overall, The Five Doctors is really a fitting story to have as the twentieth anniversary special story of Doctor Who. The cast do a good job largely, and most importantly look as though they are all having a great deal of fun making the show. There are some downsides, such as a couple of the differences between the original 'as broadcast' version and the DVD version and some slight continuity and canon gaffes, but apart from those this story really is good fun from beginning to end. Rating:  |