Things I've Learnt from Watching My Favourite Doctor Who Stories: Part 2 - The Five Doctors

 2. The Five Doctors

To lose is to win and he who wins shall lose! 

How could I not have the twentieth anniversary special in this list? It was the biggest thing on TV at the time, certainly the biggest Doctor Who story ever with five doctors (or three doctors, clips of the fourth and a man in a wig!) several companions, monsters, the Master, Bessie, K9 and a new monster called the Raston Robot. The trailers looked exciting. ("Goodness me there are five of me now!") and we even had a magnificent Radio Times front cover. It was certainly an anniversary the BBC seemed happy to celebrate! 

A special bonus was the special 20th anniversary magazine which I'd poured over in the newsagents down the road, until the newsagent told me to buy it if I was going to look at it that much! (Perhaps he was the belligerent newsagent DWM once mentioned in that advert?) there was the obligatory episode guide including a snide comment about the Gunfighters and its poorly drawn characters. Ah, received fan wisdom, what would we do without it? (Enjoy Doctor Who probably... ) 

But the Five Doctors was the most exciting part of the anniversary. It was slightly annoying that we didn't get to see it on the actual anniversary itself (Terry Wogan looked annoyed at it being a huge chunk of his Children in Need!) Even more exciting was that it was the first Doctor Who story I would be able to watch over and over again with the family getting a video recorder earlier that year. However, tragedy struck... 

Unfortunately, my mum inadvertently recorded over it on the Sunday evening, with Hi de Hi and By the Sword Divided! My dream to keep The Five Doctors forever gone. I did forgive my mum but may have brought it up occasionally in the last forty years... 

It was the best Doctor Who story I could remember. All four Doctors were brilliant, even Richard Hurndall who, for 10 year old me, captured the First Doctor very well. Of course now that we have access to the whole back catalogue of the programme to watch, his performance is nothing like William Hartnell. He lacks the range of the original Doctor, who could be crotchety but also warm, tactile and friendly with a twinkle (just like he is in the clip from the Dalek Invasion of Earth at the start!) It's not so much Hurndall's performance that's the problem, rather the way he's been characterised. Terrance Dicks, under the misapprehension that the first Doctor was always as seen as in An Unearthly Child. Steven Moffat would make the same mistake forty odd years later with Twice Upon a Time and make him a cantankerous old bugger with no charm. Which is a shame, as both Hurndall and David Bradley have bags of charm, just look at Hurndall in that Blue Peter clip, he's having a whale of a time! 

Patrick Troughton was delightful, I loved his face when the Brig says he assumes they're not expected to win! Meanwhile Jon Pertwee gets to be reunited with Elisabeth Sladen's Sarah Jane who seems to be making a very bizarre and longwinded striptease on the way into the Tomb of Rassilon! (Mittens on strings? Seriously, you're a woman in your thirties!) Pertwee's Doctor spars effectively against Anthony Ainley's Master as he did with Roger Delgado ten years earlier. 

The Cybermen are great or rubbish depending on your point of view. From the "aah!" exclamation of the one spying on the fifth Doctor and the Master, to them being massacred by the Raston Robot, they truly deserve their title of "Second best monster" Incidentally, that sequence is very well directed by John Nathan Turner which makes me regret we never saw JNT directing a serial of his own, as Barry Letts did. 

The regulars are on fine form, who knew Turlough liked drawing? Tegan gets to team up with the First Doctor while her Doctor goes off to the Capitol to discover the identity of the villain. In a way, it was perhaps for the best Tom Baker decided not to turn up. Terrance Dicks had originally got him to go to the Capitol, which seemed a bit unfair on Peter Davison being the star of the show! Besides at the time, there was about not much chance of the general public seeing Shada, so that lovely clip gave us a bit of new Tom, plus we got an extra bit of Lalla Ward, so that's a bonus! 

There are some wonderful moments, the Dalek in the corridors was exciting, the scene with Liz and Captain Yates and her echoing shout of "Stop him!" was creepy, as we're the faces on the side of Rassilon's tomb. I don't care what anyone else says, Wendy Padbury looks better in bubble wrap than Kenton Moore in the Ark in Space and three cheers for Lis Sladen doing her own stunts as she fell down that hillock! It's all marvellous and I can't tell you how many times I've watched this. And subsequent special editions have never bettered that spooky black triangle, aided by Peter Howell's amazing score. 

Back in 1983, nothing seemed as exciting to me as the Five Doctors. Fortunately it was repeated the following summer and I made sure it got recorded and never wiped! And while that final line is cheesy, it's also brilliant and for many fans, the Five Doctors is where it all started! 

Next Time: Number One, my favourite of all time 

Stay Tuned!