The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot

IMDb legend Bob The Moo mentioned in passing that I should check out this short comedy film poking fun at DOCTOR WHO . Truth be told I'd known it had existed for a couple of weeks but had zero interest in it as other comedy specials namely DIMENSIONS IN TIME and THE CURSE OF THE FATAL DEATH were so awful as to being unwatchable and the story seemed to revolve around the three Doctors from the 1980s . Let's analyse the history of classic Who

Hartnell 1963-66 ) Stories are clearly defined in to being either historical dramas or experiental sci-fi . A bit hit and miss but you never knew what was coming next

Troughton 1966-69 )The show evolves in to being a tea time horror show for all the family

Pertwee 1970-74 ) More of the same but mainly Earth bound

Early T Baker 1974-77 ) More of the same but more sophisticated and really pushed the boat out with the horror element

Latter T Baker 1978-81 ) Pythonesque humour that was an accuquired taste

Davison 1981-84 ) Bland Doctor in very many bland stories

C Baker 1984-86 ) Dreadful Doctor in very many dreadful stories

S McCoy 1987-89 ) The absolute nadir of the series that saw the BBC commit a mercy killing by cancelling the show

So watching a bland Doctor , a dreadful Doctor and the worst Doctor since Josef Mengele didn't fill me with any hope but I gave Mr Moo the benefit of the doubt since I normally mirror his opinions with the exception of Aronofsky's THE FOUNTAIN

I needn't have worried because this is the most effective tongue in cheek tribute we've ever seen dedicated to the show and was totally surprised why it wasn't broadcast on BBC 1 during peak hours . The premise is simple - three forgotten Doctors played by washed out actors try to gatecrash the anniversary special . This isn't where the comedy succeeds in Peter Davison's script , though it is enjoyable . The major success is in the casting that literally caused my jaw to hit the floor several times as household names appeared on screen . Do yourself a favour and watch this without reading the cast list on this page because you might be literally shocked as to who is appearing

Any downside ? Well truth be told we can't travel through time and time always catches up with us in the end and some of the cast have been ravaged a bit too much by time . That said the years have been kind to Steven Moffat and doesn't look a day older than when he played McClaren in PORRIDGE all those decades ago