The Five Doctors

The 20th Anniversary episode of "Doctor Who" is low on plot and features some ridiculous dialogue (see above). But who cares. The nostalgia factor is very high. And it's great to see all the Doctors, companions, and monsters packed into one story. The story only seems to flag during the Fifth Doctor's conspiracy investigation in the Capitol.

Troughton and Pertwee easily slide back into their characters despite not having played them in years, and Richard Hurndall does well as the First Doctor.

This 20th Anniversary Special may not be without flaws but it is sheer magic and pure joyous celebration of the 20 years of the show's existence up to that time.

The story is that a mysterious character is manipulating a 'time scoop' extracting each of the 5 incarnations of The Doctor along with various companions from a point in their timeline and bringing them to the Death Zone on Gallifrey where they are drawn towards the Dark Tower where the tomb of Rassilon contains powers someone is trying to gain access to. Other beings have been brought there such as Cybermen, Yeti and a Raston Robot making the journey to the tower extremely perilous. The Timelord President Borusa calls upon The Master and sends him into the Death Zone to help The Doctor in return for a new cycle of regenerations.

There are imperfections in the filming of some scenes and some peculiar, questionable moments of logic such as the arrival of Chancellor Flavia in the tower which seems strange given the tower was meant to only be accessible via the dangerous Death Zone. However, none of the questionable elements is particularly troublesome, even Flavia's arrival could be explained by the power of Rassilon dropping the barriers that had been in place. Overall the magical, nostalgic fun overrides any doubtful aspects and makes it all thoroughly enjoyable.

We get brief appearances by Frazer Hines, Wendy Padbury, Caroline John and Richard Franklin as former companions Jamie, Zoe, Liz Shaw and Mike Yates as well as a cameo for K-9. We also get full involvement in the story for other former companions so there is wonderful nostalgia and lovely interactions. Lis Sladen (as Sarah Jane) is a treat to see having been such an incredible companion although her role here is not showing her at her former best as it portrays her slightly weaker than she was usually shown in the past or in her future returns. Nicholas Courtney (as the Brigadier) is his usual brilliant presence while Carole Ann Ford (Susan) is sadly rather too like the unimpressive way she tended to be portrayed in the past, tripping over and panicking. It is also sad that scenes of Susan reuniting with her Grandfather were not given the level of emotion they should have been.

Anthony Ainley is on good form as The Master while the Cybermen provide some fun action. The Timelords involvement along with other touches and phrases from the show's history all are extremely suitable and give the right level of warm familiarity and amusing reminiscences.

The best part of this though are The Doctor's themselves. As William Hartnell had sadly passed away we only get an opening scene of him taken from The Dalek Invasion of Earth but it was a very nice thing to include him that way, especially as it was a fantastic speech he gives. We then get Richard Hurndall replacing Hartnell as the First Doctor for the rest of the story and he does a good job although personally I would have had less of him and given more of his lines to Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee reprising the Second and Third Doctors. Their performances and banter is sparkling and superb. Peter Davison holds his own putting in a strong showing as the current 5th Doctor. Tom Baker did not take part so we only see the 4th Doctor in scenes from Shada with him then being apparently stuck in the time vortex and unable to join his other selves.

There is plenty going on and some fabulous scenes of dialogue as well as some excitement. I particularly love the Raston Robot which is a tremendous addition as an extremely formidable opponent which really should have made more appearances since. There are also some nice effects added for the Special Edition version.

All in all, despite any tiny flaws, this is a thoroughly enjoyable romp and an apt celebration for the 20th anniversary of such a magical show.

My rating - 9.5/10.

The Five Doctors has a lot to live up to in its 90-odd minutes of air-time, and it succeeds in part. After all, no-one should really expect such a short program to truly represent a series that was - at the time of filming - 20 years old. There were probably many ways the show could have been made, but in the end, its writer chose a very straightforward tale which tries to cram as many Doctors, companions, concepts, monsters and enemies into the same story and, like I said earlier, it succeeds in part. It's great to see all the old Doctors, for example (even if the first Doctor was dead and is played here by a lookalike and the fourth Doctor rather childishly didn't want to be in the show, so is featured via old, unused TV footage), but it's still a bit cheesy to have simply SO MUCH Doctor Who crammed into one show. Sure, it's better than the 10th anniversary story "The Three Doctors," but it's definitely not as good as the latter story, "The Two Doctors," made a few years after this, and which I recommend wholeheartedly.

This is as happy a celebration as a 20 year old science fiction programme could hope to have. A mish-mash of Doctors and monsters, it works better as a series of character vignettes than a dramatic story. The episode (it is best viewed as the 90 minute film of the original transmission) ambles spendidly through mini-adventures for all concerned, sort of aiming towards the showdown at the end, but with no great tension for the audience.

It's a little odd to think that we're now another 16 years on.

It would have been more fun if they could have gotten Tom Baker instead of just using a couple clips of him, but it was a very fun adventure. It also gave me exposure to some of the other Doctors that I had never seen before.