Doctor Who: The Five Doctors (Story 130)
by Pennant Roberts, Peter Moffatt
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Actor: Frazer Hines, Jon Pertwee, Patrick Troughton, Peter Davison, Richard HurndallDirector: Pennant Roberts, Peter Moffatt
Producer: John Nathan-Turner
Writer: Douglas Adams
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Special Edition
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 90 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-09-11
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: BBC Video / Warner Bros.
DVD Reviews of Doctor Who: The Five Doctors (Story 130)
DVD Review: "To lose is to win, and he who wins shall lose."
Summary: 2 Stars
It pains me greatly to give any "Doctor Who" DVD less than four stars. I love this show, and in my biased and embarrassingly overenthusiastic way consider "Doctor Who" at its worst to be light years ahead of most shows at their best. Unfortunately, if I needed an actual sample to test that theory, "The Five Doctors" would fit the bill nicely.
First of all, the entire concept is unoriginal. This is a cardinal sin, for originality is the lifeblood of "Doctor Who" and is what has kept it going for decades--without it, we wouldn't have been celebrating the show's twentieth anniversary in 1983 at all (as "The Five Doctors" is meant to do). And yet instead of celebrating by coming up with something new, the producers and creative staff rested on their laurels it seems and just rehashed the very creative and innovative tenth anniversary story "The Three Doctors"--only adding in more and more stuff, proving that there really can be too much of a good thing.
Second of all, the title is a blatant case of false advertising. William Hartnell, rest his soul, had shuffled off his mortal coil years before, and there is simply no replacing him as the first Doctor. And frankly, it seems almost blasphemous to try. Richard Hurndall does his level best at the utterly thankless job of being somebody else's replacement, and there are one or two spots where he allllmost reminds you of Hartnell, but mostly the first Doctor here is a pale, anemic caricature of the real thing. There's all of the crotchety gruffness but none of the grandfatherly charm and none of the mischievous twinkle, and he even gets intimidated by danger whereas the real first Doctor would've stood his ground and made a fine display of stern indignation. And as if Hartnell's absence weren't bad enough, we also have the absence (more avoidable in theory) of the fourth Doctor. Yes, Tom Baker is not in this one. It would've been really fun to see him in the role again, this time interacting with two of his predecessors as well as with his rather bland replacement, but whether by choice or circumstance it was not to be--and splicing in old footage from "Shada" isn't going to fool anyone. So ironically we are back to Three Doctors all over again, after all...
But even this is squandered! A big part of the enjoyment in "The Three Doctors" was the interaction between three (or mainly two, really) incarnations of the same character--all quite different but just similar enough to get on each other's nerves. Here though the writer has dealt with the dramatic overkill of having four protagonists and their companions all doing the same thing by splitting them up, letting them converge only at the very end. A reasonable solution, yes, but it takes away the fun of seeing the five (or four, or, well, three plus a stand-in--oh, anyway...) Doctors actually interact--and their trading a few quips at the conclusion is paltry compensation. Speaking of the conclusion, the Doctors all converge only to stand and watch as a holographic projection of a dead guy from history does the work of neutralizing the villain. Deus ex Machina resolutions are seldom satisfying, and it seems a poor way to celebrate a hero of twenty years on TV.
There are tons of other problems. The second and third Doctors look visibly older than when they regenerated--unavoidable, but they just do. Both the Daleks and the Cybermen, hallmark villains of the show's long history, are made to appear weak-minded and feeble rather than formidable. The Master is offered extra regenerations in order to manipulate him into helping the Doctor, but if the Time Lords can just give those away willy-nilly then it makes no sense that the main villain (another Time Lord at the end of his last regeneration) is on a desperate quest for immortality--the, er, basic plot premise of the story, as such. And to top it off, on this DVD remastered scenes and CGI special effects are not optional but mandatory, which is evil worthy of the Master himself.
The chief saving grace of this mess is the pure, unadulterated guilty pleasure of unabashed nostalgia. For all that there are way too many characters and they don't do much, it's still kind of heartwarming to see them again. Furthermore, here of all places, Anthony Ainley gives one of his finest, most nuanced performances as the Master--cunning and smooth rather than the cackling knuckle-popping baddie we usually get, and more complicated, unwilling to see a universe lacking the challenging presence of his nemesis. Finally, the DVD is worth watching just to see Patrick Troughton's shining performance as the second Doctor again, and his interaction with the good old Brigadier is simply priceless. So all is not lost. "The Five Doctors" is pretty close to as bad as "Doctor Who" can get, but that's still pretty decent, a fact that is worth celebrating after all. Still, I do hope they don't try to pull off "The Ten Doctors" in 2013...
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