Doctor Who: The Two Doctors (Story 141)
by Peter Moffatt
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DVD details
Actor: Colin Baker, Frazer Hines, Jacqueline Pearce, Nicola Bryant, Patrick TroughtonDirector: Peter Moffatt
Brand: Warner Brothers
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 133 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-06-01
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: BBC Video / Warner Bros.
DVD Reviews of Doctor Who: The Two Doctors (Story 141)
DVD Review: The Music Is No Small Matter
Summary: 5 Stars
This was without doubt one of the most thoroughly enjoyable Doctor Who episodes I've seen. I was a bit iffy about Colin Baker's Doctor at first ("Mark of the Rani" was the first Colin Baker episode I watched); but the more I saw of his doctor the better I liked him - also, the more I saw of his companion, Peri, the better I liked her. Everything flowed perfectly in this episode; there was nothing that could have been left out, nothing that seemed to be missing. The characters were extremely well realized - especially Jacqueline Pearce's villainess. In fact, I would say that her character was just about the most fascinating villain I've ever seen in any sci-fi show anywhere. And Baker and Troughton's Doctors together was a near-perfect match; unlike the "Three Doctors" episode, featuring Hartnell, Troughton and Pertwee, which seemed to break down into too much bickering between Troughton and Pertwee. Now to the music. During the entire Tom Baker era, and almost the entire Ron Pertwee era, the Doctor Who theme lost it's "middle eight" - which, in my opinion, is what makes the theme great. Without it, the theme is like one long crescendo going nowhere. I've even come to enjoy the psychedelic theme from the Sylvester McCoy era simply because it, too, has the "middle eight." Why anybody thought they could improve on the music as written by Ron Grainer and realized by Delia Derbyshire is beyond me. At any rate, the loss of the "middle eight" has put something of a damper on the Ron Pertwee and Tom Baker eras. I still love the stories; but the total Doctor Who experience just isn't there. DVD Review: Pat on the back!
Summary: 4 Stars
Ok, so the explanation for the pairing of these two Doctors doesn't make that much sense. WHO CARES?! This is pure unbridled fun, which Who should always be, and for those of us who like Blake's 7, this one is a real treat. Troughton is always a pleasure, and he elevates every scene he is in. I've never been one to be off put by the Sixth Doctors incarnation, but I admit that his views on the inability to eductae/domesticate an Andrigum was a bit shocking, though totally in line with his portrayal. I was surprised to see Troughton's Doctor share the sentiment. The story really moves along nicely, and the sequence of the Doctors in the restaurant is worth the price of admission. This one is well worth buying.DVD Review: The Warmest Doctor Turns Cold
Summary: 4 Stars
Let me start this review by saying that, though I gave it 4 stars, it was probably closer to a 3 stars. I admit my bias in favor of 2 factors: Patrick Troughton and anything Sontaran. With that set aside, I defend the 3 star rating by making the case that this particular story, though vilified by some, has more positives than negatives.
Pros: The Sontarans are back and look better than ever, though the collar
on their spacesuits could have been given a little more attention.
Patrick Troughton reprises his role as the delightful second
Doctor (the one who influenced every one that followed into
having a zany element to their character).
Location filming in Spain is vast improvement over the usual studio
bound look.
Great cast playing well-scripted characters, brutal climax.
Cons: As another reviewer noted, there seems little reason to have
Sontarans in this story. In fact, having been previously
established as "time-warriors", there should be no reason for
them to be extorting time travel technology. Continuity blunder.
Though called "the Two Doctors", they share precious little screen
time and the audience is cheated out of some potentially great
interplay between Troughton and Baker.
I don't mind violent Who stories (Resurrection of the Daleks is a
personal fav), but this one was rather disturbing. A lot of com-
plaints about violence in Who revolves around scenes taken out of
context (such as the acid bath in Vengeance on Varos), but in this
one, the normally warm and fatherly 2nd Doctor is practically com-
plicit in a casual, cold-blooded murder (the truck driver) and
this is never addressed in the script! The murder and cannibal-
ization of an old spanish woman is apparently never discovered by
our heroes. And I'm still trying to figure out what the whole
knifing scene in the restaurant was about. Perhaps "just one of
those things"?
Story didn't justify having 6 parts. Would have been a much
tighter script with better pacing at 4 parts.
I had originally meant to write a more eloquent review, but in this case, I think it better to lay down "just the facts" as Sgt. Friday used to say, and let the reader decide.
DVD Review: The Two Doctors
Summary: 2 Stars
I did not like this story. I found the flesh-eating characters unsavory to say the least and to have a Time Lord, even temporarily to become one even more so. I also feel that the cinematography is not good. There are scenes in this serial which best be shorter. I liked to see Patrick Troughton again of course, again with Frazer Hines.DVD Review: Irresistible
Summary: 5 Stars
I could probably write a novel about my tribute to "The Two Doctors" but I'll do my best to keep it short. My favourite two doctors from the classic series (and indeed, overall) are Patrick Troughton and Colin Baker. So it doesn't take a genius to work out that this story is my favourite all-time. Why? Simply of the fun that the story seems to have. It's as though everyone decided to take a holiday and make this story while they were doing so.
The result? A dark comedy would be best how I would describe "The Two Doctors." Robert Holmes's new creations, the Androgums, are best realised through him, as we hear about blood ties similar to Scottish clans like "Franzine Grig" or "Quarnzine Grig." Shockeye in particular, craving a human, and every time he manages to capture either Doc, Jamie or Peri, someone always interrupts him. You can't help but laugh out loud, reminds you of those stupid telemarketers who ring you just when you're about to have dinner.
The script is littered with one-liners, ones that just make you do a double take and laugh in surprise, from all sorts of characters, Oscar delivering some of the best, such as "My father slept in a steel helmet during the war," What, just the steel helmet? "Competent people, trained in the time of bandages," and when Doc 6, Jamie and Peri come out of the TARDIS and Oscar mistakes him for a policeman, "I can tell by your raiment that you belong to the plain-clothes branch" and the Doctor looks down at his outrageous clothing, along with Jamie and Peri, who aren't exactly in "plain clothes." Not to mention Doc 2 and Shockeye when Doc 2's been turned into an androgum and they discuss "shepherd's pie" which apparently is a cannibal dish!
Not to mention the TARDIS scenes, where Doc 2 and 6 abuse the machine in exactly the same way, The Doctor going through business cards "Christopher Columbus..." looks over at Peri, "He had a lot to answer for!"
The difference between this and the other two multi-doctor stories is whereas "The Three Doctors" and "The Five Doctors" merely rode on an anniversary celebration (and thus barely have a storyto hold it together), "The Two Doctors" actually does have a story to it, and actually balances out both that, and the two doctors turn up by coincidence. People have complained about that being a weak explanation for them showing up at the same time. Uh, hello? It may be weak, but it's far more realistic than Borusa taking all five doctors from their timeline and then giving him enemies to fight, to weaken their chances of them getting what he wants (but that's another review) As Doctor 6 says, "When you travel around time as much as I do, you're bound to run into yourself at some point"
And finally, the scene that everyone whinges and complains about (with such little reason to) Poor old Colin sounds so weary about it in the commentary, wonder what the count is on how many people have complained to him about it. I am of course talking about the Shockeye killing scene. I have no problem about it whatsoever. Come on, people, the Doctor was desparate. Shockeye chasing him with the strength "to snap you in half with one hand" What's the Doctor supposed to do. Just smile at him and say "That's okay, kill me anyway"? And considering the Second Doctor used a machine to kill a Cyberman in "The Invasion," The Fourth Doctor aged Sutekh to death, The Seventh Doctor manipulated Davros to wipe out an entire planet, the Tenth Doctor killed a Sycorax and on and on. I get the feeling people criticise Colin Baker's doctor simply for being Colin Baker's doctor. I would rather travel with the Sixth Doctor than the Ninth Doctor who let all the people down who were fighting to keep the Daleks at bay and then simply refused to use the Delta Wave because it "made him a killer"
Overall, I wish I could give it six or seven stars, but five will have to do. Watch it as a dark, snarky comedy and maybe you'll get new appreciation for it.
Description of Doctor Who: The Two Doctors (Story 141)
"When you travel around as much as I do, it's almost inevitable that you'll run into yourself at some point." When the Doctor (Colin Baker) lands on a space station in the Third Zone, he suspects he's been there before and when he discovers his former assistant, Jamie, he's certain. Accompanied by Jamie and his present assistant, Peri, the Doctor follows himself (Patrick Troughton) to 20th century Seville. There he discovers his old enemies, the Sontarans, about to dissect him in a genetic operation. But just why are they operating on the Doctor? And how will their findings aid their enslavement of the universe? Deadly questions to which the Doctors must find answers in order to escape their own excruciating death. Originally transmitted February 16 - March 2, 1965, this three-part adventure starring Colin Baker features the late Patrick Troughton's final appearance as the Doctor.DVD Features:
Audio Commentary
Documentary
Featurette
Interviews
Music Only Track
Photo gallery
Production Notes
Doctor Who: The Two Doctors is one of those occasional adventures in which the then-current Doctor joins forces with one of his former incarnations, here Colin Baker's sixth Doctor with Patrick Troughton's second Doctor. In the epic Three Doctors (1972-73) such a team-up faced a suitably overwhelming danger; here the threat is rather less impressive. This adventure starts encouragingly enough, with Troughton and Jamie (Frazer Hines) investigating time-travel experiments on a space station, which endanger the fabric of the universe. Baker's Doctor and Peri (Nichola Bryant) arrive in the aftermath of a massacre and suspect the Timelords; but events lead them to Spain and old enemies the Sontarans. Also involved is alien schemer Chessene (Jacqueline Pearce) in a role not dissimilar to her Servalan from Blake's 7, while John Stratton as Shockeye, a food-obsessed alien "Androgum" chef, is vastly entertaining. Despite location filming in Seville, the three 45-minute episodes eventually stretch the material too thinly, degenerating into some of the most farcical scenes in the history of Who. The story becomes a repetitive series of double-crosses, escapes and pursuits, featuring an unnecessary obsession with cannibalistic comedy-horror. Despite many fine moments along the way The Two Doctors ultimately leaves a bad taste. --Gary S. Dalkin
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