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| The 2nd and 3rd Doctors pit their wills against Omega (Stephen Thorne), a Time Lord hero who has gone insane! |
4 episodes. Running Time: Approx. 98 minutes. Written by: Bob Baker, Dave Martin. Directed by: Lennie Mayne. Produced by: Barry Letts.
THE PLOT:
Dr. Tyler (Rex Robinson), a researcher, brings his cosmic ray monitoring device to UNIT after he picks up unusual readings and after he sees Ollis (Laurie Webb), the man guarding the device, disappear. The Doctor and Jo leave to investigate the scene of Ollis's disappearance. They return to find that Dr. Tyler has also vanished, and that UNIT HQ is under attack by "Gel Guards," creatures made out of antimatter that seem to be specifically hunting for the Doctor.
Overwhelmed and with no options beyond hiding inside the TARDIS, the Doctor sends a distress call to the Time Lords. They have their own problems, however, with their power being drained from inside a black hole. They can't help the Doctor - but, as the Time Lord President observes, "Perhaps he can help himself."
The Doctor is joined by his second incarnation (Patrick Troughton). The Time Lords also send a projection of the Doctor's original version (William Hartnell) to advise. Between the three of them, they come up with a plan that sends them through the black hole to a universe of antimatter - a universe ruled over by Omega (Stephen Thorne), a hero to the Doctor's people for unlocking the secrets of time travel.
Omega supposedly died in the supernova that granted the Time Lords their power. He insists he was "sacrificed," and millennia of solitude have left him hungering for vengeance. He demands that the Doctors aid him - or else he will destroy their entire universe!
CHARACTERS:
The 3rd Doctor: Is annoyed the presence of his more frivolous 2nd incarnation, seeming embarrassed by his younger self's conduct. Though they end the serial on amiable terms, he doesn't hesitate to say that he hopes never to meet himself again. He's determined to stop Omega, but he still feels empathy for his plight. He takes the lead in the interactions with Omega, with the 2nd Doctor more or less acting as both disruptive force and backup.
The 2nd Doctor: Both script and Patrick Troughton turn up the comedy to a far higher degree than was usually the case during his actual era. The story makes his recorder (which was relatively little seen after his first few serials) into something he's obsessive about, though it does pay that off at the end. There is a nice moment when the 2nd Doctor plays up his manic behavior until Omega loses his temper. When the 3rd Doctor demands to know what he's doing, he replies that he's testing their adversary, observing, "The limits of his self-control... aren't very good, are they?"
The 1st Doctor: William Hartnell's poor health resulted in his role being pared back to a handful of pre-filmed inserts, with him addressing the other Doctors from the TARDIS scanner. Faced with his two successors, he reacts like a disappointed father figure at finding "a dandy and a clown," and he provides advice that steers his older selves in the right direction. Though his decline is visible, Hartnell still manages some fine deliveries, and I laughed out loud at several of his line readings.
Jo Grant: She is confused by the appearance of the 2nd Doctor, but she adjusts rapidly to the situation once it's been explained to her. She finds the 2nd Doctor to be "sweet," which sounds a bit like she's gushing over the Doctor's baby pictures (and, in a way, she sort of is). Her loyalty remains to the 3rd Doctor, though, with her refusing to abandon him even when he tries to make her do so.
Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart: Unless I'm misremembering a later story, I'm fairly sure this story represents the character's low point. The normally composed and rational Brigadier is a complete buffoon here. When he sees the 2nd Doctor, he insists that one of his experiments changed his face back, refusing to listen when both the 2nd Doctor and Benton try to tell him otherwise. When the TARDIS transports them through the black hole, he insists they are in "Cromer." It's only when he finally sees both Doctors together that he even begins to accept reality.
Sgt. Benton: He gapes in wonder when dragged into the TARDIS. But when the Doctor asks if he's going to say that it's bigger on the inside, he sensibly responds: "It's pretty obvious, isn't it?" There isn't the slightest hesitation in his happiness at seeing the previous Doctor, with whom he's paired for most of Episode Two. He seems slightly exasperated at the Brigadier's recalcitrance, making it a point to "look after" his superior as he strides out to idiotically march on "Cromer."
Omega: He should come across as a tragic villain, a man of brilliance and vision who was lost while making time travel possible. Unfortunately, Stephen Thorne's performance reduces him to a shouty, ill-tempered tyrant. It's left to Jon Pertwee's reactions to convey the sense that this is a great man who's fallen. Thorne shows none of that - and in fairness to him, the script gives him very few opportunities to.
THOUGHTS:
I first watched The Three Doctors a little over twenty years ago, when I got back into Doctor Who as an adult. It was a story I was particularly looking forward to watching, and... I hated it. It was cheap and silly. It felt like a bad comic book, complete with tacky (vaguely Christmas-like) monsters, tinfoil costumes, and sets that seemed to be generously adorned with tinsel.
A couple of decades on, I stand by all of these complaints - only this time, I enjoyed it. Ironically, I think that specifically because my degree of Doctor Who fandom has receded, with it now just one of several shows I enjoy, I was better able to get into the spirit of it.
The Three Doctors launched the tenth season of the series. Though it didn't air anywhere close to the show's actual tenth anniversary, it effectively fulfilled that function. I can only imagine how it must have felt to contemporary viewers at a time when reruns were rare and home video a rare thing. For the majority of viewers, William Hartnell's and Patrick Troughton's Doctors would have existed only in memory; for some, only in what was related by parents or older siblings.
The story fills out its four episodes well. The first part is mostly a standard (if broadly played) 3rd Doctor/UNIT story, with the multi-Doctor aspect introduced near the end. The second builds the mystery, with the 2nd Doctor and UNIT trying to get a handle on events while the 3rd Doctor and Jo explore the quarry... er, impossible world that exists on the other side of the black hole. The last two episodes pair the 2nd and 3rd Doctors as they pit first their will and then their ingenuity against Omega.
The frequent shifts give the story its greatest strength: pace. It's a very basic, slightly Flash Gordon-like story, with the Doctors confronting a futuristic madman. But it moves right along, with a generous amount of humor. I may wish that some of the humor didn't come at the expense of a couple of the characters, but it's light and lively and goes by quickly.
OVERALL:
"Light and lively" pretty well sums up The Three Doctors. The main appeal of the story is right there in the title: three Doctors, with William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton returning to their roles in a way that doubtless evoked waves of nostalgia in 1972.
It's not a story that stands up to any serious scrutiny, and it is very different from Baker's and Martin's ambitious original proposal, Deathworld. That treatment was recently adapted by Big Finish as part of their "Lost Stories" range, and it will be the subject of my next Doctor Who review.
The Three Doctors does its job as a fun celebration of ten years of Doctor Who on air. I used to hate it. On this viewing, I enjoyed it for what it is, but it will still never rank among my favorites. It's a fun romp, though, as long as you don't try to take it at all seriously.
Overall Rating: 6/10.
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