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Doctor Who: The Five Doctors
01/09/2007 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 
Region 2 DVD. pub: BBC BBCDVD 1006. 1 DVD 102 minutes. Price: £ 7.20 (UK) if you know where to look) stars: Peter Davison, Jon Pertwee, Patrick Troughton, Richard Hurndall and Tom Baker. Buy Doctor Who: The Five Doctors in the USA - or Buy Doctor Who: The Five Doctors in the UK  check out website: www.bbcshop.com
Ah! The good old days. Unlikely they will happen again. The Doctor may live through his thirteen regenerations but the actors who played him unfortunately won't and indeed, are ageing sufficiently not to resemble the times when they played the renegade Time Lord. Whether or not the successors to show-runner/writer Russell T. Davies will ponder on bringing together the more recent regenerations only the decades will know for sure. As they haven't been written yet, we must look to this DVD of the 'The Five Doctors' from 1983, nearly a quarter of a century ago, to see how it was played out in its only 90 minute length episode.
In some ways, there are parallels to 'The Three Doctors' storyline in that only two Doctors were active and the third advised occasionally from the sidelines. Here, though, Tom Baker wasn't happy about returning and opted out, so footage of the uncompleted story 'Shada' was incorporated and he was stuck in a time warp leaving it to the other four regenerations plus assorted companions and cameos, not to mention enemies such as the Daleks (only one actually), a platoon of Cybermen and one ferocious Yeti to make appearances. This was supposed to be an anniversary story celebrating 20 years of 'Doctor Who' and oddly enough scriptwriter Terrance Dicks actually made a decent story of it.
An unknown hand was seen transporting various regenerations of the Doctor and companions to Gallifrey into the Death Zone where stands the Tower of Rassilon. In ancient times, the Time Lords used to bring members of various races here to try out various scenarios on a booby-trapped stretch of land. About the only race they kept out of this was the Cybermen who refused to play out the enactments without killing anyone. Actually, I would have thought the same might have applied to the Daleks but we can forgive the oversight. In many respects, this scenario actually looks like something that another species, aided by the War Chief, was used in a much earlier tale, 'The War Games', still to be re-released on DVD.
The objective is to use the Doctors to break into the tower. The chief Time Lords are unable to help, having two of their number lost in the attempt, locate and send the Master in with a promise of a further series of regenerations should he succeed. It goes without saying that the Doctors don't trust him although the fifth regeneration does return to the High Council chambers to see just what is going on. Treachery abounds, showing that even Time Lords have their own objectives in life with Rassilon leaving a surprise of his own for those seeking immortality.
I remember watching this story the first time around. If anything, I missed the original ending where each Doctor dematerialised their TARDIS from the original rather than the DVD adjusted modification which had the timescooped back to where they came from. I always thought that was rather nifty and it's a shame that the original wasn't left in there as an optional extra. If anything, that is something that is sorely missing from this release. No extras other than different versions of the music. With such a significant, in terms of the large guest cast, number of people involved, I would have been surprised that none would have volunteered to have given an audio commentary.
Having said that, 'The Five Doctors' should be seen as a reunion story. Although I doubt if it would have meant much to today's youngsters who were probably not even born when it was first released, for us oldies it's a chance to see characters that we were brought up with doing their thing. For that reason alone, it should be part of your 'Doctor Who' collection.
GF Willmetts
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