The basic plot is that an unseen force is plucking the first five incarnations of the Doctor and their companions out of their respective time streams for reasons unknown. The Doctors find them selves in an abandoned area of Gallifrey (the Doctors home planet) called the Death Zone. They stumble across various monsters from their past and one new one before realising that they are being manipulated in an elaborate game but by whom......
The Five Doctors was the Twentieth anniversary special produced originally to go out during the BBC's Children In Needs telethon. As they had done on the 20th anniversary they had decided to bring the remaining Doctors together and a smattering of the old foes. The idea is a god one in principle, if not in practice. I do not envy Terrance Dicks trying to balance all the ego's. As an anniversary celebration it works well giving you a taste of everything but without much substance. Old companions (Sarah Jane Smith,
Susan Forman, Jamie McCrimmon, Zoe) and old monsters (A lone Dalek, a Yeti, a squadron of Cybermen) oh and The Master thrown in for good measure. One new monster introduced was the Raston Warrior robot that fascinated me as a kid. It was totally blind but hyper sensitive to sound firing aluminum spikes out of its arms to kill it prey. it could also vanish in the blink of an eye only to rematerialise meters away. It was a shame that it never made a repeat appearance (you listening Mr Davies!). At the last minute Tom Baker pulled out for various reasons so his non appearance was explained by using footage form the story Shada from season 17 which was abandoned mid production due to industrial action and never transmitted. To be fair the lack of a strong plot I feel is due to it trying to do too many things and trying to please everybody (apparently all the Doctors had to have equally weighted roles without focusing too much on Peter Davidson's 5th Doctor even though he was the incumbent Doctor). They recast the 1st Doctor (William Hartnell had died in 1975) with William Hurndall who does try his best but isn't a patch on Bill Hartnells irascibility. The sniping banter between the 2nd and 3rd Doctors is an extension of the 'act' the both Jon and Pat used to use at their convention appearances to the delight of the audience and also the repartee they established in the Three Doctors. And the difficulty of balancing two strong performers (Troughton and Pertwee) with the slightly pantomime 1st Doctor and lighter 5th.
For all its faults I have a softy spot for this story, being the one that got me back into Doctor Who in the age of the VCR. I regularly used to wear out this 'movie' in the school holidays. You'd never thought that either Patrick Troughton or John Pertwee had ever been away form the role, so effortlessly they slip back into the 2nd and 3rd Doctors. And Liz Sladen as the every wonderful Sara Jane Smith (despite dodgy costume). Its a great fun story being an excellent way to see all the old Doctors which is what it was designed to be.
The version presented is the 'Special Edition' version released a few years earlier by BBC Video (as it was then) which included a 5.1 surround mix as well as new CGI effects to bring them up to date (well for the late 90s). It also includes extra footage which where as nothing ground breaking tends to allow for long establishing shots and has been reedited for a more cinematic effect. The picture quality is good being a digitally remastered issue, although horribly over lit. This is a fault of television of the era rather than a problem specifically with this production. This can be seen most clearly in the TARDIS scenes.
Being the earliest DVD release for Doctor Who and when the BBC was just entering the DVD market, this release lacks the polished extras that later discs contain (even the Region 1 release comes with a commentary by Peter Davidson and other cast members) but it does have a picture gallery and a rather nifty console design to the screens (now abandoned maybe due to being too complex).
Disappointing on extras, but fun on story content.
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Production Year: 2007 - Science Fiction - Director: Francis Lawrence - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Alice Braga, Charlie Tahan, Dash Mihok, Will Smith, Salli Richardson, Willow Smith
Great review. Lots of details here... I would love to see all the doctors together again. I'll definitely have to look out for this one. Sounds really complicated but a lot of fun. Esther x.
![Doctor Who The Five Doctors Dvd [1983] | Baker](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/126453136.jpg "Doctor Who The Five Doctors Dvd [1983] | Baker")
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