The Five Doctors is special. A 90 minute extravaganza where all five Doctors appear to fight various monsters whilst seeking a great and mystical Time Lord secret to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Doctor Who. It's remarkable because it's fun, the sort of story where you can just relax and watch the characters that you've seen over the past 20 years, back for one last adventure. It's also special personally for me, as it was the third Doctor Who story that I ever watched, and it will always have that place in my heart.
My parents had already shown me Frontier in Space and one other story that we're yet to cover on this blog, and I was keen to watch some more. I looked downstairs in the video cupboard and found, nestled between Monty Python's The Meaning of Life and some old cooking show, The Five Doctors. It looked cool, so I went back upstairs and put it into the video player. Settling in, I was greeted with words that stick with me to this day.
It's the First Doctor, saying his farewell speech to Susan from The Dalek Invasion of Earth. It's a beautiful little speech, and works in the context here of seeing the Doctors return. We've seen them all go and regenerate (and in the case of the First Doctor, have the actor who played them sadly die), so it's nice to have the idea that they're still alive, working away, which indeed they are. But for now, we go straight from that into the 1980's.
We see the TARDIS team, as it is right now. The Fifth Doctor's full of enthusiasm and energy, and yet there's a calmness about him that works well when contrasted with the other, slightly more rambunctious Doctors. Tegan, who will fulfil the role of the main companion for this story, is actually written rather well here, being a companion with a mind of her own, who will complain if she's not happy, but within reason. It's a far contrast from her first appearance, where she was the reluctant companion, quick to complain and always at the Doctor's throat. Now that she's mellowed, she's a far more likeable character. Turlough has calmed down too, free from the influence of the Black Guardian, he's just keen to help the Doctor without getting into too much trouble.
But strange forces are working, as we see a black hand manipulate events. The First Doctor is taken from wandering through a rose garden into some weird maze with mirrored walls. It's perhaps now that I should mention the fact that we have a new actor for the First Doctor, by the name of Richard Hurndall. He's an adequate replacement for Hartnell, but he's not perfect. Hartnell had far more of an edge to him, and his grumpiness helped to define the character (and also, through contrast, made his lighter moments seem all the sweeter. Hurndall, on the other hand, goes mainly for an impression, playing a grandfather-esque figure, missing out on the hidden details that Hartnell put into his performance. But you can't have everything, and at least we have most of the rest of the surviving Doctors.
Troughton, for instance, drops back into the role like he was never away. He plays around, making jokes, and being a foil for the Brigadier (who he is partnered with in this story). There's part of me that's a little bit disappointed, as I kind of feel that his Doctor would be better suited to working with a companion that he worked with more frequently (such as Jamie or Victoria) but Troughton plays it brilliantly, playing a looser character than the Brigadier's straight man, making for a great double act and an excellent time with the story.
Speaking of good double acts, we get a brief clip of the Fourth Doctor and the Second Romana (Tom Baker declined to appear, hence we only get his Doctor through stock footage) from the aborted story Shada. It's a frightfully witty scene, written by Douglas Adams, and acts as a pleasant reminder of his time as the Doctor, frightfully witty and full of fun.
Pertwee's introduced with an action sequence, as befits his Doctor. There's also a brief sequence once he reaches Gallifrey where he rescues Sarah Jane after she's had a nasty fall. And in other stories, I might criticise this moment, on the basis that Sarah Jane's fall is down a very slight slope, which I refer to as The Mild Incline of Moderate Doom. But this story's fun enough and light enough that I can forgive it and just have fun with it, despite its flaws.
That said, there are several strong flaws. Susan, for one, is poorly treated as a character, where she's reduced to just screaming, spraining her ankle and calling for her grandfather. There's not even a moment where we get a heartfelt reunion, particularly after the little speech that we had at the beginning. But, then again, Susan's character was always treated this badly in the series (save for a few exceptions, e.g. The Sensorites), and so I can hardly blame it for being accurate.
The Master's back as well, playing the role of a vague ally to the Doctor. He's been employed by the High Council to find the Doctor and rescue him, in one of their more curious employment strategies. This leads to what is, in my opinion, Ainley's best performance as the Master yet. He's someone who genuinely wants to help the Doctor, only to be squandered at every opportunity because they don;t trust him. This is something that could perhaps only work with Ainley as the Master, as he is so much of a pantomime villain that it's easy to mistrust him, hence every one of the Doctors that he encounters knows better than to accept his help (contrast with Delgado, where there's enough respect between his Master and the Doctor that they would help each other if circumstances demanded it). This, naturally, makes him give up on everything and attempt to go fully evil, eventually being thwarted by being punched by the Brigadier. Which is nice.
One of the other legitimate highlights of the story is the Raston Warrior Robot. In a remarkably well directed sequence done by both Peter Moffatt and John Nathan-Turner (the producer of the series at the time). It's pacy, action packed, and has, at its heart, a neat concept of a robot that moves as fast as lightning and can take out anything that comes in its way. It also serves as a reminder of the good things that Doctor Who can do now, and that it can be a show filled with action and the like, making it one of the best shows on TV.
It can also deal with fairly big ideas as well, such as the prize for winning the Game of Rassilon: immortality. Borusa, President of the Time Lords, has manipulated these events such that he may win the prize, and so he meets with Rassilon to collect it. However, immortality is not that great, and Borusa is given it in the form of becoming a statue, frozen in time forevermore. It's another cool idea, and one which actually works well with memory of the previous series. If Mawdryn Undead, and to a certain extent Enlightenment, are recalled, it can be seen that immortality has not been seen as a blessing, but rather a curse. Sometimes it's best to die with dignity intact, or you risk being a walking zombie for the rest of time. That's why the series has changed so much, a way of cheating death without immortality, allowing for constant rebirth and renewal, so that we can have five Doctors, all of them different, and all of them part of the same fantastic programme.
And coming back to the beginning of the blog entry, I mentioned that this was the third Doctor Who story that I ever saw. I loved it, as it had everything that I could want. Multiple Doctors, action, a Dalek, great jokes, an intriguing story, I would watch it regularly from that point onwards. In fact, when watching it today, I was struck by how much of the dialogue I remembered, as I quoted various bits and pieces along with the characters, having fun with them on their adventure.
And, oddly enough, this story ended up helping me out one day. I was doing my end of school examination for Physics, and there was a question about calculating orbital velocity, or something along those lines. My mind panicked, this was something that I knew how to do in theory, but I couldn't quite remember how to calculate it. Suddenly, I remembered a scene from The Five Doctors. The First Doctor and Tegan are discussing, in order to cross a minefield, how the solution is as easy as Pi. The Greek Letter Pi, it turns out. Tegan says "The ratio of a circumference of a circle, to its diameter, is equal to the Greek letter Pi". Using this relation, I answered the question. So I have to thank The Five Doctors, for helping me with my Physics exam.
And, so, to close this entry, there can only be one way to end it.
"NO, NOT THE MIND PROBE"
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