2003 may well be the 40th Anniversary of Doctor Who, but there is little news to celebrate, well for the moment anyway. With the BBC currently working towards a new series of our favourite Time Lord, and all sorts of names being bandied about as a possible Doctor, fans are beginning to seriously believe that this time it might actually happen. 30 years ago however, in 1973, fans were treated to a tenth anniversary special entitled Doctor Who: The Three Doctors which saw the first occurrence of several of the Doctors in the one story, uniting to defeat a worthy adversary.
In 1973, the Doctor was still exiled on Earth. In The Three Doctors he finds himself being 'hunted' by a gel-like plasma but with no idea why. He calls his fellow Time Lords back on his home planet, the then unnamed Gallifrey, but they too have a problem; a black hole is sucking up their power like a huge interstellar vacuum cleaner and unless they can stop it soon they will have no power left to oversee time travelers the universe over. The Time Lords decide to use what little power they have left to transcend the First Law of Time, and lift the Doctor's former selves from their particular time-streams and dump them in that of the third Doctor, believing three heads are better than one.
| "So you're my replacements? A dandy and a clown!" |
Although the second Doctor is plucked easily enough, there is not enough power left to fully send the first Doctor to join them and he is caught in a time eddy and able only to advise. The two Doctors, companion Jo Grant, and hangers on such as Sgt. Benton and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, find themselves trapped by the gel inside the TARDIS, until the first Doctor advises that the gel is a bridge, and bridges are for crossing. The third Doctor takes it upon himself to launch himself at the gel, just as Jo tries to stop him, and both are instantly 'transported' to - somewhere.
After further advice from the first Doctor, the second Doctor turns off the TARDIS' force field and the gel transports the entire UNIT headquarters across space and into the black hole that is still sucking up the Time Lords’ power. And what awaits our intrepid travelers? Why, trouble of course!
The various parties set about exploring the strange place to which they have been transported, and ultimately the second and third Doctor are united in the presence of their 'host', a much-revered Time Lord from Time Lord history named Omega. It is believed that Omega perished in his early attempts at unlocking the secrets of time travel, and his legacy is those very same secrets of time travel the Time Lords now control. However, Omega is not happy being remembered as a hero and considers he was 'abandoned' when his experiments failed, and now he wants revenge on the Time Lords. To enact this revenge, he needs to escape from the world he has created on the other side of the black hole. A world that has him trapped, for he can't leave until there is someone else who can take over the mental efforts required to keep the world in balance while he makes a run for it. The Doctors agree to free Omega from his 'prison' on the condition that he sends the hangers-on back to Earth. A deal is struck, but surely the Doctors are not really going to spend the rest of their lives in this barren world of nothing. Not bloody likely!
As far as Doctor Who stories go, this one rates somewhere around the middle. Many fans were excited about the prospect of all three Doctors in the one place, and largely it works. Some fans and critics will tell you that this is a duff story and very little really happens, and others will blab on about the rapport between then current Doctor, Jon Pertwee, and his predecessor, Patrick Troughton. William Hartnell is really a token effort as he was very sick when this was filmed and was unable to actually partake in the show other than his pre-recorded bits. Still it was nice that he was able to even do that, and sadly he died not long after.
1973 was the beginning of what is often termed 'the Golden Age' of Doctor Who. The same production team had largely been working on the show for a while, writers Bob Baker and Dave Martin had penned several adventures for the show already and had a good grasp of the characters, and the producer Barry Letts and script editor, Terrance Dicks, were some of the best crew the show ever had.
For nostalgia alone this DVD is worth the dollars. It is a treat to see multiple Doctors in action (a feat that was repeated later for The Five Doctors and again for The Two Doctors but they're other stories), and while the special effects, makeup and costuming is familiarly laughable, true fans will tell you that it is these el-cheapo efforts that give Doctor Who its charm, and we wouldn't have it any other way.
It is a pleasure to have to repeat that the Restoration Team has again created a worthy DVD release. It is full frame of course, and therefore not 16:9 enhanced. Anyone expecting perfection can stop reading right now, but if you are aware of the state of some of these Doctor Who stories, you will appreciate any effort put in. Colours are generally bright and solid with minimal interference from noise. The image is reasonably sharp, especially the stuff filmed in the studio, but it certainly can't hide the fact that it's 30 years old. However, after recently seeing a VHS version of this I can assure you there is no comparison.
Black levels are good, but shadow detail is a little below par at times. There is some grain in the footage filmed on location, but there are no noticeable marks, flecks or dirt in any of the footage. There is no obvious layer change and no doubt it's tucked away between episodes. If you have viewed any previous Doctor Who DVDs, or have heard how much effort usually goes into them, then you can rest assured that this one is no different.
Yep, it's Dolby Digital mono but hey, that's the way we first heard it, and that's the way it's going to stay. However, all is good. Volume and clarity are fine, there are no problems with audio synch, and the background music is suitably volumed and placed so as not to interfere with any dialogue. There is some very slight and mild background hiss, however this is easily forgiven and ignored .
There are a few nice sound effects and the odd explosion or two that would have been nice to hear in 5.1, but television in 1973 was not recorded with such things in mind so it's a bit of bad luck I'm afraid. There is therefore nothing in the way of separation, panning or other audio trickery, but what's presented is all good.
