Sitting here about to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the 20th anniversary of Doctor Who, there are now as many versions of The Five Doctors as there are of Shada. Well, almost, and I’m sure that there will be another version of Shada will be along soon to tip the balance1. Ultimately though this is a story that has endured perhaps more than any other: it has captured the imagination of fans of a certain age and beyond. For the longest time it was the ultimate celebration of Doctor Who, everything that made the show special rolled into one story.
If The Three Doctors set the template for anniversary stories, then The Five Doctors perfected it. All 5 Doctors have a part to play in the story, but now we have multiple companions as well, and multiple monsters – something we couldn’t have in 1973. There’s TimeLord mythology by the bucketful, including The Master – another element we missed last time. And whereas Three Doctors was just a normal part of Season 10 (and actually airs closer to the 9th Anniversary of the show rather than the 10th, if you want to be that type of fan), The Five Doctors is a Special episode, airing right alongside the anniversary date2. If Three Doctors was a 10, then Five Doctors is turning it up to 20.
The genesis of Five Doctors is famously convoluted. Robert Holmes was initially brought in to write the story, which would have featured Cybermen trying to extract TimeLord DNA to give themselves the ability to travel in time & regenerate3; Homes struggled with the story, however, and dropped out. The baton was passed then to probably the only person who could manage to deal with the “shopping list” of elements that he has to include: Terrance Dicks.
Holmes is a tremendously good writer, but Uncle Terrance is steeped in Doctor Who. Having started writing for Doctor Who as far back as 1968, he left the show in 74 but didn’t go far, writing another 3 stories across the years. More than that though he was spending his spare time churning out a phenomenal number of Target Novelisations; even by 1983 he has written more than anyone else. If there’s anyone by this point who knows what makes “Doctor Who the show” tick, it’s Terrance Dicks. But it takes more than that understanding to write a timeless tale: you need to be a good writer, too. And it just so happens that Terrance is a terrific hack.
Yup. He’s a hack. Gasp all you want, it’s true. But – crucially – that’s not a bad thing!!! When it comes to a show with the deadlines & budget of Doctor Who, you need someone who can get you out of a tight spot when a script falls through; or rescue a story that just isn’t going to work on screen; or polish up the dialogue of someone who has just missed the mark. More than that, they need to be able to do it in a real hurry. Terrance Dicks hits all these requirements and more: I actually think he does all his best work when he’s having to hack, when his back is up against the wall and he’s got it all to do. So he can hack out a script when he wants to, but when he does it’s absolute GOLD!
Five Doctors is a classic example of Dicks being pushed into a corner & having to come up with the goods. He has a constantly changing roster of cast that he needs to fit in, including one of the Doctors being recast. He has some companions full time, others he needs to give a small cameo that still makes it feel like they’ve taken part. There’s some monsters he can get out the storage & some he can’t; the Daleks need to be there but not the stars of the show. He can’t have Tom Baker but still needs to fit him in. He has a Master who isn’t the one he created but is still playing the same role. In short, it’s a nightmare – you can understand why Holmes walked away.
But my word, doesn’t Terrance get it spot on? He balances all the elements perfectly, giving us a story that is perfectly paced, has everyone just as much as we’d want them (and if not, just enough to keep us happy) and is packed with sparkling dialogue and characterisation. He writes Ainley’s Master better than anyone until Survival, allowing him to give one of his best performances in the role. He doesn’t just look to the past either, he gives us a fabulous new creating in the Raston Warrior Robot & continues to shake up the TimeLords – that race & society he created, after all. This may well be Terrance Dicks’s magnum opus, which in a body of work as wide and rich as his is saying something.
We also need to shout out to producer John Nathan Turner; not just for actually putting all this together – it’s a work of showmanship that RTD would be proud of – but for taking his turn behind the camera as well. It’s would be totally unkind to say that the best bits of this story were directed by JNT and not Peter Moffat, but it does make you wonder what we would have got for some stories if he had done a Barry Letts and allowed4 himself to direct properly.
And so to the performances, where it has to be said, everyone slots in perfectly like they’ve never been away. This must count as a 5th Doctor story due to where it comes, so Davo gets the lion’s share of the plot; Pertwee & Troughton are perfectly down with this and only trying to upstage each other and not the lead (and having the time of their lives doing so). Tom Baker has the advantage of filming his part during Season 17, when he was in a purple patch, so he shines too. And kudos to Richard Hurndall, who has the impossible job of filling William Hartnell’s shoes – but he does perfectly well, looking not to mimic Hartnell but give his own version. And extra kudos for looking not just to the crotchety anti-hero of S1, but the more rounded character of S3 for inspiration. Hurndall’s Doctor is just as much a part of the success of the Five Doctors as anyone else.
It’s no surprise that the screening of the 40th anniversary special edition at the BFI sold out in 7 minutes or less. This is such an quotable, enjoyable, memorable story – if it’s not the lines that stick in your head, it’s the delivery5. I don’t have the Special Special Edition yet – that will be coming for my 44th birthday – but I had the VHS early on, and played it to death- to the point that when the Special Edition came out, it’s almost unwatchable due to the differences. I know how much the Five Doctors is ingrained into other fan’s childhoods, and it’s for good reason: it’s excellent, it’s comforting, and above all it’s truly SPECIAL.
COMING TOMORROW: “Hello, sweetie…”
Skies Full of Diamonds 