1970–74
N.B. there might (or might not) be spoilers in this article!
Nine years, one month and one week after its debut, Doctor Who celebrated its tenth anniversary. If, chronologically at least, the celebrations were a little premature, the start of a tenth season was certainly something worthy of acknowledgement. I’m not sure many people foresaw its running into a second decade, but as the ratings for The Three Doctors showed, the show remained in rude health.
The idea of teaming up all three actors who had played the Doctor, once mooted, must have been irresistible. It’s a shame that William Hartnell’s health prevented him from taking a bigger part in the story, but it’s telling that even his limited contribution here would inform how three incarnations of the Doctor would interact in Steven Moffat’s anniversary story forty years later. Two of them bicker whilst the earlier, appears-older-yet-is-actually-younger, incarnation looks on disapprovingly and tries to keep them in line.
And what entertaining bickering it is. Whilst Patrick Troughton arguably has the bulk of the best dialogue – too many to list here although I’ve always liked his archaically polite ‘I may call you Jo, mayn’t I?’ – it’s the First Doctor’s appraisal of his replacements as ‘a dandy and a clown’ that gives The Three Doctors its most memorable line, becoming Doctor Who short-hand for describing the Second and Third Doctors.
“The First Law of Time expressly forbids him to meet his other selves.”
Chancellor, The Three Doctors: Episode One
It’s never explained quite how the Time Lords can locate the Doctor’s first and second incarnations (given he was effectively on the run for the first six years of the show). Perhaps once they’d caught up with him at the end of The War Games, they were able retroactively to trace his steps? (They are lords of time, after all.) Perhaps they were one step behind him all along? Maybe they always knew where he was and were just waiting for him to come a cropper? Questions, questions …
“I’m fairly sure that’s Cromer.”
The Brigadier, The Three Doctors: Episode Three
Another thing I have always struggled with is how out-of-character the Brigadier seems at times in The Three Doctors. Whilst admittedly he’s not travelled in the TARDIS before, given all of the things he’s seen in his adventures with the Doctor, I find it hard to believe he’d think that UNIT HQ had simply been plunked down in Norfolk.
Is The Three Doctors any cop? Does it really matter when it’s such a shameless nostalgia-fest? Probably not. As my son commented, aside from the Master, it has everything you’d want in a Third Doctor story.
Let’s just say it’s not without flaws, especially all the guff about the recorder in the force field, but as an anniversary story and the first such story both to celebrate Doctor Who‘s longevity and include multiple Doctors, it’ll do nicely.
"This is the tenth anniversary of Doctor Who, but the first celebration. There have been many more since."
"Omega is a shouty guy. I think he is this way because he has been in a black hole for so long he doesn't know what loud and quiet are."
"I liked that the Doctors argued. In every story after this one where they meet, they always argue."
"From now on I'm going to give a rating (out of ten)."
Son of UT Rating: 8/10
