The Three Doctors (TV story)

" Brigadier only one person can stop this me, me and me" - The Second Doctor

Synopsis

The Time Lords find themselves besieged by a mysterious enemy inhabiting the anti-matter universe on the other side of the black hole from which they draw their power. They enlist the Doctor in his first three incarnations to battle this foe, who turns out to be a legend from the Time Lords's remote past.

Plot

A superluminal signal is sent to Earth, carrying with it an unusual energy blob that seems intent on capturing the Doctor. In the meantime, the homeworld of the Time Lords is under siege, with all the power sustaining it being drained through a black hole. Trapped and desperate, the Time Lords do the unthinkable and break the First Law of Time, allowing the Doctor to aid himself by summoning his two previous incarnations from the past.

Unfortunately, the Doctor's first incarnation is trapped in a time eddy, unable to fully materialise, and can only communicate via view screen, but the Doctor's second incarnation joins the third in investigating the origins of the creature and the black hole, while UNIT headquarters faces an attack by Anti-matter monsters.

The First Doctor deduces the black hole is a bridge between universes, and the other two Doctors allow the TARDIS to be swallowed up by the energy creature, which transports them, Doctor Tyler, Jo Grant, Sergeant Benton and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart into an antimatter universe created by the legendary Time Lord Omega, a solar engineer who created the supernova that powers Time Lord civilization, but was considered killed in the explosion. In actuality, he had been transported to the antimatter universe, where his will and thought turned the formless matter into physicality. Trapped, due to the fact that his will is the only thing maintaining reality, he vowed revenge on the Time Lords who left him stranded.

It is clear that the exile has made Omega quite insane. Along with his revenge, he has summoned the Doctors here to take over the mental maintenance of the antimatter universe so he can escape. However, the Doctors discover that years of exposure to the corrosive effects of the black hole's singularity have destroyed Omega's physical body - he is trapped forever. Driven over the edge by this discovery, Omega now demands that the Doctors share his exile.

The Doctors escape briefly, and offer Omega a proposition. They will give him his freedom if they send the others back to the positive matter universe. Omega agrees, and when that is done, the Doctors offer Omega a force field generator containing the Second Doctor's recorder, which had fallen in it prior to the transport through the black hole. Omega knocks the generator over in a rage and the unconverted positive matter recorder falls out of the force field. When the recorder comes into contact with the antimatter universe, it annihilates everything in a flash, returning the Doctors in the TARDIS to the positive matter universe. The Third Doctor explains that death was the only freedom anyone could offer Omega.

With the power now restored to the Time Lords, they are able to send the First and Second Doctors back to their respective time periods. As a reward, the Time Lords give the Third Doctor a new dematerialization circuit for the TARDIS and restore his knowledge of how to travel through space and time.

Cast

The Doctor - Jon Pertwee
The Doctor - Patrick Troughton
The Doctor - William Hartnell
Jo Grant - Katy Manning
Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart - Nicholas Courtney
Sergeant Benton - John Levene
Omega - Stephen Thorne
Dr. Tyler - Rex Robinson
President of the Council - Roy Purcell
Mr. Ollis - Laurie Webb
Chancellor - Clyde Pollitt
Time Lord - Graham Leaman
Mrs. Ollis - Patricia Prior
Corporal Palmer - Denys Palmer

Crew

References

The First Doctor gets trapped in a time eddy. He caustically refers to his future selves as (respectively) "a dandy and a clown".
The Second Doctor does not like the way his future self has "re-decorated" 'his' TARDIS much later the Fifth Doctor would make a similar criticism when meeting the Tenth (Time Crash). He recognised Benton from their adventure with the Cybermen. He likes to play and treasures his recorder. He thinks little of television.
The Brigadier at first thinks that one of the Doctor's experiments has changed him back to an early version of himself. He seems more outraged than wonder struck at the interior of the TARDIS, given the Doctor's lavishing of valuable UNIT resources on it. He either disbelieves or does not understand that part of UNIT HQ (specifically the Doctor's laboratory) has gotten transported into the anti-matter universe and states in confidence that he thinks they're in Cromer.

Theories and Concepts

Omega's universe is a universe of anti-matter
The First Law of Time expressly forbids any Time Lord to cross his own time stream and meet his former (or, for that matter, future) selves.

Races and Species

The Brigadier mentions to the Doctor their encountering the Yeti and Cybermen.
The beings sent to UNIT HQ by Omega are known as Gel guards.

Time Lords

The Doctor's three selves have the power to have a "telepathic conference" amongst themselves, exchanging information at a rapid speed.
The Doctor admired Omega in his youth.

Story Notes

This story celebrates the tenth year of Doctor Who on television.

William Hartnell's last appearance as the Doctor before his death in 1975. Hartnell was too ill to play a more active role in the story. Instead his scenes were filmed in Ealing Television Film Studios while he read his lines from cue cards. The script was rewritten with the explanation that the First Doctor was stuck in a time eddy due to the power drain caused by Omega.

The first of three mainstream return appearances by Patrick Troughton as the Second Doctor. His next two were in "The Five Doctors" (1983) and "The Two Doctors" (1985).

The first appearance of Omega. Originally Omega's name was supposed to be Ohm, the word resulting from turning "who" upside-down if it were in capital letters. Ohm was later used as the name of an ancient Gallifreyan god in The Infinity Doctors.

The original script, entitled Deathworld had the Time Lords enlisting the three Doctors to battle a Federation of Evil led by Death. The idea of Death as an actual entity was later used in the Virgin New Adventures novels and Big Finish Audio Dramas, with Death as an Eternal who purposely arranges for the Seventh Doctor to be shot and die in 1999 San Francisco at the beginning of the television movie.

Original plans were for Jamie McCrimmon and Zoe Heriot to appear in the story. However, Frazer Hines was unable to take time out from Emmerdale Farm for filming, and the idea of additional companions received objections from Jon Pertwee, who felt too many characters would detract from the story.

This story featured a new redesigned TARDIS console room set by Roger Liminton. The one used in the previous story, The Time Monster, warped in storage and had a design which Barry Letts disliked.

The end of the Doctor's exile on Earth. This also marks the beginning of the gradual phasing out of UNIT on the series, as the Doctor spends more and more time away from 20th century Earth.

Jelly babies make their Doctor Who debut when the Second Doctor offers one. A few years later, the candy would be brought back as the Fourth Doctor's favourite sweet, with cameos in later years.

Ratings

Episode 1 - 9.6 million viewers
Episode 2 - 10.8 million viewers
Episode 3 - 8.8 million viewers
Episode 4 - 11.9 million viewers

Myths

William Hartnell's scenes were filmed in the garage of his home against a black backdrop. (His scenes were actually filmed at Ealing Television Film Studios.)

Filming Locations

Summerfield Bungalow in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire served as the Ollis's cottage. The bird sanctuary was actually Springwell Reservoir, also in Rickmansworth.
Exterior scenes set in Omega's universe were filmed at Springwell Quarry.
Halings House in Denham Green, Buckinghamshire, served as the exterior of UNIT HQ.
The fight between the Third Doctor and Omega's dark side, as well as the First Doctor's scenes, were filmed at Ealing Television Film Studios.
Model shots were filmed at the BBC Television Centre Puppet Theatre, with all other scenes filmed at BBC Television Centre Studio 1.

Discontinuity, Plot Holes, Errors

The fact that he has been brought into his own future and telepathically linked with the Third Doctor leads to questions of the Second Doctor learning of his eventual capture, trial, and exile by the Time Lords. Season 6B is an attempt to reconcile the issues arising from this plot hole. Apparently, the Time Lords have a power to choose their thoughts and mention only what is present.
How come the Brigadier mentions to the Second Doctor about both the Autons and the Nestene Consciousness when the Second doesn't remember these events?(The Brigadier doesn't know that - he's trying to get his head round the sudden reappearance of the old Doctor, and is confused about the face changing)

Continuity

The Second Doctor addresses Benton as Corporal, the rank he held in DW: The Invasion. He also refers to UNIT's battle with the Cybermen in that story. The Brigadier also mentions that adventure, as well as his first meeting with the Doctor during the Yeti attack in The Web of Fear. Mention is also made of the two occasions the Doctor "changed his appearance," - the process was not yet called regeneration.

Omega returns again in DW: Arc of Infinity, PDA: The Infinity Doctors and BFA: Omega. A children's storybook, K9 and the Time Trap would feature a villain very similar to Omega called Omegon, and include subtle references to the events of The Three Doctors.