The Five Doctors (TV story): Difference between revisions

The Fifth Doctor feels another pain and collapses after reassuring Tegan and Turlough that everything's all right.

The Fifth Doctor tells his companions he must get back to the TARDIS. There is something definitely wrong with his past and he is in immediate danger. As he puts it, "A man is the sum of his memories, a Time Lord even more so". He is near the TARDIS when he collapses in pain as his third incarnation is snatched. He tells his companions he has to find "my other selves..."

* [[Sergeant (The Five Doctors)|Sergeant]] — [[Ray Float]]

* [[Guard (The Five Doctors)|Guard]] — [[John Tallents]]

* [[Raston Warrior Robot]] — [[Keith Hodiak]]

* Film Lighting Supervisor - [[Archie Dawson]] ([[DWM 564]])

=== Gallifrey ===

* The [[Death Zone]] — "the black secret at the heart of your [[Time Lord]] paradise" — was created in the [[Gallifreyan history#The Dark Time|days before]] [[Rassilon]], when [[Gallifreyan]]s kidnapped aliens for sport.

* [[Robert Holmes]] was initially commissioned to write the special. The special initially had the working title ''The Six Doctors'' because it originally included a robot impostor of one of the Doctors. The story would've detailed the Cybermen attempting to become "Cyberlords" by extracting a certain gene from the Doctor(s) genetic code and assimilating it within their own. Holmes, however, was unable to come up with a workable script, so [[Terrance Dicks]] was commissioned to write the piece. Ironically, the story immediately preceding ''The Five Doctors'', [[TV]]: ''[[The King's Demons (TV story)|The King's Demons]]'', did, in fact, introduce a robot character, [[Kamelion]], with the ability to impersonate others. However, despite being introduced in that story as a new companion, not only is Kamelion not referenced or seen once in ''The Five Doctors'', the character disappeared from the series for a full year because of technical difficulties, and there is no evidence he was ''ever'' intended to make so much as a cameo in this story, despite this apparently picking directly up from the previous story, in which he joined the TARDIS crew.<ref>http://www.shannonsullivan.com/doctorwho/serials/6k.html</ref>

** The idea of a villain altering the genetic code of a Doctor was later implemented into Holmes's story ''[[The Two Doctors (TV story)|The Two Doctors]]''.

* ''The Five Doctors'' was co-produced with the Australian Broadcasting Commission who put in $A60,000, although under the terms of the agreement no credit to the co-producer appeared on-screen. (When the story was released by BBC Video in edited form in 1985 and in unedited form in 1990, the credit "A Co-production with ABC, Australia" appeared on the rear sleeve in both instances.) This was the first and only occurrence of this during the classic series. Later, the [[Doctor Who (TV story)|1996 TV movie]] and the first four seasons of the new series would also incorporate non-UK support.

* The companion illusion cameos were last-minute additions to the script.

* [[Terrance Dicks]] has said he was displeased with [[Eric Saward]]'s changes to his original story. He especially felt the [[Cyberman|Cybermen]], for whom Saward had a particular fondness, were overused in the finished story. He also said that he was happy to create the Raston Warrior Robots and have them destroy the Cybermen because he wasn't as fond of the Cybermen. On the Special Edition DVD, he says that he really had to fight for the inclusion of a Dalek in the special despite the fact they were so iconic in the series.

* The story was repeated as a four-part overseas version from 14 August to 17 August 1984. The ''Radio Times'' programme listing for part one was accompanied by one of the publicity photos taken of the Doctors, in black and white (Peter Davison sitting astride K9 with his hat on its head, surrounded by the other actors and the waxwork figure of Tom Baker), with the accompanying caption "Five reincarnations of the inter-world commuter — [[Patrick Troughton]], [[Richard Hurndall]], [[Peter Davison]], [[Tom Baker]], [[Jon Pertwee]] — ''Doctor Who'': 6.15".

* This was only the second time in the series' history that there was a pre-credits sequence. ''[[Castrovalva (TV story)|Castrovalva]]'' was the first such story. Subsequently, ''[[Time and the Rani (TV story)|Time and the Rani]]'' and ''[[Remembrance of the Daleks (TV story)|Remembrance of the Daleks]]'' also featured pre-credits teasers. This idea was re-used in the [[Doctor Who (TV story)|1996 TV movie]]. The pre-credits sequence became a regular occurrence starting with the 2005 series episode ''[[The End of the World (TV story)|The End of the World]]'', and the animated reconstruction of ''[[The Power of the Daleks (TV story)|The Power of the Daleks]]'', a story preceding ''Castrovalva '' by more than 15 years, also featured one.

* This serial explicitly indicated in dialogue that the Davison incarnation of the Doctor was in fact the ''[[Fifth Doctor|fifth]]'', apparently discounting fan speculation dating back to ''[[The Brain of Morbius (TV story)|The Brain of Morbius]]'' that the First Doctor was not actually the first. [[Terrance Dicks]] wrote both stories although ''The Brain of Morbius'' was extensively rewritten by Robert Holmes to the point that Dicks wanted his name removed from the final story and it was credited to the pseudonym Robin Bland. However, 2020's ''[[The Timeless Children (TV story)|The Timeless Children]]'' took the view that there were indeed many previous incarnations prior to the [[First Doctor|William Hartnell incarnation]] that the Doctor was unaware of.

* Two versions of the end sequences were made. For the original broadcast version the Doctors and companions were returned using the TARDIS, with an image of the TARDIS "splitting off" from the remaining one and the accompanying dematerialization sound effect. For the Special Edition version, the Doctors and companions were returned via a Timescoop effect after they entered the TARDIS. The two versions also used different footage from ''Shada'' to show the Fourth Doctor's return to Earth; in the Special Edition, it appears only the Doctor is kidnapped by the Timescoop, and he is returned to his and Romana's punt at the same moment he left.

* Discounting the Brigadier, this story has the distinction of marking the first time companions from different eras had met and interacted. This would occur only once more in the original series, in ''[[The Two Doctors (TV story)|The Two Doctors]]'' when [[Peri Brown|Peri]] and [[Jamie McCrimmon|Jamie]] meet. It has occurred several times in the 2005-present revival.

* This story was the first in which the [[Dalek]]s and the Cybermen both featured (though they did not meet). This would not occur again until the [[Series 2 (Doctor Who)|Series 2]] finale ''[[Army of Ghosts (TV story)|Army of Ghosts]]''/''[[Doomsday (TV story)|Doomsday]]'' in 2006 (excluding the Cyberman head seen in ''[[Dalek (TV story)|Dalek]]''). They would feature in the same stories again in [[TV]]: ''[[The Pandorica Opens (TV story)|The Pandorica Opens]]'', [[GAME]]: ''[[Return to Earth (video game)|Return to Earth]]'', and [[GAME]]: ''[[The Mazes of Time (video game)|The Mazes of Time]]'', although ''The Five Doctors'' sees the only time the Mondasian Cybermen have featured in one such story. All the others appear to be the [[Cybus Industries|Cybus]] variant.

* This marks the only time the [[Third Doctor]] ever comes close to meeting with the Cybermen on-screen. He only observes them, however, and avoids any encounter. He would meet them again in [[AUDIO]]: ''[[The Blue Tooth (audio story)|The Blue Tooth]]''.

* The First Doctor was supposed to take a zig-zag approach across the chessboard trap, but [[Richard Hurndall]] walked in a straight line. There was not enough time to reshoot the scene (they were already 17 minutes into overtime), so this version was ultimately used regardless.

* A large number of other characters were planned to appear, but the actors were unavailable:

** [[Ben Jackson|Ben]] and [[Polly]] were considered to appear, but [[Anneke Wills]] was living overseas at the time and couldn't be located.

** The continuity error of the Second Doctor remembering an incident that happened moments before his regeneration was a last-minute replacement for the original reason he recognised his old companions as illusions. This would have featured [[Victoria Waterfield|Victoria]] saying "The Brigadier's right", but the Doctor remembering that he was a Colonel when she met him. But [[Deborah Watling]] turned down ''The Five Doctors'' in favour of ''The Dave Allen Show'' and the replacement line was hastily added.

* Originally, the Master was the main villain, but [[Terrance Dicks]] thought that was too obvious. He felt that the least obvious choice was Borusa.

* The end credits featured a specially-mixed version of the theme music, which began with [[Delia Derbyshire]]'s original 1960s arrangement and then segued into the [[Peter Howell]] arrangement being used by the series at the time (the former being played at a slightly higher speed to match the tempo and pitch of the latter). This arrangement was only used on this one occasion and was the last time that the Derbyshire version was heard during the show's original run. A unique arrangement of the opening credits music was also used, which ended in a brief coda phrase that was never used in any other serial.

=== Ratings ===

* In early drafts, the First Doctor was to appear with [[Dodo Chaplet|Dodo]] and [[Steven Taylor|Steven]], and [[K9]] was to accompany the Fourth Doctor and [[Romana II]] (or Sarah) throughout the episode. ''Susan was the only companion ever considered to appear alongside the First Doctor. While K9 was present throughout most of the draft scripts, none of them had him appearing in more than a small cameo, which indeed happened in the finished episode''

* [[Kamelion]] was supposed to appear for this story. ''He was never intended to take an active part in the story, due to the difficulty in operating the Kamelion prop. An explanation for his absence may have been in one of the draft scripts, though no firm evidence exists for this.''

=== Filming locations ===

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