The Doctor Who Real Time Marathon: The Three Doctors
The Three Doctors: Episode One (30/12/12)
Oooh! As stated in the title, this story features all three Doctors! Albeit with Pat and Bill turning up at the end of the episode. Nevertheless, a good start. I had misgivings to begin with as this is written by the same pair who wrote '...Axos' and 'The Mutants', and whilst I fully understand we're in the week between Christmas and New Year, certain aspects did have a whiff of Panto about them.
Plotwise, some photographic equipment belonging to a Dr. Tyler (sent up with a weather balloon to photograph 'cosmic rays') has come down in a bird sanctuary and the Gamekeeper - clearly a Baker/Martin comedy character along the lines of Pigbin Josh - went near it and ended up as a smear on one of the photographic plates!
Collecting the equipment, Dr. Tyler took it to UNIT as the 'cosmic rays' have been looking funny. Whilst developing the plate that was Gamekeeper Mr. Ollis, Dr. Tyler ended up going the same way in a flash of light, and a weird, shapeless, purple and red mass crawled out of the equipment and down the sink!
Returning from investigating the site of Mr. Ollis' disappearance, the Doctor and Jo were attacked by the blob emerging from a drain and Bessie, too, was vaporised! Then these weird amber and red blobby things started appearing out of nowhere and attacked UNIT HQ. The Doctor, Jo and Benton locked themselves in the Doctor's lab but the red and purple blob blasted its way in and so they ran into the TARDIS.
Meanwhile, the Time Lords are under attack, too, and receiving the Doctor's distress call but unable to spare any help, sent his second incarnation to lend a hand (from during 'The War Games' by the look of it!). They bickered a bit, mostly about why they couldn't both be there and the Second Doctor's recorder-playing, so the Time Lords sent the First Doctor, who ended up just on the scanner in a cube-thing (as Bill is quite ill these days). He told them the 'cosmic ray'/Space Lightning was a bridge to cross and the Doctor (3) ran outside with Jo in tow where they both disappeared in a flash of light!!!
So, I'm assuming Ollis and Tyler aren't dead and Bessie's in one piece as I doubt they've just killed the two leads. Really good, though. Festive, fun, dramatic and a great way to start the Anniversary year!
The Three Doctors: Episode Two (06/01/13)
Again interesting and fun. Turns out the Doctor and Jo (and everything else zapped by the purple and red blob) were actually transported into a black hole. The Doctor and Jo woke up in a quarry (in the Black Hole) and found Bessie (plus bits of UNIT HQ) and met Dr. Tyler, but were caught by the amber and red blobs (which I've decided look like they're made of hard boiled sweets, covered in hard bubbles) and taken to their boiled-sweet palace on the orders of a man in a gold mask with a booming voice. However, they've been followed by that comedy Gamekeeper, Mr. Ollis.
Meanwhile, the Second Doctor and Benton tackled the purple and red blob at UNIT HQ. The Brigadier's face was a picture when he saw the Second Doctor, likewise when he saw inside the TARDIS for the first time, but seems to think the Doctor's experiments have gone wrong and turned him back to look like the dude he met in the London Underground!
The Doctor, Jo and Tyler did a bit of running around before being taken off to see the helmeted guy, and the First Doctor appeared again, briefly, to give events a kick into the next cliffhanger; having hidden in the TARDIS and put up a forcefield after accidentally agitating the blob by getting his positive/negative antimatter conversion mixed up, Doctor Two was told by Doctor One to switch off the forcefield and, lo and behold, the whole of UNIT HQ was sucked into the Black Hole!
Not a great deal of plot, not enough Bill, but plenty of running around and interaction between the main characters, and some quite festive, tinkling music for the Boiled Sweet Palace sequences.
The Three Doctors: Episode Three (12/01/13)
That was a fun episode! UNIT HQ arrived in the Black Hole, but the Brigadier wasn't convinced, thinking it was Cromer beach. He seems to be the comic relief in the story (more so than normal) but that's no bad thing when you get his brilliant double-take when looking outside for the first time. He went off and bumped into Mr. Ollis (who finally got some lines) but the Doctor and Benton were caught by the Boiled Sweet Monsters and taken to the Boiled Sweet Palace.
Meanwhile, the Man in the Gold Mask revealed he was Omega, a Stellar Engineer without whose work the Time Lords wouldn't have Time Travel. Apparently, the Time Lords thought he was dead after he blew up a star to provide enough power for travelling in time, but he survived in the Antimatter world of the Black Hole through power of will and created everything around him, including a rather snazzy chair for the Doctor to sit on. He seemed quite amiable at first, but is clearly a psycho after millennia alone with his Boiled Sweet World in a sandpit, and wants revenge on the Time Lords who abandoned him.
When his guards brought the Doctor and Benton to him, however, he went a bit loopy and accused them of trying to trick him by sneaking another Time Lord into the Black Hole, and locked everyone in a room without doors. It was here that Jo pointed out that, if Omega was all powerful, why did he need the Doctor's help? In which case surely two Time Lord minds could will up a door to escape by? Which they did.
The two Doctors headed for the singularity at the centre of the Antimatter world while Jo and the others found the entrance, bumped into the Brigadier and Mr. Ollis trying to break in, and pegged it with the Boiled Sweet Monsters wobbling in pursuit. At the singularity (a column of smoke, it seems) Omega confronted the Doctors and began a mental battle with the Third Doctor fighting the Dark Side of Omega's mind. Elsewhere, the First Doctor had a brief chat to a Time Lord and headed into the Black Hole.
Again, not enough Bill, but fun, daft and worthy.
The Three Doctors: Episode Four (20/01/13)
It may have been a bit silly in places, but that was rather good, and a great way to get the Anniversary year under way!
The Second Doctor persuaded Omega not to kill the Third Doctor and then Omega explained why he needed another Time Lord; since his will alone keeps this world in existence, if he tries to leave it stops existing, thus preventing him from leaving (or something). Therefore, he needs a Time Lord to take over. Except, upon being ordered to remove his helmet, the Doctors discovered that the 'slow, corrosive effect' of the Black Hole has totally obliterated Omega leaving only his will.
Understandably, Omega threw a strop allowing the Doctors to escape and join Jo, Benton, the Brigadier et al. at UNIT HQ. In the TARDIS they had another mind conference with the First Doctor and removed the TARDIS forcefield unit, only to discover that the Second Doctor's recorder had fallen into it (the missing one he's been carping on about since Episode Two). This gave them an idea and they arranged to make a deal with Omega - the Humans lives for the Doctors.
Everyone got sent home through the singularity and the Doctors presented Omega with his freedom - the forcefield unit. Omega had another strop and knocked the forcefield unit from the Doctor's hands; the recorder fell out and the Black Hole went Supernova - apparently, having been inside the forcefield since before leaving Earth, the recorder wasn't converted to Antimatter, so when it fell out it reacted with all the Antimatter and caused a massive explosion, giving the Time Lords a new source of energy and returning everything from Earth home again.
Everyone said goodbye, the Time Lords returned the Doctor's dematerialisation circuit and knowledge of how to control the TARDIS, and the episode ended on a charming note with Mr. Ollis getting home. A really good start to the series. I hope it stays this good!
Oooh! As stated in the title, this story features all three Doctors! Albeit with Pat and Bill turning up at the end of the episode. Nevertheless, a good start. I had misgivings to begin with as this is written by the same pair who wrote '...Axos' and 'The Mutants', and whilst I fully understand we're in the week between Christmas and New Year, certain aspects did have a whiff of Panto about them.
Plotwise, some photographic equipment belonging to a Dr. Tyler (sent up with a weather balloon to photograph 'cosmic rays') has come down in a bird sanctuary and the Gamekeeper - clearly a Baker/Martin comedy character along the lines of Pigbin Josh - went near it and ended up as a smear on one of the photographic plates!
Collecting the equipment, Dr. Tyler took it to UNIT as the 'cosmic rays' have been looking funny. Whilst developing the plate that was Gamekeeper Mr. Ollis, Dr. Tyler ended up going the same way in a flash of light, and a weird, shapeless, purple and red mass crawled out of the equipment and down the sink!
Returning from investigating the site of Mr. Ollis' disappearance, the Doctor and Jo were attacked by the blob emerging from a drain and Bessie, too, was vaporised! Then these weird amber and red blobby things started appearing out of nowhere and attacked UNIT HQ. The Doctor, Jo and Benton locked themselves in the Doctor's lab but the red and purple blob blasted its way in and so they ran into the TARDIS.
Meanwhile, the Time Lords are under attack, too, and receiving the Doctor's distress call but unable to spare any help, sent his second incarnation to lend a hand (from during 'The War Games' by the look of it!). They bickered a bit, mostly about why they couldn't both be there and the Second Doctor's recorder-playing, so the Time Lords sent the First Doctor, who ended up just on the scanner in a cube-thing (as Bill is quite ill these days). He told them the 'cosmic ray'/Space Lightning was a bridge to cross and the Doctor (3) ran outside with Jo in tow where they both disappeared in a flash of light!!!
So, I'm assuming Ollis and Tyler aren't dead and Bessie's in one piece as I doubt they've just killed the two leads. Really good, though. Festive, fun, dramatic and a great way to start the Anniversary year!
The Three Doctors: Episode Two (06/01/13)
Again interesting and fun. Turns out the Doctor and Jo (and everything else zapped by the purple and red blob) were actually transported into a black hole. The Doctor and Jo woke up in a quarry (in the Black Hole) and found Bessie (plus bits of UNIT HQ) and met Dr. Tyler, but were caught by the amber and red blobs (which I've decided look like they're made of hard boiled sweets, covered in hard bubbles) and taken to their boiled-sweet palace on the orders of a man in a gold mask with a booming voice. However, they've been followed by that comedy Gamekeeper, Mr. Ollis.
Meanwhile, the Second Doctor and Benton tackled the purple and red blob at UNIT HQ. The Brigadier's face was a picture when he saw the Second Doctor, likewise when he saw inside the TARDIS for the first time, but seems to think the Doctor's experiments have gone wrong and turned him back to look like the dude he met in the London Underground!
The Doctor, Jo and Tyler did a bit of running around before being taken off to see the helmeted guy, and the First Doctor appeared again, briefly, to give events a kick into the next cliffhanger; having hidden in the TARDIS and put up a forcefield after accidentally agitating the blob by getting his positive/negative antimatter conversion mixed up, Doctor Two was told by Doctor One to switch off the forcefield and, lo and behold, the whole of UNIT HQ was sucked into the Black Hole!
Not a great deal of plot, not enough Bill, but plenty of running around and interaction between the main characters, and some quite festive, tinkling music for the Boiled Sweet Palace sequences.
The Three Doctors: Episode Three (12/01/13)
That was a fun episode! UNIT HQ arrived in the Black Hole, but the Brigadier wasn't convinced, thinking it was Cromer beach. He seems to be the comic relief in the story (more so than normal) but that's no bad thing when you get his brilliant double-take when looking outside for the first time. He went off and bumped into Mr. Ollis (who finally got some lines) but the Doctor and Benton were caught by the Boiled Sweet Monsters and taken to the Boiled Sweet Palace.
Meanwhile, the Man in the Gold Mask revealed he was Omega, a Stellar Engineer without whose work the Time Lords wouldn't have Time Travel. Apparently, the Time Lords thought he was dead after he blew up a star to provide enough power for travelling in time, but he survived in the Antimatter world of the Black Hole through power of will and created everything around him, including a rather snazzy chair for the Doctor to sit on. He seemed quite amiable at first, but is clearly a psycho after millennia alone with his Boiled Sweet World in a sandpit, and wants revenge on the Time Lords who abandoned him.
When his guards brought the Doctor and Benton to him, however, he went a bit loopy and accused them of trying to trick him by sneaking another Time Lord into the Black Hole, and locked everyone in a room without doors. It was here that Jo pointed out that, if Omega was all powerful, why did he need the Doctor's help? In which case surely two Time Lord minds could will up a door to escape by? Which they did.
The two Doctors headed for the singularity at the centre of the Antimatter world while Jo and the others found the entrance, bumped into the Brigadier and Mr. Ollis trying to break in, and pegged it with the Boiled Sweet Monsters wobbling in pursuit. At the singularity (a column of smoke, it seems) Omega confronted the Doctors and began a mental battle with the Third Doctor fighting the Dark Side of Omega's mind. Elsewhere, the First Doctor had a brief chat to a Time Lord and headed into the Black Hole.
Again, not enough Bill, but fun, daft and worthy.
The Three Doctors: Episode Four (20/01/13)
It may have been a bit silly in places, but that was rather good, and a great way to get the Anniversary year under way!
The Second Doctor persuaded Omega not to kill the Third Doctor and then Omega explained why he needed another Time Lord; since his will alone keeps this world in existence, if he tries to leave it stops existing, thus preventing him from leaving (or something). Therefore, he needs a Time Lord to take over. Except, upon being ordered to remove his helmet, the Doctors discovered that the 'slow, corrosive effect' of the Black Hole has totally obliterated Omega leaving only his will.
Understandably, Omega threw a strop allowing the Doctors to escape and join Jo, Benton, the Brigadier et al. at UNIT HQ. In the TARDIS they had another mind conference with the First Doctor and removed the TARDIS forcefield unit, only to discover that the Second Doctor's recorder had fallen into it (the missing one he's been carping on about since Episode Two). This gave them an idea and they arranged to make a deal with Omega - the Humans lives for the Doctors.
Everyone got sent home through the singularity and the Doctors presented Omega with his freedom - the forcefield unit. Omega had another strop and knocked the forcefield unit from the Doctor's hands; the recorder fell out and the Black Hole went Supernova - apparently, having been inside the forcefield since before leaving Earth, the recorder wasn't converted to Antimatter, so when it fell out it reacted with all the Antimatter and caused a massive explosion, giving the Time Lords a new source of energy and returning everything from Earth home again.
Everyone said goodbye, the Time Lords returned the Doctor's dematerialisation circuit and knowledge of how to control the TARDIS, and the episode ended on a charming note with Mr. Ollis getting home. A really good start to the series. I hope it stays this good!
Bit of a blancmange, this - light, fluffy and sweet - but just the sort of thing you want for a celebratory story I suppose. It's nice for giving Sgt Benton and the Brigadier bigger roles, although Patrick Troughton steals the show: you can see why Jon Pertwee was reluctant at first to share the limelight. It's nice to have William Hartnell in it as well, although his illness reduces him in every sense, making him almost unrecognisable only five years out of the role.
ReplyDeleteIf I remember rightly the initial plan was to pair the 2nd Doctor with Jamie (and Zoe?) which I assume would have meant Benton would have been dropped completely or smaller roles for him and the Brigadier. It works out well enough the way it turns out, but it's curious that every time there's been an attempt at an anniversary/multi-Doctor story there's always been something that's scuppered it being entirely 'complete'.
I didn't know Jamie (and Zoe) were meant to be in the story, but I'm happy that they weren't. It's slightly disappointing that Mike isn't around - it feels like the whole UNIT family should be there so he's notable by his absence. It does make me quite sad seeing Hartnell so unrecognisable but at the same time it's brilliant he got the chance to actually participate in the 10th Anniversary story - I bet he never thought that would happen when he was filming 'An Unearthly Child'!
DeleteLike you say, the story's light, fluffy and sweet and exactly how it should be. These things should be a celebration of the show as entertainment, not a time to (for example) deal with the main character's PTSD or try to show how infinitely clever you think your writing is... mentioning no names...
I actually came away from writing up these entries feeling really happy, which says a lot about the story since I haven't watched it in quite a long time!