The Three Doctors (TV story)

Synopsis
The Time Lords find themselves beseiged by a mysterious enemy inhabiting the antimatter 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 materialize, and can only communicate via viewscreen, 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 the gel-like alien creatures.

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

The Doctor - Patrick Troughton
 * The Doctor does not like the way his future self has "re-decorated" his TARDIS. He recognized Benton from their adventure with the Cybermen. He likes to play and treasures his recorder. He thinks little of television.

The Doctor - William Hartnell
 * This version of the Doctor gets trapped in a time eddy. He caustically refers to his future selves as (respectively) "a dandy and a clown".

Jo Grant - Katy Manning
 * Jo makes a reference to the Beatles song "I Am the Walrus''.

Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart - Nicholas Courtney
 * 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 wonderstruck at the exterior 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 antimatter universe and states confidentally that he thinks they're in Cromer.

Omega - Stephen Thorne

Sergeant Benton - John Levene

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
Writer - Bob Baker and Dave Martin

Producer - Barry Letts

Director - Lennie Mayne

Title Music - Ron Grainer and BBC Radiophonic Workshop

Incidental Music - Dudley Simpson

Special Sound - Dick Mills

Film Cameraman - John Baker

Film Sound - Bob Roberts

Film Editor - Jim Walker

Visual Effects Designer - Michaeljohn Harris

Costume Designer - Jim Acheson

Make-up - Ann Rayment

Lighting - Clive Thomas

Sound - Derek Miller-Timmins

Script Editor - Terrance Dicks

Designer - Roger Liminton

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. 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 Adventure 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.

Ratings

 * Episode 1 - 9.6m viewers
 * Episode 2 - 10.8m viewers
 * Episode 3 - 8.8m viewers
 * Episode 4 - 11.9m 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.)

Location Filming

 * 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 telepathicly 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.

Continuity

 * The Second Doctor addresses Benton as Corporal, the rank he held in "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," - which occurred respectively at the conclusions of "The Tenth Planet" and "The War Games."


 * Omega returns again in "Arc of Infinity" and appears in the spin-off adventures "The Infinity Doctors" and "Omega."

DVD, Video and Other Releases
DVD Releases

Released as Doctor Who: The Three Doctors.

Released:
 * Region 2 24th November 2003
 * PAL - BBC DVD BBCDVD1144


 * Region 4 12th November 2003
 * Region 1 2nd March 2004
 * NTSC - Warner Video E1925

Contents:
 * Pebble Mill at One - Bernard Wilkie and Patrick Troughton interviews from Christmas 1973.
 * Blue Peter - Jon Pertwee and the Whomobile in the studio.
 * BSB - Excerpts from BSB '31 Who' weekend.
 * PanoptiCon '93 - Jon Pertwee on stage at PanoptiCon '93
 * Trailers
 * Photo Gallery.
 * Production Subtitles
 * Commentary: Nicholas Courtney, Katy Manning and Barry Letts

Notes: Also released in the UK in a limited edition boxset, including a miniature Bessie model car.

Video Release

Released as Doctor Who: The Three Doctors.

Released:


 * First Release:
 * UK August 1991
 * PAL - BBC Video BBCV4650
 * US January 1992
 * NTSC - CBS/FOX Video 3405
 * NTSC - Warner Video E1100


 * Second Release: Exclusive to W.H. Smith as part of The Time Lord Collection.
 * UK September 2002
 * PAL - BBC Video BBCV7364

Target Novelisations
to be added