One feature length episode
Aired on 23rd November 1983
Written by: Terrence Dicks
Produced by: John Nathan-Turner
Directed by: Peter Moffatt
Synopsis
Someone on Gallifrey is using a Time Scoop to pick the Doctor out of his timeline at various points in his life, including during his previous incarnations. To assist these Doctors, they also take various companions that each Doctor will be familiar with.
The exception to this is the Fourth Doctor and Romana who accidentally get trapped in the vortex when the mysterious figure tries to transport them with the Time Scoop.
This has a painful side effect for the Fifth Doctor, who is chilling out with Tegan and Turlough at the Eye of Orion.
It makes him weak and he begins to fade in and out of existence. Luckily, he's aware of why and he sets the TARDIS in motion to try and track down the source of it.
Once they land, the Doctor collapses and Tegan and Turlough are pretty powerless to do anything. Not long after this, the First Doctor and Susan, his Granddaughter walk into the TARDIS, having just escaped from a mirrored maze where they defeated a Dalek.
Being in the area where his previous selves are presumably located, allows the fifth Doctor to recover. Between himself and the first Doctor, they come to the realisation that they're on Gallifrey in the Death Zone.
Meanwhile, the second Doctor meets up with Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge Stewart at his reunion in UNIT.
They're both taken by the time scoop and when the second Doctor sees a great tower in the distance, he also realises that they're in the Death Zone. He explains that it's the tower of Rassilon, where the great first Time Lord is buried. Legend has it that the Death Zone was created by ancient Time Lords when they were sadistic and compassionate. They used the zone like the Romans used the Colosseum, putting people and creatures in it for sport. The tower of Rassilon was added after as a resting place for Rassilon himself. Although he's supposed to be the greatest of all Time Lords, rumour has it that Rassilon was crazy and a bit of a tyrant too.
The second Doctor knows that the only way out of the Death Zone is to get to the tower, and so they set off.
In the Citadel on Gallifrey, the High Council (led by Borusa) calls in the Master, employing him to track down the Doctors and bringing them out, back to the Citadel. They give him a seal of the High Council and a transmat device. In return, the Master will be given a full set of regenerations. The Master accepts.
On his travels, the Master meets the third Doctor, but fails to convince him that he's there to help.
Strange laser bolts come from the sky and attack them, leading the third Doctor to believe that it was the Master. The laser bolts hit Bessie and the Doctor and Sarah Jane are forced to carry on via foot to the tower.
After some debate with himself, the fifth Doctor takes Tegan and Susan out into the zone to go to the main entrance to the Tower of Rassilon.
They can't take the TARDIS straight there because of a force field stopping it. On their way, they meet the Master too. The fifth Doctor is similarly distrusting, but their conversation is broken up when they're all attacked by Cybermen.
The Doctor uses the Master's dropped transmat device and goes to the Citadel whilst Tegan and Susan make it back to the TARDIS. The Master is captured by the Cybermen.
Once at the citadel, the Doctor realises that the Master was telling the truth. He begins to uncover the insidious plot, implicating someone from the high council of being behind all of this. Evidence is found to suggest that the Castelan is responsible, but he protests his innocence and he's shot and killed before he can confess.
Meanwhile, the second Doctor and the Brigadier are forced to flee from Cybermen into a series of caves beneath the tower. They encounter a Yeti and are almost trapped when the roof falls in, but they find a way out and continue into the tower.
The third Doctor has similar troubles as he and Sarah Jane encounter a Raston Warrior Robot.
Luckily, the robot gets distracted by a group of Cybermen that turn up and they take their chance, getting hold of some rope and javelins nearby to help them scale the mountain at the side of the tower.
They use the steel rope and hook it onto the top of the tower, zip-lining out onto the top entrance of the tower.
Tegan manages to convince the first Doctor of the necessity to go to the tower, and they get to the main entrance, unmolested. Turlough and Susan await the force field going down so they can transport the TARDIS.
Whilst at the tower, Tegan and the Doctor find a trapped floor, something that another encounter with the Master solves - they hide as the Master tricks the Cybermen into going across and getting killed.
The second and third doctors both meet phantasms of past companions within the tower, but overcome them, knowing that it's a mind trick created by Rassilon's will.
Eventually, the First, Second and Third Doctors all meet up in the Tomb of Rassilon and begin to decipher what the old high gallifreyan inscriptions on the tomb mean.
They drop the force field and Turlough and Susan take the TARDIS there just in time to avoid being blown up by a cyber-bomb.
Back in the citadel, the fifth Doctor uncovers a secret room and finds Borusa in there. He is behind it all - he brought the Doctor's to the Death Zone because the Tomb of Rassilon gives people the chance to become immortal and he wanted it so that he could rule forever.
Now the force field is down, he transmats into the tomb and takes the Doctor with him.
The spirit of Rassilon appears and asks Borusa if he really wants immortality.
The second Doctor insists that the others keep out of it and vouches for Borusa. Rassilon smiles and turns Borusa into stone, giving him permanent immortality in the side of his casket.
The second Doctor explains that it was all in the inscriptions - "he who wins shall lose and he who loses shall win".
Rassilon agrees to send the other Doctors back as well as the companions and they all say their farewells.
Chancellor Flavia, the remaining member of the High Council turns up and praises the Doctor, appointing him the new President. The Doctor asks her to convene other members and says he'll be right back, retreating into the TARDIS quickly.
Tegan is disappointed but the Doctor says he's running away, just like he did the first time.
Trivia
- This celebration was conceived two years before it aired, but there was by no means a story worked on for that long. The original script was to have been produced by Robert Holmes, the show's greatest writer.
- Robert Holmes got on with Eric Saward, but he had no love for Nathan-Turner and his huge list of things that the story had to have shoe-horned in. His script eventually got adapted and used as the hub for the Two Doctors, but he passed up the chance to finish this one off.
- The team therefore turned to Terrence Dicks, calling him at 3am (because he was at a convention in New Orleans) and asking him to come on-board.
- The completion of the script came fairly late as Tom Baker kept running hot and cold as to whether he was going to be in it or not. The publicity shots eventually used his waxwork from Madame Tusaude's when it was clear he wasn't going to be in it. He did however suggest using the footage from Shada.
- The Death Zone was filmed in south wales and as it looks on the screen, it was freezing
- There was so much to do and film for this project that Director Peter Moffatt had to ask John Nathan-Turner to help him out and shoot some footage. At least part of the Cyberman vs Raston Warrior Robot scene was filmed by JNT himself.
- The Five Doctors was shown during Children in Need, starting a tradition that would run on for a number of years
The Review
I began this very blog by stating that my earliest memories of the show were from this story and that they'd stuck with me even now. For a look back on that, see here.
Now that I've watched the show in sequence up to this point, it has slightly diminished my love for this story, especially as it's quite upsetting to see that Borusa is the main bad guy. It by no means spoils it though, and here's the reason why. There's lots of inconsistencies and out of character moments to pick out of it, but the the difference to other low scoring stories is that a tight, coherent story wasn't ever really in John Nathan-Turner's mind at the time.
The Five Doctors was there to give a slideshow of classic villains, doctors and companions, and in that, it absolutely gets it right. As other sources have pointed out, the public could have gotten a series of interviews with the cast instead (as would happen ten and twenty years later). At least the Five Doctors was meant to be given something of a high-stakes adventure for us all to enjoy.
The music is pretty great, and the feel of nostalgia is also good, especially if watched in 1983 when there was little chance of going back and seeing older Doctors strut their stuff. The Raston scene is brilliant and gives a real sense of tension, even if Jon Pertwee can't stop moving and talking as he tells Sarah Jane to not move or talk.
At the end of the day, yes, there's significant faults in logic (e.g. if they can give the Master a full set of regeneration's just like that, why does Borusa need Rassilon?). That doesn't mean that this isn't a very entertaining story. If I give the Sea Devils 10 out of 10, then The Five Doctors surely deserves it too.
10 out of 10!
Re-watchability Factor
10 out of 10!
Watch this if you liked...- The Two Doctors
- Day of the Doctor (Doctor Who, 50th Anniversary)
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