“The Five Doctors” is my favorite of the Classic Who crossovers. For one it debuts my favorite TARDIS console and my favorite classic Doctor, the Fifth. It also brings all the Doctors that existed together…or at least tried to. William Hartnell had passed away at this point, his role taken over by Richard Hurdnall. He does a fair job as the Doctor but he’s not the same as Hartnell. He’s taller and his performance isn’t trying to emulate Hartnell. So based on your opinion on that you’ll have to decide if you’re okay with it. To their credit, he’s not a bad Doctor and we do get the scene where he says goodbye to Susan, the “one day I’ll come back” part matching up with the character at least coming back. It’s a nice tribute.
We also don’t get Tom Baker’s return. Due to scheduling conflicts, Baker was unable to attend. Even in promotional images they used a wax mannequin in place of Baker, and you can tell if you see a good enough quality picture. Instead, footage from the then unfinished “Shada” was used to show the Fifth’s abduction with Romana, with something going wrong for our villain as it did getting the First Doctor into the previous incarnations. Originally unfinished due to strikes, the episode would later get a video release with Baker narrating the unfilmed parts, and years later would get a semi-animated completion thanks to Cosgrove Hall, who already did the lost episode remakes, filling in the gaps with as many of the same actors as they could get. Also, Baker doesn’t seem to like having his Doctor work with others, so I wouldn’t be surprised if that was part of it.
The story: someone is taking the previous lives of the Fifth Doctor, sending them and fan favorite Companions (though some have a different way of making a cameo) to the “Dead Zone” on Gallifrey. Who is behind this, and can the current Doctor, Tegan, and Turlough bring the other Doctors together? Enjoy.
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