Doctor Who turn 50 part 3.5: The Three Doctors

Yes, I'm going outside the boundaries of our one serial a Doctor rule to include the serial with multiple Doctors. Look we discussed last time I'm struggling to not watch more, and these episodes have always intrigued me. Besides, it fits with the 50th having Ten and Eleven meeting the mysterious Non-Doctor.

Here we have the whole universe at stake and some high up Time Lords decide to break their own rules and let The Doctor team up with his previous selves. Troughton's more than solidified as awesome here, and the interplay between him and Pertwee is amazing. Shame Hartnell is banished to a TV screen, but even there it's clear he's a lot older. The Time Lords felt a little odd compared not only to what we know today, but also what we saw in War Games.

Another that benefits from this serial is Jo, who gets a far better showing her then in The Daemons. She not only contributes, but also adds to the conversation in a intelligent manner. Either she's learnt of lot in the intervening years, or the writing was a lot better here.

Ah yes, the writing. It starts of really well, the first two parts are brilliant, but once everyone heads over to the anti-matter dimension things start to fall apart quickly. Omega was a bit shouty and his helmet was a stretch too far, though the reveal towards the end more than makes up for it. For me, Daemons was a good story badly executed, while this was a middling story well executed, for the first half.

This so shortly after War Games and Daemons, so we've had Time Lords in charge, War Chief and the Master, I can see why the Time Lords have been removed from the board these days. They feel a lot less special appearing all over the place. I have the feeling this is artificial with me jumping around Doctor Who's timeline. These appearances could have been separated by years, so I'll forgive it.

It was also cool seeing how the Doctor gets the use of the Tardis back, and nice tail ender to seeing him lose it in War Games, then him stuck on Earth in The Daemons. Though I'm confused because early on Jo and the Doctor clearly talk about the fact he's been travelling? At one point he outright says he's going to head off-planet to lure the creatures away. Again, my fault for jumping around.

I actually really enjoyed The Three Doctors, more than The Daemons too. I don't regret this detour. Both Two and Three are elevated by this, only Hartnell (who was my favourite so far) didn't but he was barely in it. Though we'll see how we fair with Five and Two Doctors later on.