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Serial 6K: The Five Doctors
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| Plot |
| Production |
Reid passed Nathan-Turner's suggestion along to BBC1 Controller Alan Hart, who turned it down. However, Hart was not unsympathetic to Nathan-Turner's intent, and suggested that perhaps a ninety-minute special could air between seasons in November 1983. Since Nathan-Turner became Doctor Who's producer with Season Eighteen, the programme had received a budget sufficient for twenty-eight episodes. For Season Nineteen, two episodes' worth had been diverted into the spin-off K-9 And Company, and Hart suggested that Season Twenty similarly run just twenty-six episodes, with the remaining money held off for an anniversary telefilm. (In the event, Season Twenty would run only twenty-two episodes when industrial action by the BBC's electricians union forced the abandonment of its final four-part story.)
It was thought that additional funding might come from BBC Enterprises, the commercial wing of the Corporation, who reaped considerable benefits from the extremely merchandisible Doctor Who. When approached by Nathan-Turner, Head of Enterprises Bryon Parkin was interested in the notion, but it quickly became clear that an agreement could not be put in place in time to fund the anniversary special's production. It was Hart who ultimately found the cash when, around May 1982, he agreed that the BBC would co-produce the telefilm with the Australian Broadcasting Commission. ABC, who had been broadcasting Doctor Who since the Sixties and had already coproduced such science-fiction fare as Day Of The Triffids and the second season of Tripods with the BBC, would chip in AUS$60,000 to fulfill their end of the bargain.
With the funding now in place, Nathan-Turner and script editor Eric Saward turned to the business of actually putting the special together. They were in agreement that -- following the lead of the tenth anniversary adventure, The Three Doctors -- the telefilm would feature a reunion of all the incarnations of the Doctor, along with as many companions as was feasible. Because William Hartnell, who had played the First Doctor, passed away in 1975, that role would have to be recast, and Nathan-Turner was concerned that the serial acknowledge this out of respect for Hartnell. In line with their personal preferences, Nathan-Turner wanted the Master to appear, while Saward argued for him to be in league with the Cybermen. They agreed that the Daleks would not be considered due to the difficulties involved in operating the creatures for location filming, which would form a substantial part of the special.
Early on, Nathan-Turner managed to secure the involvement of several artistes. Second and Third Doctors Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee were both interested. Unfortunately, Troughton would be making Foxy Lady for Granada during April 1983, which is when Nathan-Turner had planned to schedule location filming; this would have to be bumped ahead to March as a result. Carole Ann Ford (Susan) and Nicholas Courtney (the Brigadier) also agreed to appear. Nathan-Turner wanted to pair each Doctor up with a suitable companion, and this meant Susan could accompany the First Doctor, while the Brigadier would join the Third.
The producer envisaged Lalla Ward returning alongside husband Tom Baker to reunite the Fourth Doctor with the Second Romana. Unfortunately, their breakup -- revealed by the tabloids on May 1st, 1982 -- scuttled these plans, so Nathan-Turner quickly engaged the services of Elisabeth Sladen to play Sarah Jane Smith. Nathan-Turner also hoped that, since Sarah Jane was Baker's favourite companion, this would encourage the former Fourth Doctor participate in the special. Nathan-Turner knew that, of all the ex-Doctors, Baker would be the most reluctant to commit.
Meanwhile, Saward argued strongly for Robert Holmes to be offered the job of scripting the telefilm. Saward had been viewing a number of old serials, and had been impressed by Holmes' time as Doctor Who's script editor, particularly such Holmes-written fare as The Talons Of Weng Chiang. Holmes had last written for the series during Season Sixteen, contributing both The Ribos Operation and The Power Of Kroll. Nathan-Turner was less enthusiastic, but ultimately consented in June 1982. Holmes, always preferring to create new characters, was unhappy with the idea of having to include so many previously-established players, and felt himself unsuited to the task at hand. Nonetheless, he agreed to give the matter some thought.
The storyline invented by Holmes was titled The Six Doctors. In it, the Second through Fifth Doctors are lured to the planet Maladoom by the Master and the Cybermen. The Cybermen are trying to determine the element of Time Lord physiology which makes them distinct from all other races, and have selected the Doctors as their guinea pigs. To aid them in their ploy, they have created cybernetic versions of the First Doctor and Susan (thereby explaining the recasting of Hartnell's role; this also inspired Holmes' title). After defeating the Cybermen, the Doctors must also stop the Master, who has supercharged his TARDIS to create a time paradox which threatens all of time and space. (As a variation on this, Holmes suggested that -- instead of drawing all the incarnations to Maladoom -- the Master's time paradox could cause the Fifth Doctor to regress backward through his regenerations. However, this made the issue of including various companions much trickier.)
A full story breakdown was commissioned from Holmes on August 4th, but even at this point, Saward and Nathan-Turner were becoming concerned. Saward suggested they seek out a reserve storyline, and on the 8th he contacted Terrance Dicks -- another former Doctor Who script editor, who had last written State Of Decay for Season Eighteen. Dicks agreed, and also began to develop an idea under Holmes' The Six Doctors title. Holmes' version progressed throughout August and September, with Holmes going so far as to write the first twenty minutes of his script. On October 13th, however, Saward concluded that things were not working out, and terminated work on Holmes' draft. Aware that the circumstances were not to the writer's preference, Saward offered him a story slot for Season Twenty-One, something Holmes indicated he was very keen on.
On October 18th, Dicks was given the go-ahead to develop his version of The Six Doctors. On September 6th, William Hartnell's widow, Heather, had responded to a letter from Nathan-Turner indicating that not only did she approve of another actor playing an "impostor" First Doctor, she did not object to the notion of her husband's role itself being recast for the anniversary special. With this in mind, the concept of the android First Doctor and Susan was dropped, and Dicks' storyline was retitled The Five Doctors. It was under this name that Dicks' script was formally commissioned on November 16th. Determined to include William Hartnell in the telefilm in some capacity, however, Nathan-Turner decided to use a clip from the Season Two serial The Dalek Invasion Of Earth featuring the star as a pre-credits hook.
A major blow to the special came just before Christmas. On December 7th, during location filming for The King's Demons, Nathan-Turner met with Tom Baker in Brighton (where the actor was starring in the play Educating Rita), and believed he had won Baker's commitment to appear in The Five Doctors. However, on the 17th Baker's agent telephoned Nathan-Turner to say that Baker had never, in fact, guaranteed his appearance, and indeed had now changed his mind entirely. According to the agent, Baker now believed that it had been too short a span of time since he left Doctor Who to permit a return appearance.
This was a catastrophic decision, because not only did it mean that The Five Doctors would now really only feature three Doctors, but Dicks had also included a sizeable role for the Fourth Doctor in his script. Originally, it was the Fourth Doctor who travelled to the Capitol, while the Fifth Doctor went on to the Dark Tower and the First Doctor remained behind in the TARDIS with Susan and Turlough. Dicks had also included a subplot casting suspicion on the Fourth Doctor as the villain of the piece, since he felt Baker's incarnation was the most likely to "go bad". With the loss of Baker, Dicks rearranged his storyline so that the Fifth Doctor went to the Capitol and the First Doctor travelled to the Tower with Tegan. To ensure that the Fourth Doctor still had a presence in The Five Doctors, Nathan-Turner hit upon the idea of using clips of the Fourth Doctor and Romana from Shada, a serial originally destined to be the finale of Season Seventeen which had been shut down mid-production by a labour dispute. Baker and Lalla Ward consented to the use of these segments, and Dicks devised the subplot of the two of them being trapped in a time eddy to explain the Fourth Doctor's absence from the main action.
Ironically, though, Baker's decision not to participate in The Five Doctors resolved another problem facing Dicks. As it transpired, none of The Second Doctor's companions were available for the production. Michael Craze (Ben Jackson) and Anneke Wills (Polly) had both retired from acting; Frazer Hines (Jamie McCrimmon) was busy with the soap opera Emmerdale Farm; Deborah Watling (Victoria Waterfield) was involved in a theatrical production and The Dave Allen Show; and Wendy Padbury (Zoe Heriot) was pregnant. With Baker no longer a consideration, this meant that Sarah Jane could be shifted back to join the Third Doctor while the Brigadier would instead partner up with the Second Doctor.
Several other companion appearances similarly fell through. Originally, Katy Manning (Jo Grant) was to join the Third Doctor and the Brigadier, until it was realised that the actress was now living in Australia, and the cost to fly her back to England for The Five Doctors proved prohibitive. John Levene (Benton) was to appear as Colonel Crichton's second-in-command, but Levene had just moved to the United States. Prior to Baker's decision to back out of the special, Nathan-Turner had hoped that Ian Marter (Harry Sullivan) might also appear alongside the Fourth Doctor; Nathan-Turner had previously tried to include the character in Mawdryn Undead, until scheduling difficulties dictated otherwise. Unfortunately, Marter was once again unavailable, as he was in the midst of a six-month television contract in New Zealand. Finally, it was briefly thought that Louise Jameson might make a cameo appearance as Leela during one of the Capitol scenes, but Jameson could not make time in her schedule.
On the other hand, it was Dicks who argued for several characters to be included whom Nathan-Turner and Saward did not originally intend to take part. These included the Dalek, K-9, and Borusa. The latter was brought in to replace the Master as the mastermind behind the events, when it became clear to Dicks that the Master was simply too obvious a culprit to fool viewers. Also, the creature encountered by the Second Doctor and the Brigadier in the caves was not originally a Yeti, but simply an unspecified monster. One segment lost due to timing reasons, however, was a sequence in which the Third Doctor rescues Sarah Jane from a platoon of Autons. This was replaced by the briefer scene set on a steep hillside.
Nathan-Turner's first choice to direct The Five Doctors was Waris Hussein, who had helmed the very first Doctor Who story, 100,000 BC (as well as another Season One serial, Marco Polo). Hussein was not interested in the assignment, however. The producer then approached Doctor Who veteran Douglas Camfield, whose last work had been on Season Thirteen's The Seeds Of Doom. Camfield, though, was still hurt by an earlier refusal of Nathan-Turner's to consider him for Doctor Who work -- Nathan-Turner being keen at the time to use only new directors in an effort to modernise the series -- and reluctantly turned down the request. The next logical step was for Nathan-Turner to turn to his regular stable of directors; Fiona Cumming was still busy on Enlightenment and the producer's relationship with Peter Grimwade was on the decline, so this left Peter Moffatt, who had recently wrapped up Mawdryn Undead.
A major task for Moffatt, along with Nathan-Turner, was to find somebody to play the First Doctor. Initially under consideration was Geoffrey Bayldon (who had played Organon in Season Seventeen's The Creature From The Pit). However, unofficial fan adviser Ian Levine remembered Richard Hurndall from the Assassin episode of Blake's 7, and suggested the actor to Nathan-Turner; it was Hurndall who ultimately won the role. Hurndall was chiefly a radio performer, although he had appeared in numerous plays, films and TV series over the course of his lengthy career, including Whodunnit (with Jon Pertwee) and Bergerac. Amongst other casting decisions, Moffatt managed to rehire Paul Jerricho to play the Castellan, a role he had originated in Arc Of Infinity. It was hoped that Elspet Grey and Leonard Sachs, who had appeared alongside Jerricho as Thalia and Borusa, would also reprise their roles for The Five Doctors. When neither performer proved available, the character of Thalia was replaced by the similar Flavia (played by Dinah Sheridan), while Philip Latham was brought in as the fourth actor to play Borusa (the others being Sachs, Angus Mackay in Season Fourteen's The Deadly Assassin, and John Arnatt in the subsequent year's The Invasion Of Time).
Location filming on The Five Doctors -- given the production code 6K originally assigned to The Return, the aborted Dalek serial which was to conclude Season Twenty -- began on March 5th, 1983. The increased budget for the telefilm allowed Moffatt to go farther afield than would normally be the case, and after briefly contemplating shooting in Scotland, the director settled on locations in Wales, principally around Gwynedd and Ffestiniog. Buckinghamshire was also used for some material. Nathan-Turner jumped into the director's shoes for the first time in his career, performing some second unit work with the Cybermen while Moffatt toiled elsewhere. The Third Doctor's car, Bessie, made her return to the series for the first time since Robot in Season Twelve. Nathan-Turner managed to convince BBC Exhibitions to help pay for the automobile's refurbishment, with the understanding that Exhibitions would be allowed to use Bessie after filming was completed.
A major difficulty arose on the 15th, the day the scene of the Doctor and Sarah making their way from the mountainside to the Dark Tower was to be recorded. Dicks had originally thought that the Third Doctor might turn his cape into a hangglider. When this proved unfeasible, he scripted it so that the Doctor constructs a bow and arrow from the debris he finds. Pertwee objected to this as being entirely improbable, and ultimately Moffatt and Nathan-Turner concurred. Pausing the production for an hour, they finally conceived the lasso as a more plausible plot device. On the penultimate day, March 17th, a press photocall was held which it was hoped Tom Baker might attend. This did not transpire, but just in case, Nathan-Turner had requested that a wax replica of the actor from Madame Tussauds be present if needed. The use of the dummy was a source of much merriment for the cast.
The Five Doctors then moved to the studio for three days beginning March 29th. The new TARDIS console and control room, the first redesign since 1977, made their first appearances at this point. Some aspects of Dicks' script were still being refined in the days leading up to the studio session. The final change of all involved the scene featuring the phantom Jamie and Zoe (Padbury's pregnancy prevented her from taking a large role in the special, but she was happy to accept this brief appearance). Prior to March 10th, this sequence featured Victoria and Zoe instead, with the Doctor realising the pair are fakes when Victoria refers to Lethbridge-Stewart as "Brigadier" (she had encountered him prior to his promotion from Colonel). Deborah Watling had to drop out at the last minute because of a change in the shooting schedule of The Dave Allen Show, but fortunately Frazer Hines was able to take time out from Emmerdale Farm to tape his cameo appearance. Dicks, aware of the volatile nature of the two phantom-companion scenes had in fact prepared a back-up sequence in which Sarah Jane is attacked by a false Third Doctor, just in case.
For postproduction, composer Peter Howell devised a special version of the end titles music combining the original theme with the updated Eighties arrangement he had devised. For the clip of the First Doctor from The Dalek Invasion Of Earth, video effects designer Dave Chapman elected to give it a rose tint, so that the segue from monochrome to colour would be less jarring. At Nathan-Turner's request, the Shada clip originally selected for the final scene involving the Fourth Doctor and Romana -- set at the gates of Cambridge -- was replaced by one in which they dematerialise in the TARDIS. Nathan-Turner felt this matched up better with the departures of the other Doctors. Meanwhile, it was decided to prepare both a ninety-minute version of The Five Doctors and a version edited into four installments which could be used for both international distribution and later potential rebroadcasting. The episode endings used were Sarah falling down the slope; Susan and Turlough discovering the Cybermen are attacking the TARDIS; and the Master appearing in the Dark Tower behind the First Doctor and Tegan.
Although it was originally hoped that The Five Doctors would air on the precise date of Doctor Who's twentieth anniversary, this was ultimately changed to two days later, November 25th. This meant that, for the first time ever, an episode would premiere outside the UK, as PBS station WTTW in Chicago transmitted The Five Doctors on the 23rd to coincide with the Spirit of the Light convention about to take place in that city. The Five Doctors also marked the only time that a Target novelisation appeared on bookshelves before a serial's broadcast. The book was actually slated for release during the last week of November, but a distribution error resulted in its early availability, much to Nathan-Turner's dismay. The BBC's television listings magazine, Radio Times, honoured The Five Doctors with a cover, the first time this had happened since the Pertwee era and the lone such occurrence of the Eighties.
| Details |
| Date | Time | Duration | Viewers | Audience App. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25th November 1983 | 7.20pm | 90'23" | 7.7m (54th) | 75% |
| Producer | John Nathan-Turner |
| Script Editor | Eric Saward |
| Writer | Terrance Dicks |
| Director | Peter Moffatt |
| John Nathan-Turner, uncredited | |
| Designer | Malcolm Thornton |
| Costume | Colin Lavers |
| Incidental Music | Peter Howell |
Principal Guest Cast: Anthony Ainley (The Master), David Banks (Cyber Leader), Paul Jerricho (Castellan), Mark Hardy (Cyber Lieutenant), Richard Hurndall (The First Doctor), Philip Latham (Borusa), Richard Mathews (Rassilon), David Savile (Colonel Crichton), Dinah Sheridan (Flavia).
Novelisation: The Five Doctors by Terrance Dicks (book 81), November 1983; covers by Andrew Skilleter, Alister Pearson (1991).
Video Release: The Five Doctors, September 1985; PAL (BBC Video cat.# 2020) and NTSC (CBS/FOX cat.# 3717) formats available; cover by Andrew Skilleter. Rereleased unedited in 1990; PAL (BBC Video cat.# 4387) format available; cover by Alister Pearson. Rereleased with new scenes and remastered special effects in 1995 as The Five Doctors Special Edition/The King's Demons (NTSC title: The Five Doctors Collector's Edition/The King's Demons); two tapes; PAL (BBC Video cat.# 5734) and NTSC (Warners cat.# E1113) formats available; cover by Colin Howard (PAL release), Alister Pearson (NTSC release).
DVD Release: The Five Doctors Special Edition/The King's Demons, episodic format, November 1999; Region 2/4 (BBCDVD cat.# 1006) and Region 1 (Warners cat.# E1596) formats available; covers by Colin Howard (Region 2/4) and photomontage (Region 1). Extras include cast biographies and an isolated soundtrack; the Region 1 release also includes commentary by Peter Davison and Terrance Dicks.
Rankings: 11th (78.05%, Doctor Who Dynamic Rankings website, 22nd June 1999); 23rd (79.38%, DWM 1997 Annual Survey).
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