The Doctor (Jon Pertwee) faces a an ancient foe who is draining energy from this universe by a black hole which is a gateway to an anti-matter universe.  The Time Lords can only help by sending two previous versions of the Doctor (Patrick Troughton and William Hartnell) to the current Doctor.  Together, they face an ancient Time Lord known as Omega who wants to destroy the Time Lords.

THE THREE DOCTORS  started with fans wanting to see all of the Doctors together for a story.   At first, producer Barry Letts and script editor Barry Letts resisted.  Then they decided to try the idea for the 10th anniversary series, but they had to see if the other two actors who played the Doctor up to that point wanted to do it.   After having to work to Patrick Troughton's schedule as an actor and rewrite William Hartnell's role due to Hartnell's illness, THE THREE DOCTORS was a go.   Writers Bob Baker and Dave Martin's original storyline was changed from the Doctors having to fight Death to fighting an old Time Lord named Ohm (Who backwards and upsides down).   Barry Letts didn't like the name Ohm and the character was renamed Omega.

THE THREE DOCTORS has the same level of quality as the Third Doctor stories of the time.   It also allows to use all three actors for the role of the Doctor to be involved in the story in addition to introducing more to the Time Lords mythology and freeing the show up again to other type of stories again.      Out of the stories to feature multiple Doctors, this one is the best.   TEH FIVE DOCTORS manages to showcase four of five Doctors and use the other one via a clip from an unfinished story, but I think that story focused on too many characters  and didn't provide a Time Lords mythology story as good as the one written for THE THREE DOCTORS.   This 10th anniversary story balanced storytelling with fan wish fulfillment where the 20th anniversary story THE FIVE DOCTORS gave into too much wish fulfillment and trying to feature too many characters and old DOCTOR WHO villains.   Omega and his army of bad guys work where THE FIVE DOCTORS fail to have enough of a cohesive villain to threaten the characters for an entire story.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Audio commentary with producer Barry Letts, actors Katy Manning (Jo Grant) and Nicholas Courtney (Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart).   It is a warm and entertaining commentary.

Production Notes subtitle option

PEBBLE MILL AT ONE- archival interviews with Second Doctor Patrick Troughton and special effects wizard  Bernard Wilkie

BLUE PETER- Jon Pertwee introduces the Whomobile in addition to the blue Peter gang talking about Doctor Who monsters

BSB 1990 DOCTOR WHO weekend features interviews with the cast and writers of THE THREE DOCTORS

THE FIVE FACES OF DOCTOR WHO trailer

DOCTOR WHO 40th anniversary trailer

DISC 2-

HAPPY BITHDAY TO WHO- 23 minute making-of documentary that goes over the origins and production of THE THREE DOCTORS

WAS DOCTOR WHO RUBBISH?- fans fight back against criticism about the original series and all of the fan's defending points are valid.   They make the point the critics focused on the weak points of the series instead of the strong points.

GIRLS, GIRLS, GIRLS- THE 1970S- an interview with Caroline John (Liz Shaw), Katy Manning (Jo Grant), and Louise Jameson (Leela) talk about how the 1970s changed the roles of Doctor Who companions to bring in a wider audience, how it was work with Jon Pertwee and tom Baker in addition to if they were role models for feminism.

Photo Gallery of production stills and promotional photos.

PDF Materials show the Radio Times Listings.

FINAL ANALYSIS:   THE THREE DOCTORS is still the best (and first) story to feature multiple Doctors.    The extras are excellent as usual for a Classic DOCTOR WHO release with the various interviews (new and archival) being the highlight.

this DVD review is (c)3-18-2012 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com