Doctor Who: The Five Doctors (UK)

8 / 10
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The Doctor and his previous regenerative versions are abducted
Certificate: U
Running Time: 102 mins
Retail Price: £19.99
Release Date:

Synopsis:
A mysterious figure lures the First, Second, Third and Fifth Doctors to the forbidden Death Zone on Gallifrey, along with many of their companions. There, they travel towards the Tomb of Rassilon, encountering many of their deadliest foes along the way.

When the Fifth Doctor finds a way to teleport himself to the Capitol, however, it soon becomes increasingly clear that something is very wrong - a Time Lord traitor is manipulating the Doctors, searching for the secret of immortality possessed by Rassilon himself.

Special Features:
Interactive Menus
Scene Access

Video Tracks:
Standard 1.33:1

Audio Tracks:
Dolby Digital 5.1 English

Subtitle Tracks:
French
Italian
Spanish
CC: English
Portuguese
Dutch

Directed By:
John Nathan-Turner
Peter Moffatt

Written By:

Starring:
William Hartnell
Tom Baker
Richard Hurndall
Patrick Troughton
Jon Pertwee
Peter Davison

Soundtrack By:
Peter Howell
Ron Grainer

Editor:
M.A.C. Adams

Costume Designer:
Colin Lavers

Production Designer:
Malcolm Thornton

Visual Effects:
Mike Kelt
John Brace

Producer:
Paul Vanezis
John Nathan-Turner
June Collins

Executive Producer:
Sue Kerr

Distributor:
BBC

Your Opinions and Comments

9 / 10
This is classic anniversary story with many elements of the previous 20 years included. The picture is of a high quality, and the surround sound a nice feature. What lets this disc down is the lack of extras. For a programme with such a huge public profile, there should have been a wealth of additional features that could have been included, such as BBC trailors for the story, the various interviews done, to promote the anniversary (Blue Peter, Pebble Mill etc) or even footage from the Longleat anniversary event, and the BBC have let this disc down on this front. It would have been nice to have had the original version of this story included as well (which is now no longer available), but I suppose that as this was one of the BBC`s first released DVD`s they were unwilling to spend time or money on extras until they knew whether it would sell, or not. However, as the recent releases show, they have more than made up for this, and they can always make more money out of us by releasing a special edition!!
posted by andyuk70 on 21/6/2001 19:52
4 / 10
The Five Doctors was the first Doctor Who story to make the transition to DVD and as such appears in different packaging to the later releases. It also contains next-to-no extras (the one it has, an isolated soundtrack, doesn`t work correctly sadly) but does present the story with extra footage and remastered effects, as well as 5.1 Surround Sound. Sadly there is no option to view the story in its original broadcast form. It is also perhaps now a moment to point out for those with multi-region players that the American release contains a rather splendid feature commentary with Peter Davison and script-writer Terrence Dicks (probably the best of the bunch, writing as of 19th Febuary 2005). As the Region 2 release doesn`t match the others in the series of discs it might be worth considering importing that disc.

The plus of the Region 2 release however is a rather charming 16 page booklet detailing the histories of characters from this story and can be used for general swatting-up by those to whom this is their first introduction to the good Doctor. However, if this is to be your first introduction there are better places to start for sure.

The story is a mess, largely because the writer is working in four Doctors and four companions into the narrative (it should really be called the three and a half Doctors - Hartnell had died by this point and was recast here and Baker refused to participate so some old footage is recycled from an abandoned story) and the story follows largely predictable lines. The ending is a nice nod to the past though and it is always good to see Patrick Troughton and Nicholas Courtney reappear. Oh - and the Raston Warrior Robot is fantastic.

Viewed as a celebration of Who the story works (just) but in the context of a story in its own right, it has too many holes and inconsistencies to be taken as a good example of Doctor Who. If you are going to buy it, the Region 2 version is inferior to the Region 1 and so I cannot recommend this edition.
posted by Aidan Brack on 19/2/2005 05:36