Doctor Who: The Three Doctors

The Three Doctors is the first serial of the tenth season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, first broadcast in four weekly parts on BBC1 from 30 December 1972 to 20 January 1973.

A superluminal signal is sent to Earth, carrying with it an energy blob that seems intent on capturing the Doctor. The homeworld of the Time Lords is also under siege, their power being drained through a black hole. Trapped themselves, and desperate to send help, the Time Lords do the unthinkable, breaking the First Law of Time by recruiting a previous incarnation of the Doctor from his own past.

As the Second Doctor cannot get along with the present Third Doctor, they attempt to retrieve the First Doctor to “keep them in order”, but he is trapped in a “time eddy”, unable to fully materialise, communicating through a viewscreen.

The Doctors investigate, while UNIT headquarters faces an attack by shapeless blob-like creatures. The First Doctor realises that the black hole is a bridge between universes, so they allow the TARDIS to be swallowed up by the energy creature, finding themselves in an antimatter universe created by the legendary Time Lord Omega, a solar engineer who created the supernova that powers Time Lord civilisation, but which also supposedly killed him.

In fact, he remains trapped in his antimatter universe, whose reality is maintained by his will alone (or as described by Omega himself, the “…Atlas of [his] world…”).

Omega seeks revenge on those who he imagines left him stranded, and intends for the Doctors to take his place maintaining the reality of his antimatter universe. When Omega prepares to leave with the help of the Second and Third Doctors, they are horrified to discover that exposure to the effects of the black hole’s singularity have destroyed Omega’s physical body: he cannot leave, for the existence of his essence is also only maintained by his will as well; the moment he relinquishes control, he and the antimatter universe will cease to exist. Omega now demands that the Doctors share his exile.

The two Doctors, with the help of the First, propose a way to deceive Omega, by offering him a force field generator. In a rage at this paltry offer, Omega knocks it over and the Second Doctor’s recorder falls out of it (having fallen into it earlier, thus remaining unconverted normal matter), annihilating everything it meets in the antimatter universe in a flash, returning the Doctors in the TARDIS, and all the stolen structures and objects, to their universe. With the Time Lords’ power restored, they return the First and Second Doctors to their respective time periods.

Forlorn, The Doctor reflects on the recent events. The Third Doctor explains to Jo that death was the only freedom anyone could offer Omega. Out of forgiveness, the Time Lords then send the Third Doctor a new dematerialisation circuit for the TARDIS and restore his knowledge of how to travel through space and time.

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To view the list of other Doctor Who serials, please click this link

Doctor Who Episode Guides for Sale on Amazon

Step aboard the TARDIS and journey across the universe with every incarnation of The Doctor in this series of unofficial Doctor Who episode companions.

This collection of twelve books explores every televised adventure of the Time Lord’s lives.

Each volume in the series delves into a different Doctor’s era, offering detailed episode guides, behind-the-scenes insights, character profiles, and story synopses.

Once you have clicked the link, choose which book you want, and then whether you want to buy the Kindle (eBook) or Paperback versions.

Previews are available before you buy.

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