Doctor Who: The Five Doctors

The Five Doctors is a special feature-length episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, produced in celebration of the programme’s 20th anniversary. It had its world premiere in the United States, on the Chicago PBS station WTTW and various other PBS member stations on 23 November 1983, the anniversary date. It was transmitted on BBC1 in the United Kingdom two days later.

An unknown entity uses the Time Scoop to bring several of the previous incarnations of the Doctor; his former companions Susan Foreman, Sarah Jane Smith, and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart; and his enemies the Daleks, the Cybermen, a Raston Warrior Robot and a Yeti, from their respective time streams into the Death Zone on Gallifrey.

The entity’s attempt to grab the Fourth Doctor and Romana ends up trapping the two in the time vortex. The Fifth Doctor senses the disruption of his own timeline, and with his own companions Tegan and Turlough, travels to Gallifrey via his TARDIS, also ending up in the Death Zone, unable to travel farther with the TARDIS due to a force field projected by the Tomb of Rassilon, the tower at the centre of the Death Zone. The various Doctors lead their companions towards the Tower while avoiding the hostile forces.

At the Citadel on Gallifrey, the High Council of Time Lords have also detected the disturbance in the Doctor’s timeline and the power drain from the Time Scoop, and Lord President Borusa has the Master, the Doctor’s arch-nemesis, summoned to help rescue the Doctor, offering the Master a new set of regenerations and a pardon for his misdeeds if he succeeds.

The Master accepts, and is given a recall device by the Castellan and a copy of the High Council’s seal before he is transmatted to the Zone. The Master encounters the Third Doctor, who dismisses him and accuses him of making the seal himself, before finding the Fifth just as they are surrounded by Cybermen. The Master is knocked out by a Cyberman’s gun firing, and the Doctor finds and uses the recall device to return to the Citadel.

When the Master awakes, he makes a pact with the Cybermen to lead them to the Tower if they will give him his life but tricks them into falling for the Death Zone’s traps. The Cybermen, too, have an ulterior motive, planning to kill the Master when he outlives his usefulness.

As the other Doctors and companions converge on the Tower, the Fifth Doctor works with the Council, discovering the recall device given to the Master included a tracking signal to lead the Cybermen to him, and foul play is suspected. The Castellan is found to possess the forbidden Black Scrolls of Rassilon, and he dies while attempting to escape an invasive mind probe.

When the Doctor returns to the High Council’s chamber to report, he finds Borusa missing, and soon discovers a secret room with Borusa at the controls of the Time Scoop. Borusa reveals he seeks to be the President Eternal of Gallifrey and needed the Doctors to disable the force field over the Tomb in order to gain immortality from Rassilon’s Ring and rule forever. Borusa uses his headgear, the Coronet of Rassilon, to compel the Doctor to do his bidding.

Meanwhile, the Master meets the First Doctor and Tegan and rids himself of the Cybermen by letting them fall victim to a giant chessboard rigged with a laser trap, before killing the Cyberleader with one of his subordinates’ guns.

As Borusa expected, the other three Doctors and their companions have made it to the tomb chamber, bypassing the Yeti and Raston Warrior Robot, as well as phantoms of the Doctor’s former companions Jamie McCrimmon, Zoe Heriot, Liz Shaw and Mike Yates. They ponder the meaning of writing in the tomb: “to lose is to win and he who wins shall lose”.

The Master arrives in the Tomb, but the Doctors’ companions tie him up, with the Brigadier knocking him out for good measure. The Doctors disable the force field to summon the TARDIS, the Third Doctor using his catchphrase of “I’ve reversed the polarity of the neutron flow”, but this action allows Borusa and the Fifth Doctor to arrive via transmat. Borusa uses the Coronet to prevent the Doctors’ companions from interfering while he speaks to Rassilon.

An image of Rassilon appears above the tomb and offers Borusa his ring as the key to immortality. The other Doctors try to stop Borusa, but the First Doctor tells them to hold off. Borusa dons the Ring, but then shortly disappears, becoming living stone that is part of Rassilon’s tomb. The First Doctor realised what fate the tomb’s writing foretold: immortality, but at a cost of perpetual incarceration.

Rassilon frees the Fourth Doctor and Romana from the time vortex and returns the Master to his own time; the Doctors immediately refuse his offer for immortality. The First, Second and Third Doctors collect their respective companions and return to their time streams as well, leaving the Fifth Doctor with Tegan and Turlough.

Chancellor Flavia arrives via transmat, with the Chancellery Guard, and, after learning of Borusa’s fate, declares that the Doctor is now Lord President, a position he cannot refuse. The Doctor tells Flavia to return to the Citadel as he will follow shortly, then quickly departs with his companions, as he has no intention of returning to Gallifrey any time soon.

Tegan asks if he’s planning to jet off across the galaxy in an old spaceship running from his people. With a grin, he replies that of course he is, as that’s how his adventure started in the first place.

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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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