The Three Doctors Episode Three

The one where the Doctors meet one of their heroes (and you know what they say about meeting your heroes)...

I realised while watched the reprise that when UNIT HQ is zapped off into the black hole, it leaves behind a beautifully grassed verge where it once stood, rather than torn foundations, leaking water pipes and sparking electricity junction boxes. It's also rather silly that there's absolutely nobody else in the entire building when it's transported, not even a squaddie on the loo, a cleaner, or a secretary. The only people transported to the anti-matter universe are those who matter. PLUS... when UNIT HQ arrives in the anti-matter universe, we never see it there. It would have been a fantastic shot of an entire building sitting in the middle of a quarry, even if it was done by using a cut-out of the building (as with the black hole effect).

When the Brigadier opens the door to see the CSO beach outside ("I'm fairly sure that's Cromer"), it looks nothing like the reality of a chalk quarry in Rickmansworth. It actually looks quite pleasant outside, which makes me wonder why, if he's all-powerful in this domain, Omega doesn't imagine himself a much more pleasant environment to exist in.

Omega. That's the tall shouty man in the mask who has been behind all of these shenanigans. Omega was a solar engineer who detonated a star to create a supernova in order to provide a vast energy source for the time travel experiments conducted by his people (they weren't Time Lords back then, but are now). Omega was presumed lost in the supernova, but has actually survived all this time through force of will alone, and feels abandoned by his fellow people. While he went down in Time Lord history as a hero, the man who "invented" time travel, Omega festered in his anti-matter universe, plotting revenge on the people he thinks sacrificed him.

Writers Bob Baker and Dave Martin add a huge back-story to the Time Lords in this one episode, which is a marvellous and awesome feat. Before now, the Time Lords were mysterious people who directed from the shadows, seemed all-powerful, acting as the self-righteous guardians of time. But here we get some real meat on the bones of these people, learning about how time travel came about, and in turn learning something of the Doctor's heritage too. Learning anything new about the Doctor is always a thrill, but in this tenth anniversary year, it's fitting that we should find out something about his people and their origins.

But Omega is not a happy man. He scoffs at being a hero of his people ("A hero? I should have been a god!") and he intends to have his revenge on the Time Lords by draining their energy and destroying them forever. He has brought the Doctor to his universe in the hope that he will help him, but it is not made clear just how the Doctor can do this. It's obvious he's not going to help him, he's going to try and stop him, but unless I missed it, Omega doesn't actually ask the Doctor to do anything in particular - just "help" him. He's essentially been brought to the anti-matter universe to stop Omega, because that's what Baker and Martin need him to do!

Omega has created an organism (the blue and red special effect with a hunting instinct) which can exist in both the real universe and the anti-matter one, enabling real-universe people and things to exist in the anti-matter world. Maybe Omega should work with that Solitract thing from It Takes You Away so that the frog can have some friends to play with?

There's a lot of info-dumping in this episode, albeit quite interesting info-dumping. It has to be gone over twice in order to make sure the audience understands what's going on (first Omega tells the Doctor, then the Doctors tell Jo and co). This is a little repetitive, but probably worthwhile because it is pretty intense stuff, all these black holes, supernovas, cosmic rays and singularities.

The Second Doctor and Benton are taken prisoner by the ridiculous blobble-obble-obble monsters ("Oh my giddy aunt!"). I wonder what Patrick Troughton thought when he saw those Gell Guard costumes? Did he ever have such rubbish monsters in his time on the show? The Krotons were a bit silly, but other than that, his era was quite strong on monsters. Maybe black and white helped? It would certainly help now!

The two Doctors are brought together - along with Benton, Jo and Dr Tyler - and the Second Doctor seems to accept Omega's presence/ existence very swiftly, and is up to speed on Omega's intentions almost without asking. I do like how he tries to pretend he isn't a Time Lord at all, claiming: "I was out for a stroll with my friend here when this horrible great jelly..." Troughton, god love him!

The Doctors escape their cell (rather wonderfully, by mentally summoning up a blue door!) and find the singularity, which is represented by a rather underwhelming wisp of smoke. Omega strides in, very angry and shouty, and it's easy to see why Stephen Throne was cast for this role because it's basically Azal with a hat on. Omega demands that the Doctor fights the dark side of his mind (does he have a light side?) and the scenes shot on film of Jon Pertwee wrestling with a freaky gimp-like troll creature are quite trippy and weird, like a Kenneth Anger film, all slow-mo and doomy drum rolls. All I can say is that it's a good job Omega didn't choose to wrestle with the Second Doctor, because that would have looked very silly!

The Time Lords sense that the Doctor is losing the fight, so tell the First Doctor (who I'd completely forgotten about) that he must go in and help them. It's a fantastic, thrilling prospect, a punch-the-air moment where you think: "YES! Hartnell's finally going to get involved and sort this out!" But we know that isn't going to happen, sadly.

But Baker and Martin did miss a trick in not trying to introduce a future Doctor. While I totally get that Barry Letts and Terrance Dicks wouldn't have allowed that, Baker and Martin were just the sort of writers with the balls to suggest doing it. They needn't have said which Doctor, just a Doctor. He'd be the John Hurt of the classic series, a Doctor we'd never meet again, played by a character actor of the 1970s like Ron Moody, Tenniel Evans or Peter Cushing - imagine it! A lost Doctor, only ever seen in The Three Doctors. Imagine the spin-off fiction!

First broadcast: January 13th, 1973

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: All of the new Time Lord history is fascinating stuff, and very welcome.
The Bad: When the Second Doctor, Benton and the Brigadier first leave the TARDIS, Lennie Mayne's camera angle makes it painfully obvious that the police box is an empty prop. Shame on you Lennie! Plus, those big wobbly doors at the entrance to Omega's palace!
Overall score for episode: ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆

"Now listen to me" tally: 20
Neck-rub tally: 10

NEXT TIME: Episode Four...

My reviews of this story's other episodes: Episode One; Episode Two; Episode Four

Find out birth/death dates, career information, and facts and trivia about this story's cast and crew at the Doctor Who Cast & Crew site: http://doctorwhocastandcrew.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-three-doctors.html

The Three Doctors Special Edition is available on BBC DVD as part of the Revisitations 3 box set. Find it on Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Revisitations-Cybermen-Doctors-Robots/dp/B006H4RB6O