The Three Doctors Episode Two

The one where UNIT HQ is transported through a black hole...

Isn't it interesting how Sergeant Benton has really taken a front seat in this story, as well as in The Time Monster? In the absence of the Second Doctor's actual companions, Benton becomes a replacement sidekick, and the two work very well together, with Benton acting as a sort of ersatz Jamie. I've no idea where Captain Yates is in all this. Richard Franklin appeared in only seven episodes in Season 9, and only appears in three in Season 10 (not The Three Doctors). I think John Levene is more than up to the job, however, and certainly has a more amiable presence than the sometimes smug Franklin.

And with Jon Pertwee's absence, Patrick Troughton really comes into his own, and is able to be the Second Doctor properly rather than a comedy foil for the Third Doctor. Troughton balances his performance beautifully here, being both funny and serious in accurate measure (the bit where he and Benton scarper back into the TARDIS when the organism fizzes is classic!).

It's the Brigadier's turn to meet the Doctor's former self this time, and initially he believes the Doctor's changed back, rather than believing it's the old one returned. Nicholas Courtney is so good in these scenes, expressing the Brigadier's combined exasperation and incredulity wonderfully, and after almost giving the Second Doctor dangerous foreknowledge of the Auton invasion, settles on a way of reasoning all of it out: "As long as he does the job, he can wear what face he likes."

There's not an awful lot of progress made by the Second Doctor in this episode, as he spends most of it either cooped up in the TARDIS doing nothing, or fiddling with a gadget to placate the anti-matter organism. He actually ends up making matters worse, and in an all-time classic piece of dialogue delivery from Troughton, admits: "Of course, you fool! [turns to look at Brigadier] It's anti-matter! Instead of quietening it down, I've stimulated it." The way Troughton delivers those last two words is marvellous, I just love it. I just love him! Plus, we get the first time the Doctor offers somebody a jelly baby, and it's not the Fourth Doctor - it's the Second Doctor in a Third Doctor story!

Although the bickering is tiresome and unproductive, it's also very funny, and Troughton manages to make the dialogue sound natural, even semi-improvised. When the Brigadier concludes that the Doctor has been using UNIT funds and equipment to build the TARDIS, the Doctor replies: "Oh no no no, they come like this. Really."

We also get our weekly visit from William Hartnell while the Second Doctor is in the TARDIS. The First Doctor is trapped in a time eddy (just what happens to the Fourth in The Five Doctors!) and is unable to join his successors, but he can impart snatches of advice once a week. It's nice that the Second Doctor admits he's always had a "great respect for his advice", acknowledging that he does not dislike his predecessor as the Third Doctor does his. Of course, by saying that he's also saying that he respects his own advice, which I guess is the amusing intention of the line, but I still find comfort in the implication that the first two Doctors get on.

After an episode full of bickering between the Doctor and the Brigadier (it's like a trial run for Season 22), the Doctor switches off the TARDIS's force field, resulting in the entire UNIT HQ getting transported across time and space through the black hole into the anti-matter universe beyond. Why not just the TARDIS? Who knows, but it's a crazy idea, very typical of Bob Baker and Dave Martin's tradition of Big Ideas.

While all this has been going on, the Third Doctor and Jo have been exploring the anti-matter universe. Jo claims "everything seems so strange", but there's no evidence of strangeness whatsoever. In fact, it looks suspiciously like a chalk quarry in Rickmansworth to me, with all of the exotic and outlandish atmosphere that comes with it. Jon Pertwee and Katy Manning spend much of the episode wandering and driving around the quarry, watched by ridiculous space jellies, and happening across various bits of UNIT lab, including a water cooler and the "Brigadier's computer". Seeing these everyday objects in the middle of a quarry is sufficiently odd, but also terribly dull. It's a more than welcome moment when the Gell Guards capture the Doctor, Jo and Dr Tyler - and what an impressive circle of explosions they get trapped in too!

Whoever has brought them to the anti-matter universe - we glimpse him in his flowing robes for a moment or two - lives in a palace made up of labyrinthine bright orange spotty corridors, like the Gell Guards have been skinned and used for wallpaper. The Doctor, Jo and Tyler spend an inordinate amount of time standing in and walking along these corridors, chatting about their mysterious "host", performing conjuring tricks and affecting pointless escape attempts. It's terrible padding. What is good though, is the twinkling, otherworldly, almost fairytale sound design accompanying these scenes, like listening to a music box in a daze. It adds gallons of atmosphere, which is just as well because the visuals make everything look like a squashed tangerine.

First broadcast: January 6th, 1973

Steve's Scoreboard
The Good: Patrick Troughton shines so brightly that the scenes with Jon Pertwee seem even more dull and uninteresting than they already are.
The Bad: Doctor Who is always pretending quarries are alien worlds, but to actually state that this world is "so strange" and then not show us anything strange feels like we're having our noses rubbed in it.
Overall score for episode: ★★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆

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

NEXT TIME: Episode Three...

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